1975 Ford LTD Country Squire

Hi

The car was originally equipped with a vinyl roof, but it has been removed. The roof currently has the primer color, which is a bit lighter than the deep red paint on the rest of the car.

I think this one is gone. When I was there Friday morning she said she had another appointment with a different potential buyer for Sunday afternoon. As of Sunday night the listing was no longer on craigslist.

I had her down to $4,900. This wasn't an absurd price, but I could easily envision going through $5,000 fixing all the various issues. The A/C alone would be more than $1,000. Maybe I will regret it, but I have enough other things to do in my life at the moment and I didn't need the headaches. I was especially worried about difficulty in finding parts for the AC, the windows, the front-end repair, etc.

All the "loaded" stuff is great when a car is brand new and it all works and it is under warranty. The CS I have now has manual windows, and they are much less prone to problems and much easier to fix if they do.

 

Actually, the power windows on these cars are dead easy to fix, and the regulatory tend to last forever. Just try to find a regulator of a manual window car. The last time I had to do that I had to cross an international border. The switches and motors for the big cars were the same as the mid sized, and the parts were used from at least 72 right through 91. Give me a loaded up car like this any day. The comfort and convenience is well worth it, especially for someone who is normally alone in the car.

 

Apparently it's a moot point now, but I don't think the AC fix would have been quite as difficult as you imagined. This car would have used a Frigidaire compressor -- yes Frigidaire was owned by GM, but that's what they used on full size Fords that year. I would think that somewhere in the country, somebody has a junk yard with a full size Ford or Merc with a 400 (i don't know off hand which other engines the parts interchange with) and AC from which the brackets and pulleys could be had.

With the problems you describe, I think $5K was still a little optimistic. Of course, it apparently sold, so either the price went down or a buyer disagreed with me.

I think the power passenger seat is ultra-rare.

I wish it had had a 460 and I had had the money.

 

This car is still up on CL @ $6,500 OBO

 

looks like I was wrong - this one is still for sale

http://seattle.craigslist.org/skc/cto/4976803704.html

I'm going to go have a chat with my mechanic and give this a second think over. On my first visit I didn't want to take the plunge because it had so many more problems than I was expecting. Also I picked the worst possible time to look at the car. There was a city tree trimming crew right out front with chain says and chippers and what not and I couldn't hear myself think!

I agree that the A/C bracket could likely be sourced from a junkyard with enough work.

I agree that manual windows are harder to get parts for than power windows, but that kind of misses the point. Manual windows very rarely break and very rarely need parts. On 40 year old cars the electric windows frequently clog up with dirt and need service, especially the drivers window which is used the most and is the most frustrating to live without.

 

If it could be had for the price you said before ($4900?) or a little less, the high cost would only be your own labor. The window motors need the gear box guts replaced, and for the T/G, that's not a hard fix since it swings open. But the things you need to be getting the owner to acknowledge is that the front-end damage to the body and the missing vinyl top are expensive, no matter how you attempt to fix them, as they will need expert help to paint the front end and apply the vinyl (which may need to be done by two separate shops). And the A/C is simply no problem if you get everything necessary to get it back together; the Frigidaire compressors are an excellent candidate for R134a conversion (I confirmed this with a GM engineer a long time ago). By the way, I live up in Everett, and in my '97 Exploder I love it when my A/C kicks on with the defroster/defogger to remove the moisture from the windshield and side windows. So if it stays here in Western Washington, it'd be a good idea to get it running again. I took the A/C apart on my '79 Ranchero GT and have regretted it (hah! It even had a Frigidaire compressor...) ever since.

 

I've had more than one mechanic tell me that it's the left rear door (behind the driver) power window that fails the most frequently and that it's because of infrequent use.

I'd bet that the vent window was glued to the main window because it was jumping its track and jamming both windows in the down position. I had that problem on a '75 CS I had years ago. If this is the case, it may have something to do with the window motor failure.

For the A/C parts, try www.car-part.com. It searches for parts in (participating) junkyards throughout the U.S. and Canada. There were 8 pages of junkyards with AC parts that the program thought would interchange with a '75 CS.

 

Slight price drop to $6200.

http://seattle.craigslist.org/skc/cto/4976803704.html

 

I bought it

Well for better or worse I bought it, and I have begun the slow and expensive process to get things working. I drove it home at about 45mph in the slow lane because I did not trust the tires, but I made it home safe and sound (about 150 miles). My mechanic who does a lot of work on cars of this age completed a very thorough checkout. He was satisfied with the results of the compression check and told me he thinks I bought a solid car. He did have a long list of suggested services, many of which I already knew about and a few that I did not. He said none of the needed repairs were especially surprising for a car of this age.

Thanks VERY much to all those who posted to this thread and provided useful information and encouragement. I may end up regretting it, but for now I am in the phase of looking forward to getting the fix up completed and enjoying the car!

I own another Country Squire of this same series, but with way more miles on it (250K). I haven't decided my long term plans - for now I will keep both, but it is possible I will pull parts from the old one to fix the new one and sell or scrap the old one. Repairs like the dented nose would be much cheaper if I used my old car as a source of parts. My first step is to drive them both, probably all summer long, and get a better feeling of confidence about the one I just bought.

 

Looks like a nice wagon and except for the driver seat tear appears like new.
Have fun and enjoy the wagon. Hopefully you can find the parts you need and still sell the other as a complete wagon.

 

Congratulations on your purchase, bl1416!

Marshall

 

Congratulations. There's one like it for sale not too far for me that could be used as a parts car, do you need any parts? I posted it here, it's near Pittsburgh. I haven't seen it in person though.

 

Excellent ! Enjoy! That's a sharp and loaded up CS you got!

 

You got a real beauty there. When you do the roof, be sure to keep the moldings for the vinyl top. I happen to like the moldings in place even when the roof is painted. Less expensive and less prone to rust, there is a textured paint we have seen on some of the professional cars around here that looks like vinyl but because it is paint it doesn't peel and cause rust like the original. Either way, you got a winner.

 

Good advice! :2_thumbs_up_-_anima