Ford Country Squire Wagon

After a short stint in Huston we arrived in Atlanta in early '65. Mom had a Valiant. I don't know the year but it had the spare on the trunk look and was a four door. Dad had a Falcon Sprint at the time.

We got settled in and one day Dad took uo to the Ford dealer one day and we came home with a brand new '66 Country Squire. That's the one with the wood accident. Oops, accent. ;) the Country Sedan didn't have the wood.

We drove that back and forth from Atlanta to Miami pretty much twice a year until moving back to Florida in '71.

Lot's of great memories in that time period. There was a thread the other day about steam engines and we went to Stone mountain and rode the train before they went diesel and how about Six Gun Territory? Anyone remember the fake mountain in Fla? This was a time of plenty and families went to cool theme parks all over the country. Lots of memories in that wagon.

I got it from Mom and Dad in about '79 and got rear ended within six months. I was doing 50 and she hit me so hard that it bent the car almost in half. Estimated she was doing over 100.

I have pics of the wreck around here some where. I'm lucky I wasn't driving my Pinto.

Don't ask me what happened when I got hit in the pinto and flipped it three times. That's another story.
 
Ford Station Wagon

Marshwheeling said:
Jimmy, I can tell it has been a while. If your Triumph was a Spitfire, it was a car. If your motorcycle was a Spitfire, it was a BSA.

When I got my driver license, our family car was a 1954 Ford Country Sedan wagon, cream with maroon window trim. By 1962, when I took my driving test, it wasn't running so well. Pop loved cars, but had no mechanical ability, and didn't trust mechanics, so his cars all started hard and ran poorly.

In the parallel parking section of the test, the car died and would not restart. After some plugs, points and a new distributor cap and rotor, I could finally pass my test.

That experience, and several similar, drove me and my brother to learn how to work on cars. My brother ended up owning a car repair shop, while I became a pretty fair backyard mechanic. But that knowledge came too late to save the Ford and several other interesting vehicles that passed through our household before they died of neglect and mistreatment.
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Hi: The Triumph Spitfire was a two seat sports car (fire engine red) and the Motorcycle was a Honda I never let my Father know I was riding a "Jap" M/C. Father was a "Horse Soldier"
 
ParadiseRoad said:
...how about this old '58 Buick wagon...wide whitewalls...wire wheels...several tons of chrome...and that grille!...

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In 58 my brother came along and dad decided with 3 kids the 55 chevy hot rod had to go. Our 58 Buick wagon was a brownish color as I recall.
 
Around the mid 70's I bought a 1970 Ford Torino squire wagon. .It was a dark metallic green with fake wood grain paneling.

The thing was a animal . The motor was a 351 cubic inch Windsor small block that was modified by the owner before me. It had a hot camshaft solid lifters a Holley 760 dual feed carburator and headers with twin two inch exhaust. It also had a posi track rear end and a three on the tree standard tranny.
In first gear you would wind it up to 30mph then the 4 bbl. would kick in up to 70mph then you'd shift to 2nd.

It sure was a fun car to drive and sure did did surprise a lot of people. Next to my 1973 Dodge Challenger it was very fast.
 
My Parents had a 1968 Ford Country Squire wagon that was the biggest piece of You know what.
A short while after bringing it home from the Dealer it would stall out when You made a left turn due to a short in the control module,It also developed a nasty case of dieseling that the Dealer never was able to fix quit right,It rusted out in one year but the only good thing I have to say about it that even though it had a 302 cid engine it got really great gas mileage.
 
Wow this thread brings back some good memories!

While learning to drive in the mid-70's my mom had a 68 or 69 Ford Country Squire station wagon. It was that wonderful (cough..cough) green that it seems EVERY car manufacturer had back then. Yeah. wood grain sides, a dark green vinyl interior ...... maybe a 390 4 barrel too.

They even made me learn how to parallel park that land yacht. Do kids do that any more?

That was one of my mom's most favorite cars and it ran like a champ!
 
jimmyj said:
Hi: The Triumph Spitfire was a two seat sports car (fire engine red) and the Motorcycle was a Honda I never let my Father know I was riding a "Jap" M/C. Father was a "Horse Soldier"
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I mentioned above that I'd briefly entertained the thought of buying a Spit the other day.

My MG is in the shop now(I'm ashamed that someone else is working on it, especially since a friend and I had the engine out three weeks ago) for a couple of odds and ends.

This guy who runs this shop is an MG nut, and I commented when I first brought it in that I'd parked in "MG Row" out front. I pulled my '70 roadster in behind a '77 CB conversion that the shop had done several years before, and there was a Midget in front of that. There's also a VERY good chance that in the next few months I'm going to be buying a "pile of parts" 1958 MGA sitting in his show room.

If all plays out, I'm going to have him do a by the book restoration on the body in Old English White/Red. The engine in the A is far enough gone that it's basically parts only, so I've located an early "18G" 3 main 1800cc MGB engine(1962-1965). I'm going to rebuild that one myself likely with high compression pistons and a mild cam, which should make it good for 110-115hp. That's a BIG increase over the 73hp that stock 1500 MGA engine makes, and the 3-main MGB engine is effectively drop in. The only thing you need to do to make it bolt up to an MGA transmission is put in an MGA clutch disk-all the mounts are the same and with an MGA intake and carburetors(twin H4 vs. twin HS4 on the MGB) only someone who knows the cars inside and out will spot it. The same guy with the 18G also has a 1500 engine(correct original engine) that I will likely buy also just in case I get an itch to make the car totally original.

All of that aside, there is a very tired looking 74 Spit 1500 sitting in his shop. It's light blue and has a factory hard top. It supposedly runs(or at least is free and has good compression, so can probably be made to run), although it has its issues. I could probably drive it out of the shop for $500, but then I don't know how far I'd make it before my large posterior fell through the floor pan :) . The guy didn't tell me a number, but he told me that if I said something halfway reasonable I'd probably leave with it...the problem is that one British car keeps me plenty busy now and I don't want to be tied up with this while the A is coming together. I also have this emotional aversion to Triumphs that would make it very difficult for me to stomach buying one. Still, though, I could probably buy it, do some work, drive it for a little while, and flip it-the factory hard top needs rear glass, but it's worth a decent amount in its own right.
 
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