(first posted 9/23/2018) I’m back, with a long overdue installment in my Cold Comfort series on the early history of automotive air conditioning. Today, I’m tackling this 1957 Mercury Turnpike Cruiser I spotted at a show last summer. The Turnpike Cruiser is already well-known as being one of the most over-the-top cars of the 1950’s. So of course it has an equally interesting HVAC system.
Before even getting into the air conditioning, let’s talk about some of the unique ventilation features of the TC. For starters, there are the two individually adjustable fresh air intakes at the windshield header (functional), complete with little antennae (alas, non-functional).
In the back, we have a roll down “Breezeway” rear window. These air intakes, coupled rear window must have to make for quite effective cabin ventilation, even without air conditioning.
But it is the air conditioning system that is the star of the show. For 1955 and 1956, Mercury shared the trunk mounted air conditioning system that was used on the 1955-57 Lincoln. For 1957, Mercury (and Ford) switched over to this interesting cowl mounted setup (Lincoln would continue to use a trunk mounted system until their crazy 1958 A/C system came out).
Packaging was a major problem on all early automotive air conditioning systems: Dashboards of the period did not have openings for panel vents, nor were they designed to accommodate all the requisite ductwork and dampers that we associate with modern A/C systems. This is why many early systems used vents located either in the ceiling, or mounted underneath the dashboard. Mercury, in their 1957 setup, took an unorthodox approach to this problem: They mounted their vents up by the base of the windshield, where you might normally find the defroster outputs.
There were rotary dials by the vents that could be used to open and close them, as well as adjusting airflow direction. In addition to the 1957 and 1958 Mercury, this setup was also used for the factory air option on the 1957-1958 Ford and 1958 Edsel. At roughly $400 (about $3,600 in 2018), it was a pricey option, and the take rate was understandably low (about 1.5% for the Mercury and Edsel, and virtually nil for Ford).
1959 Ford Factory A/C
This system was only used for two model years, before being replaced by a more conventional hang-on design in 1959 (pictured above). While the 57-58 system certainly looked a lot tidier and better integrated than a hang-on unit, it likely didn’t work as well.
Check out that large plenum
While I have not had the privilege of experiencing the 57-58 system in operation, it is reasonable to speculate about some of the limitations that would have caused Ford to ditch it after just two years.
Between the smallish vents and their location at the base of the windshield, this setup was probably not very effective. The cold air coming out of the vents would have warmed up almost immediately upon blending with the hot air trapped in the greenhouse under the windshield. You can even test this out yourself with a simple experiment: Try cooling your car with the A/C discharging only through the defrosters. It won’t work nearly as well.
I also suspect that this system would have been rather noisy in use. The single large plenum coming directly off the evaporator is very similar to modern defrosters, and likely would have been just as loud. The hard material of the plenum would not have had sound deadening qualities of a twisting rubberized hose.
While Ford only used this system for two years, it is an interesting evolutionary dead-end in the history of automotive air conditioning.
The Mercury Turnpike Cruiser, I believe, is one of the unsung heroes for the one Big Three nameplate that never seemed to have a definitive personality of its own. It may be a tarted-up Monterey from a casual glance, but if you examine the many details on their own, it becomes something more. It is a Mercury as a Mercury should be.
From 1957 to 1960, Mercury tried hard to break away from its “deluxe Ford” image and establish its own identity by means of a unique platform and styling unrelated to any other FoMoCo product. It’s said that during the early and mid 1950s Ford pirated away engineers and designers from the slowly-dying Packard company and set them to work on the new Mercury. Sadly, sales never met the high hopes – not helped by a ’57-’58 flash recession – and for 1961, Robert McNamara cheapened Mercury back into being a fancy Ford again.
I love the fact that in this era seemingly every car feature had to have a name. In the ’57 Mercury alone you had Safety-Surge Engine, Merco-therm heater, Climate-Master a/c, Merc-o-matic transmission, Thermo-Matic carburetor, Toe-Set parking brake, Dream-Car spare carrier, Chrome Archway bumper dress-up, Floating Ride, Jet-Flo bumpers, Full-Cushion shock absorbers, Swept-Back Ball Joint front suspension, Power-Booster fan, Monitor Control Panel, Skylight Dual-Curve windshield, Breezeway Ventilation, Travel-Tuner radio, Full-Vision steering wheel, Quadri-Beam headlights, Keyboard Control shifter, Super-Protective air filter, Comfort-Zone passenger compartment, and of course Dream-Car Design.
Wow!
I’ve always loved the fifties ‘naming game’, where every feature had to have its fancy title. It’s an Americanism that carried over to Aussie cars too, though not to the same degree obviously, as our cars were so much smaller and plainer. But I have an XK (’60) Falcon accessory brochure somewhere, and it’s amazing to read the names of the different styles of accessory rear-view mirrors, for example. And who could forget Holden’s Air-Chief radios!
