1966 Mercury Colony Park - Restoration

Discussion in 'Station Wagon Projects' started by schanzml, Sep 29, 2008.

  1. CMPRSD

    CMPRSD New Member

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    Just Dashes does great work. And you get what you pay for, BTW.

    But I must say I'm jealous of the cavern you're stashing those cars in. Nice!
     
  2. snooterbuckets

    snooterbuckets Well-Known Member

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    Yikes, what kind of indoor storage do you have? It must be huge to accommodate all those Mercs. Lucky you. Can't wait to see the Colony Park all done. It's going to be extraordinary, I'm sure.
     
  3. schanzml

    schanzml Well-Known Member

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    Does anyone have any experience opening one of the Ford "Magic" tailgates when either the side open handle or the middle flip-down handle is not functioning? This is on a '66 Mercury. I'm assuming there must be some trick to opening a tailgate when both handles malfunction... I've looked inside where the window goes down in the tailgate. The window is bottomed out inside the gate. The handle that opens the gate sideways turns but isn't really doing much when it makes contact with the latch mechanism on the side of the door. The center handle seems frozen and doesn't really move much at all. It's difficult to see what's going on with the middle handle as there are support obstructions that makes it difficult to see what's going on. The tailgate hasn't been damaged and it does seem to be solidly shut so I don't think it's caught "in between", if you know what I mean. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated; hopefully there's an old Ford guy out there that can work some magic.

    Thanks.

    Martin
     
  4. Taranau

    Taranau Well-Known Member

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    working on that too

    If it has electric door locks,it may be the electric door lock unit. My 86 Colony Park is having the same problem. Two mechanics are telling me that is probably what has gone wrong. See if you can slim jim it open(I'm looking for somebody better at it than my two mechanic friends---who AREN'T very good car thieves) Get it unlocked,and you should be able to get it open. Not exactly sure myself,as I haven't gotten mine unlocked yet. And it's getting fairly important to do so.I can't put more air in my rear shocks until the gate is opened like a door...Good luck with yours...
     
  5. tbirdsps

    tbirdsps New Member Charter Member

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    How did I miss this thread? I love these. Seeing a car go from old and worn to powerful and new is the greatest thing.

    Keep it up us Merc guys love the info and processes of fixen' 'em up.(y)
     
  6. schanzml

    schanzml Well-Known Member

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    Thanks for getting back to me. Unfortunately, the wagon doesn't have any power locks. So, I don't have that in the mix. I'm guessing there's a problem with latch mechanism but I just don't see how it can be accessed w/o cutting some sort of access hole in the door itself.

    Anyway, maybe someone will come along with some "magic" to open this two-way magic tailgate...

    Martin
     
  7. winged one

    winged one Well-Known Member

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    I will take a look at my 67 Ford and Mercury shop manual tonight and see what there is on the tailgate.

    If it is like my 67 Ford, there is a metal cover on the inside. It is removed by removing the screws that hold it in place (I have done that) and then all is accessible. However, you got to get it open to do that. So I will check and see what the manual says.

    You absolutely have to have the window all the way down before it will release. Maybe something in that mechanism is the failure.
     
  8. winged one

    winged one Well-Known Member

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    If yours is the same, it says to remove the aforementioned screws. Then remove the 2 (if present) plug buttons on the inside cover. Using wire hooks, grab the inside cover and pull up (tailgate is in up position of course).

    This will not be easy as mine was tight with the tailgate down.

    After that, its a myriad of things that could be wrong (disconnected or broken parts). But at least you should be able to get to things.

    Hope this helps.
     
    Last edited: Oct 12, 2009
  9. schanzml

    schanzml Well-Known Member

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    Thanks,

    The problem is I cannot access the bottom row of screws so I can't "lift up" the panel to remove it.

    Thanks again for replying.

    Martin
     
  10. winged one

    winged one Well-Known Member

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    Well, I was going to post a couple of pics of mine, to see if yours is set up the same way, but Broadstripe, as usual, cannot fix its own issues, so I cannot load up my pics. EDIT: was able to load up here. Open the pics linked at the bottom of this post and it will be easier to understand what I wrote.

