Thee historical stainless steel Ford cars will soon be going under the hammer at the Auburn Auction, held over Labor Day Weekend in September. This is a rare opportunity to own a 1936 Ford Deluxe Sedan, 1960 Ford Thunderbird, and 1967 Lincoln Continental Convertible, all built of stainless steel by Allegheny Ludlum Inc.

You can forget about the shiny new Tesla Cybertruck: if you're into bare-metal designs, then you should turn back the clock a few decades. Before the term 'Built Ford Tough' was coined, Pittsburg-based Allegheny Ludlum Steel joined forces with the American motoring giant to produce a car so durable, that it would become the focal point of a campaign to demonstrate how rugged Ford vehicles could be.

Unlike modern Ford products such as the Ford GT which tries to shed as much weight as possible in the pursuit of performance, the six 1936 Ford Deluxe cars at the center of this campaign were all clad in solid stainless steel, a state of the art material back then.

These cars proved their worth by logging over 200,000 miles until their retirement in 1946 and outlasted most of their non-stainless body parts and engines. Of the six cars that were produced, four are still in existence today, including the car going on auction that was retained by Allegheny Ludlum.

The Pittsburg steel company also produced two 1960 Thunderbirds and three 1967 Lincoln Continental Convertibles. The Thunderbirds were constructed from T302 stainless steel and still retain their original exhaust systems after 60 years and more than 100,000 miles. The three 1967 Lincoln Convertibles were the last stainless steel beauties to roll off the assembly line, and besides for the body, used all standard equipment.

Famous contemporary steel cars include the DeLorean DMC-12 which was constructed from a plastic base covered with polished steel panels and the Tesla Cybertruck which makes use of cold-rolled stainless steel external panels. We would love to see how these modern equivalents stand up to the test of time.