This 1962 Mercury Meteor 2-door represents an unusual (and short) chapter in FoMoCo history. The smaller Meteor was only made for two years and were based on the comparable Fairlane. This one is fresh out of 40 years of storage and is located in Shelton, Connecticut. It’s for sale here on eBay with a buy-it-now of $2,750 and open bidding below that.
As you can see from the front bumper, the car hasn’t led a soft life. That being said, the only rust is supposedly a small hole in the driver’s side floor. There’s some work to be done on the right front fender from a crease, but I don’t think that’s too much to fix considering some of the rust buckets I’ve seen!
The “jet pod” tail lights are a far cry from the comparable Fairlane’s. I like the clean look in the rear and the sweeping trim down the sides of the car. I’ve never seen one of these Meteors in person, although I’ve seen a lot of similar Fairlanes. There were roughly 160k Meteors produced in 1962 compared to 300k Fairlanes in ’62 alone, so I guess that makes sense.
While the interior isn’t perfect, I don’t think it would look too bad once it was cleaned up. It could certainly be a lot worse, and I think the black paint and red interior are a great contrast. According to this reference, this is “Red Crush Vinyl and Black Westport Stripe” on the seats. The seller has pulled the carpet up to expose the floor; I’m hoping it will get replaced with red by the car’s new owner. Since this is a bench seat rather than buckets, we know it’s not the S-33 sporty model, and I think it’s the base model because looking at this brochure it appears the Custom models have a stainless or aluminum panel behind the rear wheels.
As best as I can tell, this is the original 223 cubic inch inline 6-cylinder. The seller tells us that they were able to free up the frozen engine through penetrating oil and working the fan blades by hand. The original rescuer of the car after it’s storage period (not the current seller) purchased new tires, a new fuel tank and sender, 2 brake drums and a master cylinder rebuild kit, none of which are installed but all are included. The seller explains (as does the note on the side window) that the car has no brakes at the moment, so I’d plan on rebuilding that master cylinder soon! Let us know if you’d like to bring this car home; I see it as something both unusual and a pretty solid vehicle to start with. As someone who really doesn’t like rust, I find this car very appealing!
Would make a unique hot rod
Another dirt cheap entry level car, that no one else has. I’d love to have it.
Coyote anyone?
The 1962-64 Fairlane-Meteor exercise was one of Ford’s truly shining brief moments. These were great cars, both ergonomically and visually. I was always impressed with how many of these Meteors were equipped with standard or Overdrive, with the small V8. I don’t think that seat cover is original, but it isn’t overly offensive, either. The car appears solid, especially for a Connecticut car. And the black out/red in is to die for. I’d grab this car in a heartbeat, if it weren’t 3,000 miles away!
Yeah, so few shining moments for Ford in those days…well…except for the Thunderbird, Mustang, Country Squire, Galaxie, F-Series trucks etc. Still, I guess they did well enough to avoid a government bailout like GM and Chrysler took about 10 years ago. And I’ve never worried that my ignition switch would fail and leave my steering locked up on the freeway.
more unique than the Fairlane models, and seldom seen. Would make a really good entry level hobby car, since it doesn’t need a lot. Refreshing to see so little rust on a car from the east coast. Except for distance would be on it like white on rice.
Are you my long lost uncle? ydnar morf amohalko.
That’s not a 223 engine. Most likely a 170 from the series of inlines after the 223. Easily upgraded to a 200 from any 70s Ford, they will bolt right in place. This engine is easily worth fixing for a cruiser, but not if you want to do any racing! Get a later distributor and carburetor, because this one has the dreaded and worthless load-a-matic setup. They are matched and you won’t have any advance without the matching carb. And the matching carb is garbage. Cool car though, wish it was in Texas.
Thanks, Blake, for the clarification!
Love it this is really, really cool.
Brings back memories… Yep,, I agree,, it would make a honkin great driver, especially for drive-in movie.. If you can find one these days..
I like it..
Interesting fact about Meteor and Fairlane on their V 8, it was 221cubic in engine that become very popular with the hydro plane class that was designed around that engine. Also the smaller Falcon used a larger engine (260) , seems they could have used the 221 in the Falcon but Ford only used the 221 for about three years and then dropped it.
Both V8s were optional in the Meteor, but neither was dropped; they were simply poked and stroked for more cubes and power. That same bore center block was eventually enlarged from 221 to 400 cu.in. via boring and stroking and raising the deck.
Dropped as in not offered any more, the 221 became the mighty trans am engine and such so your right the block was not dropped but discontinued in that version
The meteor was introduced in ’49 as a replacement for the Canadian only Mercury 114.. They were made all throughout the 50’s and into the late 60’s for the Canadian market.