My ‘70 Ford Country squire has arrived, the long version!

I had been looking for a ‘69 or preferably a ‘70 Country Squire for some years now, very early on realising that I wasn’t going to be able to get one in the UK I had made my mind up to import one. A couple of years ago I found a nice light green one and had pretty much decided to get it and after chatting with the guy on eBay was going to call that evening and do the deal, only to discover that it had been sold earlier in the day. I was gutted and then pretty much got it out of my head that I was going to get one until last summer when a mate down the road picked up and offered me a ‘65 Country Sedan, RHD 390 car that was imported new as an embassy car. I didn’t pay a lot for it but it was rough, I was happy to live with the rust as the chassis was solid, but I just couldn’t get it to run right so I decided to sell it on as I had too many other projects on the go but mostly I wanted to get my Hotrod finished as it was so close. So despite the short visit into Wagon ownership I had well and truly got it back in my head that I wanted a 70 Country Squire.
Once I had finished the Hotrod I spotted a ‘70 429 4v though this site on Craigslist, the only problem was that it was brown and not the green I had wanted, but the more I looked at it the more I wanted it. Then in early October I made my mind up that I REALLY wanted it. So contacted the seller and got a phone number, but only ever got to leave a message with irregular replies to my emails I was getting worried that this guy didn’t really want to sell the car to me, possibly as I was a foreign buyer, this went on for several weeks and the more I waited the more I wanted it, perhaps a good sales tactic!
Anyway eventually I was contacted by another guy who gave me another phone number and when I called that evening I got straight through to him. It transpired that he had lent the money to the original guy to buy the car but for one reason or another he couldn’t follow through and although he still wanted the car he had had to it back, which explained the reluctance to follow up my enquires.
This may sound a bit dodgy at this stage but the guy was a bank director and all checked out genuine so I agreed a price along with a new set of tyres and shocks, but this is when the fun really started!
I wanted to transfer a deposit across before paying the full sum to make sure it was going to go through OK but the bank messed up the details. Two weeks later I was fed up of waiting for it to clear so sent a banker’s cheque for the outstanding amount which took a week to arrive, but fees and exchange rates meant I still owed, but decided to finish off the outstanding with Paypal to save any further delays. I gave the shippers the go ahead to collect the car, but despite being told they would collect within 2 – 3 days it was another two weeks before it was collected, just 2 days before the ship it was booked on was due to leave. Sure enough it missed the boat and then also missed the next one because the Bill of Sale had a typo on the VIN number a new one had to be generated and then mailed to Port Customs.
It finally made it onto the 3rd ship on the 31st of December and I collected it from the docks at Southampton on the 21st of January nearly 4 months after deciding that I wanted it. It was a stressful time waiting for it, but in the end it got here.

As for the car, as always when buying something unseen you are taking a chance, but I didn’t have much choice really. I probably paid too much for it but the seller was very patient and always replied promptly to my emails so that was worth something in itself. But there were a few things I wasn’t expecting. There was no gas cap or spare wheel, a worn strut bush, seized door window, non-functioning rear window motor, collapsed wiper switch and the turn signal cam had long given up the ghost but worst of all it was running badly and was running on for almost a minute! What had I done??? Bought another non-runner, not another project I’ve already got enough of them.
Luckily once I had connected up the vacuum advance, unjammed the mechanism and fitted the correct plugs it now runs smooth as silk with about 14 Bar on the compression tester. It is totally rust free and I am happy sort the other few things out, I've already sorted the wipers and am waiting for a new turn signal cam to arrive in the post.
Anyway a couple of pics... one of collecting it from the docks in the fog, the poor car has come from the Mohave Desert to this rubbish weather! and one of me fitting new headlights for driving on the right.

 

Sounds like a winner. Rust free is a very good thing. I suppose the vacuum advance may have come undone in transport.

mike

 

I really hope that you find that it was worth the stress and the wait, enjoy that beautiful Ford wagon!

Cheers!!

 

Funnily enough no, there was short hose looping the two diaphrams on the dizzy, busy doing nothing and a spark plug shoved in the end of the vacuum hose.

But the main coil lead had been disconnected on the ship which we luckily soon found as we had removed the winch from the trailer to give it enough room! We'd have struggled without it running. Later I came to the conclusion it had been disconnected when it was loaded onto the ship in an attempt to stop it running, yes it was running on that badly, after a short time idling on my drive it seemed like a minute before it finally rattled to a stop!

I polished up a small area of paint last night and it gleams so it has survived the sun. But I am not sure I want to polish the whole car yet and remove the whole patina of 40 years in the desert. But it is nice to know Ive got that option.

