(first posted 1/2/2016) Curtis Perry has uploaded a motherlode of fantastic finds and shots at the Cohort. We’ll work our way through them this coming week, but we have to get this 1960 Edsel in right near the top. It’s the first “found” ’60 Edsel here at CC, and this rare oddball needs to be shared. This pathetically-disguised 1960 Ford rear end has to be some kind of low-water mark.
I don’t think I need to tell anyone here that the 1960 Edsel was just a 1960 Ford playing dress-up, and only built through November of 1959, when the plug was pulled. As a kid, I wasn’t even aware of the 1960 Edsel until I saw one from the rear, and was mighty perplexed. I thought it was one of those Canadian oddballs until I read the EDSEL script. I was truly shocked and perplexed. I had thought all Edsels had the horse-collar grille.
And how rare is this 1960 Edsel? This four door sedan was the big seller, with all of 1, 288 sold. The rarest model would be the Villager 9 passenger wagon, with 59 sold. All together, 2,848 1960 Edsels were built, which explains why I didn’t even know they existed until confronted with one.
Incredible find – imagine finding one of the Villager wagons! What a strange looking rear end!
Indeed a rare one ~ I’ve only ever seen a few and I live in Car Crazy So. Cal. .
-Nate
I agree. I’ve never seen a 1960 Edsel. I’ve seen 1958 and 59 models.
These had the best looking front of the entire Edsel line. I agree the tail is leaving a lot to be desired.
I have seen a two-door sedan ’60 Edsel in the wild, but this was late 1980s or early 1990s. It was in the small southern Illinois town I grew up in. Having a great uncle who purchased two Edsels brand new, I’ve always wondered if it had been his.
The rear end modifications look like they may have been done by the same people that modified the Country Squire into the Queen Family Truckster for the Griswolds
That has to be one of the strangest rear end designs on a car that I have ever seen……It looks like the designers ran out of time and just grabbed whatever taillights were laying in the parts bin and stuck them on…..
Moving the ugly from the front to the back couldnt revive sales so they gave up.
Edsel fan here, more please. The last ones were very Pontiac at the front and real beautys
I think the 1960 Edsel is more attractive than the 1960 Ford, with that bizarre fin and rare tail light. The 1961 Ford was so much better.
At the excellent St. Charles (Illinois) toy show in about 1985 I saw a 1960 Edsel two door wagon. Of course it was made from a ’60 Ford Ranch Wagon and a bit of ingenuity. As I remember the car was black and white. Wonder if it is still around northern Illinois somewhere?
Yes, it is. A car show regular in NE Illinois and SE Wisconsin.
This is awesome.
That rear styling works surprisingly well on the wagon, but the sedan is a disaster.
Hey, I’m liking this. Never seen one. Looks like they actually spent some money on the rear end.
The 60 Edsel wagon has standard Ford wagon reàr sheet metal, same as all Edsel wagons. The only Edsel specific wagon parts are lights and trim.
Fun fact: the 60 Ford/Edsel wagon tailgate and glass are the basis of the clamshell front opening cab of the Deora show truck.
Thanks for posting that photo; it confirms that my memory is not yet failing. I guess I got the roof color wrong but I do remember that car and discussing with a friend there whether it was a real Edsel or simply a Ford. I was quite sure it was a Ford and was proven correct later the day I first saw the car.
I *LOVE* that. Of course I’m a sucker for 2-door wagons in general, and the ’60 Ford is one of my favorites.
That rear trim does work very well in contrast with the homely sedan tail.
I am glad someone posted this car, as it is owned by and was created by a friend of mine. I will leave his name out of the public space, but he took Villager parts and created this car from a 2-door Ranch Wagon Ford. There was actually NOT a 2-door Villager available from the factory. He owned one of the rare 2-door hardtop cars in a very similar color scheme as well, but it has since been sold. I actually saw the restoration of the hardtop and this car live and in person!
Seen that car at the Jefferson, Wis. show a few times—it started life as a Ford and had some great body work by a true body man to make it into an Edsel.
