Longtime CC reader Bryce has remembered how to post at the Cohort and uploaded quite a trove of pictures. But this wagon stumps me. It’s presumably a P6 LTD, but I thought they all had round headlights? Did someone bother to change the front end? Or am I missing something?
What I’m not missing is just how big this wagon is: 121″ wheelbase! That’s as long as the biggest big American Fords in the 70s. And this is still all based on the Falcon platform. I can’t find any specs as to its overall length. Anybody?
Too bad there wasn’t a woody Country Squire version. But that seems not to have been a thing down under.
This is a fake LTD – Ford Australia never marketed an LTD or Fairlane wagon. I guess it is an XA, XB or XC Fairmont wagon with an LTD grill grafted on the front. And you’re right in saying that the LTD had round headlights. Those square lights just look so wrong. It also has correct LTD hubcaps and rear badge.
+1 Maybe is used to be a hearse.
Wheelbase looks like standard Falcon wagon, 116 inches. They too have that silly gap from rear door to wheelarch. As per the comment above, this is an oddball mix n’ match, certainly not factory.
From the roofrack to those rear pillar bits to the colour, this freak was undoubtedly created by someone whose brief was to design transport for very quiet horizontal passengers for short distances at low speeds.
Yeah check out the D pillar, There are or were a lot of these dead sleds built on Falcon bodies back in the day, I think the front lights began life on a US Chrysler product but integrate well into the overall car.
“Dead sled”. I love it!
Looks almost like a bitsa US model built out of Ford and Mercury wagon parts. Hard to believe manufacturers offered both the vinyl roof AND luggage rack on wagons at the same time.
When I saw this car a few hours ago I was kind of disappointed that it was not completely identified like many cars on the Cohort. But would rather see unidentified vehicles that are unusual than to see “the same old things” properly identified.
Love wagons, really love Ford/Mercury wagons, and can’t get enough of the cars of Australia. Thanks, Bryce, for posting.
You could get a Mercury Colony Park with a vinyl top, roof rack AND woodgrain side panels all on the same car.
That’s a *pretty* good combination, I guess, but can you add a retractable hardtop? 😉
Interesting that it does not appear to have the two-way door-gate. I thought I have seen it on Australian models, and that it opens as a door in the opposite direction from North American models.
IIRC that was always an option.
It was standard on the Fairmont wagons
It intrigued me because its quite well done, But its registered as what it actually is a XC Falcon, Its quite the attention grabber though and along its sides advertises a tattoo parlour,
As Bryce says, it’s registered as an XC Falcon wagon, and was first registered here on 23 June 1977 as a 4.1L six-cylinder.
The VIN is JG30TPxxxxx, which decodes as J = Australia, G-Broadmeadows plant, 30 = base model (lower than the ‘500’ trim) Falcon Wagon, T = 1977, P = April build. So it definitely started out as a Falcon wagon. The bonnet, front guards and grille are P6 LTD, as is the horizontal metalwork between the front of the bonnet and the grille. Front bumper is standard XC Falcon – the P6 bumper has indicators in it. The non-Ford parts are the rectangular headlights and the indicator/parklights below them.
On first glance the rear end looks like standard XC Falcon, with base-Falcon bumper (no over-riders) and without the optional 2-way tailgate. But…a closer look shows it’s been stretched behind the rear axle too – the giveaway is the D-Pillar which is considerably wider than the standard XC wagon. Picture below shows shows the standard width. The vinyl roof would have been added to hide the metalwork. It’s a very subtle but very well done modification.
I suspect someone in New Zealand was modifying these for the hearse market when new, as several have popped up on Trade Me over the years, all base XC wagons with the P6 front clip (albeit with the round lights) and the unique stretched D-Pillar.
Here’s another ex-hearse with an identically-stretched D-Pillar. It’s a ’77 too, but started life as an XC Fairmont V8 wagon:
I’ve never seen a Fairlane or LTD with those headlights though… I thought it went from the hidden headlight P5 to the round headlight P6? Where did these lights come from?
I also saw a LTD-ized Falcon wagon which was likely a former hearse:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/cc-outtakes/cc-outtake-now-just-what-is-going-on-here/
Incidentally, I remember a pizza restaurant in Fortitude Valley that had some kind of spooky theme (I don’t know why) and their “official” vehicle was a “hearse”. Well, it was a ’73 or so Chevy Impala wagon painted black with a hearse in the back. I don’t know if they did deliveries in it… that could’ve been what drove them out of business!
Theres a Plymouth Fury not far from me with almost from memory those lights, I’ll go look later, the whole car looke exceptionally well done to me and its huge dwarfing my Commodore sized C5 parked in front of it.
Love these unidentifiable cars I loaded some shots of two others that were NZ only cars too just to intrigue curbivores.
Had a look at that Fury, I reckon thats where they got the headlights the bezels are missing from the wagon and those indicator/park lights look very Chrysler.
What year is the Fury?
81 I think square bodied thing 318 motor it was for sale once with a 440 to drop in ex police sway bars as thick as your arm, its not registered, been here years though the guy who has it accumulates cars
I’ll join the chorus that says this looks like a hearse converted back to civilian duty.
A little more chrome and some window tint would make it look quite wicked. Ready to be the “bad guys” car in a movie.
I like the front end, better than the standard round lights, reminds me on John Dodd’s 27 Litre Rolls Royce engine The Beast from the 70s
Hi. I’m the owner of the ‘ltd ‘p6’ falcon xc mishmash. Lol I have been trying to find out more about it and stumbled on this thread purely by accident, looking for something completely unrelated! Thank you all for all your comments, it’s great to know more about it.
It was put together by a panel shop in Nelson, New Zealand as a hearse, one of 4 made for Invercargill NZ in 1977 I have been told. It is still a 4.1, 6 cylinder. The other 3 all had the round headlights. It has what seems to be a very standard interior without any luxury extras. So I’m thinking it’s the mish mash that Scott McPherson thinks. Still, I love it and by the way, it has tints now!