Hi there. Any idea where I can rear door vent window molding for a '55 Mercury Montclair 4 dr? Thanks.
Just got my copy of FoMoCo Times, the magazine for the Crown Victoria Association. CVA is now expanding to include '54-'56 Mercs as well as '54-'56 Ford pick'm'ups along with all '54-'56 full-size Fords. That means the Crown Vic crowd will be getting an education on Mercs in the very near future.
Maybe it's just me, but I'm a huge fan of the Monterey.....It just bugs me when everyone feels the need to add the Montclair Door Trim to everything.......Why? I find it much like tits on a boar.....Much of the time...."Less is More".....Centurion9
I agree! No Montclair door trim on my '55 Monterey! Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Hello, When we moved to the last house (for us) in Long Beach, it was located near all of the hot rod shops (Maillard,Thompson.Clay Smith,etc.) just a few blocks from our house. But, in 1956, the girls that lived in the neighborhood took piano lessons at a house several doors away. The teacher drove a cool looking 1955 Mercury two door hardtop sedan. The color was this seafoam green with white inserts. (from the internet) When she was teaching one of the girls, the other girls wanted to go for a drive in the car. I did not have a license, but knew how to start and drive the car. (My dad used to let me steer his big Buicks into the driveway all of the time. Once a car junkie, always a car junkie, even at an early age.) So, in order to impress these girls, I said I could take them for a spin around the block and be back in time for their piano lessons. At first, we found the keys to the Mercury. But, I thought the teacher suspected someone was taking her car and putting on miles, so she started to hide her keys. That was not a problem as we learned to start these old cars with aluminum foil or “tin foil” back in those days. We were really good even when the foil supply was low or non existent. We used the foil off of a Juicy Fruit Gum wrapper. There was no way to reverse the mileage, so we just went around the block a few times, to keep the miles low. The girls were a little weird as they wanted a sound that came out of th exhaust pipes that sounded like hot rods that they had seen in the neighborhood. So, I tried to recreate that sound, but the stock mufflers just would not make that rupp-rupp sound. Finally, I figured out that if I accelerated fast and then let off fast in low gear, that created a similar sound. The Mercury let out a blaaahhh sound. Not quite, but it made the girls happy. I was “king of the streets” knowing how to drive and make these muffler sounds. I am sure that the neighbors did not like the sound every week and it probably was not good for the car to accelerate in low gear and then let off the gas to slow down all around the neighborhood. We did put on some miles and never got caught driving around. The teacher never knew who drove her car around the neighborhood. The power of friends keeping secrets… pre teen escapades at its finest… Jnaki When I was in the market to buy a car after I got my real driver’s license, I considered this Mercury hardtop as it had that cool look with all of the windows rolled down. Accessories were easy to get, but speed equipment was harder to find. My brother convinced me that Chevrolet cars were the easiest to work on and were faster than Mercury cars, especially at the drags.
heres my 55, chassis number states its a 55 but has 56 side trim , was told that the roof says its a 55 but i cant see a difference with 55 and 56 roofs, anyone know ??
Ford used two different roof heights in '55; in the Ford line, the Crown Vic and convertible roofs were 2" lower than all other models. For the Merc, it was the Sun Valley and the 'vert. The 'plain' hardtops used the same front glass as the sedans. In '56 the lower roof was used on all hardtops. Compare vent window height, that's the easiest way to see it.
at :23 My brother in the 58 black Impala returning to the class lanes in the background after a time trial run. Silver SBC powered C/D in the staging lane. Hello, My first introduction to driving a real car using a steering wheel, accelerator and brakes came when we moved in 1953 to our final Westside of Long Beach house. In a few years, the neighborhood grew with a lot of families that we knew and the kids all went to the elementary school just two blocks down the street. One of the neighbors was a piano instructor. She had all of our friends that wanted to play the piano, come to her house for lessons. So, we got to see our friends almost weekly during the summers and on days, afterschool. The girls liked the teacher and she was nice to us because we were neighbors. But, little did she know that her students liked her new Mercury Sedan. It was a two door hardtop and a turquoise color with white upholstery. Well, the girls while waiting for their lesson hour, wanted to do things. So, they convinced me to take them driving in the Mercury Sedan around the block. At first, it was a little shaky, but I had already learned to back up our dad’s Buicks at our house. So, being behind the wheel was not strange. The Mercury Sedan held all of us and we went around the block. Upon returning, we parked in its normal place and left the keys exactly where they were in the kitchen. Now, my reputation was solid and this made things great! This went on for a whole summer, without the piano teacher knowing the miles on the odometer. Who looks at that anyway? Jnaki By the time my brother and I started going to Lion’s Dragstrip, we saw all kinds of racers and their push trucks or cars. So, a red Mercury Sedan was used to push this SBC powered FED in the C/Dragster class in those days. We did not know the names of the builders, the driver and now, it still remains a mystery. We saw them almost every weekend, but we may have known who it was at the time, but it has been never recorded and now remains unnamed. So, if anyone knows the name of the owner, the driver and particulars of the C/Dragster class SBC racer, please let me know asap. Please have some documentation, too. That helps me finish a public access photo/film archive information project. You will be given credit for the information, too. Note: it was the only FED that had a red Mercury Sedan as a push/tow car during this time, 1959-60. a C/D dragster division FED at Lion's Dragstrip, 1959
In 55 it wasn’t needed but in 56 with the longer top the body skin at the “C” pillar cracked on both the Ford Victoria and Mercury especially on the driver side from slamming the door. It’s why you see it added to the Fords by folks covering the crack. When I brought my Vic to bare metal I had the body shop add a an 18 x 6” metal plate on the inside.
Bought this in Michigan a few years ago, complete car, solid floors, factory skirts, a little 1/4 panel rust. We blew it apart, blasted the frame, primed it then other things took priority. Now a stalled project that is available!! It needs to be finished! Clean Title.
One of my best friends cars...and, my daughter waiting on us to fix another buddies car during the SWMO Hot Rod Hundred.
The 55 Monterey hardtop shared its to with the 55 Ford Victoria. The 55 Montclair hard top shared its top with the 55 Ford Crown Victoria. The 55 Mercury Sun Valley “glass top” was only available as a Montclair and did not have the “B” pillar of the 55 Ford Crown Victoria. Not many of those left. 56 Mercury and Ford hardtops were the same. The Mercury 4 door hardtops are Phaetons….
The Jalopy Journal
