In his heavily anthologized short story titled “The Swimmer,” John Cheever wrote that his drunken protagonist Neddy Merrill’s “life was not confining.” Fortunately for me, that’s all I have in common with old Ned; however, this one similarity has led to my having few regrets, one being that my maternal grandfather died two days before my high school graduation in 1995. Therefore, my memories of him are refracted through the lens of a moody teenage boy rather than an adult who could really appreciate having him around. His story lives on, however, through narratives told by my parents and the artifacts he left behind, such as his old watches that I still wear regularly. One tale involves my sweet-talking father’s turning him into a Ford man.
Grandpa Vic had an interesting childhood. His mother and father divorced when he was fairly young, and he often was shuttled out to New York to live with his aunt and uncle. There, he was able to visit the 1939/40 New York World’s Fair and other sites on the eastern seaboard. Later, he joined the Navy during World War II and spent time…somewhere on a ship. He never talked about his experiences aside from mentioning being wet and frozen one night with a future lifelong Navy buddy rolling on waves I wouldn’t believe.
His father, my great grandpa (also named Victor), remarried a woman 20 years his junior in Indiana before dying in the street of a heart attack at 41 years of age in 1949. He was baptized just before his death by a kindly police officer before being delivered back home for burial. A crack representative of the local cemetery managed to sell my 22-year-old grandpa, who already had four kids, eight burial plots. Although one could argue that this gentleman took advantage of Victor at a stressful point in his young life, he in essence ensured that I would have an eternal home near my parents, grandparents, and Great-Grandpa Vic.
The year after Great Grandpa passed away, my mom, the youngest of Grandpa’s kids, was born. She met my dad when she was fifteen and married him after they graduated from college. Grandpa and his son-in-law were, on the surface, little alike. Grandpa was an imposing six-feet-four inches tall with a temper to match. My dad is a charming five-foot-seven wearing shoes. Both are the two loudest men I’ve ever met. My grandpa would whistle in his house with the windows and doors closed, and I could hear him a block away. I often have to tell my dad to whisper in restaurants.
I stand in between at six-feet even, and I’m the third loudest man I’ve ever met. I’ve inherited a little of the temper and a little of the charm, but both are dulled somewhat by a personality that prompted one of my coworkers to ask me, with sincerity, if I was a nihilist.
My grandpa adored my dad and trusted him more than he trusted anyone; after all, Dad is a charmer. One of his bosses once wrote that my dad could charm a bird out of a tree, although I don’t know why one would want to do that. Regardless, we all grew up in the same city, a city that is home to a Chevrolet (now GM Powertrain) plant. Therefore, like many residents, my grandpa was always a GM guy.
He drove Bel Airs, Impalas, and Catalinas mostly, trading them in regularly, his job as a newspaper ad salesman apparently affording him the wherewithal to do so. In 1968 or 1969, for some reason, Grandpa decided to buy a Buick Skylark. After driving it for three weeks and finding it cramped and sluggish, he took it back to the dealer to trade it in on a LeSabre.
The dealer evidently balked, protesting that my grandpa would take a bath on the trade in. Vic, his temper certainly not getting the better of him, drove the Skylark straight on down to the Ford dealer and traded it in on a new green 1969 XL two-door hardtop with a black vinyl top (390-powered, according to my dad).
My dad, pictured above, had certainly more than a little to do with this. After all, to date, he’s owned seven Mustangs, two Escapes, three Thunderbirds, a Pinto, a Gran Torino Elite, and a Galaxie convertible. His Bronco Sport is scheduled to be built this week. He’s owned exactly two cars that weren’t Fords: one was given to him by his parents and one was a mistake (as he might say).
Grandpa’s life with Fords was, on the other hand, comparatively short-lived. Unfortunately for my dad and his plans to indoctrinate another family member into the Church of the Blue Oval, Grandpa’s string of Fords, in addition to his XL, merely included a couple LTDs and a Pinto Wagon, of all things, during the energy crisis. Early ’70s Fords, as you may have heard, had a teensy problem with early-onset rust in salty climes such as our own, and I remember my grandpa having little good to say about any of them. Needless to say, by the time I rode next to him on the front seat, he was retired due to a heart attack of his own in his forties, and he rolled in a ’77 LeSabre similar to the one pictured above. Looks like he got that LeSabre after all, eight years later.
