1978 Mercury Zephyr

RobJam73 · Sep 9, 2015

RobJam73 submitted a new Garage Item:

1978 Mercury Zephyr

1978 Mercury Zephyr Villager station wagon. Original 302-2V car with a transplanted 5.0 HO (302 4V) from a 1985 Mustang. PS, PB, dual exhaust w/crossover, 600 Holley, C4 automatic, etc.

Kind of a bare bones car (bench seat, vinyl interior, no A/C, no power accessories) but it was a great car all the same. Totally reliable, fast and fun to drive. Wish I had pics of it with the 15" turbine-style aluminum wheels & Michelins I added (from a late-'80s Mustang GT) or the cool body-colour wheels with rings & centre-caps that it came with. However, I never took any pics of it then.

I bought the Zephyr from the original owner in late 2002 (he swapped in the '85 engine when the original one died). I then sold it upon moving to England in October 2003. After returning to Canada in January 2005 I managed to buy back the Zephyr. It had been used as a work vehicle and was a little worse for the wear but still OK overall. I cleaned it up, fixed a few things and used it as a daily driver for a year.

By mid-2006 it was getting tired and needed work: suspension/steering, paint, headliner, engine freshening, brakes.

Instead of fixing it up like I could have, I foolishly picked up a 2005 Chrysler Sebring (BIG mistake) for ridiculous monthly payments and sold the Zephyr - these pics are from just before I sold it. By that time the paint was fading and the interior was getting a bit rough, especially the headliner which was sagging pretty bad, and the master cylinder was toast.

However, had I been smarter at the time, I would have figured out I could fix EVERYTHING on the Zephyr (and improve some things too) for less than 1 year of payments on the Sebring. But the Sebring was a "shinier object" back then. Lesson learned... I dumped the Sebring in 2009 and never looked back.

Gotta say: in truth I don't own the Zephyr car any more but it's the last *interesting* station wagon I owned. (My actual last wagon was a 1987 Toyota Camry - a super reliable & economical little car but not really interesting or unique in any way.)

Also gotta say I don't own any wagons right now but I'm looking to rectify that ASAP!
Click to expand...

Read more about this garage item here...

Log in or Sign up

1978 Mercury Zephyr

RobJam73 New Member

Share This Page

Log in or Sign up

Useful Searches

1978 Mercury Zephyr

RobJam73 New Member

Share This Page