The fifties were fun.
I remember a ’60s era (perhaps earlier, as it was translated to Spaish) Donald Duck comic book where he is sold an Aut-o-matic car, which of course did everything for itself. I remember it being funny, but I was too young and too non-American to understand the pun until years later.
The late Douglas Adams parodied this in his “Hitchhiker’s Guide” series. I don’t know how often such trademarks were used in UK marketing, but it certainly resonates with Americans of a certain age. No doubt it contributed to the image of the American “Hard Sell.”
Don’t forget Ford’s Master Guide power steering, Swift Sure power brakes and Cruise-O-Matic transmission, Buick’s Sonomatic radios and Olds Rotomatic power steering. There must be a hundred others as well.
In addition to a performance concern with this type of a/c system, I suspect the economic portion was a bigger factor.
Polar-Air Air Conditioning (yes, there was a name for everything) in the quoted 1959 Ford cost $271 – substantially less than the $400 quoted for 1958 (or $395 as found in the Standard Catalog). There was also quite likely a lower degree of complexity in installation and servicing the unit for 1959, which when combined with the low take rate, made it even more attractive.
Last weekend, at our CC Midwest Gathering, we found a 1956 or 1957 Lincoln with factory a/c. It was quite the setup to see in person.
Just in terms of layout, the Merc system *could* have worked well. A window AC in a house is most effective if you can push upward, displacing the hottest air near the ceiling. The hot air needs a place to exit, and the Breezeway would have taken care of it. More likely the market just wasn’t ready for car AC, or other aspects of the system were ineffective.
Didn’t ’57 – 58 Cadillacs have a similar cowl A/C vent set – up?
Just a minor note but I always assumed that the antennas in the roof of the TC were fakes, but I had no idea that this was a housing for an air intake of some kind….and an intake that was functional at that.
To me, the TC comes across as a “kitchen sink” kind of car. That is, the company wasn’t 100% convinced that the “regular” model
was good/attractive enough so they threw everything at it, including….
Mid-’60s Imperials had adjustable dash top A/C vents as well as lower vents.I don’t think I’d want to be the front middle passenger for long.
Chrysler had some really interesting A/C systems in the 50’s and 60’s. Now that I’ve covered most of the early FoMoCo systems, that is probably what I will cover next.
I always liked the 1957 – 1964 Chrysler A/C vent set – ups, they were very “adjustable”, meaning they could be “retracted” down into the dash when not in use, and when “up” they could be swiveled around for best air distribution; style – wise, these are “nautical”, as they resemble ship ventilators. In the ’64 Imperial “tonyola” refers to, the middle vent could be totally closed off, and IIRC the ’60 Imperial was the first to have a driver’s – only A/C vent, it was mounted “under – dash” and on the left.
ChryCo also offered dual A/C rigs for not only regular Imperials (non – limousine models), but also for their station wagons (starting in 1957), IIRC, no one else offered this for station wagons.
PS: Yes, PLEASE, Mr. Halter, please post more on Chrysler A/C. I am obsessed with automotive air conditioning, and your research and writing on this topic is simply the best…
There were probably a couple of little Floor Air outlets as well to combat the heat leaking into the footwell from all those cubic inches of V8 in front of you. I know the 1962-63 downsized Dodge and Plymouth had those. I don’t know if the configuration of all that changed with the new 1964 dashboard.
Please do!
I can’t help thinking how the people who spent $400 for an air conditioning systems were mighty disappointed on the first hot day when they realized that all that valuable cold air dissipated before reaching the passengers. I bet Ford heard quite a few (wealthy) customer complaints over that one.
See my comment below. The idea that the cool air would somehow be instantly heated up is wild speculation, and has no practical basis. It just doesn’t work that way. The cold air exiting the vents would eliminate any latent hot air almost instantly, and then no more hot air would form there.
I’m going to disagree with your “speculations” and say that this system was almost certainly quite effective. The outlet vents are ideally located to cool the upper part of the car, which is of course the hottest. And our heads are intrinsically the hottest part of our bodies, as they they have the highest blood flow. We like our bodies to be cool in the upper area, and warmer down by the feet, in general terms.
Your speculation that the cool air exiting the vents would instantly be heated by the hot air sitting on the dash is totally off-base. the only reason there would be hot air there is for the lack of cool air to dissipate it. Those are a lot of vents, that move a lot of air. Once it was turned on, there would be no more hot air there; just a healthy flow of cool directed at the head and upper torso, which were not that far away distance wise, in these older cars.