Of my grandpa’s short dalliance with Fords, my favorite (excepting my Mustang) was the ’69. Therefore, when I saw this LTD at the 2016 Motor Muster in Dearborn, I took several pictures. To be honest, I hadn’t seen any pictures of Grandpa’s car since I looked through his old slides after he passed away, and my memory failed me in thinking his XL was actually an LTD. Either way, the 1969 LTD was quite handsome; I certainly prefer it to the 1971 and 1972 LTDs he would later own.
The vinyl-covered hardtop roof was LTD specific, and Ford sold a lot of this model in 1969. The standard engine was the 302, but one could order engines as large as a 429 (two or four barrel).
The 1969 model year introduced this “flight cockpit” instrument panel that gave passengers very little to do, which may be for the better.
As you can see, it’s pretty plain over there on the passenger side.
Even from the rear, the ’69 LTD looks good; I can see why my grandpa switched to Ford this year. Owning both Fords and Buicks, I don’t play favorites, but the Ford is, in my opinion, as attractive as a big Buick for 1969.
It’s no breakthrough to say that loving cars sometimes transcends a mere love of machinery, though that is enough for me most of the time. Seeing a ’69 LTD sitting around in my photo files makes me wish that Grandpa Vic would have lived long enough for us to make fun of stuff together. Sure, he introduced me to coffee when I was a nervous, jittery eight year old and taught me that people with large vocabularies can still use curse words with merry abandon. He listened to Motley Crue when he was in his sixties and yelled at people with that booming voice from his moving car when they drove like idiots (imagining the Doppler effect makes me laugh every time). But I don’t think I was quite ready for him yet. He certainly disparaged Fords often enough for me to remember it, although my mom says that he would have loved my ’63 T-Bird (He always wanted a T-Bird but thought they were too expensive.). Needless to say, he’s left me with his general attitude about what other people think; in other words, he’d be sorely disappointed if I gave a crap what he thought of it. I miss you, Vic!
This whole thing was just great.
I was thinking only yesterday how the ’69 (and related ’70) full-size Fords have immense appeal to me, giving away little or nothing in style to their GM counterparts.
Loudness also runs in my family and was a source of much irritation and embarrassment for me, but the upside was the acquisition of a thicker skin and level of tolerance in this quality in other people. I’m also built not like my dad, who was probably about the same height as yours, but like my maternal grandfather – I stood about half a head taller than Dad.
How wonderful for you to have these pictures and items as family treasures. Great tribute.
Thanks Joe!
MY old man was always a Ford man, When I was 16 he bought a new 69 LTD Brougham Candy Apple Red with a 390 in it. Sweet car, beat the crap out of it raced everyone who dared me. No race car but it could light them up. Plush interior that went well with my girlfriends. Then in 1972 he traded it in for a White LTD with a plain interior. WE humiliated him about it and today a feel guilty about how hard we rode him! Ah the memories……
It was great to read about your grandfather. I often wish I had gotten to grow up around a grandfather – one lived 600 miles away and the other died before I was born, so having a grandfather as part of your everyday life would have been good. And I found it funny that it was a 69 LTD that made you think of him, because I had the same reaction to another 69 LTD found at a show, only with my father.
A 69 LTD sedan in this exact color was owned by our family’s longtime property and auto insurance agent. I still remember when he first drove to our house around maybe 1970 or so to get my mother’s signature on some papers. I recall thinking at the time that this was a very uncommon color on those cars, but one I liked a lot.
Yes, the rust. This was a great car to own for the first year or two, but after that it was bound to start looking really ratty. The only person I ever knew who owned one long term was another family friend who bought a brand new Galaxie 500 convertible that year. He eventually spent a fortune in the mid to late 70s to have the body restored because he really liked the car.
It is a great color, and one they used in advertising, too. I have a couple two-pagers with this car featured.
I have a 69 ltd in my garage. My father bought it new in 1969. I bought it from him in 1985. They only used it on vacation for the most part. Always garaged. It has 44,000 miles on it today. I still have the original wheels and deluxe covers. I wanted to upgrade to radial tires from bias ply. Sales guy sold me these 20 inch rims 4 for the price of one. Still gets a lot of positive comments. And reminiscing from folks who new of similar 60’s cars.
The car looks great Richard, I hope you understand those 20″ wheels & tires are unsafe .
