Greetings and Salutations! I am new to the wagon hobby but not to the old car busted-knuckle society. My lovely bride and I purchased a 1970 Torino Squire survivor (overused term, but this actually is) in April and have just completed some maintenance tasks to make it safely road-worthy. Our master plan is preparing to travel when we both retire, and determined the best vehicle to hit the road in is an old-school family hauler! Of course, we're inspired by Clark Griswold and his family adventures. We have a few years to get ready, but the opportunity to snag our wagon presented itself "out of the blue" and we had to act quickly. Our ride is a 95K mile, 351C 4V/automatic, well-preserved 70 Squire with that all-important woodgrain. It is a rust-free car, having spent most of its life in AZ, according to its family history. It is actually well-traveled, having been registered in WI, CA, AZ, FL and finally in NC. As this is truly a time capsule, I am learning why some of my fellow gearheads were 351C fans back in the day. This thing will really set you back in the seat as the RPM's build, and it's all mechanically original. Gas mileage is lousy, though. Oh well, that didn't matter much when it was newer, as gasoline was 50 cents a gallon when I started driving in 1975. Anyway, I'll quit going on and on. I hope this is an appropriate "How do you do" and we hope to see you in here and on the road. Oh yeah, an oddity about the car: it has a Mercury 351 4V decal on the supposedly original air cleaner lid and a Montego tire sticker inside the glove box door. Assembly line workers not paying attention? Dunno. Cool mystery, though.
You did Good. You're gonna like that wagon. Looks like new. Love the wood and white. That was a great introduction. Seems good intros and good wagons are hard to come by. Good luck on the retirement and travel plans. We had a red 1972 Gran Torino and pulled a 21 ft RV. Let's don't talk about fuel mileage.
Thank you for the welcome. The 'Rhino is actually very light blue. I, too, thought it was white when I was looking at the Craigslist pics, but I was pleasantly surprised when I saw it in person. It's the same color as our recently departed '67 Cougar we sold to finance our wagon search. Your '55 ROCKS!
Welcome! Love your Torino Squire, especially the hide-away headlights. That's actually my dream wagon, but with a big block. Does yours have 3rd row seats? The added Mercury decals is definitely a strange one. Would love to see some pics of the interior. Let me know if you're ever in the North Georgia area. Would love to see your beautiful wagon in person!
>>>> =================== Kinda makes me wonder if it was actually built/assembled in Canada. Remember the 50's & 60's Mercury Trucks? Just a thought as to the Mercury decals......
Thank you for the warm welcome and comments. In response to a couple of questions and a comment; To n2fordmuscle, unfortunately our wagon does not have the third row seat. We are looking for one to install. Somehow, a wagon isn't complete without that iconic feature. Interior pics were added to our Garage pics. Please excuse the blue duct tape covering a good-size tear on the original upholstery. Gonna get that fixed. To BuLvr, according to the VIN and the Marti report, the wagon was built in Lorain, OH. I even sprung for the Eminger Invoice that was available for cars built there. (Ford employee Lois Eminger saved paper invoices from being destroyed and preserved them. Kevin Marti has them and is providing them for a fee to us FoMoCo owners intererested in that part of our cars' pedigree.) Thank you for reminding me of the Mercury vehicles built in Canada. The Mercury trucks are most awesome!
