Finding a good, solid classic pickup that you can drive and enjoy immediately is never a bad thing, and that looks like it is precisely what you get with this 1955 Mercury M350 Pickup. After sitting unused since 1982, it has been bought back to life and is now looking for a new home. It is located in Sweet Grass, Montana, and is listed for sale here on eBay. Bidding on the Pickup has reached $5,399 in what is a No Reserve auction.
Looking around areas such as the door frames, it looks like the Mercury must have been a striking vehicle when it was new. Especially wearing a color like Gulfstream Blue. The paint is looking quite tired now, but the vehicle itself is quite a solid one. According to the owner, rust is restricted to an area in the driver’s side fender just above the headlight, and a few minor pinholes in the running boards. The floors are said to be solid, and the vulnerable corners of the cab also look good. The bed is fitted with a 1-ton hoist to make it a dumper. This is said to operate perfectly, but of course, the option is there to remove this if it isn’t required. The body does have its fair share of dings and marks, but this is to be expected of a 64-year-old workhorse.
The interior is one area where this Mercury really shines. There is no reason why it can’t be used and enjoyed as it is. The painted surfaces are all in good condition, while the upholstery on the seat is free of rips and tears. I can’t help but think that a deep clean would bring the seat up nicely, while a new rubber mat and new kick panels would finish the interior off nicely. None of these jobs would be urgent, and nor would they be complicated or expensive.
After sitting for so many years, you would be forgiven for thinking that you will be facing some work before the Pickup is ready to hit the road again. Well, I do have some good news on this front. A bit of tinkering has seen the original 259ci Y-Block V8 roar back into life, and it has done it very well. The Mercury starts and runs really well, the brakes, clutch, and transmission work perfectly, and the owner even provides a video here on YouTube which shows the Pickup getting along nicely at close to 50mph. The owner says that the Mercury can easily and confidently be driven into town.
This Mercury M350 is a great old pickup. It is the sort of vehicle that many people are looking for, as it is a classic pickup that has character by the bucketful, and can be driven and enjoyed as it currently stands. I know that we have plenty of readers who would love to find a pickup like this one, so it will be interesting to see whether any of you decide to bid on it.
Rare find for this region. By 1955 the farms had increased enough in size to warrant a larger truck. If I had this truck I’d ditch the hoist and just run it as a long bed pickup. Drive it and fix it. Eventually, treat it to a new paint job. Enjoy it would be the bottom line. It sounds good. Those old Y-blocks are nice engines. They would take a heap of punishment. I never saw a bottom end go but in the trucks, load them up and rev them up and they would drop a valve. Fortunately, most of the ones I saw put the valve completely through the piston and on down into the crankcase. There were some not so fortunate though; the cylinder wall would give way and you were looking for a new block…
While I always defer to geomechs’ knowledge, I have to say I’d want the dump bed. Only downside I see to this is it’s in Montana. Be a slow drive to the Left Coast,but what a truck. I wonder if you could put a better geared rear end in this so you could at least drive fifty five…..and what would it be?
I think the sellers pull these out of Canada quite regularly if memory serves me.
On a side note, dont you always want to drop the g and r when you think of the name of the town in Montana :)
Hi Mountainwoodie. It isn’t all that bad driving from Montana to California. I-15 goes straight to LA with many stops along the way, especially Las Vegas. Of course driving a largely original ’55 Ford (well, Mercury) 1-ton might make for a lot of stops. But if you got the time and patience… I met a guy about 9 years ago who drove his 1918 Chevy V8 from CA to an antique auto meet in Calgary. Apparently he drives it everywhere but obviously he’s got lots of time…
Great truck!!
a Ford of this type in this condition would be a great find.
a Merc is far better……
The seller seems to have cornered the Mercury truck
market in Montana.
I’m not sure if some of these trucks were brought down new or recently brought down. A lot of Mercury trucks were in Montana before the Korean War and especially during it. And as I mentioned numerous times before so many cross-border farming operations, marriages, jobs and businesses really blurred the 49th Parallel. I was 10 years old before I found out that Mercury trucks were NOT built in America.
Oh,oh, quart of Walmart oil behind the seat, she’s an oil burner.( and the “cab-n-fresh” air freshener, pee-yew, yep, it’s an old farm truck, alright) That’s ok, it’s old enough to smoke, and for the record, I use Walmart oil in the old Jimmy. I read, it’s actually repackaged Quaker State. BTW, just try and find straight 30 weight these days. Even Walmart discontinued it. I like the truck, of course, I don’t think I’d go over 35 mph with it in it’s present state,lot of work here, but everything you do will be an improvement.
Rare 9 foot bed too, only on f350 as far as I know.
After looking at the pictures, I thought to myself “THIS is patina! Not that ‘matte clearcoat over an excessively rusted junkyard special’ all too often seen these days!” If I were to get hold of a truck like this, I’d probably try to clean and carefully polish as much as possible, after which I’d change NOTHING other than fluids!