I knew about these things years ago from a Consumer Guide book about cars of the ’50s/’60s. I believe Ford shut down Edsel production in November 1959 after less than 3k of them were built. What always surprised me is why Ford even bothered with a 1960 Edsel model at all. It was such a failure in the market, did they actually believe that a Ford in drag could salvage the brand?
I find it truly avant-garde, no inhibitions about bringing together what does not belong together to emphasize the concept of clash of cultures – very dissonant, weird like what 20th century art looked like in the eyes of the uninitiated.
+1, and eloquently stated.
Those look like the canted taillights they stuck on the 1961 Mercury Comet. Getting rid of parts bin stuff, maybe?
I had heard at some point that the Comet was supposed to have been an Edsel, but 1960 was the last year of the Edsel. Any truth to that?
@Richard Wayman: The story of the Edsel/Comet for 1960 is pretty well documented; here’s a nice primer with prototype photos and an interview with its designer:
http://www.61thriftpower.com/edsel.shtml
That Edsel/Comet webpage has two important documents relating to the 1960 Edsel: One is a photo of a Comet station wagon prototype with what looks like a standard Comet tail light, mounted vertically where the Falcon wagon had its round tail light. Could be where the 1960 Edsel designers got the idea for the tail lights on their car.
Also there is a drawing of the proposed, never-to-be 1961 Edsel.
Some of the other photos show a definite resemblance to Pontiacs of the time…except that one of them that looks like a single-headlight version of the front of the 1962 Pontiac actually predates that car!
Drop in and have a look, as Sally suggests!
http://www.61thriftpower.com/edsel.shtml
This letter appeared in Collectible Auto, Feb 07.
Yes, it was designed and engineered to be an Edsel brand. However, before it could be launched Edsel production was ceased. FMC made the decision to continue with the launch of the Comet as a stand-alone brand without a division assignment. Later it was assigned to Lincoln-Mercury Division.
Keys for the 1961 Comet were Edsel key blanks.
The tail lights for the 1961 Comet used the red tail light lenses from the 1960 Edsels.
I don’t dislike the rear styling of this car. I find its intersecting planes and pod-like taillights visually interesting, and in a good way. It’s the nondescript front that leaves me cold. From this rear three-quarter view, it has that whole mid-century, space-age thing going for it, and for those reasons, I like it.
As always from Curtis, great find and shot. So glad to have his work with us at CC.
We might as well have the production numbers from The Standard Catalog of American Cars 1946-1975:
Body Style No., Body Type, Production Total
64A, ————-2 dr sedan, ———–777
63A, ————-2 dr Std hardtop, —-243
63B, ————-2 dr Del hardtop, —–52
76B, ————-2 dr convertible, —–76
58A, ————-4 dr Std sedan, —1,126
58B, ————-4 dr Del sedan, —–162
57A, ————-4 dr Std hardtop, —104
57B, ————-4 dr Del hardtop, —-31
71F, ————-4 dr Sta wagon, 6p –216
71E, ————-4 dr Sta wagon, 9p —59
The 1960 Edsel four door hardtop shared the narrow C-pillar and wrapped rear window with the sedans rather than broad C-pillar of the Galaxie four door hardtop. A full-power-optioned Deluxe four door hardtop would be the rarest and most sublime 1960 Edsel.
Pretty much what others have said: several unrelated design elements “thrown at a canvas to see what would stick”.
I find the tail lights “interesting” and think they should have done them like Chevy….with a deluxe trim sporting 3 lights per side.
I also think they MIGHT have tried to tie the side spear into that front turn signal (?).
BTW, my family owned a 1960 Country Sedan, and imho the 1961 Ford DOES indeed better the 1960….but not by a huge amount. The 1960 looks almost space ship-like while a 1961 is a more conservative space ship.
I have pictures of a 1960 Edsel Ranger sedan from a car show I’ve been meaning to write an article on. I’ll have to move it up to higher priority 🙂
I’ve always thought they should have used the rear end treatment of the ’60 Meteor, which would have provided some continuity from the ’59.
