Identify this Car

[Oldster58]

I bought a piece of land, and it has this car on it.

Any idea what make it is?

 

Should I trash it or keep it?

 

Thanks

[Guest]

1957 Mercury.

Cool "yard art" now.

[Oldster58]

Thanks a bunch.

I was told it was definitely a 60's vintage car, but I was thinking late 50's.

 

I looked all over the net today, but could not find anything that matched it.

 

It does indeed look to be a 57 Mercury.

 

Bingo.

Thanks much, I appreciate it.

 

[JACK M]

Probably find the rest of the engine (or some of it) in the trunk.

[whtbaron]

Too bad that AC pump was opened up to the elements... that might have been worth something to someone wanting to add options. 

[Oldster58]

The trunk has two baby vultures in it.

This car is in the woods, and there are no roads or even trails to it.

I don't think anyone has set foot on this land for probably 40 + years.

 

 

[lump]

Y-block Ford engines are in demand these days, to a select few folks. Merc Y-blocks were often a little bigger than Ford versions. Someone might be interested in that block and the heads, IF they are not ruined one way or another.  And Whtbaron is right...that AC might appeal to Merc owners who want to make their cars more enjoyable in hot weather. Even AC brackets can be hard to find...so don't scrap it without checking around a bit. 

Edited August 26, 2019 by lump (see edit history)

[Guest]

Vultures?

What part of the country is this?

[Mark Simmons]

The car is a '57-'58-'59 Mercury upper trim model but not a top model which was a Park Lane. Looks to be some high in demand parts left on it. Good Luck with it .

[Dave Mellor NJ]

57 or 58 but not 59 which had a larger tail light. A shot of the front fender would be nice to see if it had dual headlights

[The 55er]

Trash it. Mother Nature takes a terrible toll on vehicles left outside for 40 years. That engine is shot, it's a cracked and rusted-together pile of scrap metal now. The car has had all the useable parts removed from it a long time ago. The rear bumper is most likely rusted thru on the bottom and there's no rubber left on the harmonic balancer. Not worth fooling with. I'd just leave it right where it is, the earth will reclaim it eventually. 

[Oldster58]

On 8/25/2019 at 9:46 PM, GregLaR said:

Vultures?

What part of the country is this?

Vulture county, of course (just kidding).

Central/Southern.  Lots of vultures and road kill in these parts.

 

I don't have a photo of the front of the car.

I don't have a way to get the car out at this point.

There are no roads.  Only a few deer trails, which is how I got in there in the first place.

 

I will have to look at it more closely when I get a change to get back in there.

I will check on the pets, and see if they have grown large enough to fly the coop.

I was quite surprised to see the birds in there, and was not positive what they were until I saw big mama out on the road flying around.

Those things have a really large wingspan.

They do a good job of cleaning up roadkill, which in this rural area is significant.

 

The biggest challenge of driving around here is the numerous deer that jump out into the road.

I have totaled one minivan already when a deer trotted out in front of me while I was doing 78 mph on the expressway.

Left a perfect imprint of a deer in the hood.

Did you know it is difficult to drive a minivan at night when the hood is up in front of the windshield and the headlights are blown out?

I sort of coasted over to the side and said some choice words.

I called the wife and said "Don't be alarmed, I am fine, but we are going to need a new car, like tomorrow".

 

I can't find my photos from the deer strike, but I found this photo of a car that was out front of Home Depot about 2 years ago.

My brother drove a hardtop version of this when he first started driving, back in the early 70's I guess.

 

 

.

Edited August 27, 2019 by Oldster58 (see edit history)

[sagefinds]

I wonder if it was a rumrunners car or involved in a bank heist or something along those lines where they had to ditch it in a good hiding place. It doesn't appear to be wrecked or rolled and forty or fifty years ago it wouldn't have been that old. Maybe you should try to get a serial number and do a little research on past ownership.

[Oldster58]

This car is in rural Arkansas.

The Corps built a series of dams, and so things/topography/towns changed/moved/got flooded when the lakes were created.

 

The soil is poor in the Ozark Mountain foothills, and so people don't grow much of anything.

There are mainly cattle here and there, and a whole lot of poverty.

 

We go there for the quiet and solitude, and to get away from the rat race.

It is in the proverbial "boonies".

No traffic lights, not much of anything, and in this day and age, it is refreshing to get away from the hustle and bustle/crime/politics/fill in your favorite item.

 

There are some old barb wire fences on the property, and a few signs that someone once lived there, such as a pile of old glass bottles.

Evidently there was a trash heap, and everything rotted away except the glass.

 

And what looks like the foundation for perhaps an outhouse or something, with a concrete slab about 12'x6' with a vent stack, but no sign of any other structures on the property.

I bought the property as an investment, and it is heavily wooded, and so wooded that you cannot drive into it anywhere at this point.

 

There are no signs that anyone has been on the property for perhaps 40-50 years, maybe longer.

 

I was quite surprised to run across the car, and more surprised to run across two baby buzzards.

If I had time, I would hand-raise them, and have pet vultures.

Now how cool would that be?

The things you could do with pet vultures on Halloween and such.

LOL....come a little closer sonny and pet the vulture........he's hungry.........

 

Edited August 28, 2019 by Oldster58 (see edit history)

[Guest]

4 hours ago, Oldster58 said:

We go there for the quiet and solitude, and to get away from the rat race.

