Growing up a car freak invites you to other people’s opinions, whether you wanted them or not. As a kid, we had a 1969 Chevrolet Kingswood Estate station wagon wind up in our yard. Nothing seemed to be explicitly wrong with it…it hadn’t been crunched and wasn’t rotting…but the big-block was coming out of that car, no matter what. I was maybe 12 or 13 when this car appeared, and I made a mention about how it would be cool to clean up the paint, polish up the mint interior and cruise it as-is. That earned me laughter by the truckload and the yard hands spouting off all sorts of stuff about how I would end up a forty-year-old virgin driving a wood-panel station wagon. In the mid-1990s, station wagons still had a huge stigma of being dork mobiles…coming from people my age driven around in Eddie Bauer Explorers and Caravans, no less. Time has helped the reputation of the few station wagons that somehow haven’t seen the crusher yet, and nice ones are gaining a foothold in the market as forgotten classics.
With five thousand dollars in hand, we took to Craigslist…specifically, Eastern Colorado, a treasure trove of neat sheetmetal…and went hunting for a decent wagon. In less than a minute we were rewarded with this 1972 Ford LTD Country Squire. Dark green and Ford-style wood paneling, the big Ford stands out in the drying grass of the prairie and it looks like time has been extremely kind. That isn’t quite the case, but for a cheap Craigslist find, it’s not that bad, either. There are parts of the wood paneling that have started to peel, and there’s a couple tiny spots out back that could be early signs of sheetmetal cancer. There’s even a cracked dashboard, just to prove that not all is perfect. But for an entry price of $3,500, we could live with the peeling woodgrain…or one could get it vinyl-wrapped and be done with it. For a budget roller, this Brady-mobile would be a hard bargain to pass up!
Craigslist Link: 1972 Ford LTD Country Squire
Seems you’re not the only wagon lover since the car is not on CL anymore.
I have to admit my dream wagon would be a 66-67 Chevelle/Malibu.
Good one. I fondly remember my mom’s ’71 Country Squire (sans wood grain) with a 351 4bl. Maroon it was or as my dad called it ‘burple’. Spent a lot of time in the back of that thing as a kid.
That thing is so cool. Totally gives me memories of the car that made me car guy. My dad owned a dark green 72 Galaxie 500 4dr sedan with a 400M when I was kid.
The last of the breed was the 1991 wagon – after getting a 84 Crown Vic
‘gran pa’ car that I ran for years until the frame broke , I wanted to track down a 91 wagon but never did in NE . The 84 was a rock – took a family
of 4 camping for many years from Niagra Falls to Gettysburg and all over NE
You would not believe how much shit you could fit in that trunk !!!
Since the ad was gone before I could read it: Id find a EFI 460 with overdrive A/T. Swap them in. Some Bucket seats, floor console and floor shiftier. 4.88 center section for the 9 inch with a good LSD. New springs and some 31×10.50×15’s or some 32’sx11.50x15s Add a grill guard and push bars.
Ford/Merc Wagons the Frames MUST be inspected on a lift. They rust out horribly while the body appears ‘fine’. So never just buy one with out doing a full frame check. Especially if you want a ‘derby car’ which is what happened to all the 1984-1991 crown vic wagons.