Marauder Super 390: 1963 Mercury Monterey S-55
Mercury offered a four-door hardtop S-55 sedan in their Monterey lineup for 1963, whereas they only had two-door models the previous year, The seller has this project 1963 Mercury Monterey S-55 breezeway sedan listed here on eBay in Williston, Florida, and the current bid is $1,035, but the reserve isn’t met. Thanks to Larry D. for sending in this tip!
Both the two-door and four-door hardtop Monterey S-55 models were available with the Breezeway power-operated rear window in ’63, “The roof with a reason for every season”, as Mercury called it. I found one Mercury brochure that lists the Monterey S-55 as only offering a two-door hardtop and a two-door convertible body style for 1963, they don’t mention the four-door Monterey S-55. It shows a four-door hardtop sedan only in the base Monterey and Monterey Custom lines. But, the VIN decodes this car as being an S-55 four-door hardtop, so there ya go.
In any case, clearly, this is a four-door hardtop Monterey S-55 and I think this body style works much better with four doors than with just two doors, but that’s just me. If all was right with the world (or at least my world) I would buy this beautiful car and have it nut-and-bolt restored to like-new condition. You can see that this car appears to have been in storage with something (tires?) placed on the trunk lid for a long time, the seller says that it’s a one-owner car and was in storage for 30 years. This car appears to need a lot of work and has a fair amount of rust to deal with.
I wish we could see an underside photo, as the floors look a little scary and the trunk looks similarly scary, as far as potential rust goes. We can’t tell if the seats are just dirty or faded, and Mercury calls these seats “leather-soft” expanded vinyl, so they should be able to be cleaned up nicely, and dyed/painted (gasp) if need be. The back seat is somewhat hidden, but hopefully it can also be cleaned as well. The door panels look good, if a bit dirty and faded as with the rest of the interior, and the red-and-white “safety-courtesy” lights in the doors are still there. There is a Merc-O-Matic (Mercury’s version of the Ford Cruise-O-Matic) three-speed automatic transmission with a console shifter.
The engine should be Ford’s Marauder Super 390-cu.in. V8, which with its four-barrel carburetor would have been rated at 300 horsepower and 427 lb-ft of torque. The seller says that it turns over, but since this one has been in storage for three long decades, it will take a lot of work to bring it back to life again. Any thoughts on this Monterey S-55?
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Comments
I would love this car if it wasnt for the rust but it needs about everything, sorry just my take but a very interesting car none the less. i like the idea of rolling down that back window & hearing that 390 speak my language ! If it was just as clean as the F-85 id be all over it .
I had a ’63 Custom two door hardtop for a while. Looked decent, ran great, but used oil. I’d love to have this, even though red is my last color choice for a car. I saw a flawless coral, white bucket seat interior ’64 Marauder four door hardtop in the back of our Mercury dealer once. It was a fastback, I hope it went to a good home.
Great parts car!
Marauder does not refer to the engine. S-55 Mercurys had a 2 barrel 390 as standard engine. In 1963 there where 1,203 hardtop 4 door S-55 Montereys built. They were all Breezeway models. Marauder is the moniker for the hardtop fastback models that came in 2 door style for 1963. There was also a 4-door Marauder in 1964 & 1965. In 1969 & 1970, Mercury used the Marauder name on an upscale Marquis , available only as a 2 door hardtop.
Just to confuse you more, Mercury did use the word “Marauder” to describe their big engines long before the term was applied to the fastback vs. Breezeway models (58, I believe). Without checking a 63 Merc sales brochure, it’s hard to say if that name was also applied in 63 for the 390, but it had been in previous years.
The 1963 brochure does indeed refer to the Monterey engines as “Marauder” and “Marauder Super”.
There were no 2 barrel 390s in the early 60s. In 1958, Ford developed a new engine family called the “MEL”. The Mercury versions were labeled “Marauder”
383 Marauder
430 Marauder
430 Super Marauder, which had a Tri-Power setup. Extremely rare.
A family friend had one of these in salmon and off white with matching interior. He had bought it new and it was pristine. He was going to sell it to 16 year old me for $4k in 1998. As a young hypermasculine jock I just couldn’t bring myself to buy a ‘pink’ car. It is one of my greatest regrets. You never see these cars come up. I still haven’t seen another one in the salmon scheme.
Sorry, the one I was looking at was a 64 marauder
Very cool sedan….buckets and a console/floor shifter.
Color change would do wonders….black or charcoal gray or a two tone…black body/gray roof or gray body/black roof.
Had a 63, was a durable car. You’d have to want one though because the rust repair done right would put you over its value.
Check the frame, thoroughly.
The frame is fine.
This is a GEM. It’s all there, a big plus! I’d finish it in a different hue, dark charcoal like my 94 Town car. Beyond my capabilities, hope it is saved.
WOW! This car has such potential but I don’t know if it’s a value or not. It’s at just over $1500.00 when I looked a few minutes ago. You sure don’t see these very often, but after money spent on resurrection process will it be valuable enough to warrant the cost. It comes down to cost vs, value. When my late wife had to have her left leg amputated due to Sepsis the insurance company would not pay for a prostheses because her life expectancy was to short for the cost. It’s sad but it’s true. That’s the way our world works these days. Everything must be cost efficient. I truly hope someone is willing to go the cost to save this wonderful car.
God Bless America
Strange looking contraption. Is it supposed to ride that low….or did someone turn this into one of those lowrider bombs.
Can’t say I remember seeing one of these. Thankfully.
I have a 1965 2 door hardtop Mercury Marauder, and although I don’t care much for 4 doors, I love 4 door hardtops like this one. Especially, the front buckets and the center console. My 2 dr only has a front bench bucket, and no console. Good find
Whoever buys it, I hope they never get in a t-bone accident. My mom and sister almost died in one of these when the X frame on it allowed the car to basically bend in half. Is it worth fixing up? If you replace the floors, do yourself a favor and put a nice roll cage bar in behind the sills.
I thought the Ford products had the standard frame and only the 1958 to early 60s Chevies and Pontiacs had an X frame
Ford never had an X frame. Lol.
Auction update: this one ended at $1,685 and no sale.
I remember seeing something like this abandoned in the woods near my house as a kid. However, that Mercury had Turnpike Cruiser branding. Was that a different trim level with the roll down rear window?
It was rusted halfway up the doors 40 years ago…so no thoughts of ever trying to find it now.
The ebay closing bid was only $1685 for this 63 Marauder 4 door hardtop. I think that’s pretty low considering the car it is. Breezeway, 4 Dr hardtop and 390 with bucket seats and console. If I had room for another project car, I would be all over this one.