The first time I saw a 60 Edsel from the rear I thought it was a Canadian Ford of some sort
I like the 60 Meteor a lot, except that the halfmoon stamping in the standard Ford rear bumper is jarring. Ironically, I’ve always thought Ford Canada should have used 60 Edsel rear bumpers to clean it up.
Yup. If Ford felt the need for a car in that price slot, they should have brought down the Meteor or Monarch as is. All the Meteors and Monarchs from ’57 to ’61 are nice-looking.
The ’61 Monarch is truly handsome, and shows the RIGHT way to handle a vertical grille on a horizontal car.
Indeed, the ’60 Canadian Meteor rear styling would have been a better choice, providing visual continuity with the ’59 models. Few Americans would have been aware had the two makes shared the same rear styling.
Although the ’60 frontal styling is nicely handled and attractive, the rear suffered from trying to give the Edsel unique looks overlaid on the distinctive ’60 Ford sculpting that made it difficult to look like anything other than what it was.
I’ve joked more than once that the ’60 Edsel rear styling was penciled by the clean lady late one Friday night when the dog-tired stylists were working overtime and got to feeling silly, invited her to contribute on a lark. Come Monday morning, management loved it, the stylist just kept quiet about who had come up with it!
While we’re on the subject of Meteors, the 1961 Meteor styling would have made a great 1961 Edsel, especially in the rear. In front, the grille has a sort of “blank space” in the middle, like it’s just begging to have an Edsel design element inserted in there. I’ve been tempted to find a ’61 Meteor, get some ’60 Edsel badging off a parts car, the ’60 Edsel grille center section fit somehow, and voila, the ’61 Edsel!
In the late ‘70’s a friend of my older sister had a ‘61 Meteor 2-door sedan – blue with a white roof. It wasn’t much to look at, but there’s nothing wrong with driving something a little different from the rest of the high school crowd.
Nice find! Looks good in that color, too. I’d have to dig around for it, but there was a 1960 Edsel Villager wagon in a junkyard feature from Cars+Parts magazine, sometime around 1994. Pretty sure I saved the magazine and it is still around somewhere in the basement. Considering their rarity, hopefully someone found the car and ended up restoring it or at least making good use of the parts.
The front looks great. The rear looks like they threw 4 mini rectum grills on the back as though to say, “Don’t let the door hit you on the ass on the way out”.
True Story, FWIW: My father (FoMoCo career guy) was finally comfortable buying his first new car. He looked at that uber-rare 9-pass. Edsel wagon (some kind of bronze/rose metallic), but mom didn’t like the upholstery (probably at 2:00 on this brochure pic), and so we got the Ford wagon (of that extra-wide 1960 model year). This was Sept. of 1959, but my dad always says he’d heard zero scuttlebutt that Edsel was about to get axed.
You aren’t kidding that these 60s Fords were extra-wide, my family had a 58 Chevy Brookwood and it was replaced by a 60 Ford Country Sedan. Getting into and out of the Brookwood while it was in the garage was easy. Getting into or out of that Country Sedan was next to impossible when it was in the garage.
And for those that are new here, the 1960 Ford was “illegal” in some states when it first went on sale as some states had laws (not usually enforced) that outlined how wide a vehicle was allowed to be. The 60 Ford was too wide, not sure what the story with the Mercurys was.
^^^^Interesting on-the-ground story of how you could tell the ’60 Ford was wider. (I think Federal standard was 80″, after which a vehicle had to have side-marker lights or somesuch.) I see the ’60 Mercury was–like the Ford–1.5″ too big:
The 1959 and 1960 Mercurys had their own body shell. The width specification is interesting, as I’ve never read that this body was too wide to be “legal” in several states.
The 1960 Ford was a rush job, but there was no rush during the development of the 1959 Mercury. Apparently Ford overlooked the width when it approved the 1960 Ford for production. The excess width was whittled away from the 1961 Ford.
