The downside of Craigslist is that you don’t get up close and personal with the vehicle that you are possibly laying good money down on. You have to trust a few photos and whatever the seller wrote up to decide whether or not going to look at said vehicle is worth your time. Normally, this should be an easy decision, but with this 1979 Mercury Zephyr, we’d be on the fence. First glance presents an extremely rough Fox: the paint is long gone, there’s a homemade cowl-type hoodscoop, the wheels look like they are straight from the junkyard, and there’s patches of surface rust everywhere. But look under that hood and the while the appearance is still horrifying for the most part, you are greeted with the diamond in the very rough: a mini-blower on top of a Ford 302. Nobody bothers with a supercharger unless they absolutely mean to cause harm to someone’s feelings, and as visually bad as this Mercury is, if that engine is thumping out any kind of impressive power, a LOT of feelings have probably been hurt. Seriously, the mini-blower alone is the only reason we didn’t go look for another car.
The seller’s writeup is short and to the point: “supercharged 302 it has msd ignition a c6 automatic trans with a reverse manual valve body has sub frame connectors slapper bars roll cage fuel cell high pressure fuel pump. Lots of mods call or text if interested.” We are thinking that this Mercury has been used as a street sweeper, and for whatever reason it’s time for the seller to move on. We’d be tempted to go look at it just because of the mini-blower, but would you take it home with you at the end of the day for a couple of grand?
Craigslist Link: 1979 Mercury Zephyr Z-7
I like it!… not as nice as a LS swap, but for 2k???
Why ruin it with an LS?
My friend bought it, after a carb swap it’s a total score, very fast
If the car’s solid I’d take it. I pleasantly surprised that the boy didn’t drop a a stupid LS in it. That makes the car worth buying right there.
In that vane you would be SAVING the car.lol
Ditch the crappy hood scoop, refit the stock wheels, respray it in gloss black and restore it back to sleeper mode.
Perfection on wheels no less…
I would leave it alone and just fix what’s needed and have fun on the cheap!
Roadkill’s next ride!
The price seams inline with what is shown. A ratty car with what looks like a 4 point roll bar (not a cage, no front hoop). A small blower on a 5.0 Carb motor.
If it is as presented: $2K is reasonable. If it’s rusted out floors going, rusted apart around the roll bar welds and sub frame connector welds then it’s only worth what the pile of parts would fetch.
I would not buy that car with out the seller finding someplace I could inspect it on a lift. Bad Welds or Rusted areas around welds means walk a way.
Well gang, I would like to introduce you guys to code name Zleeper. I found this car for sale Friday morning, and picked it up that evening.
The owner was a young car enthusiast hell bent on getting his jeep running for summer and with a child on the way needed to grab some quick cash.
When I went to look the car over it was not running. The fuel hose right off of the fuel pump was so old that it split, under a whooping 7 psi. After repairing that and putting in fresh fuel the seller attempted to start the engine. I took note that the fuel filter did not have additional fuel flowing through and a few hints that the car had not ran in over a year, I assumed the needles had varnished themselves shut.
A few squirts of starting fluid, and she fired right up. At that point I made my cash offer, stole the car,shared a beer with the seller and had the car on the trailer .. Some where in the deal was letting the original owner ride in the car once it is on the road again.
What was really fantastic about the entire ordeal, is my partner in the project had little idea of what we were getting into, and my phone call in front of the seller talking the car down did not build confidence. Not to worry at the time all of the cash into the purchase was my partners. You should have seen the look on his face when I pulled up with our next project build. Mind you the last project I brought into his shop is a beyond sexy 1966 Mustang Fastback with everything a car like that deserves. 347, T5 swap and a full Bruce Griggs suspension, a topic for an entirely different day.
After we rolled the zephyr into the shop we we able to see we were eager to do what all car owners should do when a new purchase has occurred. Celebratory Burnout. 2 hours later the car had a qyick once over and swaped another carb on it, we had it running under its own power and moving too. To our surprise every single light on the car worked! +1 for winning.
At about 1 a.m. the burnout began a incredibly tired motor awoke with a fury silenced by a full exhaust, the cabin filled with smoke as our laughter grew. The previous owner must have been a fan of the sleeper idea too, unless he had any part in that hood.
We parked it for about 3 weeks until last night. Another midnight oil burning night, I had since rebuilt the original carb. And with Edlebrock Performers carbs quick adjustments and a 6AL BTM coupled with a quick timing check we had the car screaming up and down the street. I will be sure to keep you guys updated, and the build process is being documented on video.
Wow. What a funny story. I saw this on craigslist and know the new owners.
I like that this is a real story written most likely by a down to earth, real person as evidenced by simple typos we all might make.
Keep these cool stories coming. Come on out to a track event some time like TrackDaze. Search as written.
Good times. 😉
My friend bought the car and we found this article looking for a replacement tail light for it. After swapping the carb it’s safe to say this is probably a 12 second car as it sits. It is fast! Definitely a score. We will be documenting the rebuild under #zleeper hashtag