As a former owner of a ’57 Metropolitan, I can attest to their cute, rather cartoonish persona. One owner I knew had a large motorized key atop his Met’s trunk lid that made it look like an oversized windup toy car going down the road. It always got attention and laughs, especially from the ladies. Well, here’s an interesting one. It’s a beautifully restored, modified Metropolitan (it has an MGB 1800 cc engine and 4 speed transmission with overdrive) in a dark Barbie pink and white color combo that even has a small “Barbie” painted on the driver’s door and “Ken” painted on the passenger door just below the window. It’s currently garaged in a Barbie Dreamhouse in West Richland, Washington, and is for sale here on craigslist for $19,000. A custom 12′ aluminum trailer is also available. Thanks again to super-spotter Curvette for sending this unique Met our way!
The seller (whose name is, ironically, Ken) has his Met listed as a ’59, but it’s only showing one of the three major external changes made for the 1959 model year. It has a one-piece rear window (previous years were three-piece), but the vent windows and external deck lid are missing (previous models only allowed access to the small trunk through the rear seat back – a most inconvenient design, trust me). Ken says the Met has never had rust issues and was given a two year, high-dollar restoration back in 2016.
The custom dark pink paint with a contrasting white looks shiny and very presentable as does the chrome, trim, glass and period-correct white walls. Met purists will notice that the front grille medallion should be the “M” style grill medallion and the rear spare tire would look dressier with either the white tire cover with black piping or the black tire cover with white piping.
The custom dark pink, black, and white interior is very well done. The original interior back in ’59 featured a black and white theme with a black painted dash and steering wheel, simple black and white door panels, and seats covered in black and white hounds tooth cloth and vinyl with a diamond seat back pattern. Barbie and Ken’s cabin looks much snazzier.
This custom interior looks sharp and very 1950’s with its ribbed dark pink, black, and white door panels and white bench seat with ribbed dark pink inserts and piping. The pink theme continues with the painted dash and steering wheel. It even has contrasting pink aftermarket seat belts. Add the black carpet and you have a good-looking custom interior (if you’re partial to pink, that is).
Under the Barbie-mobile’s front hood is a spotless engine bay with – you guessed it – the pink theme continued. The Metropolitan’s durable factory 1500cc Austin inline four banger has been swapped out for an MGB 1800cc engine, and the original 3-on-the-tree manual transmission is now a 4-speed with overdrive. Ken says it’s only been driven 2,000 miles since the 2016 restoration and that front and rear sway bars were also added that he claims “makes for a fun-driving Metro.” The sub-compact Metropolitan was a unique automobile from an era when cars were getting bigger, heavier, more thirsty for cheap gas, and bedazzled in chrome from stem to stern. And the Met’s uniqueness just got even more so with this pink and white Barbie and Ken treatment.
Alright…… I’m just going to come out and say it. I love it!!! This really looks like a top notch restoration. And yes, its a bit custom, ( pink valve cover, but it works). And great upgrades as well. I wonder if there was any way to use the original column shiftet and linkage with the 4 speed, probably not….I’ve always wanted one of these. In turquoise though. But that being said, I think it would be a blast to drive this little Met around. I actually pike the darker pink too. I enjoyed your write up Ron, thank you. And Curvette, please, keep ’em coming!!! Great find!!!
Now that I’m thinking more about it. When I was a kid I LOVED the Pink Panther cartoons and of course Peter Sellers as Inspector Clauseau. Maybe I’d change this to a Pink Panther theme.
With Cato hiding in the trunk…
That would be hilarious!!!
Every time I see one of these, it brings a smile to my face! Beautifully done (although I concur w/ Driveinstile on the Pink Panther theme) LOL!!
GLWTS!! :-)
Well, I think this car is a bit of a conundrum. It has “chick” car all over it, yet not many women will drive a stick. Remember the dads VW I mentioned, being sold by the daughter. She said, and I quote, “it’s a stick, I can’t drive a stick and have no intention of learning how”. That’s the mindset of the future. I doubt many men want a pink car, especially with “Barbie” on the door, so clearly meant for women. Women that can’t shift a manual, and have no intention of learning how,,,see? I like the MGB motor, but again, didn’t gain a heck of a lot over the stock motor, and by golly, if you ask me, a colossal swing and a miss. It needs an automatic.
When I had my ’57 Met back in the ’90’s, a club member restored Mets and did many conversions for the ladies. His favorite drivetrain swap out was a Datsun B210 four cylinder engine with its 3-speed automatic transmission. The ladies loved ’em.
