Junkyard Find: 1977 Ford LTD Country Squire
We saw a 1976 Country Squire Junkyard Find yesterday, after going seven months since seeing this ’75 Country Squire, but this Denver yard has given us back-to-back (actually, tailgate-to-tailgate) Malaise Era Country Squires. Today’s find is in far better shape than yesterday’s (which is both cool and saddening), so let’s check it out!
1977 was the second-to-last year of the extra-huge LTD Country Squire, and the factory shipping weight of this machine was a mighty 4,674 pounds. That’s 554 pounds more than the 2013 ZL1 Camaro, so you know we’re talking about a pretty hefty car here.
The 400M V8 in this car didn’t make a lot of power by 21st-century standards (if I look up the horsepower number for the ’77 400, we’ll all get depressed), but the torque was sufficient to haul a family of nine in comfort. Note the high-altitude spec on this sticker.
Looks like this car was sold in Denver, and— 36 years later— it will die in Denver.
It’s in pretty decent shape overall; no rust, most of the upholstery looks pretty good.
Manual windows, Ford Aeronutronic AM radio, and hideaway headlights. Not exactly luxurious by current standards, but these cars were very comfy on long road trips. Anyway, Blondie sounds best on AM.
With scrap cars going for $240/ton, this car was worth more as parts and steel than as a street-driven vehicle. How many remain?
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
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The LTD Wagoooon. These things were everywhere when I was a little kid. My parents considered themselves far too cool to buy something like this but there were a few of 'em in our family. In the early '80s my aunt intentionally ruined her '76 Aspen Wagon that she disliked, well because it was a wagon. Pretty much to punish her, my uncle brought home a '78 LTD Wagon. Not a Squire, a regular LTD wagon in YELLOW with little rust spots popping through all over the body. It really looked like a freakin' banana! Brown interior in burn your butt pleather. Guzzler 460 and full power but I remember it had electrical gremlins with the four power door windows. No rear facing seats, just the big cargo bay that me and my cousin used to sit and play in while we went on trips to Canada or The Southern Tier. He made her drive that huge thing through Buffalo like five years while he had Montes and Blazers. LOL. It was one ugly POS but she couldn't kill it!
I have this car. 1978 version. Last of the land yachts and it runs. It literally belonged to a retired couple who only used it to go to the grocery store. I kid you not. Minimal body damage and I found a rather expensive place for the faux wood paneling (if anybody has a better suggestion please comment). Interior is about what you'd expect for a vehicle with 145,000 miles on it. The electric windows and locks don't work so I've got to figure that out. I definitely want to restore it to it's original condition. People give me the thumbs up on the highway all the time. Best $500 I ever spent.