This is a 1947 Mercury Monarch, wait, 1947 Mercury Monarch? Yes, a Canadian market car. It’s in Pembina, North Dakota; near the Canadian border, so it’s starting to make sense. It’s listed on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $3,500 or make an offer, eh. (sorry, that’s the last one of those, I promise)
The Monarch was a product of Ford of Canada from 1946 to 1957 and then again from 1959 to 1961. It’s not the Mercury Monarch from the mid-1970s to 1980 that we all know and love. I say, that we all know and love.. (crickets) Here’s a fairly interesting piece of trivia, especially for you Ford fans: the Monarch was dropped after the 1957 model year because of the introduction of the Edsel. Then, because of the poor reception that the Edsel got the Monarch was brought back again in 1959. I can’t get over how nice and straight this car looks. As you probably already know, the four-door sedan was the most popular body style for the Monarch in 1947.
This particular car looks as solid and straight as any ice road in Canada. The seller says that this “true barn find” is 99% complete, but they mention that the engine isn’t currently running. There aren’t any photos of the engine, unfortunately, but this car should have had a 239 V8 with around 97 hp compared to the US version that had around 100 hp. These cars would have had a 3-speed manual with a column shifter.
Is this a great car, or what?! Look at the bottoms of the doors, they look like new. This is a great car!
Even the interior looks good, although you can see that a few things will have to be fixed, mostly the “soft goods”; seats, door panels, kick panels, etc. The steering wheel could use a little help so you don’t pinch your fingers every time you turn a corner. And, there’s the all-important heater; pretty handy in Canada, or North Dakota, or almost anywhere at some point during the year. I think this would be a great car to get running and drive it as it looks here. You could do a full restoration for sure, this one is solid enough, at least from looking at the photos, but the cost would soon get you in over your head. I can’t imagine that there is anything mechanical on this car that couldn’t be fixed and a person could just enjoy a super interesting, rare (at least in the US) car. What would you do, would you restore this one or just get it working and drive it as it looks now?
That has to be the largest grill area on a car ever
I think it’s a great find. I love the rear suicide doors. I wish there were pix of the rear trunk – it kind of looks like an old rumble seat.
Cool find, and I don’t think the Canadian’s take offense to saying “eh”, eh? We never saw many Canadian cars in Wisconsin. Every once in a while, you’d see one, and it always looked a little different, but you knew what it was. Kind of like getting a Canadian nickel in your change ( I always wondered if they get “American” nickels) Really a nice find. I’d get it running and driving, fix the interior, but leave the outside alone. At a few recent car shows I attended, this is the rage now, fix the inside, leave the outside alone. Great find.
Yes we get American nickles and they go right into the “going to Montana soon” jar. :) PS notice the correct spelling of nickles. :)
That right there is the problem with Canadians, they don’t know how to spell “nickels!” (Pretty nice folks, otherwise.) Love the car.
That body is good enough to make a full repaint worthwhile. Don’t find too many cars like this that you could get back to a total original appearance with just paint and interior. Mechanicals are easy on this car.
I agree Bob yo you don’t have to break the bank to put a good single stage driver quality paint job on this car. Single stage would be correct anyway as there were no base / clear paint jobs back then.
Living in the border region, especially near a major crossing, you get to see cars and trucks from both sides with a great deal of regularity. Monarch was something that didn’t appear much on the south side of the border although there seemed to be a few Meteors; Mercury trucks too. Monarchs look pretty nice when they’re all spruced up.
Geomechs are you just of Alberta?
Beautiful car! Love the color!
1947 model?
When spending time at Wells Beach, Maine in the 50’s, we would see quite a few Canadian versions of US products. Mercurys were Monarchs, Fords were Meteors, Ford trucks were Mercury trucks, Chevies were Laurentians and I think Pontiacs were Parisiennes. Don’t recall any Olds or Chrysler products but then I was just in my early teens. I do remember that the Canadian versions had a LOT more chrome on them, especially in the grille region as this example shows. Some were an improvement on the US version, some not so much, eh?
So the parking lights on either side of the grill looks like the 1946 US Fords . Same with the dashboard and the heater.
Hello, I am trying to find the rear fender chrome for my deceased father’s 1947 Monarch coupe. Can anyone help me please? Thanks in advance.
Hi Bonnie, did you ever find the rear fender trim for your Monarch ? I might have some of those pieces. Moe
Hi, I am still looking for the rear fender trim. What do you have?
Thanks so much,
Bonnie
Hi, I am still looking. Can you help? Thanks, Bonnie
I own a 1948 Monarch Town Sedan, approx. 38,000 miles, in original condition. It was stored for many years, 5 of them at my place. I’ve had the transmission overhauled, at the same time a new clutch friction plate was installed. The brakes were adjusted, new fuel pump (ethanol kills the poppet valves), new battery, wipers work, radio doesn’t (dried up) and the interior is like new. Check my Facebook page.
Not to be “one of those” but just as the 56 Continental is not a Lincoln, the Monarch was a stand alone brand and is not a “Mercury Monarch”
It shared components as many cars do, but it is simply called a Monarch, and was positioned in the market above Mercury.
The Mercury 118 (identical to the US Mercury) was ALSO sold in Canada, as was a Mercury 114 variant based on the Ford chassis.
Monarchs and Mercury 118’s, 114’s and trucks were all built entirely in Canada.