Final Parking Space: 1966 Mercury Colony Park
The station wagon has become a bit player in the American automotive marketplace as we approach the second quarter of the 21st century, but the junkyard reminds us of a time when that type of vehicle was the choice for family hauling. Since we haven’t seen a proper big Detroit wagon in this series prior to now, here we go with an imposing Mercury recently found in a Denver-area boneyard.
We have admired a few discarded wagons prior to this one, but they were all a good deal smaller: an AMC Eagle, a Toyota Tercel, and a Subaru GL-10 Turbo.
Those were fine machines, but here we’ve got an iconic 1960s American longroof that scales in at well over two tons and was capable of transporting the entire nuclear family around the continent in comfort. The United States reached Peak Wagon, i.e., when the largest number of distinct new wagon models were available, in two model years: 1964 and 1977.
This is a Colony Park, mechanically identical to the Ford Country Squire and sharing its faux-woodgrain siding. Both the Colony Park and Country Squire were based on the full-sized Ford chassis used under the Custom, Galaxie, and LTD.
The Colony Park was the most opulent station wagon sold by the Ford Motor Company in the United States for the 1966 model year, with an MSRP of $3502 ($34,723 in 2024 dollars). Its cheaper no-woodgrain sibling was the Commuter, counterpart to the Ford Country Sedan.
The Colony Park in front of the Del Monte Lodge in Pebble Beach (renamed The Lodge at Pebble Beach in 1978) in the ’66 Mercury brochure has the same colors as today’s car.
This one appears to have been sold new in St. Paul, Minnesota. It must have moved to a less rusty place soon after purchase, because the body is reasonably solid.
Still, there’s enough corrosion to have made this car a challenging restoration project.
This car was purchased with some costly optional equipment, including air conditioning. That was $430, or $4264 after inflation.
The engine has been purchased and the car’s build tag is missing, so we can’t know what the original engine was. What we do know is that it must have been some member of the FE-series big-block V-8 family, with 390, 410, or 428 cubic inches of displacement.
The transmission in this car is a three-speed Multi-Drive Merc-O-Matic, not to be confused with the earlier two-speed Merc-O-Matic. I believe this is a first-year C6 automatic; the “green dot” shift position between “Drive” and “L” gave you all three forward gears, while the “Drive” position locked out low gear and started you out in second for better snow traction.
This is the new-for-1966 “Dual-Action Tailgate” (known as the “Magic Doorgate” on Ford-badged wagons), which could be opened either as a sideways-opening door or as a fold-down tailgate.
The interior still has some good parts to offer Colony Park aficionados.
The Colony Park name as the designation for the top Mercury station wagon lasted from 1957 all the way through the final Grand Marquis Colony Parks in 1991. That means there were new Colony Parks available for more than half of Mercury’s 1939-2011 existence.
As late as 1982, Mercury offered three sizes of station wagon with fake wood siding; Ford stayed in the North American wagon business until the final 2007 Focus wagon was sold. The newest Detroit wagon you can buy today is the 2020 Buick Regal TourX.
Kids are murder on a car, whether it’s a Ford or a Mercury.
It’s the best ride on the market (this side of Continental).
Yes, there was official 1966 Mercury theme music!
If this Mercury happens to have a positraction rear end, it is possibly a super strong nodular iron unit. You can tell because there will be the letter “N” cast into the 3rd member above the pinion. It could still be a nodular iron unit without the “N” cast if it has a double rib casting above the pinion.
Wasn’t the name, Positraction, copyrighted by GM, more specifically, Chevrolet?
Yes. Positraction is a GM name. It was such a good name that it became generic, like Kleenex for facial tissue. When I tell people that I have an Eaton Detroit True Trac many don’t understand until I say it’s a clutchless gear driven positraction. Then the get it right away.
No Ford ever had a “Positraction” differential. The clutch type 9″ and 9 3/8″ Ford differentials were notoriously weak (the clutch plates wore out quickly).
It’s a cool old wagon. The ad with the Marquis & Lynx wagons I remember but not a Cougar wagon.
FoMoCo manufactured Mercury Cougar SWs twice during their lengthy run. In 1977, they took on the body style of the Ford Torino and slapped on a Cougar front clip….complete with turn signals, 4 rectangular headlights, grille, and the ‘cat’ hood ornament. The ones with the fake rosewood body applique were donned the Villager. Then in 1982 FoMoCo designed a midsized Cougar wagon which shared it’s body with the all-new Ford Granada. Again, the Villager edition was the wood paneled version with the GS being the more plain, economical, base model.
I had a 77 Cougar wagon which I wish I still had. Not especially fuel efficient with the 400M engine but was quite comfortable and pretty good looking, my opinion, with the (fake) wood over the medium brown paint and saddle colored vinyl seats and interior. I had this in Colorado during the mid 80s and mileage improved, city & highway, by 2mpg using “gasahol” over regular unleaded. Also back then in Colorado our choice during the winter months was either the MTBE blend which hurt mileage on all cars or ethanol blend which my Mercury loved so always bought at the Direct Tire Sales gas stations because they only sold the ethanol blend.
