Close to a Country Squire but without the woodgrain, this 1964 Ford Country Sedan looks like a fun weekend project. Speaking of weekend projects, it can haul ___ on the way to the lumber yard with its 352 V8, and it has room for hauling a half-dozen people at least. It can also haul 1,000 pounds in the back. Loads up to five feet wide and eight feet long are no problem. Now that’s haulin’.
The seller says this Country Sedan is a one-owner car and it’s located in California. We don’t know if it’s originally from California or not, well, actually we do, it was made in the Los Angeles Ford plant. I mean, if it’s been there its whole life. It sure looks solid to me, I don’t see any rust at all other than some light surface rust. It wouldn’t take much effort to make look as nice as this example on Flickr. (copyright Richard Spiegelman)
Ford offered the Country Sedan wagon (is that redundant?) from 1952 until 1974, practical cars for practical people. Was there a 1964 Country Sedan at the World’s Fair in the Ford exhibit gliding down the “Magic Skyway“? I like to think so, but I’m guessing they were all convertibles. This example isn’t perfect by any means, but I’m surprised at how solid and straight it looks, other than the rear bumper, and that could most likely be restored.
SMS Auto Fabrics shows fabric being available, at least samples. Whether they have enough for the front seat is another question. You’ll have to hit up a junkyard or JustDashes to get the dash restored, I’m assuming it’s in rough shape if the photo above is any indication. California sunny days will do that to materials, and skin. Over 94,000 buyers latched onto the Country Sedan in 1964, not a bad number, yet we’ve only seen three here on Barn Finds.
This is a case where the seller didn’t include enough photos, they’re verticals (argh…), and there is no engine photo. Sigh. And, they took the backseat photo through the window, but the seat looks like new so you’ll save money there. The engine is reportedly a 352-cu.in. OHV V8, which would have had 250 horsepower and coincidentally, 352 lb-ft of torque. Backed by a three-speed Cruise-O-Matic transmission, power flows to the rear wheels and the seller says this one runs and has new tires. It’s listed here on eBay in Sacramento, California, the bid is $3,250, but the reserve isn’t met. Have any of you seen a Ford Country Sedan?
Nice shaggin wagon. This would be a great starting point for a road trip car
My parents supported the Ford Motor Company from 1957 through 1963 through the purchase of a ’57, ’60, & ’63 Country Sedan. All were white, all had 3 seats, all had a roof rack. And all of them had the 352 – an engine designed for clueless suburbanites who ran them with blissful neglect up to about 40,000 miles and then traded them for another.
I don’t remember them ever getting an oil change or a tune up. Maybe they did, I don’t know.
And I still don’t know why Ford called a station wagon a Country Sedan.
Because out in the country, you needed a hatch in the back to haul chicken feed, a couple hay bales, maybe a few sacks of whatever, and still be able to drive everyone to church on Sunday. That’s why.
We lived in the suburbs, my mom drove a 66 Ford wagon from around 69 through 73. I never remembered my dad changing the oil or tuning it up, but I do remember him using the used oil to kill weeds around the yard. Just because you can’t remember seeing it happen doesn’t mean it didn’t get done.
Steve R
The ’60 and the ’63 could have had the 352 V8, but the largest engine offered in the ’57 was the 312 Y-block. The 352 wasn’t offered until 1958.
It’s fine just the way it is. Give it a really good goin’ over before you leave Sacramento and drive it home.
Who needs to spend nearly $100K
for a new SUV when you can have this! Just wrap the distributor in plastic wrap so you won’t drown the
ignition system on rainy days and
you’re good to go. The distributor sis
up front on these and is subject to
water splashing on it from both the road and water being sucked in through the grille on rainy days. Other
than that, they were great cars.
