1973 Ford

Hillbilly, KK's right. That picture of the green one is a '74. I'm almost positive.

 

73 "and a half" LTD Wagon. Added mid-year. Everything a Country Squire had except the wood. Country Sedans were trimmed as "Galaxie 500's" and Ranch Wagons were "Custom 500's".

 

The green one is mine. It was assembled on January 11th 1973 at the Ford Assembly plant in Norfolk VA.

 

Hillbilly, is your's a Country Sedan or an LTD? I thought they didn't start calling it the LTD until 1975. Your's is very nice. How long have you had it?

 

It's a Country Sedan, they were sold through 1974, it was in the Galaxie 500 trim level. I've had this one since 2008.

 

How reliable is Hagerty in decoding a VIN?
I was looking to try to find some kind of valuation on this wagon, and when I put the VIN in, the Hagerty website said it was...

1973 LTD Country squire 4-door station wagon, 8-cyl, 400cid/163hp 2bbl.

Aaaaaaand...FIGHT!

 

OK, so if the VIN decodes as a 'LTD Country Squire', that just means that when they put through the production order on the assembly line, it goes down the line as 'LTD grade' (meaning LTD front end and LTD interior), but somewhere in there, there would be a code for 'wood grain delete'. That would be how they do it.

Previous to the 73 1/2 LTD wagon, there was no 'wood grain delete' on the Country Squire. It was either a Country Squire or a Country Sedan, or a Ranch Wagon.

I'm amazed that I didn't know about the 'LTD wagon' until now.

 

73 wagon update

Well,

I got a phone call from my mechanic tonight...

He got a call last night that his shop was on fire. On fire with my wagon in it...

It has been damaged.

It does run, and drive but now it needs a whole lot of cosmetic restoration. :banghead3:

Now I have to decide if I really want to put in the money and work that it needs at this point, or if I should just try to get as much as I can for it.

 

Nice find! Welcome to the Country Sedan family.

 

That sure is a beautiful wagon. I am guessing it does not have insurance on it yet. Does the shop's insurance cover the damage? It does not look like there is a lot of damage beyond the plastic pieces such as the griil. Fkrtunaty those are common to all body styles. Good luck with the old girl. Been a bad month for old wagons around here!

 

Sorry to hear this, although based on that photo the damage doesn't look like it is terminal. Will insurance be able to compensate you?
Pete

 

Unfortunately, his insurance is saying that the car would not be covered under his policy because it is a separately insurable item, and I did not have the car covered under my insurance since it was inoperable until the work was completed.

Now, I have to look at whether it is worth it to me to try to do the work it needs, or just sell it off as is.

I'm not in for too much $$ right now, but in addition to all the other things I was going to have done it will also need
New front clip
Lots of new trim pieces
Complete paint job

I'm looking at having to spend at least another $2k-$3k. With all that, my investment into the car will be close to $5,000.
Even with a new paint job, there is the issue of the existing rust in the spare tire area and the rear quarter panels. Painting over that seems silly, but I can't afford to do the rust repair work.

Based on similar Ford wagons I've seen on here recently, I think I would be hard pressed to make any kind of profit after that, so I really don't know what I should do at this point. It is definitely saveable, but I'm trying to decide if I can afford to do so, or if I will have to sell it off and hope the derby crowd doesn't get it.

 

Oh man I feel for you. hoping some how it all works out in the end.

 

Sorry to hear about that.

 

Since the front clip is the most badly damaged, you might try finding a parts car with a good front clip on it. Probably cheaper than buying the parts. The front clip is the same for all the body styles, so finding a decent donor should not be too outrageous. The good thing is the front clip is all bolt on bits. After you keep what you want, you can recoup all or a good part of the cost of the donor by selling off the rest of the pieces that are good and scrapping the remainder. You may even turn a profit on the donor to help offset the cost of the full repaint. By using a donor car, you would get all the trim and clips, since yours is an LTD, not Country Squire. That works in your favour here. It would be a shame to lose such a great CSR, and one that is not commonly seen.