Junkyard Find: 1972 Mercury Monterey Coupe
After seeing this ’72 Ford LTD Brougham coupe a few months back, it seems fitting that I’ve spotted the Mercury sibling to that car at the very same San Francisco Bay Area self-service wrecking yard. The images of this rust-free 42-year-old big Ford coupe should result in bitter tears flowing from Sajeev’s eyes, not to mention much wailing and gnashing of teeth among Rust Belt Ford lovers who haven’t seen such an unoxidized Mercury since the start of the Ethio-Somali War. Here we go!
Actually, this car isn’t quite as cherry as it looked at first glance, despite the straight bumpers and not-particularly-bashed bodywork.
That’s due to the engine fire that ruined the underhood area and much of the dash.
Still, compared to replacing rusted-out quarter-panels and floors, how hard could it be to fix this damage?
50 years in AAA! It’s a safe assumption that the original owner of this car drove it until it caught on fire.
Why buy one of these instead of a same-year LTD? You got much more rococo with the Mercury!
Let’s hope that someone salvages those nice bumpers, grille, and taillights before The Crusher eats this car.
W.C. Fields was a popular counterculture figure of the late 1960s/early 1970s era, for reasons that probably made sense at the time.
I’ll bet the original owner of this car was a fan of the “Road Hogs” sequence of If I Had a Million.
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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I'm guessing there's some difference between the Monterey and Montego? Montego = more sporty? Is this larger than the Cougar? I really don't mind the styling at all, nor the excess-crateyness of the front. I think Ford was the place to be in the early 70s*. *Except for some Olds models.
Where is this Monterey located?