I’ll have to write up this ’60 Villager I just ran into at the junkyard sometime soon. From my research, it’s one of roughly 250 made. I sent it into the Edsel Club hoping somebody might make a deal to buy it for parts at least, but I’m not sure if anybody did. This is the old Hilliard’s yard in Vestaburg, MI that is now owned by Fair Salvage in Clare. I think they’re waiting for scrap to go back up before they continue scrapping.
Wow ~
That looks pretty rusty , hopefully some one will save it , maybe it could be saved by scrapping out a regular Ford wagon….
-Nate
I like the 2×4 hood prop! Possibly a Canadian model?
Some of the side trim is gone, but it still has the grille. How much of the other exterior badging is there, especially the “E D S E L” lettering? I look at this and see a source of parts for my several different crazy ideas of making what-if Edsels — like the ’61 idea I mentioned in another comment based on the Canadian Meteor, and of course the ’60 Comet, or even some other years of Comet . . .
Now that’s also an amazing find. Rusty, sure, but lots of good trim.
58-59 Edsels were almost common around Dearborn in the early 60s. I only remember seeing 1 60: wheezing down I-94 in 72 or 73. I admit I was at a loss as I came up behind it. Saw the Edsel nameplate as I passed it.
I think it looks great.
60 fullsize Ford was a FoMoCo styling peak and the Edsel was a close second. Don’t mind that rear treatment too. Great find Curtis.
I get the feeling that as ugly as the 1958 Edsel was, that Ford was still astonished that people panned the car. Ford went out of its way to promote the car by having it in the back drop of some films and also a Ford dealer in LA(I think the one in Beverly Hills) lent the Dodgers a bunch of convertible Edsels for their welcome to LA parade on opening day in LA in April 1958.
It isn’t all that easy to make out as it wasn’t featured prominently but on the tv show The Donna Reed Show the Stone family owned a 58 Edsel wagon for at least 1 season. I think it was the top-of-the-range Bermuda….or whatever the wood-panelled model was called.
Somewhat ironically, at some point it was replaced by a Comet wagon.
There was a 1960 Edsel in San Francisco, on the way home from the stop where the school bus let me off in high school. It moved from one space to another so it was running, but it was unloved, so it never got washed. Here’s hoping somebody saved it. If a high school kid knew what it was, SOMEBODY who cared should have, too!
when I was in highschool some of my co-workers were in a family that had a FLEET of
Edsels truth is stranger than fiction
I think that compared to the 58 competition the Edsels were pretty cool
I wouldn’t mind havin one
I’d take a 58 Edsel over the monstrous Lincoln and ostentatious Buicks & Oldsmobiles any day.
Agreed. the 58 Oldsmobile looked like the designers of the rear of the car the designers of the front of the car were based on opposites sides of the USA and phoned it all in.
The 1958 Oldsmobile was hardly a beauty queen, but Oldsmobile was about the only medium-price make (along with Pontiac) that had not suffered serious quality control problems at some point during the 1955-57 timeframe. That was probably one reason why it suffered less than most medium-price marques during the 1958 recession.
I had heard that the taillight lenses on the Comet will interchange with the 1960 Edsel. Not sure if thats true or not.
What’s interesting about the prototype Comet wagon with the vertical light over the Falcon round stamping, is that it bears a strong resemblance to the 58 Edsel Wagon tail lights that were the arrow over the round base.
P.S. Is this for real? or a fake? 1960 Edsel prototype?
https://www.flickr.com/photos/edsel-net/911632543
https://www.flickr.com/photos/edsel-net/912487252/in/photostream/
No, but its a fantastic recreation by it owner whose name I forget.
Like Don says, and a great job too. It was featured in Collectible Automobile quite a few years back.
I have liked these since they were new and I was an 11 year old kid. In fact, the small Indiana town (population 3500) that I grew up in had two of these running around when new. I rode in one once and it sure wasn’t much different inside than my Dad’s ’60 Ford. I thought the Edsel was better looking and still do. The two in our town were both two door sedans. AMT made a scale model kit of these and my brother and I built 3 of the convertibles. In fact, I still have all three of them in my collection.
