West Coast Woodie! 1954 Mercury Monterey
The Monterey, named after Monterey Bay, California, was the mainstay of the Mercury lineup from 1950 into the 1970s. The only station wagon that Mercury would offer in 1954 was based on the Monterey and it was marketed as a “Woodie”, though the company’s last “real” wood-bodied wagons were built in 1951. These later woodies had wood paneling affixed to the sides of all-steel bodies. This beauty has a rebuilt engine and automatic transmission, but the interior is original. It’s ready for more weekend cruising!
Mercury built 259,000 automobiles in 1954 which sounds like a lot until you note that Ford cranked out 1.16 million cars that same year. 174,000 or one-third of production would carry Monterey badging and the station wagon saw output of 11,600 units. All these 4-door people movers came with wood accents, a feature that would appeal to buyers for the next couple of decades. But they came at far less expense than producing wood-bodied wagons for which Ford owned its own tree farm.
We’re told this Mercury has only had three owners in its 70 years on Planet Earth. And just 65,000 miles were added to the odometer from new. For whatever reason, the 256 cubic inch V8 in this Monterey received a rebuild in 2020 along with the Merc-O-Matic tranny. The seller says the car runs perfectly and comes with surf racks, though we don’t see them in the photos. The interior is the one the vehicle was built with, but no mention is made of a respray of the paint.
All-in-all, this looks like a solid Mercury that is ready to deliver a lot more smiles to the miles. The instrumentation is almost “space age”, with the controls in a flat panel below the speedometer (I don’t know that I’ve seen that before). Hailing from Anaheim, California, this woodie is available here on craigslist for $28,500. Are you ready to be owner #4? BTW, our buddy “numskal” is this source of this nifty tip!
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Comments
Those dashboard controls make a whole lot more sense to me than tablet-sized infotainment centers in cars. Plus they’d be fun to adjust. Based on the condition and mileage, I’d say it was worth it. I just don’t know how to surf.
Catch a wave and you’re sittin’ on top of the world…
Love wagons and this dash board ,what A treat,
Them!
When my uncle, my mother’s brother bought his Jaguar 2 seater sports car, he sold his 1954 Mercury 2 door Sedan to my mother. I don’t remember the model, but it was an automatic, (my father hated automatics, too many things to go wrong)
Mint green, dark green interior, and that dashboard was SO futuristic. I actually hated it at the time. I was around 7.
have always loved 1954 Mercury’s and that dash was a mild update to the 1952 and 53 dash do you remember the 1954 merc sun valley one of the colors it came in was mint green with dark green top and green interior and of course green plexiglass roof I was 9 years old in 1954 fell in love first time I saw it on showroom floor
I reckon the best buys for any model is the very last one, as all the little nuances have been worked out. In particular in 54 the Y block was a major improvement over the poor flathead v8, which had been pulling heavier and heavier cars.
And that nice Harley Davidson like lull to the y block at idle.