-Nate
Aaron, this is a fantastic read about your grandfather. Grandfathers are often amazing people and I sorely miss mine who died at 96 in July 2020.
Like your grandfather, mine was also a die-hard Chevrolet man, but he did take a brief diversion to Ford (and Chrysler) after an underwhelming and unimpressive ’77 Impala. He did return to GM one last time, purchasing an ’07 Equinox.
He, also, was incapable of being quiet (and my wife says I cannot whisper to save my life). Perhaps it was the era they grew up? It appears they were born within two years of each other.
Thanks Jason…interesting theory on the volume of voices. My other grandpa didn’t say much, although he was born way back in 1910. He was extremely hard of hearing though, so I think that kept him from chiming in as much as he might have.
I didn’t like these 1969 Fords. The reason was, I thought they looked so good, such a sporty look on a full size car. I thought Ford had really nailed it, and I had it in me that I didn’t want them to succeed. This look had it all going on, a nice grille, hidden headlights, a sloped back end, an aircraft style dash. To me, this was the look that Ford could use to become number one all over again. As much as I didn’t want to like it, I had to respect it.
Great story about your granddad. My father’s dad lived in Nova Scotia, so I got to see him rarely, and when I did, I found him hard to understand because of his east coast accent, and he may have been missing a few teeth. I never knew my Mom’s dad, he passed away before I was born. He got injured doing some work in his plumbing contracting business, never got it seen to, and died from the infection.
I think you might be right about Ford’s grabbing number one again – Didn’t they take over the top selling brand crown with the similar 1970 models? If I’m remembering right, GM might have had a strike that year.
The web says there was a strike at GM of 136 days that year, stretching into 1970. It took place at the Fisher Body plant in Flint. It was one of the longest strikes ever at GM, according to the writeup I found.
Interesting.
There was a strike at GM in 1970. An Army buddy showed up with a new Caprice at Ft. Belvior, Va in May 1970.
There was indeed a strike, and it delayed the intro of the ’70 Camaro
I was very impressed with a college friends parents 1965 LTD. Was as plush inside as a Lincoln, with speakers in the rear sail panels, lights everywhere and high quality brocade upholstery. With this memory in mind I was excited when my father announced he would be buying a 1969 LTD, primarily because my mother loved all the room on the passenger side. He also liked the weird radio placement on the far left of the dash, so no one could fool with it when he was driving.
I was quite disappointed when it came, as the interior had been decontented to Galaxie 500 levels. Turns out that one had to opt for the Brougham interior to get an interior similar to one previously. The 390 was fairly responsive though and it gave good service. Was traded on a 1975 LTD Landau, which wasn’t nearly as reliable. It’s 400 engine was a slug that got maybe 10 mpg. It’s silver paint also faded to crap in three years.
I’d love a ’65 4-door hardtop LTD like they used in the ads.
g5 ltd & 66 galaxie are couple i owned and miss—-
Actually, starting in mid-69, there were three LTD interior levels to choose from.
The car pictured above has the Galaxie 500 grade interior, which Ford referred to as the LTD Standard.
The formerly standard level, which wasn’t Brougham, was now termed “Luxury Trim Option”, pictured below. Or, you could move up to the Brougham, which in itself was not yet the ultimate. THAT required you opt for a) Twin Comfort Lounge Seats
b)a passenger recliner, c)6 way-power
Then this
Farther up the ladder
The big Kahuna
Lovely story, thank you, the eight cemetery plots is familiar. My father in law was a thrifty individual who believed in the bulk discount. Why buy one bag of sugar when you can buy 12 at a per-unit discount? He’d buy soap in crates of 500 bars.
Always planning ahead, he prepaid his own funeral expenses long before they were needed. One day, about 34 years ago he announced he’d bought burial plots at the local cemetery. True to form, he didn’t buy just 1 or 2, he spent $25,000 and bought a dozen. The cemetery sales person must have offered quite the bulk discount. His sensible wife gave him grief for that one.
At present my wife and I are the proud owners of ten vacant plots. I’d like to park a car or grow vegetables on this piece of real estate but apparently the cemetery has rules against it.
You’re welcome! I’m glad we’re not the only ones who got the family deal. Unfortunately, our cemetery (sounds weird to say) was the victim of some embezzlement over the course of the last decade or two, so it’s not maintained as well as it used to be.