I am really looking forward to using it but until I get it MOTed (safety inspected) I can do nothing but potter about on it while I wait for the parts to arrive before I can really get stuck into it.

 

Congrats! Glad is arrived safe & sound. Looking forward to your progress.

 

Congratulations on the wagon, I know just what you mean waiting for it
I bought mine on August 2nd, before eveything was paid, shipped, safety inspected, repaired and back to government inspection, waiting for license plate approval it was Januari 2nd so exactly 5 months before it was at my door and now it is in storage for the next 3 months to wait when winter is over! But well worth the waiting when the sun gets back in spring.

 

Blimey, that makes my wait look small. Mind you saying that I hope the MOT and registration goes smoothly.

 

That is one truly beautiful wagon. I am sure you will sort her out. There is nothing too strange about these cars, but there are tricks to making them run right. I would definitely polish the paint. First off, she is rust free, and it sounds like that is the original paint. It will continue to deteriorate if left alone, and if you try to wax her without polishing, you will have a nasty white haze on her that is a bugger to remove. Have fun with her. She'll serve you well for decades!

 

Congratulations, she looks really nice overall. I'm sure once you fix the little annoyances, she will be a great car and a lot of fun.

 

I don't know the cost of body work in the UK, and I don't know what you paid for the car (none of my business), but body work in the States is far from cheap. With a rust-free car, it's likely you've come out ahead compared to buying a less expensive example on which you'd have to spend a significant amount for rust repair. This is especially true for a Squire. Does it ever happen that the rust hasn't crept underneath the woodgrain, necessitating it's replacement?

Just remember that motor has a 10.5:1 compression ratio, so it has an appetite for high octane fuel. Strangely, though, I had a '70 CS with a 429 2V (about the same compression ratio), that ran fine on 93 octane, while my present one has a 390 (only 9.5:1 compression) that took a lot of running and tuning to run comfortably on the same octane gas. I assume the combustion chamber design and the block (thin-wall vs. thick-wall) has a great deal to do with it.

Keep us updated.

 

Thanks for the encouragements.
I do my own bodywork but to be honest I really didn't want to start another project like that. I must admit I did find one spot of rust about 2" round hole in the bottom of the spare wheel well. I am just going to tidy the edges and leave it as a drain hole. Nothing under the wood trim, but it is badly sun faded so I may replace it yet anyway.

I am not sure how I feel about the fuel consumption, at the moment I really don't think Ill care, my last car would only do 14 mpg (UK) on a run, I rarely ever got it up to that anyway and I put thousands of miles on that one so I am sure it will be fine. I do intend to convert it to LPG (which is half the price of petrol here) with an injection system using Megasquirt, Ive Megasquirted a couple of cars (MK1 Escort and Flathead V8), but never LPG so that will be an interesting project on it own.

Finished sorting the wiper switch last night, the original one had collapsed internally and the only replacement I could find was £300 so I wired in one I had on the shelf, but the switching on my switch originally switched the earth and not the power so had to come up with a nifty design that used a change over relay and a diode to make it all work properly. I've incorporated an adjustable intermittent wiper relay and wash/wipe timer too. Funnily though it seems the intermittent wiper switches are easier to get and much cheaper too. Shame mine was the non intermittent type, it would have saved a lot of work.

Today's plans are to get the side lights wired up differently so I can pass the safety test. Unless postie brings the turn signal repair kit, fingers crossed.

I may even polish it

 

Adding delay to these old Fords is a simply plug in, by the way. The relay box goes inline between the new switch and the existing, non-delay, wiring. The car end of the relay system has the same plug as the back of the regular switch, and the switch plugs into the other pigtail. The relay box itself bolts onto the back of the dash, behind the instrument cluster. The same twist switch and relay was used for many years, on many vehicles, including the F-150 pick up trucks well into the 80s. The washers on these cars are meant to operate only when the knob is pushed in. On the delay cars, the relay operates the wipers for a set number of swipes after the knob is released, and without turning the wipers on. It is all controlled by the relay box.

What is wrong with the markers, or do you mean the turn signals themselves?

 

What is wrong with the markers, or do you mean the turn signals themselves?

The turn signals need to be amber, OK with the existing ones, but the side light need to be white, so I have bought headlights with an additional side light fitting. I will clamp the vacuum hose for the safety test so they can be seen as soon as they are turned on. Once its through Ill just put it back to original.

Done one side already, but now the blooming car wont start to test Ive clamped the right vacuum hose. Grr