new Colony Park owner in CA

Been a lurker here for a while. Picked up a one owner garage kept 1986 Colony Park with 125k. Been looking for a wagon since last spring and this one is pretty clean. Got some minor problems; need to fix the AC, replace the heater core, keep a tiny dash crack in the center speaker grill from growing. I'm sure there will be more as I dig into it. Interesting thing about this one is that there's no cruise control. Only one I saw that didn't have it. This will be the third wagon I've owned. The past two were Falcons, one in Australia and the other a '66 here in CA.

Pat

 

Congrats on your wagon and welcome!

 

That's a good-looking Mercury, welcome!

 

Welcome to the madness Pat! Beauty of a CP!

 

That's a sharp looking ride!

 

Welcome to the forum, Pat.

As a matter of fact, I've been looking for a Colony Park myself, specifically '86 to '89 and so far I've been unsuccessful in finding one that meets my requirements. How far did you have to go to pick that one up?

Please feel free to join in with our discussions...

Marshall

 

Everyone, thanks for the warm!
Marshall, you won't want to extend your range up to '91, the last year?
I searched for about a year and half. Initially I was looking for a Country Squire. Ideally from an original owner who kept it garaged with low miles. I found a few that were being sold from the second or so owners who had bought them from the original owners in garaged condition. These owners did not keep them garaged and they were deteriorating beyond a point that I was not willing to deal with. I wasn't looking for a restoration project. I also came to the conclusion that the trim on a Colony Park seems to weather better than the Country Squire. I bought mine from a dealer who picked it up at an auction where it had been donated by the original owner. I had seen another clean one at a charity that had been donated by the original owner. Unfortunately I don't have a garage for it but it's under a car cover.

 

Looks spectacular. I agree, though, the lack of cruise control is interesting. I've never even heard of that before. That crack in the dash pad is, I'm afraid, a pain. The pads are extremely fragile over the speakers. If I ever manage to get another of these cars, I plan to cut and drill a piece of metal to fit, and bond it to the underside of the dash pad to reinforce it.

 

Welcome Pat!

 

Welcome aboard!

 

Tikitiki, cool wagon. Excellent find!

 

Don't really want the air bags, and I don't like the instrument panel on those as well, either.

 

The 90 and 91 dash also did not have provision for the other two speakers for the top end stereo, and the sound quality was different without them. One neat thing with the 86 dash is that you have provision for the single speaker as well as the 2 outboard ones. That centre mount can, if you want, be used to hide a subwoofer so nobody knows it is there.

 

Pat
thats a real nice lookin CP

 

I can understand not wanting air bags. These are old vehicles and less stuff the better.