SEMA 2008: Custom ThunderFlite T-Bird soars

Suzie and Dean Arnold dreamt of building a show car that would evoke the spirit of the dream cars that manufacturers used to build in the '50s and '60s. They decided to use a 1961 Thunderbird as the base vehicle and got long-time collaborator Don Johnson to finalize the design. Then Dean got to work building it. The result is the car you see here. To most of the people passing it at SEMA this week, they probably thought it was a vintage dream car rather than a modern custom. It certainly looked like it had just been dusted off and shined up after sitting mothballed for the past 40 years. Every detail seems period correct, and we particularly liked the Batmobile-esque double-bubble roof.