When it comes to mid-sized Fords, the Fairlane and Torino were the mainstays but Ford’s corporate cousin, Mercury, had a hand in the action too with their Comet Cyclone. Both the Cyclone and Cyclone GT make appearances here on Barn Finds from time to time and today, for your review, we have a non-GT, 1968 model. It is located in Denver, North Carolina and is available, here on eBay for a BIN price of $9,750, there is a make an offer option too.
Starting in 1968, Mercury’s midsized model was renamed the Montego while the sportier version kept the Cyclone moniker but dropped the Comet tag. Cyclones came in both standard and GT trim utilizing either a notchback (formal) roofline or a swoopy fastback. The standard Cyclone was more of an appearance package, denoted by a lower-body stripe and powered by a standard V8 engine. The Cyclone GT had an additional upper stripe, unique wheel covers, a suspension upgrade, a larger standard engine, and bucket seats. Our subject car is a standard Cyclone fastback.
The seller starts out by proclaiming this Cyclone’s super rarity, it’s not, it’s one of 13K produced in ’68 – not a huge number, but hardly rare. The body looks to be intact with faded original paint, missing trim, minimal rust, and “good” floors. Both front side marker lights are missing and there is a fairly minor scrape in the passenger side fender – but all in all, the body and structure of this Cyclone appear to be sound – it is claimed to be Bondo free. Even after all of these years, the lower body stripe is still stuck in place while there are a pair of original style wheel covers adorning the front wheels. While they look like Ford or Mercury bits, they don’t appear to be the born-with items.
The surprise under the hood is really more of a disappointment as the standard 210 HP, 302 CI V8 engine, and its three-speed automatic transmission, are both MIA. Yes, this is a roller. The nose-up stance pretty much gives it away, but peering into the gaping darkness of the engine compartment confirms the no-go status.
The interior, at first blush, looks OK. The seat upholstery and door cards are supposedly new and thus their unused appearance. The carpet has been removed so at least a prospective buyer can get a good look at the floors. The instrument panel cluster has been removed and is currently in the trunk. There is no given reason but that would be cause for concern, especially without a reasonable explanation.
The listing images of this car are stilted, a seemingly more common occurrence with old car listings. Good sweeping, landscape photos, as opposed to portrait-oriented “snippets”, do wonders to portray a car’s qualities and shortcomings and help make the sale – not to mention answer questions that then, don’t need to be asked. The seller states, “MAKE NO MI-STACK CAR NEEDS RESTORATION“. No mi-stacks on my part, the question is which way to go? Restored stock isn’t much of a blood-stirrer but there is an endless array of power-train iterations that could be prescribed that would turn this forlorn Merc into a cruising powerhouse, and the fact that it’s not a Fairlane or a Torino just adds to its attraction. OK, clean sheet of paper time, what would your plans for this Cyclone include?
These are really nice looking cars.This one seems
overpriced,considering the lack of engine/transmission.
Stroker Windsor should be an easy fit
390 or a 428 goes right in there. I had a 68 Torino with the 390 in it. For what you got here this one is way over priced. More like a $2000.00 car at best. Going to take a lot of $$ to finish it off the it should be.
It’s not really disappointing with the ho-hum 302 missing in there, at least it’s out of the way. Variety of wheels and tires to look at I like the mag wheel/raised white letter tire in the back, that’s how I’d like it at all four corners.
Must have looked pretty good at one time or another but these Mercs are rare now, even the Fairlanes of the same year[s]….how many GM’s and Mopars per Cyclone/Fairlane-Torino, it’s a wide margin which makes these more interesting.
9k overpriced
Smo. King. Crack.
Dumb seller . Just dumb.
Car will sit until it sells for $2k maybe
Wood Brothers NASCAR tribute clone is what I see.
I’m usually not that impressed with NASCAR tribute cars, but I do really like those old school Wood Brothers paint schemes. Amazing family operation which has been around for what, seven decades?
It appears to be a solid car but there isn’t much of a demand for these cars kind of like a c body Mopar.
Was excited until I saw the price then “engine not included.” Kind of like Christmas day, you get the toy of your dreams, and then find out it has no batteries. No engine, no tranny, just an overpriced box.
Had a ’68 GT with a Hi-performance 302. Great car and I would be interested if the the price were $8k lower. Can get a GT in running condition for $14k. So I believe I’ll pass
I had one of these, also. It was a nice car, a terrific driver, great color combination of light yellow with a black, bench seat interior.
However, if I had it back it would need a few ” mods “. I
would want a 4 barrel carb and some great flowing headers, for a start. Mine also had 4 wheel non-powered, drum brakes. And to be honest the back window was a bit too flat.
I don’t know who wrote this article, but their numbers for production are wrong. Approximately 13,000 fastback Cyclones were produced, split nearly evenly between GT and non GT models. Total Cyclone production in 1968 was less than 14,000. By comparison, Plymouth sold nearly 45,000 Road Runners plus 18,000 GTXs. I would think 6,100 units produced would make these cars rare, though if you consider only one quarter as many of the formal hardtop Cyclones were produced, then I would guess that makes them rare?
I wrote it and claimed 13K units, I couldn’t get a breakdown between GT and non GT. Even if your breakdown between the two is accurate, I still wouldn’t consider this car to be “Super Rare” as the seller has claimed.
JO
Hey if you have a welder and a motor / trans
Make a drag car out of it and have some fun