    BUT, does your panel have a lip on the bottom of it, where it appears one panel goes over another? If so, there is a 1 inch wide strip that runs the width of the panel (fender to fender). This strip helps hold the bottom of the panel in place.

    However, the panel itself is not screwed in at the bottom, just held by friction by the strip.

    You may not be able to reach the screws that hold the strip in place, but you should still be able to pull the big panel off (as its not screwed in). May not be easy, but is doable.

    There are screws that run along the middle of the panel and the top, and down the sides (but not at the bottom, on the sides). You must be able to reach them to get the panel off.

    I cannot imagine that Ford would make it impossible to get to the inner workings of the gate without a blowtorch, if the gate will not open. That is why I believe they put that strip down there and didn't just screw it in place at the bottom. So that you could get the panel off.

    If you look at the panel in my pics you will see a couple of "holes" that do not have screws in them (one on each end of the panel). That is where you need to fabricate something, to stick in there (not deep) and pull up the panel. The panel is tight at the top where the window goes down too, but there is nothing holding it in place but the 13 screws on the panel.

    Hope this helps

    Edit: Loaded the pics up here.

    Not sure how to reference to them, but they are here:
    http://www.stationwagonforums.com/forums/gallery/browseimages.php?c=4&userid=1819

    Thomas
     
    Last edited: Oct 13, 2009
  11. schanzml

    schanzml Well-Known Member

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    Thomas,

    Thanks for the input. I will definitely give this a try. Your pics appear to be identical to the set-up on the Merc. Oddly, I have actually had that strip off at the bottom (it was badly rusted and I replaced it with another one), but i didn't really look to see or recall if the screws went through the panel. I assumed, incorrectly, that those screws went through the strip and then through the panel. It makes sense that it would just be a friction strip. Early in this thread I put an entry in about going over to Az to a junkyard and about workers there having to actually break a window to get the tailgate open as the motor for the window was seized. At time I thought it odd that the only way to open a tailgate with a failed motor would be to break the glass to open the door.

    I'm feeling pretty good about this now. I'm not going to be able to try this for a couple of weeks as I'm headed back to Oklahoma to pick up a '65 Colony Park this coming weekend. I'll report back after I pull off that panel (knock on wood) :)

    Thanks!

    Martin
     
  12. schanzml

    schanzml Well-Known Member

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    It's been a while but I thought I'd pass along that we finally got that darn tailgate open!

    We were able to get the back of the tailgate off. It took a bit of work.


    p1010883.jpg


    p1010888.jpg


    However once the back of the tailgate was off, the window itself was in the way (since it was in the down position. We were able to get the window about three-quarters of the way up; giving us access to both the latches. After all this, still no luck getting the gate open. The upper latch appeared to be "free" but the bottom latch was frozen tight. In the end we decided that we'd have to open the gate using a sawzall. I know that sounds a bit drastic but in the end it was really the only thing we could do.

    The top latch stud was sawed pretty quickly, in a couple of minutes. The bottom latch stud was not going to go easy. We burned through a couple of bi-metal blades; they didn't even put a crease in the stud. We picked up some of those heavy-duty diamond blades. That did the trick...


    p1010979.jpg

    p1010990.jpg


    p1010992.jpg

    With the door finally open, we could indeed see the upper latch was free and the bottom latch wasn't going to be open without removing it, which cannot be done without having the door open.

    With the door open we could see the third row seat for the first time. Also additional mouse/rat nets were uncovered.


    p1010987.jpg


    p1010894.jpg


    We've done a lot the wagon since I last posted. I'll post about the motor pull, brakes, steaming, and disassembly later.

    Martin
     
  13. Stormin' Norman

    Stormin' Norman Well-Known Member

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    Always admire folks who dig down into restoring floor/frame structures. Amazing bravery. Kudos!:thumbs2:
     
  14. CMPRSD

    CMPRSD New Member

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    Stay after it...bummer you had to cut those, but I suspect they're not too hard to locate. Can't wait to see more pix!:camera:
     
  15. silverfox

    silverfox New Member

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    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
    What Stormin' Norman said!! :thumbs2:
     

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