1957 Ford Fairlane 500 Sunliner Brings Big-Fin Style and a Warmed-Up 292 to Hagerty Marketplace

A well-traveled 1957 Ford Fairlane 500 Sunliner is currently up for bid on Hagerty Marketplace, and it's drawing serious interest from bidders chasing one of the flashiest American convertibles of the late 1950s. Listed by a Camano Island, Washington seller on behalf of the current owner, the drop-top has already logged 28 bids as it heads toward a July 29 close.

For 1957, Ford gave the Fairlane line a fresh, lower silhouette with sweeping tailfins that made the car look longer and wider than the model it replaced. The restyle was a sales hit, with Ford moving hundreds of thousands of Fairlanes that year, though the two-door Sunliner convertible represented only a small fraction of that total. That relative scarcity, combined with the model's flashy chrome and color-sweep trim, is part of why clean Sunliners still turn heads at shows and auctions today.

This particular Sunliner has been with the current owner's family for around 26 years, after being acquired in Boston in 2000 and shipped west to Washington. Since then it's been used for local parades, car shows, and road trips through Washington and Oregon, including a visit to Yellowstone National Park. The car wears its factory Flame Red and Raven Black paint combination over a red-and-white vinyl interior that's been retrimmed, and it rides on wide whitewall radials with a black soft top up top.

Under the hood is a 292ci Thunderbird V8 that was rebuilt by Tatom Custom Engines of Mount Vernon, Washington, back in 2002. The block was bored .040-inch over, the rotating assembly was balanced, and the engine received a performance camshaft, lifters, and roller rockers, along with a Holley Street Avenger 570-cfm four-barrel carburetor and electronic ignition. The original transmission has been swapped for a column-shifted manual with overdrive, and the car also benefits from power steering and front disc brakes, welcome upgrades for anyone planning to actually drive a 1950s convertible rather than trailer it to shows.

The seller notes a handful of imperfections buyers should budget for, including some underbody corrosion, minor fluid seepage, a worn dashboard finish with paint chips, and light scratches in the exterior paint. None of that is unusual for a car that's been driven and enjoyed rather than kept in a climate-controlled bubble, and the listing includes refurbishment records and a shop manual along with a clean Washington title in the current owner's name.

Where does that leave the market for a car like this? A quick check of Hagerty Valuation Tools shows just how much engine choice moves the needle on 1957 Fairlane 500 Sunliner values. In number-3, or Good, condition, Hagerty's price guide pegs a 292/212-hp two-barrel Sunliner at roughly $21,800, while the more desirable 312/245-hp four-barrel car climbs to around $26,600 in that same condition tier. With a modified, rebuilt 292 under the hood, this particular Sunliner falls into interesting territory for valuation purposes, since it's no longer numbers-matching but does offer meaningfully more usable performance than a stock two-barrel car. At last look the high bid sat at $12,000 across 28 bids, well under both guide figures, which isn't unusual this early in a reserve auction on Hagerty Marketplace.

This Fairlane is only the latest in a run of noteworthy Hagerty Marketplace finds Motorious has covered recently. A modified 1991 Acura NSX crossed the block at no reserve, a numbers-matching 1970 Plymouth 'Cuda with a modernized 340 showed how period muscle compares to today's Hagerty valuations, a rare 1970 Pontiac GTO Judge Ram Air III surfaced with its factory 4-speed intact, and a 43,000-mile 1979 Porsche 911SC turned up as a remarkably original survivor. Together, they're a good reminder of just how varied the Marketplace auction slate can be from week to week.

Bidding on this 1957 Ford Fairlane 500 Sunliner remains open on Hagerty Marketplace through Wednesday, July 29 at 2:00 PM EDT.