This is a 1947 Mercury Monarch, wait, 1947 Mercury Monarch? Yes, a Canadian market car. It’s in Pembina, North Dakota; near the Canadian border, so it’s starting to make sense. It’s listed on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $3,500 or make an offer, eh. (sorry, that’s the last one of those, I promise)
The Monarch was a product of Ford of Canada from 1946 to 1957 and then again from 1959 to 1961. It’s not the Mercury Monarch from the mid-1970s to 1980 that we all know and love. I say, that we all know and love.. (crickets) Here’s a fairly interesting piece of trivia, especially for you Ford fans: the Monarch was dropped after the 1957 model year because of the introduction of the Edsel. Then, because of the poor reception that the Edsel got the Monarch was brought back again in 1959. I can’t get over how nice and straight this car looks. As you probably already know, the four-door sedan was the most popular body style for the Monarch in 1947.
This particular car looks as solid and straight as any ice road in Canada. The seller says that this “true barn find” is 99% complete, but they mention that the engine isn’t currently running. There aren’t any photos of the engine, unfortunately, but this car should have had a 239 V8 with around 97 hp compared to the US version that had around 100 hp. These cars would have had a 3-speed manual with a column shifter.
image: http://barnfinds.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/061816-Barn-Finds-1947-Mercury-Monarch-4-630x473.jpgIs this a great car, or what?! Look at the bottoms of the doors, they look like new. This is a great car!
Even the interior looks good, although you can see that a few things will have to be fixed, mostly the “soft goods”; seats, door panels, kick panels, etc. The steering wheel could use a little help so you don’t pinch your fingers every time you turn a corner. And, there’s the all-important heater; pretty handy in Canada, or North Dakota, or almost anywhere at some point during the year. I think this would be a great car to get running and drive it as it looks here. You could do a full restoration for sure, this one is solid enough, at least from looking at the photos, but the cost would soon get you in over your head. I can’t imagine that there is anything mechanical on this car that couldn’t be fixed and a person could just enjoy a super interesting, rare (at least in the US) car. What would you do, would you restore this one or just get it working and drive it as it looks now?
Source: barnfinds.com