As mentioned before, the width of these and the Fords was something to get used to. Of course, our family had it easier than some with our new ’60 Ford as it replaced a ’59 Chevy. Those fins really stick out on the Chevy. In fact, when my Grandmother replaced her ’52 Plymouth with a really pretty ’59 Biscayne, she had her garage door widened because she was afraid she couldn’t fit the Chevy in.
The Edsel did what Saturn did, starting out very different but becoming very similar to standard Fords in just one year. Saturn took a lot longer, but wound up in the same place.
Surprisingly, I have seen at least three of these in the wild. The first was when I was about 12, it definitely aroused my curiosity. I liked the 60 Fords, and sort of liked the front of the 60 Edsel, but the back is just weird.
Jason;
you mentioned earlier that your great uncle had purchased not one but two brand new edsels.
there has to be a great story there.
details man, details!
enquiring minds want to know!!
I wish I knew more but most of the key players are dead. Let me work on this.
1960 was the year that Ford discontinued the Edsel since it was an epic fail. Ford also took a back to basics approach and introduced a 6 cylinder compact car called the Falcon. Lincoln-Mercury dealers got a version called the Comet. Unlike the Edsel, the Falcon was a success. Ford later used the Ranger name on a line of compact pickups sold in the 1980s, 1990s and early 21st century.
And in 1958, there was an Edsel Citation, a name re-used later by Chevrolet for its 1980 X-car.
I wonder if Ford had kept the Edsel, would that move might had motivated Chrysler to keep DeSoto afloat?
I spotted some photos showing clay models of various proposals design studies for the Edsel. http://internetdebris.blogspot.ca/2012/03/case-of-murderous-vice-president.html
http://edsel.net/prototype.html
Another fan show his own vision of the 1961 Edsel that would had been. http://www.whatifcars.com/gallery/What-If-Cars/61_Edsel_Corsair
Actually before they used the Ranger name on a compact pickup it was a trim level on their full size pickups as was the Explorer before it became a compact SUV.
Also you can’t mention the Ranger and Citation without mentioning the 3rd Edsel model name that was later reused, Pacer.
The Corsair name turned up on a sharp looking Dagenham Ford with a V4 in the 60s.
And of course things come full circle with the Lincoln replacing the MKC badge with Corsair.
A few years ago I saw a gold 1960 Edsel 4-door sedan cruising by my apartment building. It was the first and only 1960 Edsel I’ve ever seen, and I was quite amazed to see it here in Toronto. It had Ontario plates, and I’ve kept an eye out for it since, but no luck. I’ve never been a big Edsel fan, but you have to appreciate them for the rolling monuments that they are.
I’ve never seen a ’60 Edsel in the flesh. Are the front parking lights and the moldings behind them, and the mounds over the taillamps grafted onto the body, kind of like the dual-headlamp pods and tailfins on a ’58 Studebaker? And if not, aren’t at least some of the body panels different than a Ford’s?
I am not sure about the front fender trim, but the tail light mounds are stamped into the sheet metal.
Ford spent a bit more than Studebaker-Packard could on tooling for the ’60 Edsel. The front parking lights and trailing moulding simply fit over the ’60 Ford front fenders. The unique frontal parts are the hood, grille and bumper.
For the rear, its more complicated. The Edsel-only tooling stamped a panel that replaced the flatter upper Ford fender, is attached under the side chrome trim and includes the upper portion of the taillight leads. It was welded and body soldered in those areas that show next to the taillight. That small piece of end-cap finished the side trim. The concave façade panel received modifications to complete the vertical taillight mounting. Looking closely at the rear, one can see the seams. The rear bumper received those two vertical hash-marks on each side in place of the Ford flattened half-circle. Of course, one potmetal taillight housing with red or white lens completed the package.
A lot of trouble and expense to create a unique look for a car of which fewer than 3000 units were built. Might have been less costly simply to name the ’60 Comet as “Comet by Edsel” or some such nonsense to until they could fade the Edsel name away.
