A car with a full history
Ford Country Sedan
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A car with a full history Ford Country Sedan |
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| This wagon has been in the family since new. Bought new by my
parents - my mother was the driving force behind it. I was there
during some of her negotiations with the salesman but sure don't remember
what transpired other than she did the ordering as my Dad was out of town
for business. About the color - my mother always loved green and
wanted a color that didn't show too much dirt - so green it is - "Cumberland
Green" according to Ford. Back in the 50's $20 made a difference in price
so this car did not get two-toned thus only the single chrome piece down
the sides. Four door Country Sedan.with radio and heater. C
engine code so it has the 292. She did opt for the overdrive transmission
which is really fun to drive. Column shift, 3-speed. Small
hubcaps. Purchased in October 1956 and I still have the original
dealer's invoice. This was a customer ordered car and built at the
San Jose Ford plant. We were living in Sunnyvale, California at the
time so not far from the plant.
My parents drove it for about 8 years and then bought a 65 Ford wagon, again with 3 speed overdrive and by then I was out of high school. I learned to drive in the 57 and it became my transportation to college. I remember the car passing it's first 100,000 miles on some family vacation but no longer remember where that was - possibly up to Canada in the early 60's as we traveled that direction several times. In 1966, I married and my parents gave us the car as a wedding present. It had 150,000 on it by then. That following summer, we had the engine rebuilt so it now has a different base block but is still a 292. We drove it all over the west for the next 10 years and racked up another 150,000 miles on it. |
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| Then bought a new Pinto station wagon for family use and sidelined
the 57. It still saw occasional use for another 10 years and then
it was passed on to my youngest sister. We had about 350,000 miles
on it by then. She used it for awhile and then let George's brother
use it for almost a year. By then the suspension was worn out and
it's sat ever since. She finally had her husband trailer it back
to our old home and there it sits. The engine still runs fine and
will start up with no problem. Someday we plan to restore it.
It has over 400,000 miles on it now and still has the engine that was put
in it in 1967.
It's been a good old car. . The one trip it's never made is back to the east coast. Update June 2009: In the Fall of 2006 we had wagon trailered down to Texas. After a harrowing trip thru Washington and Oregon fall storms, it made it to our new location. It's now waiting in a dry garage for restoration as the time and money allows. It's the next big project my spouse is planning to tackle and he's looking forward to it. The luggage rack was removed by my sister a number of years ago and will not go back on the car. It was an aftermarket luggage rack that was installed in it's first year so I do have some pictures of the wagon before the installation and after. My father had felt the Ford luggage rack was too flimsy for a lot of use so found the sturdiest aftermarket rack available. We had used the rack for camping gear many times. My sister finally removed it as it had rusted thru and was no longer useable. We had always got excellent gas mileage out of that engine, averaging
21 mpg all the time.
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Here's a photo of it taken in 1957 in front of the Fort Worth Stock Exchange: 
My mother was determined to get a photo of the Stock Exchange while we lived in the area. Note that the wagon still does not have a roof rack on it. We moved out of Texas in the summer of 1957 and the rack had been installed for that move. |
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