While Chevrolet and Ford actively competed for “popular-price” sales during the early 1950s, the Blue Oval consistently outsold its rival when it came to such specialty models as station wagons, convertibles, and hardtops. In fact, Ford outsold Chevrolet during the 1953 calendar year on the strength of its flathead V-8 engine, a design which had a massive following and appeared under the hood of nearly 70 percent of Ford production. Nonetheless, an all-new Y-Block OHV V-8 was planned for 1954, so this would be the last year of a truly legendary engine.

In many ways, the 1953 Ford combined the best of old and new. The flathead sat on a chassis riding atop ball-joint front suspension, which eliminated the outdated kingpins, and a growing number of convenience and comfort options were included, such as power windows, power seats, and power brakes. The carefully updated bodywork included a revised grille treatment, minor trim changes, and striking “Jet-Ray” taillights.

The Sunliner Convertible offered here represents one of Ford’s ultimate models for this year, as well as America’s most popular production convertible. Jeffrey Day’s example shows why. It has been the recipient of an utterly concours-quality, ground-up restoration, and it is as well finished as any show car, with perfect red paint on straight bodywork, outstanding “better than new” panel fit, and jewelry-like brightwork from stem to stern. Even the headlamp lenses are in mint condition. The interior is showroom-new and features a correctly trimmed bench seat that faces crystal-clear dashboard gauges. The black Haartz cloth top is correctly accented with red piping.

Under the hood, all of the finishes are proper to the original factory appearance, including the hoses, clamps, and Ford-embossed spark plug wires, as well as the Ford special oil bath air cleaner, the external fitted oil filter, and a proper glass windshield washer bottle. Everything is like-new and spotless. In addition, the Ford is well accessorized with a passenger-side spotlight/mirror, an AM radio, a clock, a heater, a power top, rear fender skirts, wide whitewall tires, and extremely rare dealer-installed power steering.

With 78,987 miles, this may well be the nicest 1953 Ford Convertible on the planet.