I’m pretty sure that, by the time the Comet was ready for introduction, Ford wanted to ensure that the car wasn’t tainted by any association with the Edsel name, which was already a punch line.
The Comet was a big success – it sold well over 100,000 units for the 1960 model year, even though it didn’t debut until March 1960. Given that result, it’s hard to fault Ford for making sure that the public didn’t view the car as a compact companion to the Edsel.
If I were driving behind a 60 Edsel, I’d pass it just so I wouldn’t have to look at that rear end.
Those taillights are really unattractive.
Great article and pictures. However, you mention the car in this article being a 1960 Edsel “Pacer”, a series name used only in the 1958 model year (which was the fancier Ford-based Edsel, just above the entry-level Ranger series). The 1960 Edsel line consisted of Ranger coupes, sedans & convertible, and Villager station wagons. There were “Standard” and “Deluxe” trim line choices for most of these. (Visit edsel.com for more info.)
Where exactly in this article is the word “Pacer”?
Did you forget to put your glasses on? 🙂
Did “This pacer four door sedan was the big seller” (under the image of a 1960 Edsel Ranger two-door hardtop, from an advertisement) get added between 2016 and 2022?
Thank you for pointing out that typo. I’ll correct the text.
I collect a 4 door and a Villager (ONLY) 6 passenger 🙂 )
I am in the market for a ’60 Villager to restore. Please let me know if anyone has a lead.
Nic, do you won both a 4-door and a Villager? My hat is off to you!
II own a all original 1960 Edsel two door original drives great still. Small v-8. My grandfather was named Edsel my father’s middle name Edsel my middle name Edsel. All original bought it 15 years ago
THey would no doubt built more but nobody was beating on salesmans doors demanding them, I dont mind the later Edsels to look at now but I dont want one and that was the whole problem when they were new, no customer interest.
It’s surprising they didn’t use the Meteor taillights which among other things required less hand-welding and filling on the line than these must have.
Some time ago Tom Halter posted an article to this site re: the 1960 Comet’s development as an Edsel. It’s not mentioned by him, but some sources say that the Comet would’ve become *the* Edsel by the ’61 model year at the earliest (if not as soon as it was ready midyear ’60) with any plans for a full-size ’61 Edsel already having been cancelled at some point during the ’59 model year. At that point it was an easy next step to give the new car a new name and fresh start.
Halter’s article from 2017; https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/forgotten-future/forgotten-future-1960-edsel-comet/
I think the tail lights are from the Comet. I think its a good looking restrained American car.
1960 & 61 Comet taillights are not the same as 1960 Edsel . They are longer & narrower . Just similar in design . 1960 Edsel Wagon taillights are also smaller than the sedans . Making them very hard to find replacements !!
I think that this rear end styling could be reused on the new Rivian truck. It kind of blends with the front end styling in a weird sort of way.
I actually saw a 4 door sedan on the street here in Houston about 20 years ago. I had no idea what it was since I only knew (by sight) the iconic ‘58 and (IMO) the far more attractive ‘59.
The ‘60 I saw was seemed to be a daily or frequent driver. It wasn’t in great shape but decently taken care of.
There’s obviously a lot of ’60 Ford visual influence in it. With some Pontiac in the nose, all of which comes off ok, if not great. But those taillights/back up lights, my gawd, who came up with those let alone signed off on them. The rest of the car is kind of a wash, but the tail due to them is an embarrassment. It’s awful.
With the car going out of production in November make you wonder how big was the pile of parts left at the factory?
There are details of 1960 Edsel Villager A1 restoration after spending 22 years in the junk yard.
http://www.restorations.cz/galerie/edsel-villager-1960/
The pictures above are for the ’60 Villager now in a Czech museum. I believe it is for sale.
Awesome restoration . Looks like they had a fairly solid car to start with .
However the colors chosen are not correct for a ’60 Edsel , if one wanted it judged as an ‘original’ restoration .. Still a very nice & ‘rare’ car !
Looks like a 2022 Kia Sorrento (or at least the tailights do). Everything old is new again!
Here’s a picture