Junkyard Gem: 1957 Mercury Montclair Phaeton Sedan

Nearly each U.S.-market Mercury mannequin ever made was an apparent Ford- and/or Lincoln-badged sibling (although a few of these siblings originated in different nations). The members of the 1957 Mercury lineup have been mechanically just like their Ford Empire brethren, however bought wild styling that regarded like nothing else on the highway. As we speak’s Junkyard Gem is a type of ’57 Mercs: a Montclair hardtop sedan with the largest engine accessible in any new Mercury (or Ford or Lincoln) automobile that yr.

Mercury referred to as their two- and four-door hardtops “Phaetons” for 1957 and 1958, beating Volkswagen to that title by near a half-century.

I shot this automobile in my favourite Colorado automobile graveyard, a family-owned operation situated about 30 miles north of Denver. Speedway Auto Wrecking is open solely on Saturday mornings, so plan forward if you wish to get components from this automobile. The 1954 Nash Ambassador, 1938 Ford Tudor, 1974 AMC Pacer Levis Version and 1987 Chevrolet Cavalier Z24 hatchback we have seen on this sequence have been all shot at Speedway.

The Detroit horsepower wars have been getting severe by 1957, and the unique purchaser for this automobile checked the field for essentially the most highly effective single-carburetor engine accessible in a brand new Mercury that yr: a 368-cubic-inch (6.0-liter) Lincoln Y-Block V8 rated at 290 horsepower. In case you wanted much more energy, you may get the dual-carb M-335 model of the 368, which made 335 horses (however that was a seldom-ordered NASCAR homologation motor).

This engine was customary tools within the top-of-the-line Turnpike Cruiser, and Mercury named the engine after the mannequin.

I thought of shopping for this badge, however some Mercury proprietor wants it much more than I do.

Talking of badges, Mercury made heavy use of images depicting the winged-helmet-wearing Roman Messenger of the Gods throughout this era and properly into the Nineteen Sixties.

The radio has the nuke-attack frequencies of 640 and 1240 kHz marked on the dial, as was required by federal regulation from 1953 via 1964.

1957 was a bizarre yr for headlights in the USA, with just a few producers putting in 4 small spherical sealed-beams on their vehicles that yr (there may be an excessive amount of debate over the legality of the four-light rig in some states at the moment). Mercury started the 1957 mannequin yr with two headlights on its vehicles, then went to a quad-light setup on some fashions later within the yr. That is a type of vehicles. For 1958, nearly producer who might accomplish that went to the four-headlight type.

Price restoring? It ought to be, however its tags are from 1988, and that is a very long time to take a seat open air within the Colorado Excessive Plains.

The brand new dream automobile Mercury!