Looking over this 1974 Mercury Montego for a Rough Start candidate is easy enough: it falls under budget at $4,500, looks ready to drive, isn’t too bad to look at and has a kind of mean stance to it. There’s room for improvement, but that’s the case with 99% of my finds when cheap-car hunting. It’s also packing a 460, C6, 9-inch rear axle and has three-inch pipes…so there isn’t much in the way of modification that should be needed to make even a party barge of this size dance a bit. Job done? Um…maybe. For sure, this is a great way to buy into having a fun ride to knock around in, but here’s an interesting question: what would you do to make it better?
Right off of the hit: something has to be done with that hood. The quick and dirty method would be to apply a Boss 429-style scoop over the Holley air cleaner setup and be done with it, and since the hood is already flat black, color shouldn’t be an issue either. The rear tire setup, with fat Mickey Thompsons on wide Convo Pro-style wheels, is a score, but the front wheel setup looks like it could use wider wheels, don’t you think? There is some paint repair that could be done, and we don’t have an interior shot to check out, but keep in mind that everything I’m pointing out is nit-picking to the core. Two doors, well over seven liters of engine, and a price tag that should be within shot of a reasonable budget is always a good thing. Either some kid is going to go start counting bills or some Ford freak is about to load up a car trailer while making excuses to his wife.
I’m just here to provide a service. One that partners up oddballs like a wicked-up Mercury Montego with the right new owner.
Always wanted a David Pearson clone this would work nicely. The paint work would be a budget breaker I wonder if you could wrap one in old racing colors and sponsors
Oh, man. I just PCS’ed from the Springs, and this would have been a lot of fun to play with. ARGH! I love the stance, but it needs some slot mags and a bugcatcher scoop. Can picture blasting a little Alice Cooper “Under My Wheels” while taking this out to Bandimere to make a couple of passes.
Very uncommon version of FoMoCo coolness.
no way , this is the ultimate sleeper.