It may not look like much, but this big red convertible is a very special car! At first glance, some of you probably thought it was a Mercury, but it’s actually a Meteor (Canada’s own take on Ford’s full-size). Quite a few were produced, but this is one of just four cars built specifically for car shows and press events. Those four convertibles were also the only ones equipped with the S-33 Sports Package, a 428 V8, and a 4-speed transmission! If that doesn’t get your blood pumping, nothing will. Find it here on eBay where bidding started at $19.67 with no reserve!
It’s hard to imagine that someone would leave such a special car for dead, but that is exactly what happened. After the car made its rounds on the circuit, it was purchased by a fellow who used it as their daily transportation for almost a decade. When they purchased a new car though, the Montcalm was negated to the backyard where the tin worm moved in and a tree grew up through the fender.
Here’s some of the proof provided of the car’s past. The Early Production Vehicle tag is still in place and there are some other features that would only be found on a show car like this. The seller has provided a scan of the Marti report which verifies the claim too. This also proves that the seller’s wife is very cool because she purchased the car as a wedding gift for him in 2005!
Luckily, he knew that they had something special and tried to preserve it the best they could. He got it running and stopping and although he didn’t get much further than that, he did save it from deteriorating even further. There’s the heart of this beast! It’s a 428 Super Marauder V8 and is the same high-performance engine that’s found in the mighty Mercury S-55.
And there’s the 4-speed! Just imagine how fun it would be to row through the gears in this big boat. For some reason manufacturers didn’t build a lot of big-block full-size convertibles with manual transmissions. I love the idea though and obviously Ford thought the combination was cool enough to use on their show cars.
This Canuck may look a little scruffy, but it truly is a gem in the rough. Just try to find a Mercury with the same spec. The early production car history makes this one even better. It’s going to need a lot of metal work, but the end result will be stunning and truly something special!
The first thing I noticed was the ’66 Galaxie hub caps. Since it was an early ’67 production, Ford of Canada must have used the left over Galaxie caps. These are probably the best looking hub caps ever on any Ford.
Well, I just saw the junk yard pics, and it shows the Magnum 500 style wheels. They might even be ’67 Shelby 5-star Mags. Sorry for the error.
That might be one of the best eBay car ads I’ve ever seen. Pictures are outstanding and the seller has described everything in exquisite detail.
Bravo!
I love old cars. At the same time this here does nothing for me.
BUT I am glad that there are some people out there that would try to save this.
Man, I pure-D love “unusual” factory hot rods. I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for ’50s and up to mid ’60s Olds 442s, Starfires, Buick GSs, Mercury Marauders, Calientes, Chrysler 300letter series, Studebaker RSs. They’d go like hell … and stopped like it, too.
I’m surprised at how few comments this post has prompted. I think this is one of the most beautiful and unusual cars I’ve ever seen. I hope someone with deep pockets and a true love for it gives it the full frame-off restoration it deserves, even if it means having to machine one-off parts. And I hope they’ll occasionally drive the snot out of it, too.
Because of the stick shift and convertible top I’d love to have it……….and the 50-75 K it would take to make this baby right.
Interesting that the dashboard is the same as a 67 Ford Galaxie instead of the dash installed in the 67 Mercury’s.
19 hours left and it’s only bid up to $2550! Even though as Woodie Man says it would take $50K+ to make it right, I still think it’s a fantastic deal. It’s a potential museum piece, though I hope not totally – as I think it should be driven, and well.
I really hope someone does this ol’ girl right.
I’m an old MoPar guy but something about THIS car strikes a deep chord with me.
If I had a winning lotto ticket…..
I looked at the Car today and am impressed. Drove it around the lot and shifted gears nice. Brakes work. Love It !!!
I Really like this ride and Would Love to own it!!! but have so many projects right now it is hard to do them all.
Thanks for the update Skip! Someone’s going to get a cool project.
It sold for $3667.00. What a deal. Heck the drive train is worth that. It probably has a Nodular (N) case 9″ housing with 31 spline axles. I was tempted, but just couldn’t pull the trigger. Plus the way the auction played out, I don’t know if I could keep up with things moving so fast at the end. I’ve never bought anything through e-bay. I just tried for the first time this week to sell my Bronco on e-bay, with my sons help, but it didn’t sell.
incredible!
In Oakville the Meteors were built alongside the 428 XL’s and the ride boys used to to do massive burnouts “baptism by fire” out in the yard… 289s were bridesmaids, 390s were thrashed but 428s…..
They were lucky to roll on the rail cars with half their tread left….
those are METEOR hubcaps!!!
They have a gold star in the centre, not a ford “crown”.
They were on most of the dozens of ’67 & ’68 Meteors I’ve owned.
Most ’67s had really cool stalinless all along the top edge of fenders/doors/quarters (similar to 66-67charger) and I don’t think Mercury offered that. Being a sportier S-33 this one is bare like a Merc.
’68 Meteors I think lost that upper chrome but had a really nice unique cast grille.
All Meteors were built in Oakville, alongside Ford Galaxies & XLs (but not Mercurys I think), notice that Meteors always used a Ford Instrument Panel & Dash, other little Canadian “maple leaf” emblems too (as did Canada only GMs like Beaumont & Acadian, CustomSport Pontiac Parisienne & Laurentian).
Meteors were Base, Rideau, Rideau500, & Montcalm (and rarely S-33 like this!).
I had an uber rare 1960 Meteor Montcalm Starliner (Ford body on ’61 & older Meteors), the only Starliner built with huge stars on the doors, cast grille with stars, ’59 Edsel tail lights (left overs shipped to Canada!) and a horizontal gold star across a striped rear filler & gasflap which looked just like a ’60 Impala rear (but way cooler)!
Most Meteors were rotted & crushed, a rare few out west (and a much much rarer few in east) survived. The frames & quarters rotted severely but not the floors which might have been galvanized. They were mostly 289-2V and 390-2V (which would do awesome burnouts with timing advanced & prem gas!), the 2bbl 390 would “whistle” when floored with the air cleaner lid flipped over….