Both of my daughters know how to drive a stick-shift. I got my oldest daughter a Miata with a 5-speed when she turned seventeen, and my youngest daughter went off to college with a 5-speed VW.
They also learned how to drive when they were really little, on a tractor. While the manual transmission on a tractor is different, you still need to use a clutch to get going. When they became teenagers I bought a hydrostatic tractor, but they had already gotten the basics down on the old shuttle-shift one.
This has to be the best example of these cars I’ve ever seen. As for the pink, it was all over during those years right up to the most expensive cars on the market.
Yep, you’re right bobhess. The dark pink paint and matching dark pink and white pleated seats look similar to a ’55 Ford Crown Victoria. Ford offered a dark pink that year called Tropical Rose. Beautiful color combination.
My Dads first car was a Pink and white ’55 Ford Crown Vic. The girls used to whistle at him when he drove by. After he married my Mom they both decided on a more proper family car and traded it in on a ’59 Edsel Ranger sedan in copper. But yes, Bobhess is right, pink was around and popular and Ron, I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the Ford Tropical Rose color, it was the first thing I thought of when I saw it. ( Other than switching to a Pink Panther theme, I’m still all for that!!)
-Dave
No trunk on this one – perfect for Clown-Stuffing.
Mary Kay would be proud!
Mary Kay cars had a lighter muted shade of pink. Noticeable nonetheless. And correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t Mary Kay have a yearly sweepstakes where they gave a car away? it was a Cadillac if memory serves.
I like Metropolitans, from the Nash and Hudson days until they were just Metros. How to tell? A Nash had “N” on the hubcaps, Hudson had “H”, and late Metros after Nash and Hudson went away, just had “M”. Though this car has a lot of nice updates, I have to pass on this one. Not so much because of the pink (which imho is hideous), but every time I drove it that Barbie song from the 90s would pop into my head.
Ahh, yes. AQUA. 🎶 “I’m a Barbie girl, in a Barbie world…”🎶
I worked with a guy in the 80s in Nashville who’s nickname was Gypsy Joe. He had several of these. He told me they were Nash Metropolitans. He took his best one to shows all around all the time. I don’t think people appreciated what they were looking at. Most shows were muscle car shows.
The Metropolitan Registry Club (if there is such a thing) would be the only place to look for buyers at this kind of money. You have to find someone with a pre-conditioned want/need for something like this.
Whenever I see a Metro, I think of Lois Lane in the 1960’s Superman show With George Reeves as the man of steel. That was her car. I had a friend in high school that had one and we all ribbed him for driving Lois Lane’s car.
looks like a bottle of Pepto Bismol on wheels.
LOTS of work went into making it that way. Along the way, they may have removed every possible buyer from the pool.
PERFECT, harryolds68!!! Pepto Bismal: way to sum this one up!
Fun little car! Cica 1968, I borrowed one from a friend, but he had lost the key. No problem. I hot-wired the Lucas coil, used a pair of pliers to jump the solenoid onthe Lucas starter and proceeded to my favorite take out (Elsie’s, in Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA). Parked it and removed the jumper wire to the coil. Went into Esie’s and puchased my sandwich (either a Landsman of a Fresser’s dream, If anybody remembers Elsie’s). When I came out, I opened the hood, rewired the coil and jumped the starter, got in and noticed the older couple parked next to me giving me a very queer look. I said “When I stole it, I didn’t sfop to ask for the key”. I then backed out of the space and drove off.
My dad had a yellow/white one,our neighbor red/white combo.
A 1958 or later Met would have vent windows and a trunk lid. It’s probably a 1957.
I had a teacher in 61 that had a yellow & white Met. His name was Stuckmeyer (nickname Stuckey) so we called that car a Stuckymobile.
Always thought AM should have gone with the wagon version, too. Looks like lots of folks also thought so judging by the number of customs shown in a web search for “Metropolitan station wagon.”
My dad had three and being the year I was born just beautiful!
Howzabout a white tire cover with
Pink piping?
Love the drivetrain swap – makes a lot of sense. However, the owner leaned a little too hard into the pink motif for my liking, making it hard to undo. If I sold Pepto Bismol I’d be down…
Fun write-up on a cool little car. I think the mild custom touches worked out great. Overall very well done. It is just perfect in pink/white.
Most likely a 1958 titled in 1959. 58 had the one piece rear window and glove box door. 59 added the vent windows and external trunk lid. I own a 58 convertible I am restoring.