My Dad had a pea-green ’69 Galaxie 4 dr hardtop with 390 as a Bethlehem Steel company car that would really smoke the crappy bias-ply rear tires. I liked it’s looks a lot. Even though he’d traded in a ’67 Fury III 318 hardtop that liked even better, the ’69 and ’70 big Fords are the only ones I liked after ’64, but they sure handled poorly compared to the Mopars.
My T-Bird with the 390 would light up the tires…until I got new tires. Now they’ll barely squeak. 🙂
This was a great post Aaron. What a great read with my coffee this morning.
I never knew either of my grandfathers, because they both died before I was born, but I would have loved to hear their stories. My Mom’s dad was a fireman for the B&O Railroad who had just passed his test to become an engineer, and was on his last trip in that role when his train slammed into a hand car that was inadvertently left on the track in the path of his train. They could not stop in time, and he was killed in the crash. My Dad’s dad was a bus driver for the Baltimore Transit Company, but passed away before I was born. The stories these guys could have told to a young car/train/plane geek like me….
…but on my Dad’s side, that role was filled by my Great Uncle. Both he and my Dad were die hard GM guys, but my Dad briefly influenced my great uncle to by a Ford product.
I’ve told this story before here, but my great uncle always wanted to upstage my father when ever Dad bought a new car. Dad gets and Impala; Uncle Harold gets a Olds a month or two later. Dad gets a newer Impala; Uncle Harold goes out and buys a Buick.
So Dad says, “I’ll fix him!” He bought a ’73 LTD in gold with a brown vinyl top. “He’ll NEVER buy a Ford.”
Uncle Harold then purchased this…. (not this exact car… ok, maybe… this was shot in Israel by Yohai71 a couple of years ago):
Oh… it was such a great story about your grandfather, Aaron, that I forgot to comment on the subject car.
The ’69 LTD, and its sportier XL cousin, were probably my favorite Ford of the era. I loved the details on these, and would have loved to have had one instead my hand-me-down-but-well-loved ’73 LTD.
These coupes had style for days. Although I’d love a ’72 LTD Convertible, that is really more about it being the last one. I actually like the looks of the ’69 (and ’70 for that matter) much better.
The other day when Joseph posted about the Corvette bumper on his wall, I had commented that the only thing I had like that was a ’67 or ’68 c-pillar ornament on my drafting board when I was in high school. Thanks to your pictures, in a weird sort of CC Effect here, I now see that the ornament that I had was clearly a ’69, based on your shot that features the vinyl top.
Thanks Rick! You don’t really see ’69 Fords too often, and they really do look good. I shot this ’70 XL convertible a while back that you might like.
Thanks Aaron! That ‘70 looks great in blue! Similar color combination to my ‘79 Fairmont Futura. 😀
This was a great story, Aaron. I knew both my grandfathers–both were interesting, funny, and incredibly knowledgeable. My maternal gf was an Olds man (never drive anything better than what your patients drive), a physician and a pastor’s son. My paternal gf was definitely a child of the Depression, was a natural tinkerer of home appliances (mom saved things for him to fix when he visited), an IRS agent in the 1930s, and later a very successful CPA in the frontier town of Miami, FL. His tastes in cars went like Plymouth, DeSoto, Mercedes (he spotted and bought a badly underpriced used W220 and the salesman got fired for it; he kept it 10 years), AMC Hornet and finally a 1974 Cadillac Sedan de Ville (red/white). Grampa may be the only person who would say with total ease “I don’t know” when that rare occasion he actually didn’t know (my dad and me seem to choke on uttering those words). Most valuable car lesson was when we flew to Miami in the summer and we got stuck in traffic on the Don Shula expressway around 1970, he told my dad to roll down the windows because he was turning on the heater on high. So I asked why, Grampa? And he said slowly and patiently, that the engine is overheating and we need to create a heat sink, we need to blow off the excess heat from the radiator. It made sense, and much later in life I used the same technique in a Toyota truck with a sticking thermostat, and later with a Nissan truck that developed a problem in the core of the radiator (both problems were only evident at highway speeds). Both were gone from my life before I finished 10th grade, and now I have so damn many questions to ask them. If not for my ancestors, I wouldn’t be here.
