New to Ford’s top-of-the-line Crestliner series for 1954 was the Skyliner, a Victoria hardtop coupe with a glass roof section over the front seat. “Glamorous Anywhere!” bragged the factory brochure, and they were right. The blue-green tinted glass admitted “a soft, diffused light, yet filter[ed] out 60% of the sun’s rays,” or so Ford claimed; it gave the interior an unusual, soft green glow. In an era obsessed with Jet Age design features and, especially, glass bubble canopies, the Skyliner sold more than 13,000 copies.

The Burdick Collection’s Snowshoe White and Cadet Blue Skyliner was formerly part of the well-known collection of Charles Cawley. It appears to have been repainted its original colors and reupholstered in correct blue and vinyl, but is otherwise original and unrestored, and at the time of cataloguing had recorded just 13,405 believed actual miles. The glass roof, importantly, is still in fine condition, while the engine bay and undercarriage are clean, presentable, but largely untouched. The engine is mated to the Ford-O-Matic transmission, and the interior features an AM radio, while exterior accessories include a sun visor, rear fender skirts, stainless rocker guards, a rear-mounted spare, and front and rear bumper guards.

An especially interesting feature is the hood, with its inset glass “peekaboo panel.” A limited number of these hoods were supplied by Ford to dealers for their showroom demonstrators, allowing the overhead-valve V-8 to be shown off without disturbing the lines of the car. The glass hoods were designed to be removed before the demonstrator was sold, and many were later destroyed; this is one of very few remaining.

Simply put, this car is a view of the future’s past, straight out of the aviation-obsessed 1950s.