Canada’s a big, beautiful country filled with small, medium, and big beautiful people, and some really cool and interesting vehicles. We’ve seen a few Mercury pickups here on Barn Finds over the years, and they’re always interesting. This example is a 1965 Mercury M-100, and it’s posted here on Kijiji in big, beautiful Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. The seller is asking $14,000, and thanks to Jack M. for the tip!
About that asking price, I’m assuming that’s in Canadian funds, in which case it would be $10,234 U.S. dollars. There’s a dollar sign in front of the 14,000, but that doesn’t always mean U.S. dollars. In any case, this is one cool truck. Canada is a big (beautiful) country, and parts of it are pretty remote and sparsely populated. As such, Ford didn’t have Lincoln-Mercury dealerships and Ford dealerships in a lot of small towns in Canada, as there were in the U.S., so the strategy was to rebadge Ford pickups as Mercurys so the Lincoln-Mercury dealerships could sell pickups.
Speaking of rebadged, this truck appears to have been debadged, which is unfortunate. I’m not sure if the original trim and badges are in a box somewhere or if they’re gone. It’s also been de-rear-bumpered (is that a term?), and you can see quite a few dings, dents, scratches, wrinkles, and other flaws under the bright blue and white paint. They say the body is OK and the paint is OK, but I’d be worried about rust on this rig. Here’s what the bed looks like. The seller lists the mileage as 65,656 km, which is 40,797 miles.
We don’t know when this truck was painted, but it’s rugged, to say the least. The rust on the door sills is scarier’n a musher’s view of the dogsled team, and I’m assuming this truck was originally Navajo Beige, a 1965 Ford F-100 color. It would go back to that under my watch. Canadian Mercury dealers offered “Ford-Built” pickups between model years 1948 and 1968, and we’ve seen a few here on Barn Finds. My favorite/favourite was the last year, 1968 M-250.
This isn’t the 240 or 300 straight-six I expected to see. The only V8 available in this truck would have been a 352, but the seller says this is a 1984 “351 HO Windsor” out of a Ford F-100. It has an aluminum intake, a Holley four-barrel carb, and Mustang headers. This truck has to move out pretty well. The engine is backed by the automatic transmission and “centre section” from the same ’84 Ford pickup sending power to the rear wheels, and they say it runs and drives well and has a new windshield, new tires, and a new battery. Anyone looking for a very unusual truck for car shows or just plain driving, you could do worse than this ’65 M-100. Have any of you owned a Mercury pickup?
I always like seeing Canadian variations on familiar American cars and trucks. When I see a Mercury pickup, I often wonder what would have happened if Mercury took a different approach and had a slighly upscale ( like a GMC in GM lineup) pickup. It just might have worked. Too bad the Mercury lettering is missing. This is a neat find.
As a border brat, Mercury trucks were nothing new. I saw a lot of Mercury trucks, Fargo trucks, and 60s GMC trucks with Montana plates. Since the nearest dealers were just across the border into Canada, and a lot of the farm crowd bought there equipment and parts up there, they just said, “tariffs be damned,” and bought their cars and trucks there too.
I might add that a lot of people did their banking in Canada.
Although Mercury trucks were supposed to be a truck to help out the Mercury car dealers, and were supposed to be competitive, there were some edges that Mercury trucks had over its Ford counterparts.
In the 40s the Mercury trucks had more chrome; the deluxe cab was standard; if you wanted the spartan touch, the deluxe cab was deleted. Heaters were standard equipment as were dual wipers and sunvisors. On a Ford an ashtray/cigarette lighter was optional but was standard on a Mercury.
In 1948 the Canadian Ford and Mercury light trucks were still powered by the 59AB engine so, driveline wise, they were the same.
Starting 1949, the Fords had the 8BA engine while Mercury pickups had a higher compression 239 engine than the Ford; the Mercury also used aluminum heads. 1950 brought Mercury pickups available with the Mercury 255 engine; if you wanted a 239, again, it was a delete option. I have to say that I never saw a Mercury pickup that was powered by anything other than a 255. Until the ’53 models debuted, I seldom saw a Mercury with fenders painted body color; they were always black.
Of course there’s always the chance that I was living in a bubble. The Mercury dealer was a Kansas transplant who loved to lord his Mercury trucks over the Ford dealer.
Things kind of got more aligned through the 50s but Mercury still had that little bit of extra.
There’s a real good book called Meteor, Monarch, by R. Perry Zavitz. He tells the story about the Canadian Ford variants quite well. There’s a lot of information about Mercury trucks in there.
Anyways, I got off on a bit of a tangent. Lots of this style out west. I don’t know if I would’ve changed out the FE engine unless it was to a 390 or a 428. Actually the Mercury Marauder had a 410 which was essentially a 390 with a 428 crankshaft. I had an ’85 Bronco with a 351 H/O which was reliable as could be but certainly was far from H/O; L/O would’ve been more accurate.
The truck looks pretty good although the door sills and floors kind of scare me. If that truck spent a lot of time over in “Scratch-Me-One” there’s a good chance of winter “salt poisoning.” Of course it wouldn’t be nearly as bad as if it were around the Great Lakes or further east where the roads were coated with “battery acid.”
I happen to enjoy your “tangents”, look forward to them on posts like these. Mercury trucks, like Fargos from Canadia, were almost hidden from our view. A Mercury pickup? Get out. No way,,,in fact it wasn’t until the late 70s when I got the Diamond T and became a member of ATHS, I finally heard of a Mercury pickup. Without badging, I suppose it could be a F-100 with a Mercury tailgate, but I’d assume those are so rare, how would you ever find one? The steering column is not original either, from a 80s Ford(?). I think these used the standard 3 spoke wheel and retained the “gear & lightning bolt” horn button. I’d have to think, a Mercury pickup is like a F-100 to us, no big whup.
I happen to enjoy your “tangents”, look forward to them on posts like these. Mercury trucks, like Fargos from Canadia, were almost hidden from our view. A Mercury pickup? Get out. No way,,,in fact it wasn’t until the late 70s when I got the Diamond T and became a member of ATHS, I finally heard of a Mercury pickup. Without badging, I suppose it could be a F-100 with a Mercury tailgate, but I’d assume those are so rare, how would you ever find one? The steering column is not original either, from a 80s Ford(?). I think these used the standard 3 spoke wheel and retained the “gear & lightning bolt” horn button. I’d have to think, a Mercury pickup is like a F-100 to us, no big whup.
I happen to enjoy your “tangents”, look forward to them on posts like these. Mercury trucks, like Fargos from Canadia, were almost hidden from our view. A Mercury pickup? Get out. No way,,,in fact it wasn’t until the late 70s when I got the Diamond T and became a member of ATHS, I finally heard of a Mercury pickup. Without badging, I suppose it could be a F-100 with a Mercury tailgate, but I’d assume those are so rare, how would you ever find one? The steering column is not original either, from a 80s Ford(?). I think these used the standard 3 spoke wheel and retained the “gear & lightning bolt” horn button. I’d have to think, a Mercury pickup is like a F-100 to us, no big whup.
Sorry, innernet glitch, in the Rocky Mountains of all places,,,:(
Groundhog Day?