Here at the Barn Finds office, we talk a lot about cars we would love to have and one recurring dream is to have a ’60s American station wagon with a big block V8. We are pretty much on the constant lookout for one here in Boise, so if you happen to know of one in our area, please let us know! Now if we were in Wisconsin instead of Idaho, we would already be on our way to go check out reader Doug B’s 1966 Ford Country Sedan Wagon! This big family hauler is powered by a 390 cui V8 and has a great look to it. There are a few spots that need attention, but for the price, it seems like a great buy! Read what Doug has to say about it below!
From Doug – The car is a 1966 Ford Country Sedan wagon, 390 2BBL, actual miles unknown. It is the 8 passenger version with rear facing seats. Originally a Texas car, with no frame rust, the only floor rust is a baseball size hole in the facing seat area that I made no attempt to repair (oil leaks have done a good job preserving the underside of the car). To my knowledge the car has been in Wisconsin for about 4 years, but has not been driven on salty winter roads.
The car is all original factory paint with all natural patina, no fake patina here. I have not attempted to buff or polish the car. Car does have a few repairable dents.
Any visible rust on the exterior is surface rust with the exception of the right dog leg and tailgate. Right dog leg has a 3×4 inch rust hole I covered with alum tape and sprayed some flat white paint over.
There is repairable rust on the lower portion of the tailgate skin, covered by a bumper sticker to keep the dirt and moisture out. I cleaned out all the wet leaves and pine needles in the gate and thoroughly cleaned and dried it.
The front seat is a typical worn out 50 year old seat. Car was a factory air car….all under hood A/C components have been removed. Horn and radio do not work, and the cable to adjust the front seat is broken. Car has 4 new shocks, fresh plugs and air filter and valve cover gaskets, power steering hose replaced, alternator replaced, good battery and solid quiet exhaust.
This is a decent running, driving car with 15’s on the rear, 14’s on the front, very slight rake. Very solid starting point if someone wanted one to restore. Or just cruise it as is… Car is located in La Crosse, Wisconsin. My asking price is $4,300.00. My email is drbenkert@frontier.com and my cell# is 309-838-9401 – but I do not text.
Overall, this wagon really looks to be solid and could make for a fun project. I would like to have a look at the rusty spots in person, just to see what we are dealing with. If it isn’t too serious, one might be able to repair the rust and blend the paint well enough that you wouldn’t ever know the rust had been there. Hopefully we can find a good home for this wagon! So would you give this Ford a proper restoration or would you leave it looking rough and just drive it as is?
Just my opinion, but the price seems a about $1500.00 too high, let’s see where this goes.
Yea, With all the a/c parts removed 3000.00 max,,
agree Randy, $4300 might be bit high, but still a great old cruiser!
My last two cars were this body style, ’65 LTD 4door hard top, and a ’66 Galaxie 2door hardtop fastback. I still have a whole heard of parts, even some wagon trim I believe.
Hello Randy…. would you have a nice set of black door trim panels for a ’65 Country Squire. Galaxie 4 door sedan panels would work, too. Thanks!
No, mostly headlight parts and chrome trim, stainless wiper arms,air breather, brake drums etc. I have a very nice ’65 grill, it is not the 7L grill though.
.7 Litre grille was ’66 .7 Litre, XL & LTD only.
It would be nice if the rest of the car looked as good as the engine compartment.
Car would be nice if he would take those asinine stickers off the rear, lose the 1961 hub caps and put the proper 15″ wheels back on the front like it belongs.
Nice old wagon. I’ve mentioned in some of my other posts about my involvement in volunteer ambulance/EMS.
In 1977 our standby service obtained a very nice 1966 Ford wagon that had been bought new by the small funeral home in Abernathy, TX…just north of Lubbock. When the funeral exited the ambulance business the car was given to the Abernathy Vol.Fire Dept; and when they became part of Lubbock County’s EMS and got their first EMS ambulance, the wagon was retired and sat for some time until we bought it for a whopping $100!
I had heard stories from some of Abernathy’s EMTs about how fast the little wagon would run and found out for myself on the first run we ever made in it. Wow! I have driven and/or ridden in some fast-moving ambulances over the years and this little wagon was no slouch! That’s one I now wish I had managed to hold on to.
Speaking of fast-running Ford wagons that were ambulances, I have to end this post with a chuckle. Baker Ambulance, a private company that served Odessa, TX for many years had a fast running ’70 Ford wagon ambulance. I never got to make a run in it, although I got to work out of some of their other units over the years. Anyway, one night when I was down home in Midland from college I had the scanner on and heard the PD dispatch a unit to the west side of town to intercept Baker’s unit enroute to Midland Memorial Hospital, and in need of a quick escort. So it just a few minutes I hear the assigned unit tell dispatch that they had Baker in sight; but suddenly you could hear the sound of their loud Q siren run right past the cop. He told dispatch and another unit a bit further down advised that they would pick up the ambulance, but at the same time you could hear Baker run right past that unit. Midland PD had a notoriously cranky, hard-assed night captain at the time who informed dispatch to call the hospital and to tell those “jet jockeys” to stay put until he got there. I happened to see one of Baker’s owners a day or so later and asked him what kind of chewing they got from that captain. He said that the guy had started bellowing at them about running so fast through town, but they simply turned around and walked off, leaving him hollering. Nothing like good ol’ West Texas politics!
To the naysayers, I did some work on the wagon over the winter and sold it June. The new owner drove the car from Wisconsin to Oregon. It looked very cool when it was finished, added some nice mag wheels and replacement fron seat.