1975 Ford LTD Country Squire

351 V8. Looks high option including power mini-vent windows and Landau Luxury group interior. :2_thumbs_up_-_anima

http://seattle.craigslist.org/skc/cto/4945062690.html



1975 FORD COUNTRY SQUIRE WAGON - $7000 (Kent)
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Good looking and heavily loaded Country Squire. Sure beats the 1977 CS also currently for sale at $10k IMHO.

 

Just a note: the 351 was not offered from the factory in this car. The 400 was standard; the 460 was optional.

Many 400s are identified with stickers showing that they're part of the 351/400 engine family. Seller may have misinterpreted.

Alternatively, a 351 may have been swapped in during a period of high gas price (or the 1979/1980 gas shortage). The 351M has the same rear face as the 400 (in fact it's the same block as the 400, so it would be a drop-in swap) and the 460.

The cracked windshield will probably take a couple of hundred dollars to fix. The window motors will likely be in the same ballpark. I haven't priced a muffler for one of these recently, but if exhaust pipes are required, they'll likely have to be custom bent. You could easily be into $1K in repairs.

On the other hand, as far as I can tell from the pics, the body and interior are in exceptional condition. Not thrilled with the aftermarket radio. Depending on what was done to the wiring to accommodate it, it could be very easy or a nightmare to put it back to stock (if, like me, such was your desire). Wish my '75 looked this good. Of course, I paid $650 for mine (many years ago).

I can't tell for sure if $7K is high for the repairs needed or good for the condition. I know that even the mid-'70s wagons have shot up in value in recent years, but this is a Ford, the most common make of wagon in this era.

Thoughts?

 

The 'loaded with factory options' thing makes it worth more I think, but that's just me.

 

YEP!

 

Unfortunately, it's missing the option it needs most to pull its weight with all those other options: a 460. I've had two '75 CSs, one 400 and one 460, and even the 460 is no race winner. The '75 vintage 400 was all of 158 hp (the 351M had only 153 hp), and these wagons were over 5000 lbs. in base form. In 1990 my 400 Squire was adequate, but 25 years on, people are driving much faster. Leave some money in the budget for some engine tweaks.

 

Thanks for the education boys!

 

Ben's comments on the 1975 Country Squire

I have had a couple of email exchanges about this car, but I have not yet been to see it. There is somewhat of a language barrier, but I am getting answers.

The owner made some attempts to fix the power windows, but not successfully. I am not clear exactly what is wrong. They report that when you try to move the windows you hear noise, but the glass doesn't move.

They also acknowledged removing the A/C compressor "because it was broken". A better way of dealing with that issue might have been just to remove the fan belt. Anyway it is what it is. They no longer have the A/C compressor, and I am concerned the brackets / bolts may also be gone.

The white object you can see mounted to the left of the steering column is a voltmeter or amp-meter (or both).

The interior condition appears outstanding! I'm more concerned about the mechanical side in a few areas.

 

Now claims to be a 400 V8. Interior looks excellent. Down to $6500.

http://seattle.craigslist.org/skc/cto/4964413753.html

 

Update on 1975 Country Squire

I test drove this car on Friday morning, April 3rd.

The good...
- car appears to have never been used for the transport of passengers or cargo. Other than the drivers seat, there is virtually no interior wear visible. This is pretty astounding!
- major mechanical components (engine, transmission, steering, brakes) have no major visible issues.
- frame is generally straight - one issue at front end noted below.
- car is richly endowed with options, including
- dual power seats, which work
- intermittent windshield wipers, which work
- "low fuel economy" dash light, which illuminates when accelerator is pressed more than half way down.
- rear window defogger, which I did not try.
- keyed lock on interior hood latch
- cigarette lighters in back seat.
- etc.


the not so good...
- the tailgate window did not work. When the switch was activated you could hear a clicking sound, but no movement.
- because the tailgate window could not be lowered, I could not attempt to fold-down the tailgate. It did open sideways.
- there was damage to the front end. The owner said a tree branch blew down onto the car during a storn. You can see this slightly by looking above the right headlights in the 2nd picture posted by the owner. I attach a more detailed picture. Fortunately this does not interfere with the ability to open / close the hood.

- the owner removed the A/C compressor. He also removed the A/C compressor mounting bracket and belt pulley assembly. The first item I know can be replaced. Although the second item is simpler, it may be harder to replace as it is not usually a part that fails, but I have not tried. A/C is not as important in Western Washington as in some other areas, but it will not be easy or cheap to re-install.

- the drivers power window does not move at all. The passenger power window moves sluggishly and needs a pull to get it fully into the up position. The rear-seat power windows also need at least a channel cleaning and lube.
- there is a notable whistle from the front right window when driving more than about 30mph.
- there is a major tear in the driver seat fabric.

- there is rust on the rear bumper. The car has been kept in a carport and is visibly parked there in a Google street view image from several years ago. The extreme rear of the car was apparently exposed to weather.
- the muffler is not a disaster, but could use replacement.
- the right rear tire (more than the others) is somewhat low on tread especially on the inside. I am guessing it was once up front and then got rotated. The alignment is obviously not way off, but may need to be checked.
- 2 of the power door locks did not work.
- the fake wood trim which is the signature of this model was in fair-good shape, certainly not excellent.
- several of the exterior lights needed work. The headlight covers did not close. (I fought this issue on a different car I own and it isn't easy to fix.) The two license plate illumination lamps were missing lens covers.

The car is being sold by an older couple who do not speak much English, and a younger daughter who lives out of town but speaks better English and is handling the communications. They seem nice sincere people. I don't get the feeling any of them go to car shows or collect old cars or understand the issues involved in trying to get a car like this into fully working order. They are willing to negotiate on price.

While I was there I observed the owner smoking in his front yard. It did not appear to me that he had ever smoked inside the car.

One previous poster hypothesized that the car had power vent windows. It does not. The two pieces of glass in the front windows are permanently attached together, and go up and down as a single unit.

Bottom line - this is an unusual car in terms of its outstanding interior condition, excluding the drivers seat. However there are the usual list of issues that go along with a car of this vintage. The sellers are slowly coming around to the need to set the price accordingly.

 

Thanks for the info!!!

Clearly it did originally have the power mini vent windows - apparently now disabled so it all moves as one. Were those known as troublesome?

 

I am not an expert in the mini-vent windows. In other cars where I have seen this feature, the control panel on the drivers door typically has 6 controls. In this car there were only 4 controls on the driver side (and only 1 on the passenger side). If it ever had mini-vent windows, they must have been setup to both work on the same control button.

I had the impression that this was more similar to a style of residential windows where a slatted piece is installed between two large panes of glass to give the false impression of multiple smaller panes of glass. It appeared to me that Ford was trying to copy the style of the older vent windows without actually providing the function.

 

Exactly. That's how they worked. When you pressed 'down' on the power window button, first the small vent section would go down. You could stop it there, or continue pressing for the main window to go down. Going up, it worked the same way in reverse.

- You could not have it where the vent section was up and the main glass was down.

 

Thanks much! As the saying goes, you learn something new every day!

 

Seriously high option wagon. Dual power seats and I did not notice until now it also has the rare factory vinyl roof option. Price may be on the high side and it does have issues, but it would be fairly difficult at this point to find another mid '70s CS this loaded up.