Tim – possible but likely? Those few ‘N’ castings I’ve run into have all been in high performance models. This Colony Park doesn’t quite fit the bill. 66, most likely a 390 car. I’ve never run across a 410 Marauder. Its a family station wagon so probably a dealer car that was bought off the lot as equipped. Would you be checking the Traction- Lok ( Detroit Locker) option box? Maybe with Minnesota winters but I’m bet an open rear. However worth checking for S***s and giggles.
Years ago when it was easy to find Ford’s 9″ in salvage yards, I read an article about the nodular iron cases and how they were installed on many full sized station wagons because of the extra weight they often carried. I don’t know if true but only going by what I read way back then. It’s worth a look if you need one and locate a wagon like this in a junk yard, I mean automotive recycling center.
Traction-Lok (limited slip) and Detroit Locker (locking differential) are two different things. I doubt they ever put Detroit Lockers in these station wagons.
Someone installed a 410 Marauder V8 in my wife’s 1970 Ford Ranger XLT before we got it, along with the 3/4 ton leaf springs, and it rides and drives really well as a result. Power is adequate, but man, that 8.5 mpg is a wallet-drainer!
There’s potential there. Window tint, lowered a little, the right wheels, a little rumble under the hood… and some other color than canary yellow
Fuzzy dice hanging from the mirror.
This right at the top of my all time favorite wagons. I love the 31/32nd Lincoln styling of this year and the slightly Buick side swoosh aping of the woodgrain.
My dad bought a new Colony Park in the spring of 66. It was the 2nd nicest car in Lethbridge ( next to the 57 Cad Eldorado Broughm the mayor owned). I drove it most of the way with our family up the gravel Alaska highway to Whitehorse, Yukon to see my older brother in the RCAF. Several nights the four of us slept in the car at a pull-off. It had the 390 and was white with a metalic blue interior. We had no problems. What memories! I also owned a 73 Colony Park in the 80s. The 460 and the 325 rear end (Trailer Package) gave you 10 mpg, even before you started the car. You turned the auto AC off when you came to a hill, to save gas. Loved it.
We had a 1965 Colony Park Wagon, 390 engine, that took our family from the San Francisco Bay Area to Mexico City, then survived a year of my mom driving it all over central Mexico. Mom’s motto when driving the beast there was “A miss is as good as a mile!”.
Didn’t your “Barn Find Hunter” adopt a 60’s Ford wagon with a factory 4-speed?
Yep, and a quick search will find it for you.
And with a 428 engine.
Yes & I believe Tom’s has a 427.
It’s a 1967 Country Squire with a 428 and a 4-speed. It also has bucket seats and console. It’s all original and was special-ordered. The original owner’s nephew brought it to our club’s shows in the ’80’s in the Cleveland, Ohio area. It was a very, very nice unrestored car then.
We rust belters would be jumping at this. That is not much rust, assuming the frame is good and the floors are still there. There haven’t been any car like this in Illinois yards for almost 40 years.
yes and it would cost a lot less to restore than purchasing a new minivan. Debatable if they would serve the same purpose but a resto version of this could be practical. I cringe at all this weight and load potential of a family on a vacation in the mountains with the original 4 wheel drum brakes. Thats when you actually had to know how to drive a car and anticipate hills etc.
Wouldn’t there be an engine code on the ID tag ?
I can imagine Sajeev shedding a tear over this one – doesn’t seem to have been all that bad before the yard got it.
No more tears. I weeped while this one was in editing.
“wept”? 😁
That’s for my editors to decide!
My dad brought an identical Colony Park home spring of 69’. The wood grain had faded like this example, but the inside was fresh. The tail gate would only fall flat. Someone suggested costing the wood grain with marine varnish after adding pigment. The two coats she put on lasted until she ordered a new Buick Century 1973 in acid green that looked very modern. We used the Colony Park to pickup farm hands for several more years. These cars turned me into a wagon guy. Lots of hopes and dreams, but not much action.
In my years at Ford Colony Parks and Parklanes in 1966 came with 410s. I never saw them with any other motors.
Yes, that definitely looks like an FE C6 transmission from that front view, especially the newer converter style. I believe the last of the 352s were still being installed this year too, and if it is true to what I’ve seen with wagons, vans, and other family haulers, this car would have more likely been equipped with the smallest V8 available, underpowered or not. It seems most buyers of these types of vehicles weren’t interested in paying extra for more HP.
I knew a guy had the 66 colony park had a 410 in it. Nice car
The yard must have some paperwork showing the “Q” code in the ID. I could sure use the dash top for our 66 Park Lane, “Q” code sedan.
Dad brought home a new ’68 Commuter (stripped version), in blue on blue on blue. Our first car with AC! What a difference on the Colorado dirt roads for summer camping trips. That beast could hold everything for a multi-day trip, and still offer rear visibility. The base car came with the “Marauder” 390 2-bbl, I believe the 2-way tailgate was standard, as our car only had automatic, power disc brakes (also a big deal), power steering, AM radio and tinted glass on the very short option list. By ’68 Mercury used a more Lincoln looking grille and hood on these. As I recall, Mercury offered a 2 year warranty as part of their upscale image. Lots of American steel.