Breezeway Ventilation: 1964 Mercury Montclair
1963 through 1968 full-size Mercurys could be had with the cool Breezeway back glass that disappeared into the trunk when not in use. But it wasn’t the first time the gimmick had been used, one that would eventually be put out of business by a growing number of factory-installed air conditioners. This 1964 edition, the mid-level Montclair, has this cool feature and the automobile appears to be in excellent condition. It’s available in Benson, North Carolina, and here on craigslist where the asking price is $20, but we think the seller means $20,000. Our thanks to Chuck Foster for another great tip!
Mercury would first use the hideaway rear glass on a 1955 concept car (the D-528, which still survives). Then it would appear for a single season on the not-so-popular Turnpike Cruiser. Then Lincoln gave it a twirl from 1958 through 1960 on the Continental before it bounced back in Mercury in ’63. The Breezeway name was not capitalized on by Mercury, who called it a retractable rear window instead.
The fancy window appeared on both two and four-door hardtops in the car maker’s senior lineup. The seller’s Dynasty Green coupe is one of just 2,329 Montclair’s so assembled in 1964, the second year of the then-current styling cycle. This Merc presents quite well and looks to have been restored, though the seller doesn’t use that term. The odometer reading is said to be just 68,000 miles, which could very well be accurate (also not mentioned).
Under the hood resides a 352 cubic inch V8, standard fair in the full-size 1964 Mercury automobiles. It comes complete with an automatic transmission, power steering and brakes, and a button to push to raise that back window up and down. This looks like it would be a way cool vehicle to show off at Cars & Coffee in your local burg.
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Comments
Pardon my ramblings here, but Elwood Engel was a Ford designer up until 1962 (give or take), and then moved on to Chrysler around 1963.
At Chrysler they introduced his design for the New Yorker in 1965. The similarities are quite striking.
Same story with the “Bullet” Birds and the Chrysler turbine cars.
Here’s the front view, so similar to the Merc.
Just saw one of these Mercs with the power rear window at a cruise in last weekend. Very cool !!
Always thought these things looked goofy. Definitely not sporty. The fastbacks were much better.
20 is really pushing it but what a nice car to save and use. No a/c could be an issue but easy enough to add.
How do you raise a window down?
I miss Mercury…and Plymouth…and Oldsmobile…and American Motors…and Pontiac…and Studebaker…and Saturn…and……..
Great looking Merc.
A neighbor had a yellow one of these. What I remember most were the 100 or so dents in it from a hail storm. ….
Anyone ever hear of “negative draft” or “reverse flow ventilation”? Anyone that’s ridden in a station wagon with the back window ONLY open, found out what gas or cheap oil, in my case, dad was burning. These back windows did the same thing. What they were especially good at, was letting “gas” out of the cabin in a hurry after a trip to Dennys,,,if the back window went down, time to hold your breath,,back seat passengers,usually the kids, got the worst of it,, otherwise, just a gimmick that didn’t sell very well. Mercurys were kind of a “Ford with lockwashers”, only they historically had nicer styling and a darn shame Ford killed them, even though at the end, there wasn’t much difference between the two. Very nice find.
One of these in white sat in my town for years near the beach. I kinda of like the mix and match design elements.
Through the Forties the design changes between a Ford and Mercury could sometimes be pretty slight, say the grill and front end on a ’46-’48 Woodie. The Fifties brought on a little more differentiation between them.
I’d love to have one just to burn gas but beats me how they arrive at a price. Is 20 K the new thirty-five hundred?
There was a time when owning a Mercury put you a step up in the social strata from a common Ford owner like myself :)
Same thing happens with trucks & the sliding rear window…or Toyotas p/u’s with their lowering window. Not great after hauling hay.
That has to be a 390 under the hood, because the 352 was offered in Mercurys for 1961 and 62 only. Besides, the 390s were gold, like this one. Green valve covers? New one on me.
The Canadian Montcalms had 352’s, but the rear glass was fixed. If this is American-market car it SHOULD have some flavor of 390 – don’t think the 410PI was an option in the breezeway, either. This is my restomod project car here -my dad had a white one with black interior. I want to upgrade to the Parklane interior, 15″ wire wheels with Mercury spinners & discs @ all 4 corners & go with an R-code 427 & T10, era-correct NASCAR drivetrain – a true unicorn, as the R-code was only available in the fastbacks. That’s my dream.
Lovely looking car. IMHO, 1964 was their best year in terms of styling and appearance.
I always thought they would make another car with this back window option for fifty years now.it’s so cool
We had a 63 Monterey with the breezeway window. Got t-boned by joyriding kid driving a 57 Chevy with his eyes closed and it damn near folded in half. Mom and sister were lucky to have lived. The X-frames underneath these things prevent me from ever considering one. The only good thing was that usually my dad would take that car but he had to take the Corvair in for service – they would both be dead if the Corvair would have been t-boned.
That being said this is a very nice example of one of those cars, doubt if it’s a $20,000 example but hey it never hurts to ask right?
I’ve heard these rooflines referred to as a “Notchback”. We’re they ever officially called a Notchback?
I thought the 57 and 58 Turnpike Cruiser models were the first.
We had a 64 Monterey 4 door sedan (post). Breezeway WAS used in the promotion. I know we had a 390, and I thought that was the base engine because I it would not have been like my father to pay for an upgrade.
I purchased a 1964 Monterey convertible for $17,500 55.000 original miles love the style gets lots of attention they come with 390 from 250 BH to 330 BH 3 speed then the big 427 410BH to 425 with 4 speed