Saturday, February 11, 2017

1980 Mercury Bobcat


Here’s a 1980 Mercury Bobcat, a Ford Pinto with chrome, pretty much. This one looks pretty good other than that rust starting to appear on the bottom of the driver’s door. This Bobcat is on Craigslist with an asking price of $2,450 and it’s located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.



This side looks much better! The Bobcat was Mercury’s first compact car first appearing in the US in 1975 and ending with the 1980 model year. The odometer shows 53,481 miles, could that be true?


Bumper bummer, it looks like someone either used it as a springboard or someone backed into something. Maybe that panel can be pushed back into place. Those are pretty sexy bumpers, no? Yeah, you’re right; no. This is a one-owner car according to the seller and it looks pretty good other than that rust on the driver’s side door.
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Those seats! Nice, very nice. The automatic floor shifter! Not as nice. In a car with as few horsepower as this one (88), it’s always nice to be able shift through that limited power by yourself. Other than that, things look great on the interior. The back seats are even nicer than the front seats are, probably because they’re hard to get in to and hard to fit in to if you’re older than a teenager. There are no engine photos, but this car should have Ford’s 140 cubic-inch, 2.3L inline-four with 88 hp. If a person were completing their Mercury Bobcat collection and looking for a 1980 model to top it off, this looks like a good one!

Source: barnfinds.com

1971 Mercury Comet


We’ve seen a few Pintos and Vegas here lately, but not nearly enough Comets! Here’s a fantastic-looking fancy Maverick, it’s a 1971 Mercury Comet. This solid beauty was sent in by Barn Finds reader Pat L and it’s on Craigslist with a healthy asking price of $3,700.



This new Comet design was quite different than the previous generation cars, to say the least. The 1971-1977 Comet was based on the Ford Maverick and it’s easy to see the resemblance. This is the last-generation for the Comet as the Mercury Zephyr followed in 1978.


The photos in this listing aren’t the best, with only two full exterior photos, one passenger-side interior photo, and no engine photos. But, Barn Finds reader AMCSTEVE has a good theory as to why a lot of sellers don’t provide a full bank of nice photos: then they can weed out the tire-kickers and field actual phone calls (the original function of the ancestor to your $120 a month smart phone) from seriously interested folks. That makes total sense to me, sorry for always bringing up the quality, or lack thereof, with the photos in ads.


The interior looks solid with just that one odd wear spot on the upper-passenger seat back and some carpet wear. The seller says that it has a, “new motor, 6 cylinder, automatic transmission, new tires, original condition.” I’m not sure if that means that it has a new transmission or the “new” parts are the engine and tires? You’ll have to take AMCSTEVE’s advice and give them a call to find out! This really does look like a nice, solid ’71 Comet, most of them aren’t in this fine condition so many decades after leaving the factory. It isn’t a Comet GT, but it would be a fun, weekend cruiser for local car shows. Are there any fans of this era of Comet out there?

Source: barnfinds.com

1953 Mercury Monterey


Described as a “background car” for the upcoming movie “The Fate of The Furious”, this 1953 Mercury Monterey looks clean, and is a driver, looking to need little. With little information, it would be cool to purchase this one before the movie debuted so you could have a “famous” car so to speak. This possible movie star is offered at $6,800. Find it here on craigslist out of Chatsworth, California. Thanks goes out to TireFriar for the submission!


Even if the movie claim isn’t true, this is still a nice Merc. Being a 53, this Monterey is powered by a 255 cubic inch flathead V8, with a 3 speed column shifted manual. There are no engine bay photos, but this one has upgraded wiring, and has been converted to 12 volt. Also this Monterey flaunts a new interior and new tires. The Paint is beautiful, and the chrome looks nice as well, though the front bumper has a ding, and is missing 1953 spec bumper trim. Otherwise, this looks like a great cruiser that is road ready. Will you own this 1953 Mercury before “The Fate of the Furious” comes out?

Source: barnfinds.com