Ford did not run strong in our families. Mom had a ’63 Ranch Wagon during the Navy years that rusted away by 1969 (it was traded in for the 1965 Dodge Dart sedan that made an indelible impression on me for 10 years), and once leaving the Navy for Delta Air Lines in 1968, Dad traded in his impractical 1959 MGA for an early 1960s Ford Falcon two door in pea/puke green. After the divorce in 1969 he was forced by his best friend to upgrade to a 1968 Cutlass Supreme (350/PowerGlide two speed automatic) which lasted 9 years.
Thanks! If you’ve owned an older car, chances are you’ve turned on the heat in traffic, or popped it into neutral and revved the engine to get the fan going. 🙂
What an outstanding story — thanks for putting this together.
On a non-car note, I have only one memento from my paternal grandfather, who passed away in 1955 – eighteen years before I was born. It’s an Elgin watch — a pocketwatch, and it hasn’t worked in years, but I keep it on my dresser as my only reminder of a man I never knew.
My other grandfather passed away shortly before I was born. He retired in the late 1960s, and purchased a Ford LTD in the same green color as your YouTube example here. After he died, it became my mom’s car. She hated big American cars, but felt a bond with the LTD because it was her dad’s retirement gift to himself. That was the car in which my folks drove me home from the hospital.
That LTD was also the source of my earliest childhood memory, at Age 3. Mom always parked on the street in front of our house – one weekend afternoon a drunk driver plowed down the street hitting cars on both sides. We heard him coming. The LTD was the last car he hit before he veered off the road into some bushes (and got roughed up by our street’s residents). Later that day, mom took me for one last ride in the Ford. Due to its damage, it couldn’t make left-hand turns, so we had to drive around a few blocks, only going right. Mom cried since her father’s car was destroyed. I, a toddler, didn’t understand, and remember being excited that we’d get a new car.
Another great story well told Aaron .
-Nate
Thanks to you both!
Eric, have you thought of taking your Elgin to a watch repair shop? There aren’t too many around, but they’re out there. I tried to get into repairing watches, but my hands have a little tremor, so I can’t quite work on something that small. Lining up the gear train alone makes me admire anyone who can do that for a living.
I did take the watch to a repair shop about 15 years ago — it’s definitely repairable, but since the watch is of far greater sentimental value than actual dollar value (from what I understood, these watches aren’t terribly valuable), I decided just to enjoy it as-is.
Picture of the Elgin watch is below.
Nice watch!
I was lucky to have had a full spectrum of the ’69-70 full size Fords.
First I inherited the 1970 family Country Sedan wagon, no A/C, a 351W & an FMX trans that took about 30 seconds to engage forward when it was cold. Had a fender bender with a Nova, my first endeavor with swapping a front clip & using a 2 inch stack of washers to get the LF corner to line up (bent frame horn).
Next was the beast, a Florida LTD wagon with the works….Power bench seat, vacuum wiper delay, 3 way rear tailgate. The 429 had a miss that would not go away, Later swapped in a 400 for a while, was a daily driver to college (50 mile round trip) in the early 80s. Rebuilt the 429 & C6 as a school project, then the beast awakened….toting around grain wagons, anhydrous tanks, a car trailer recovery business at times. Loaded up a Jasper engine & engine hoist for a weekend engine swap in the Chicago suburbs…round trip to Houston for Cougar body parts, doors & fenders in the back, full quarter panel sections with wheelhouse strapped down up top on the luggage rack alo g with 4 passengers. Many more memorable trips…Clocked out at a little over 200K before rust got her.
Bought a 69 2DR XL from AR, was a wild ride from the Chicago suburbs home with a radial tire on the RF & and a bias on the LF. Found the fancy gated floor console & shifter for it.
An AZ LTD with a 429, mint but no title.
A 69 Galaxie with a 390, bad body but had paperwork. All 3 sold off when we moved off the farm, no room.
A 69 Galaxie convertible w/ a 390, had to run 91+ octane to keep the knocking down. White with red interior, decent top, fun ride.
Had 3 other drop tops I bought near Roscoe/ WI state line, got 1 home, went back a yr later to find the farm gone & a new highway thru it, no sleds…..fun times…
Thank-you, for a great read. This, always, has been my favourite MY LTD. Nice, too, seeing others agree(who, too, have some fine-looking automobiles.)
You’re welcome!
Lovely story with that personal touch that makes COALs and similar articles so wonderful.
Yes, having a Grandfather about would have been great – geography limited our contact a bit and both passed away when I was relatively young, so I missed some of the stuff. Neither drove or had cars.
