Junkyard Find: 1964 Mercury Montclair Four-Door Hardtop Marauder
Here's a car trivia question for you: what engine name went on to become the designation for a body style and then a car model name in its own right? The answer is, of course, Marauder.
Today's Junkyard Find is an example of the second type of Marauderization (not to be confused with Moroderization) within the world of Ford's Mercury Division.
Starting in 1958, Ford's new MEL (Mercury-Edsel-Lincoln) big-block V8 engine was given the Marauder name when installed in Mercury models. Yes, I bought these badges.
The MEL engine became exclusive to just the Lincoln Continental starting with the 1961 model year (and staying in production through 1968), but the Marauder name was just too good to throw away. For the 1963½-1965 model years, every full-size hardtop Mercury model with a notchback roofline (instead of the goofy Breezeway roof) would have "Marauder" appended to its model name.
The big-Mercury universe for 1964 included the top-grade Park Lane, the mid-level Montclair and the might-as-well-be-a-Ford-Galaxie Monterey. Most accounts of the origin of the Montclair name state that it was derived from the name of the closest affluent town to Ford's Mahwah Assembly plant in New Jersey. I bought this badge to give to a friend who resides in another wealthy enclave called Montclair.
The door tag tells us that this car was assembled in St. Louis on November 7, 1963. It was painted in Carnival Red with the interior done up in black/black and had a 390-cubic-inch V8 engine with two-barrel carburetor bolted to a Merc-O-Matic three-speed automatic transmission. The DSO code of 51 shows that it was sold out of the Denver sales office.
Built in Missouri, probably shipped to Colorado by train, then sold new in Greeley, located about 60 miles north of Denver and the site of a famous Utopian community during the late 19th century. Greeley is also known for being the town that horrified Sayyid Qutb when he lived there in the early 1950s and hastened him on the path to becoming the Godfather of Al Qaeda. There's plenty of history in the junkyard, if you know where to look.
Its final parking spot was in the U-Pull-&-Pay just north of downtown Denver, so it appears to have spent its entire career in Front Range Colorado. I say "was" because I shot these photos more than a year ago and this car was crushed before we even reached 2023.
I'd have written about it earlier (I like to put the word out about cars like this while their parts are still available), but I went a bit Mercury-crazy with my junkyard writings during late 2022 and early 2023 and decided to take a break from writing about vehicles named after the God of Speed ( and Commerce).
The Montclair and Park Lane names disappeared after 1968 (the Monterey name survived through 1974, then was revived for the Mercurized Ford Freestar in 2004). The Marauder name got ditched in 1966, then revived on a massive personal luxury coupe for 1969- 1970. It was brought back to life on the 2003-2004 Marauder, a version of the Grand Marquis powered by the Lincoln Mark VIII's DOHC engine. The Mercury brand itself departed this world after 2011.
The body wasn't rusty and the interior was dirty but in solid restorable condition. Why did this car meet such a fate?
Sadly, big Detroit four-doors of the 1946-1975 era just don't have much of a following among American car aficionados, even when they have hardtop roofs, big-block engines and generous helpings of chrome.
This region is isolated from the major population centers of the United States, too, meaning it's a 20-hour tow to haul a project car to the West Coast or the big cities of the Upper Midwest from here.
The local car freaks have all the projects they can handle and then some. So, to The Crusher it went.
If it makes you feel any better, most of the good trim and glass parts from this car were purchased before it got squished and shredded.
Naturally, some junkyard shopper grabbed the 390 before I arrived. Ford FE engines are still worth money to Mustang restorers.
The ancient snow tires suggest that this car sat immobile for decades before coming here.
The Rockies began playing in 1993, so perhaps this car was a runner as recently as 30 years ago.
1963 was the final year in which AM radios sold in the United States were required to have the CONELRAD nuke-attack-warning frequencies of 640 and 1240 kHz marked on their dials. This car was built in 1963, so it's CONELRAD-compliant even though it didn't have to be.
They would have worshiped this car in Sweden, to which 10,000 classic American vehicles are imported each year, because Swedish car freaks love old Detroit sedans. If it had been in California and thus near a major port, such a happy ending for it might have happened.
The price is medium, the action Maximum. Just ask Parnelli Jones!
1964 Mercury Montclair Four-Door Hardtop Marauder in Colorado wrecking yard.
1964 Mercury Montclair Four-Door Hardtop Marauder in Colorado wrecking yard.
1964 Mercury Montclair Four-Door Hardtop Marauder in Colorado wrecking yard.
1964 Mercury Montclair Four-Door Hardtop Marauder in Colorado wrecking yard.
1964 Mercury Montclair Four-Door Hardtop Marauder in Colorado wrecking yard.
1964 Mercury Montclair Four-Door Hardtop Marauder in Colorado wrecking yard.
1964 Mercury Montclair Four-Door Hardtop Marauder in Colorado wrecking yard.
1964 Mercury Montclair Four-Door Hardtop Marauder in Colorado wrecking yard.
1964 Mercury Montclair Four-Door Hardtop Marauder in Colorado wrecking yard.
1964 Mercury Montclair Four-Door Hardtop Marauder in Colorado wrecking yard.
[Images: The Author]
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Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
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I kept wanted to say "Book 'Em Danno" while looking at the photos of the Mercury but this car predate Hawaii Five - O by 3 years.
they looked cool but my god... all that metal in the dash and no seatbelts. You would probably be killed or critically injured in an accident for sure.