I can speak for many here, the cars that seemingly come out of the woodwork is nothing short of amazing, and I swear this guy is leading the charge. He has a knack for finding tidbits from our, and his past. Most of us here came from a city setting, and cars like this literally littered the landscape. Either your folks had one, or someone you hung around with, their parents had one, regardless, the station wagon was a fixture of that life, and most were Fords. Nothing is mentioned about the lowly Ranch Wagon, that was omitted in ’63-’64, except as a Fairlane, but returned to full size in ’65. Those were far more common in my neighborhood of working class folks. Also, in 1964 Ford was MTs Car of the Year, and that had a dramatic effect on sales, to the tune of over a million total units. I read this car sold for just over $3grand. The 6 passenger sold way more than the 9 passenger, by 3 to 1. Far more representative of what a car like this should sell for.
We had a 64 country sedan with a 352. Dad bought it as a demonstrator in 1966 when I was 12 and the we made a cross country trip (Southern Ontario to Through the US and Canada to British Columbia and back) with it all 8 of us. Dad Mom 5 boys 1 girl.
Great memories’
I remember reading the owners manual and mentioning we could have had a 427 in this.
You Too?
I don’t know if it was some “unicorn”, but I remember a man who owned a 64 Mercury wagon, with a 427 from the factory. It had a top loader 4 speed. It was a car that it still talked about today as it still in VA.
Does anyone out there know anything about these so called Unicorns?
I’ve seen it , and know it to still exist for a fact.
We had to 2 Ford wagons,a 59 and a 63.In 67′ my dad turned 51 years old and traded in the wagon for a 67′ Mustang Fasback.
you had a VERY tall dad Michael!
Lovely looking car. 1964 has always been my favourite year for the Ford Galaxie and Country wagon. If only more pics were posted. I don’t care if they’re vertical, horizontal, diagonal, etc. there’s no such thing as too many photos.
I rode on the Magic Skyway several times when I was a youth (I went to the World’s Fair numerous times). They were all top-down convertibles.
My parents gave me their 64 Country Sedan when they bought a Toyota in 1971. I drove it from Philadelphia to a new job in California. It had a reliable 289. I can’t remember what I traded it for, but I had a 59 VW, a 53 Mercury, a 54 Chevy truck and finally a 59 Rambler American that I used to pull a cut off rear section of a truck – trailer back east in 1975. It took me a long time as it broke down several times, too much for the little 196 flat 6 engine?
Wow! This one checks a big bit for me. When I was a kid, my Uncles friend had one that looked just like this. Same colour.
But his had a “H.O. 289”, that put a whole lot of bigger cars on the trailer! He called it, “The Ambulance!” Lol
Shout out to “JD”! If I can figure a way, I may have to have this. Nostalgia…yep. To build a baddass Ford wagon like back in the day, OH Yeah!
Looks like the one Dennis Quaid’s family had in the movie “Frequency”
I’m not a big Ford guy, but my brother-in-law is, (to the extent that he raced Trans Am with Titus and Donahue back in the 60s) and he says that he, nor anyone he knows have ever heard of a K code 289 being available in a full size Ford. Maybe it was a 289 4V 225 horse.
Wow blast from the past, Mom had one when I was about 4-10 years old and it’s what I started learning to fix cars on, Mom being divorced and raising us 4 boys on her own if the car needed some repairs it was up to us boys to fix it if we could.
If this was a in Florida I would daily drive the wheels off this thing
Nice old wagon. I had a ‘64 Country Sedan years ago. White with red interior, 289. $100 special. It was a nice driving old car then- almost 50 years ago.
I expect that a K code 289 could have been ordered in most any Ford product back then.
Note that mine was a ‘64 (1964)
Not a 64’ (64 feet long)
Exacto mondo, as long as it was a Mustang or a Fairlane. Ford didn’t really have a Central Office Purchase Order program like Chevrolet, so if it wasn’t on the standard option sheet, you were out of luck.
I like it, I could see this modernized a little and custom wheels for a sort of pro touring type cruiser, or for the nostalgia thing, I could see it with a trailer pulling an old mustang like you see in the old pictures where the guys would use the family wagon to take the race car to the drag strip because it had plenty of room for the crew and the tools.
Auction update: this one ended at $4,750 and didn’t meet the reserve.