Rust-Free Oregon Car: 1978 Mercury Zephyr
The seller of this beautiful 1978 Mercury Zephyr says that it’s a West Coast car and they bought it out of Oregon, which I think is the best place in the U.S. to find preserved, not rusted, not sunburnt vehicles. They have it listed here on eBay in Madisonville, Louisiana, the current bid price is $2,025, there is no reserve, and if you can’t wait, you can click on the $9,000 buy-it-now button.
The Mercury Zephyr was the sister car to the Ford Fairmont and they were made from 1977 for the 1978 model year, until the end of the 1983 model year. There was a two-door sedan, a two-door coupe, a four-door station wagon, and a four-door sedan as seen here. They were built on Ford’s Fox platform so there are a bunch of mechanical upgrades a person can do to wake up these engines.
The seller says this car has been sitting more than it’s been driven over the last 15 years, and the tires will need to be replaced due to age. The body is said to be in good condition with no rust and it sure looks great in the photos. I don’t see any glaring flaws here inside or out, do you? Well, some of you may say it has two too many doors, but other than that…
Vinyl was a big thing in this era and I’d almost always want fabric seats, but it is what it is. These look good other than some help being needed on the driver’s side of the front bench seat. I can’t quite tell if the speaker holes in the top of the dash are in shape or not, quite often those go haywire. The back seat looks perfect as does the trunk. The seller says the air-conditioning is all there but it isn’t blowing ice-cold so it needs help.
The engine compartment looks clean, it’s a Ford 302-cu.in. OHV V8 with 139 horsepower and 250 lb-ft of torque. It sends power through a three-speed automatic to the rear wheels and the seller doesn’t say how it runs, so I’d plan on the usual routine for vehicles that have been in storage for a few years. Our own Todd Fitch would have this one running 300+ horsepower in a few days, as would a lot of you. A sleeper four-door, I love that idea. Any thoughts on this Zephyr?
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Comments
Zephyr 🐒 🐘 📖
These made for a reasonably good bread-and-butter compact family car in their day. Has deficiencies common to cars we see here: air conditioning, tires, worn upholstery; probably a few other things given it hasn’t been driven much. The 302 would give it a bit more pep but it isn’t a hot rod. Do what you want with it: make it a daily driver (instead of a fifteen year old Corolla), improve it for Car & Coffee duty, go into left field with some hot rodding (engine mods, wheels and tires, etc.).
There is a reserve now. Assuming the reserve is anywhere close to the $9,000 BIN, the price is a stretch. It’s priced for perfection, however nice, mismatched F&R tires and a ripped drivers seat isn’t likely to get it done.
Steve R
Circa 1980, we went on vacation to California. My dad rented a Ford Fairmont. Same Color. It was the most “car” car I’ve ever seen…
You know how in some dictionaries, there will be a drawing of whatever the word is, and the drawing will be the most generic, basic version of whatever it is, such as “Shoe”, “Ball”, or “Clock”? This is would be it for “Car”.
My son has always insists that the Ford Fairmont/Mercury Zephyr would make a great base for a “24 hours of Lemons” car (we’re currently racing a SN95 Mustang) – because they are relatively light, being a Fox body car much of the available chassis upgrades for Mustangs would bolt straight in and if you had a tuned 302 and 5-speed stick-shift combination you could have a pretty fast car.
…of course, for Lemons you’d be looking for a suitably scruffy, cosmetically rough example out of someone’s back yard – not paying $9,000 for it.
Nice with the v8, grandfather had a 4 cylinder , very slow, and he loved hitting the stupid horn on the turn signal lever.