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I thought it was about time to start a thread about my 1974 Ford LTD Country Squire. I bought the car in the middle of June 2019 and it's pretty much been stored at a friend's yard ever since. I have slowly been acquiring bits and pieces to bring the Wagon into acceptable condition... well acceptable enough that I can bring it home and my missus won't kill me, or worse be very cross with me. This thread will not be updated as quickly as some on here as I do tend to take my sweet time getting sh!t stuff done - for example my Rover P6 project has been in progress since 2011 and is almost, but not quite, nowhere near being finished. I saw this wagon listed on Craigslist locally and I just couldn't resist it - I don't know why I was looking for 74 wagons but I am inclined to believe that the demon drink may have been involved. I mean, who among us hasn't yearned for a green/green 70s station wagon with fake wood siding? Throw in a bonus smog exempt 460 ci engine and what's not to love? The fella I bought this from hauled it out of a field where it had sat for many a year - prior to me it has had only two owners the first had the car for 40 years, the second for about 5 years. Pete, the second owner had done a ton of work on the wagon including a NOS gas tank, an engine strip and refresh, new carb, new radiator, new distributor, new calipers and brakes all round to name just a few of the jobs he had done. He also made some "improvements" that I am not a big fan of - mainly the wheels... the plan is to go back to steels painted in the same delightful green with dog dish hubcaps. The interior was pretty thrashed - Pete had taken out the original front seats and replaced them with seats from a 75 LTD. So wrong colour, and as a bonus the power seat switch works just not the way you expect... if you push it for up it goes back, back goes down, and so on. Fortunately he kept the original seats and they are at the trimmers at the moment - $700 to get both redone in an almost identical to the original green vinyl. If it's close I will leave it be, if not I already had some vinyl paint custom matched to the interior. The dash pad was in pretty poor condition but, at $160 to redo I was happy enough, even though we had to put a seam in to get the vinyl to conform to all the contours. I was able to buy a new carpet in Jade green for a reasonable $200 ish. The plan is to get the new seats back from the trimmer, remove the old seats and carpets, swap in the new stuff and then move on to a few other bits and pieces like getting all the windows and door locks working. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Okay... struggling to add pictures here - I drag and drop and they show until I post - thoughts anyone? ![]() ![]() |
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Last Edit: Dec 20, 2023 17:39:56 GMT by wildrover
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I think people have issues adding photos in the first post
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I think people have issues adding photos in the first post Thanks for the insight... let's see if it work ![]() s in this post Sadly, the answer is still no - it seems that you are all to be deprived of pictures of this beautiful green wagon...........  ![]() |
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Last Edit: Nov 17, 2019 8:28:11 GMT by wildrover
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Nov 17, 2019 18:15:03 GMT
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'80 s1 924 turbo..hibernating
'80 golf gli cabriolet...doing impression of a skip
'97 pug 106 commuter...continuing cheapness making me smile!
firm believer in the k.i.s.s and f.i.s.h principles.
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Nov 17, 2019 20:56:51 GMT
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Last Edit: Nov 17, 2019 20:57:31 GMT by wildrover
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Nov 17, 2019 20:59:36 GMT
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 This picture gives you a rough idea of how the interior, and the dash pad in particular, has fared under the harsh California sun... in short, not well. The dash pad has since been recovered and I will dig out a picture of it in all it's splendor - the seats are still rough, to say the least. I dropped by to see Alex, my trimmer, yesterday - it seems however, that in the five weeks since I dropped off the driver's seat that he has done the sum total of sweet FA... I am a little disappointed but not overly so because I like him, and he does good work at a reasonable price... eventually. Alex has asked me to bring the passenger seat to him next week - he says he has spoken to his supplier and they are certain they can supply a very close match to the original vinyl and colour - he also says he will complete the job in a couple of weeks. The couple of weeks part remains to be seen, but ya know, I do like him... and I am breaking him in gently as I would like to see his reaction when I ask him to recreate the box pleat interior of my Rover in leather.  |
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Nov 22, 2019 20:29:51 GMT
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Its hoooge!
And very very green.
Wheels are a tragedy so its great to read they are not staying.
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Nov 22, 2019 20:56:05 GMT
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There is SO much about that Station Wagon that I love. Glad I am not trying to park it at my work though...
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Nov 22, 2019 21:37:33 GMT
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good grief....over there that would get a post code rather than a registration number!! very nice but when do we get a little rover action?
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'80 s1 924 turbo..hibernating
'80 golf gli cabriolet...doing impression of a skip
'97 pug 106 commuter...continuing cheapness making me smile!
firm believer in the k.i.s.s and f.i.s.h principles.
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Nov 22, 2019 21:51:01 GMT
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Every time i see a P6 it just makes the want worse. Such a lovely looking car and good value too.
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Nov 22, 2019 22:02:09 GMT
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Every time i see a P6 it just makes the want worse. Such a lovely looking car and good value too. just reminds me of my grandad and his brown 3500 , blasting around with him when i was learning , we had so much fun (and i was less scary than him driving!) |
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'80 s1 924 turbo..hibernating
'80 golf gli cabriolet...doing impression of a skip
'97 pug 106 commuter...continuing cheapness making me smile!
firm believer in the k.i.s.s and f.i.s.h principles.
