Old Ford pics

[fdlrc]

Interesting that they're (cabs) two-doors.

[CobraJoe]

[Ecode70D]

I had seen your Mass location on your Hamb postings. I was born in Waltham, but consider Acton my home town. Escaped in '68 to California, never looked back. Moved to Colorado in early 80's, and then ran out of gas in Texas in 03

Hemi Dave .... Notice that Rich stated that he escaped in 68?  Those are his words..  He did the right thing to get away from our nasty cold and streets that are loaded with salt in the winter.
       I'm in the Plymouth area of Mass. just incase you are heading to the cape sometime. Jay

Rich ....Don't worry. If you come back to visit your family.  We'll just give you a new name   and identity.   

[hemidave]

   I worked in MA outside on construction for 32 years, and got to hate the winters also. Luckily, we have been spending our retirement year winters in FL .

[Ecode70D]

#1308 Sure is one cool looking car.  Canadian Meteor?

   In those days it looked like people liked to put garbage on the roofs and go for a drive.
These days we don't hardly ever see roof racks. 
 

[RICH MUISE]

probably because 90% of the world has a pickup or suv in their driveway. I figured that pic you were talking about may have been some of my relatives heading south at a border check station. Another sign of how things were in years gone by......"where were you born?" if you answered with an American accent, it was just "have a good trip". and nobody bitched about the profiling back then. Not too long ago, I passed an immigration checkpoint near the White Sands National Monument in NM. Same thing there. American accent, just buzz on thru.

[Ray]

Really cool. I looked at buying a meteor convert in Seattle a while ago. Just a little to rough for me. If you look, based on the driver's side grill on the car two back it is a Meteor as well.

[djfordmanjack]

a little off topic, it appears to be a Canadian built Pontiac second row.
Jay, these look like camping gear on their roof racks. probably on vacation. back then they had those roof tents that would completely fold open on top of car with wooden floorboards and you would have to climb up a ladder to get inside for some sleep.

[Ecode70D]

   Günter I have heard of those roof rigs, but never actually saw one.  I'm assuming that picture was taken in Canada.  If someone was restoring a Meteor, he had better hope that has all of those very rare trim pieces.   

[djfordmanjack]

good morning Jay. it appears as if only 'half' of the pic was shot in Canada  sure looks like border control.

A friend of mine had such a fold out tent on top of his vintage VW van. it was a nice period accessory ( from 1963 I think) and it could be unfolded in a minute or less.

[djfordmanjack]

on a side note ! Can any of our Canadian member please bring some light into why Ford rebadged their cars for the Canadian market as Meteors, even the F100 trucks as Mercury aso? Was that some legal issue ? something internal of the FoMoCo divisions ? Tax or Commonwealth related reasons ?
In Europe the German Fords were badged with their own model names but neither the Ford name nor the blue oval would show up on the cars until 1964. Still American, British or French Fords were at the same time available under the FORD name over here.

[CobraJoe]

on a side note ! Can any of our Canadian member please bring some light into why Ford rebadged their cars for the Canadian market as Meteors, even the F100 trucks as Mercury aso? Was that some legal issue ? something internal of the FoMoCo divisions ? Tax or Commonwealth related reasons ?
In Europe the German Fords were badged with their own model names but neither the Ford name nor the blue oval would show up on the cars until 1964. Still American, British or French Fords were at the same time available under the FORD name over here.

"Meteor was first used by Ford of Canada as the brand name for a distinct line of models introduced in 1949. The standalone Meteor brand name used then-contemporary Ford models, trimmed specifically for the Canadian market with unique grilles, taillights and other trim to marginally differentiate them from the Ford vehicles. This was done to give Canadian Lincoln-Mercury dealerships a product to sell in the low-price field, similar to Ford of Canada dealerships offering the Monarch line of lower-price vehicles which were actually another variation of Ford models with unique trim and model names. This was typical practice in the Canadian market (compared to that of the United States), where smaller towns might have only a Ford dealer or a Lincoln-Mercury dealer, but often not both. The introduction of Meteor also gave Lincoln-Mercury a direct competitor to the GM Pontiac brand in Canada."

[hiball3985]

a little off topic, it appears to be a Canadian built Pontiac second row.
Jay, these look like camping gear on their roof racks. probably on vacation. back then they had those roof tents that would completely fold open on top of car with wooden floorboards and you would have to climb up a ladder to get inside for some sleep.

Like this Anglia?

[hemidave]

NYC

[59meteor]

"Meteor was first used by Ford of Canada as the brand name for a distinct line of models introduced in 1949. The standalone Meteor brand name used then-contemporary Ford models, trimmed specifically for the Canadian market with unique grilles, taillights and other trim to marginally differentiate them from the Ford vehicles. This was done to give Canadian Lincoln-Mercury dealerships a product to sell in the low-price field, similar to Ford of Canada dealerships offering the Monarch line of lower-price vehicles which were actually another variation of Ford models with unique trim and model names. This was typical practice in the Canadian market (compared to that of the United States), where smaller towns might have only a Ford dealer or a Lincoln-Mercury dealer, but often not both. The introduction of Meteor also gave Lincoln-Mercury a direct competitor to the GM Pontiac brand in Canada."

And to add, us Canadians still had regular Fords available, the Meteor and Mercury trucks were built to give our Mercury dealers a slightly fancier, slightly more expensive model compared to the equivalent Ford models. I guess for our larger geographical size, and much smaller population, the market for real Mercurys was fairly low. Both the Meteors and Canadian Fords were built at the Oakville Ontario  Ford plants, other than some lower volume models, like the Skyliner retractable, which was never offered as a Meteor. The Ford trucks covered pretty much the entire Ford spectrum, 1/2, 3/4, and 1 ton trucks, all the way up to tandem axle heavy duty trucks, big rig highway tractors, as well as P series parcel vans and Econoline PUs and vans.