Of the scant 2,846 Edsels produced in 1959 for the 1960 model year, only 295 Ranger two-door hardtops like this one rolled off of Ford’s St. Louis, Missouri, assembly plant. I saw this 1960 Edsel Ranger Two-Door Hardtop for sale on Facebook Marketplace and recognized it since it’s a local car. I’ve only seen it on the road once, but I’ll never forget it. From a distance, it looked like a 1960 Ford Starliner coming my way, but as it got closer, I recognized that ’59 Pontiac-ish split front grill and chrome pod fender-mounted turn signals. It wasn’t a Canadian Ford, it was a last-gasp 1960 Edsel. This rare Ranger is located in Stokesdale, North Carolina, and is for sale here on Facebook Marketplace for $21,000.
Sixty-seven days. That was the total number of production days for the 1960 Edsel before Ford pulled the plug on November 19, 1959. There’s a newspaper clipping showing the last 1960 Edsel about to roll off the assembly line. It was identified as a tan station wagon, and I wonder if it survived. The seller doesn’t give us any history or many details about his Edsel. It currently has almost 87,000 original miles, and the gold paint on it is described as custom. I checked the ’60 Edsel paint chart, and they offered an Alaskan Gold Poly (in honor of Alaska becoming the 49th state in 1959), but it’s darker than the gold on this particular Ranger. The gold-and-Polar White contrasting top looks shiny and very presentable, as do the chrome, trim, glass, and lenses.
I also like the matching gold fender shirts; they give the car an elongated, svelte vibe that accentuates the thin Starliner roofline. It’s ironic that the 1960 Edsel’s styling is the most conventional of its three-model-year run, but for 1960, it’s the rear end styling, not the front end, that raises many people’s eyebrows. The low, wide horizontal lines and fins of the 1960 Ford are interrupted by four protruding vertical taillights raised off the rear deck. And in a measure of cost-cutting, the ’60 Ford taillight area is plainly visible and covered with a piece of sheet metal. Bizarro.
The Ranger’s interior appears to be in good shape. Rangers were available in five interior colors, and this one has what the sales brochure describes as Medium Gold Moroccan Vinyl and Brown Pebblecloth. I spot a split in the driver’s seatback along the top edge, and I’m not sure what color the carpet is; it appears coral in the photographs. Everything else looks good, and there are color-coordinated seatbelts front and rear, and an aftermarket air conditioning unit under the dash.
Power-wise, the standard V8 for the 1960 Edsel was a 292-cubic-inch engine that was rated at 185 horsepower. That’s what I’m assuming is under the hood with 86,899 original miles on the clock. It appears to be paired with a two-speed Mile-O-Matic automatic transmission. The seller shares that the car has new carburetor gaskets, a new radiator, and a new fuel pump, and claims, “Overall, it drives well. The only thing it needs is a brake check and a carburetor tune-up.” Not surprisingly, we’ve only featured a few of these rare ’60 Edsel “Starliner Juniors” here on Barn Finds and this one is the nicest by far. I wonder how many survived and are on the road 67 years after the Ford Motor Company pulled the plug on the Edsel?
WAY cooler than most cars of that period,& if it’s as
good as it appears to be,a good deal.
It should sell quickly.Stokesdale is just over the Virginia
border,& just North of Greensboro.I was there last week.
Edsel Al Leonard, pick up the nearest white courtesy phone, please.
I’ve got a buddy who has one of these. It’s a white original paint Survivor. Those tail lights are wild.
Been an Edsel lover since I was about 5 or 6. At that young age, I often wondered why it died off not realizing the bigger picture and Robert McNamara’s hatred for the brand that killed it. This one looks very solid for being the same age as me. Q: I wonder if the seller has the lettering for the truck & ‘Ranger’ nameplates? I doubt those items are being reproduced.
If only they had toned down the styling in the beginning and that recession hadn’t occurred this marque might have survived awhile longer. It probably would have been axes along with Mercury eventually but it’s fun to imagine. Where’s Scotty with the Photoshop of the 2012 Edsel?