It is in the proverbial "boonies".

No traffic lights, not much of anything, and in this day and age, it is refreshing to get away from the hustle and bustle/crime/politics/fill in your favorite item.

 

 

 

Brother, that sounds like paradise to me!

Coincidentally, my parents used to have a '57 Merc similar to yours.

[The 55er]

Most likely scenario is that the car had a mechanical breakdown or needed more $$$$$ in repairs than the car was worth at the time, probably belonged to the landowner or a family member. Years ago before all the growth and trees there was a dirt path or trail there and it was driven or pulled by a tractor to it's final resting place. The farmer dumped his trash and other discarded stuff back there as well, hence the bottle piles. Nobody cared, out of sight, out of mind. What usually happened was local kids eventually stumbled onto it and the first thing they did was smash out all the glass out and jump up & down on the roof. Sometimes the cars were rolled on their sides or turned upside-down.  When I was a kid my father was an outdoorsman, he liked to hike on trails with me and the dogs and we occasionally found 40's and 50's car remains along with the bottles, old stoves, refrigerators, TVs and whatever else people threw out. Memories, those woods were lovely, dark and deep...........

[Oldster58]

5 hours ago, GregLaR said:

Brother, that sounds like paradise to me!

Coincidentally, my parents used to have a '57 Merc similar to yours.

 

 

Those car styles from the late 50's and early 60's were totally cool in my opinion.

I guess it is a matter of where your tastes are, but I love the flattened out lines, the fins, etc.

I remember well my mother had a Buick from the 50's, and the style was distinctly different, with sort of the bubble look.

 

It had no radio, no AC, no power brakes or power steering, no seatbelts, and what seemed like a gigantic steering wheel.

I remember my mother complaining about turning the steeling wheel when trying to park in a tight spot.

And for the young people who have never driven a car without power brakes, I remember I used two feet.

 

My mother would drive us to the grocery store in it, and leave us kids (five of us) outside in the car while she went inside to shop.

This was standard procedure back in the day.

 

And I recall the old DC generators on cars (pre-alternator days), and the lights would go dim when you stopped at night at a traffic light.

Cars have changed a LOT since when I started driving.

I can recall standing in the engine compartment next to a straight six and changing spark plugs.

Now days, when I open the hood, I have to ask "where is the engine?, it must be under all that stuff somewhere".

 

I remember having to check the dwell every so often, and changing pitted points

My buddy's car had a magneto and a straight shift, and if his battery went dead, he just pushed the car down a hill and popped the clutch.

He could run it without a battery in the car.

 

Here is a photo I found on an AR historical site.

I don't remember the link, and this is not my photo, but the cars are pretty interesting.

Rural Arkansas.

 

 

 

.

[Oldster58]

A few more photos of rural Arkansas, from a historical site.

 

My dad's family owned a lumber mill for many years, and they had one of those glass-topped fuel dispensers.

I remember pumping gasoline up into the top of it, and then filling up his car.

Sadly that pump got tossed before I was old enough to save it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 29, 2019 by Oldster58 (see edit history)

[Oldster58]

Here is my Dad's new 65 VW.

You can see the Chevy station wagon in there too.

 

 

 

 

Edited August 29, 2019 by Oldster58 (see edit history)

[Oldster58]

A few more photos from the family album.

 

Our new Chevy station wagon, photo taken in 1961.

And my auto dashboard toy.

That thing was super cool, and had functioning things like wipers.

They don't make toys like that anymore.

 

 

Edited August 29, 2019 by Oldster58 (see edit history)

[Guest]

Toy Auto Dashboard.

One of the coolest toys EVER!😀

[JACK M]

18 hours ago, The 55er said:

Most likely scenario is that the car had a mechanical breakdown or needed more $$$$$ in repairs than the car was worth at the time,

 

My scenario was a bit darker.

Car was stolen and joy ridden until it got stuck.

Probably some insurance company somewhere will want it back.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, JACK M said:

 

My scenario was a bit darker.

Car was stolen and joy ridden until it got stuck.

Probably some insurance company somewhere will want it back.

....and the buzzards ate the body that was in the trunk! 😉

[Oldster58]

I am going to hike in this weekend and do a bone search, but if they (the buzzards) are still in there it may be a bit tricky.

I don't want to end up being lunch.

It may be another 50 years before somebody finds me, or what is left of me.

 

If you don't hear back from me next week, send in the search and rescue.

Look for an old Mercury.

 

.

Edited August 30, 2019 by Oldster58 (see edit history)

[Oldster58]

As a side note, and a bit off-topic, but I figured out how to melt and cast gray cast iron about a year ago, and my hobby is to cast model steam engines in iron.

I occurred to me that this could be something useful for auto buffs who need a broken cast iron part replaced.

 

I work full time, so I can't do any castings for anyone, but I know someone who does iron castings, if someone has a need, for parts up to perhaps 20-30 lbs.

I also learned how to use Solidworks, and can create patterns in 3D and print them on a 3D printer.

 

One of my videos is here, for those interested in the process.

It took me 6 years to figure out how to do castings in iron.

 

 

 

 

Edited August 30, 2019 by Oldster58 (see edit history)

[Fleek]

Thanks for the memories. Your timeframe seems to fit mine very closely. Mine was set in West Texas in the 50s and 60s. Cars and gas stations are very similar to my area also.