1971 Ford Country Squire

1971 Ford LTD Country Squire Wagon for sale on BaT Auctions - ending July 24 (Lot #79,506) | Bring a Trailer

 

Must have been a special order, fairly well equipped but no air conditioning

 

Another in need of whitewalls. And did someone paint the trim surrounding the woodgrain silver?

 

No, it's just oddly scuffed up. Almost like someone went over it with steel wool or something.




You can see it reflecting the ground and the surrounding area in this shot...

 

I don't know enough about these to know - I would assume it has chrome trim around the woodgrain - but is it stainless? Aluminum? If it's stainless it's kind of lazy to not have that buffed out.

 

It looks like someone steel wooled the wrap off the trim rails. They should be a wood toned color to offset the dinoc on the car, which could probably use replacing as well. The color of the trim should be more in keeping with the tailgate trim.

 

Ahhhh, of course! Duhhhhh! I'm still curious though, is the trim underneath the wrap chrome or stainless?

 

Stainless.

 

Country Squires had a blond woodgrain trim surrounding the darker di-noc. It was a printed film with a clear protective layer. The clear inevitably started to delaminate and the printing faded. Many folks just painted them tan when they started to look shabby. There is a company in CA that will restore the trim to look new, but it’s not cheap. I found a 3M vinyl product that looked similar and recovered the trim on my ‘72 CS and was very time consuming.
The earlier Squire trim was fiberglass and had some very interesting designs - like the ‘64. The Mercury wagons are easier to restore as they have bright stainless trim surrounds.

 

That’s true. There were years where Mercury did a chrome, rail mix. Not really till about ‘67 it was all chrome/stainless rails. Think ‘66 was the last year for the wrap rail combo on a Colony Park.

 

You are correct, Bill. I had a '67 Colony and that's the way it was.

 

Should look like this.

 

Yeah, I was just absent-minded and completely forgot. Chalk it up to being a Mopar guy.

 

You’re forgiven. We all make mistakes in life. Lol. Oddly enough I’ve always been a FoMoCo guy but really love those ‘72-78 Town and Country wagons. Many of them are very nicely optioned out as well.

 

Mopar or no car! Or otherwise known as: Mopar or forgetfulness-about-the-wrap-on-trim-surrounding-woodgrain-on-Ford car.

For years I used to be a Mopar ONLY guy, but in recent years I have developed more of a respect and inclusion of other makes and models too. Everything from AMC to Volvo. So, sometimes the little glaringly obvious things don't always jump out at me right away, even if I know about it (like the trim being wrapped and not just stainless steel on these models).

I'm still very much a Mopar guy, but the older all these cars get, the more I have a respect for them, and the more I have a sense of stewardship in wanting to prevent these majestic old iron brutes from going to the scrapyard (not in regards to the car above, but just in general). Regardless of it being a Ford, GM or other make. So it's given me more of an appreciation for other old cars, because they were all cool in their own way and are worth saving and admiring. I think there's always room for appreciation, even if you have an allegiance to a one of the Big Three's brands.

With that said, I have always admired some of the Ford wagons from the 60s and early 70s, and I've always appreciated the styling of the 1971-'72 Country Squire in particular, as well as the 1967 variant. They're cool cars.