But I have a wall barometer from one (he tapped it every morning on the way to the tram stop) and a machined cast level and angle measuring/marking device (an apprentice exercise?) from the other.
Roger, I also have my grandpa’s barometer, and my mom tells me he tapped it every time he passed it as well. Must be a grandpa thing. 🙂
We had two ’69 Ford LTDs in my family.
My Uncle was close to graduating from college in spring of ’69 when (as he later told me) the head gasket went on the flathead 6 on the 1951 Chrysler Windsor that he was driving (which my Grandfather had bought new; he died in 1966 and it was the only car he ever owned)..he had little time to address it so he ended up ditching the car and bought a new ’69 Ford LTD 4 door hardtop…it had the 302 and drum brakes plus black panty cloth interior…also black vinyl roof (think that might have been standard on LTD?).
My Dad (we lived several hundred miles away) kind of copied him (first of a couple of times he did this, it wasn’t typical of him as he often went his own way when buying cars); instead of an LTD though he bought a Country Squire as he was replacing the ’65 Olds F85 wagon; it was in the series of wagons they started buying starting in 1961 when he bought a new Rambler Classic wagon. The Squire had the 351 2bbl, front disc brakes, and green vinyl seats, it was pretty basic (the Ranch Wagon that replaced it in 1973 had several options which were first in our family…power locks (but not windows) AM/FM stereo, air conditioning, and the trailer towing package). Anyhow, my Dad even bought it at the same dealership my Uncle had bought his at…kind of a smaller dealership in a town nearby where my Uncle lived (but not where we lived). My Uncle had the LTD quite a bit longer but since we didn’t live nearby (he in fact moved but not far from where he went to school) I wasn’t around when he got rid of the LTD, probably before I got out of college myself a decade later (there’s a big gap in age between my Mother and her only brother, in fact her only sibling…I’m actually closer in age to my Uncle than any of my cousins that are his kids).
It was an OK car; not sure what led my Dad to trade it in after 4 years for the Ranch Wagon, though I do remember he had bought a pop-top camper and had a hitch added to the Squire, and less than a month later bought the Ranch Wagon and had to do the same thing again…the technician at the camper place kind of chided him for “wasting” money on purchase of the hitch he used less than a month (though I don’t know how expensive the hitch would have been). The Ranch wagon’s trailer towing package didn’t actually include the hitch; only the transmission cooler and heavy duty wiring package which was probably overkill for a pop-top camper, but my Dad wanted some reserves, which probably came in handy when trying to position the camper in the right place, sometimes a lot of short backing up/driving forward to get it in place.
I remember once my Dad driving my Uncle’s LTD, and he remarked about the brakes, guess he noticed a difference between the front discs on his Squire vs the drums on Uncle’s LTD.
My Grandfather (on the other side) had a ’63 Ford Fairlane at the time, but switched over in 1972 with a new Biscayne which ended up being his last car. Neither of my Grandmothers ever learned to drive, guess they didn’t think they needed to, they lived in an urban area, which not only had busses but originally trolleys (removed in the 1950’s) likewise trains that disappeared around that time.
What a beautiful car! Always loved the crisp lines of the full-size ’69 and ’70 Fords, especially the LTDs and XLs with hidden headlights.
Great biography, as always. Thank you. My dad owned a lowly ’69 Ford Ranch Wagon, and the many shared styling cues, bring back many memories. I often sat between my mom and dad on long trips, and that expanse of plastic to the right of the cockpit-style instrument cluster, was not a pleasant sight. lol Even as a young child, I thought the extruded instrument area, made the rest of the dash look too expansive, and cheap.
However, the lasting memory of that ’69 Ford was not the dash, rather the extensive terminal rust by 1975. My dad did his best to save it. But, unlike most road salt regions where cars generally rust exclusively below the belt line, that wagon rusted bottom to top (and inside out). Rusted everywhere, and was simply impossible to keep up with.
Really like the Elgin watch. Those were a very good brand of watch. Very classic styling. And it still works! That’s great. Good memories.
I missed this the first time around. Really good article! Kind of like yours, my grandpa had a 69 LTD sedan he drove until replacing it with a 1977 B-body (Catalina).
That “Ford” is in (going by appearances) “beautiful condition”. Lord though, they were some “notorious, rust mobiles”.