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Nov 22, 2019 22:30:11 GMT
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good grief....over there that would get a post code rather than a registration number!! very nice but when do we get a little rover action? Did my missus put you up to asking that question... To my shame the Rover has become a looooooooong term project. My ownership of both these very different cars has a story and a justifiable reason - at least in my mind they do. Just prior to departing that green and pleasant land one of my daily drivers was a P6 2200 TC that I got from a Kiwi for a hundred quid - Mexico Brown and full of awesome. My last contact with the Met was as a result of this very car - is there a statute of limitations on producers?  The wagon... as with the purchase of the wagon, the idea behind owning one may have (definitely was) been fueled by several pints of shandy - it was a dark and stormy night somewhere in northwest London (Finchley actually) and at an undisclosed pub I spent my last evening having a glass of sherry or two wiv my mates - bolstered by the booze I declared that as soon as I landed in California I would seek out and purchase a Brady Bunch style wagon, complete with the fake wood trim... less than I week later I had bought a 78 Chrysler Le Baron station wagon (identical to the one in this picture)* balls can't get the picture to load... ![]() ![]() I am fairly sure that the law requires you to carry through on drunken pub originated promises, so I did. It was a good car, but not the full size monster I really wanted - I can't remember if it had a 318 or a 360 but it was somewhat unimpressive - although it was a fabulous road trip car which is what I used it for - all for under a grand. The only trouble it gave me was when the throttle stuck wide open in San Francisco... not good. Anyhoo, time moved on and the wagon went, it was replaced by an immaculate 77 Lincoln Town Car - young and foolish as I was I let that get towed away because I had bought a 94 Jeep Wrangler - I still have the Wrangler Fast forward a decade or two and a half and the Rover is slowly being worked on - and I do mean slowly - I wanted to scratch the Wagon itch, so with the perfect storm of alcohol, access to a computer and a lack of adult supervision it led to the purchase of the LTD. Currently it lives in my mate's work yard with a 62 Bel Air, a 66 Le Mans with an LS swap, a 70 Nova, a 90s Corvette and soon a 65 Olds 442 clone. I will include snippets of the Rover and the Wagon to try and keep some content flowing. |
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Last Edit: Nov 23, 2019 7:35:54 GMT by wildrover
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Nov 22, 2019 22:46:07 GMT
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 Some might think this is a face only a mother could love... |
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Nov 22, 2019 23:05:04 GMT
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 This is the P6 as I bought it... it seems that the fire is supposed to remain inside the engine, unfortunately the car must have missed that memo. Just prior to making the 500 ish mile journey to buy the car I got a sheepish call from the seller... it seems he had started the engine just to get it ready for me unfortunately a stuck float caused one of the carbs to overflow and well, ya know, gasoline on hot manifold = a call to the fire dept. I think the fire had been put out before the Santa Cruz FD showed up, but not wanting to waste an outing they got their hoses out (ooh er missus) and doused the car, then for good measure they doused it again - of course to be certain they doused it once more for luck. This seemed like a prime moment to pull out of the deal, so obviously I simply renegotiated the price - so for about $600 I bought a completely useless car! It has since been thoroughly stripped and the engine pulled - in fact I was just with Joe my engine builder today as some new problems have arisen - all in the name of performance and sort of to be expected. More later but here is a brief list of engine work to date: Block machined and decked, custom forged aluminium pistons and rings with forged rods, everything balanced and blueprinted, heads have been ported, flowed and polished, custom cam with hydraulic roller lifters, yella terra roller rockers, Edlebrock performer intake, custom stainless headers (not yet done), high volume oil pump - it will have a 4 speed lock up autobox ZF4HP22 with a custom torque convertor with a higher stall - the torque convertor has been done and I have the trans but it needs to be rebuilt and modified for the P6 - work will be done by Art Carr who is quite famous for his work with performance transmissions (at least he is here). Also I am swapping the standard rover diff for an LSD from an XJS. |
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Last Edit: Jan 20, 2020 3:15:39 GMT by wildrover
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 My first wagon (or one very like it) |
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Last Edit: Nov 23, 2019 7:37:57 GMT by wildrover
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Wheels are a tragedy so its great to read they are not staying. They really are aren't they? The thing is that they have good tires on them so at least for now they are functional. Unfortunately Pete threw out all the original steel wheels except the spare and at between $50 and $90 per wheel plus new rubber it's not going to be a cheap fix. At least I can sell the Mustang wheels once I have some replacements. I have also opted for dog dish hub caps instead of the full wheel cover - even though the Country Squire is the luxury version of the wagon I like the idea of poverty spec steelies with the center cap - I think body colour wheels will look great. |
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Last Edit: Nov 23, 2019 7:43:41 GMT by wildrover
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![]() ![]() About six weeks ago, I dropped the driver's seat with Alex the trimmer - both front seats were furked a little rough. Not having heard from him I went to see him to discover he had done nothing for over five weeks. I like Alex so I refrained from burning his shop down. A week later he sent me a text asking me to bring the passenger seat to him so I did - luckily when he sent the text I was at my mate's yard so I didn't need to make a special trip. Given that last week was the Thanksgiving holiday I was quite surprised to get a text from Alex along with this picture... ![]() He could have painte ![]() d the frames, but asid ![]() e from that minor detail that I will take care of I am quite pleased. Right - getting a bit pee'd off now - I post with pictures, they show in the draft and as soon as I publish they disappear - however see following posts for pictures... for some reason they show up now... |
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Last Edit: Dec 3, 2019 23:36:35 GMT by wildrover
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Last Edit: Dec 3, 2019 18:18:52 GMT by wildrover
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