Your comment about turning on only Defrost to test your theory is also off-base, as defroster outlets are designed to be just big enough to allow adequate hot air flow for the purpose. It doesn’t take a lot of flow there, in part because the hot air naturally rises. These defroster vents were not designed to provide nearly enough flow to cool a car with a/c. Look at the size of these vents; they’re much larger than typical defrost vents.
Locating outlet vents in front of windows has been done in buildings forever, regardless of whether it’s heating or cooling. The whole point is to compensate for the tendency of the poorly-insulating glass that allows heat or cold air to develop on the area close to its inside. That’s the point of having vents there, in a building or car.
Houses and schools and commercial buildings typically had radiators just below the window, to keep the cold air from forming there. Same with a/c.
This is intrinsically a much better vent system than the stupid under-dash systems, that blow the air mostly down in the shaded lower area. Who wants freezing air on their legs?
The early car a/c systems were designed along commercial building lines and for maximum performance, and not for low cost. That’s why some of the early a/c cars had vents along the roof even, like in an airplane, to spread the cool air throughout the upper part of the car. keep in mind that the glass area of these cars was very considerable.
I’m totally convince this system was abandoned because it was too expensive, and/or not cost effective. In the late 50s early 60s, a/c became less of a luxury and more of a staple, so integrating the built-in a’c system with dash vents made more sense than the extra cost of adding these vents to the top of the dash.
The Tesla Model 3 has a single narrow horizontal vent across the whole dash, and it’s considered to be extremely advanced and effective. it’s not that different than this system.
The one big difference between a/c in buildings and in cars is that building systems are designed for even temperature over a long period. Car systems must handle fast cool-downs from absurdly high temperatures.
I wonder if this system that concentrated the coldest air near the windshield led to condensation problems on the inside of the glass, which could be a nasty problem with a windshield on a humid day.
Based on my experience, directing cold air from the a/c onto the windshield should not be a problem at all. My Dad’s car, Chevy Lacetti, has a problem with the windshield heavily fogging up during summer rains when the outside air is warm and humid. To prevent that, I turn on the a/c and direct all the air into defroster vents (essentially emulating the above-discussed Mercury a/c system). A/c does a really good job of removing humidity from air, and the windshield clears up almost immediately, because the inside of the glass is surrounded by a layer of dry air, no water in it to condensate. My Volvo often does the same thing automatically.
Actually, when I had a car with manual a/c, I often closed the dash vents and directed all the air into defrosters. It is a more gentle way to cool the interior down – probably less efficient than a powerful stream of cool air coming out of the dash vents, but definitely more comfortable, the cool air being directed at the top of the head and slowly falling down from this level. And I tend to catch cold easily from being directly exposed to the stream of cold air from a/c for a long time.
So, I’m with Paul here, and think that this a/c system could do its job quite decently. Still may not be the best option for the task of cooling down the entire car’s interior from 50 to 25 degrees C in several minutes, but that’s what they had at the time.
I agree that my comparisons with buildings may only be partially applicable.
There’s two more things that need to be considered: the vents don’t aim at the windshield at all, they aim directly back at the passengers. And another key factor is that unlike in modern cars, the base of the windshield (and vents) are quite close to the passengers. In a modern car, locating the vents at the base of the windshield would obviously not be a good idea, as they would be too far away and the air subject to the kind of heating that Tom presumes happens here. I strongly suspect that Tom is projecting what would likely happen in a modern car, where the windshield is like 2-3 feet away.
These vents are quite close to the passengers, and the quite upright windshield also reduces solar gain, so I think they’re almost ideally located.
Condensation? All air conditioned air has been dried in the process, and therefore is used in modern defrosters precisely for that reason: it dries the air near the windshield to keep condensation from forming. That’s why most/all modern defrost cycles automatically kick in the a/c, regardless of the temperature. Dried (air conditioned) air is much more effective for the purpose than just heated air.
I do a lot of HVAC for a living, and also teach the subject at our local community college.
I test drove a Tesla Model 3 back in August on a 100 degree day here in Texas. The linear dash outlet is one of the sweetest things I’ve experienced in automotive HVAC since my ‘65 Pontiac Star Chief with automatic temperature control. I’ve owned lots of vehicles since the Chief, each with various iterations of HVAC design. The worst ones had dash outlets at a sharp slant away from the passengers, to where when one attempted to adjust the air jet direction with the guide vanes, the air volume would diminish due to the outlet guide vanes acting like air dampers.
The Model 3, on the other hand, has a unique feature where the air flow can be fine tuned with the touch screen. I joked with the Tesla rep riding with me that the dash outlets alone were enough to get me to buy the car. Kidding….sort of….I take delivery later this week…hopefully. 🙂
As for the Merc’s dash outlet location above, Tom is not completely off-base with his concern about the cold air leaving the outlets being warmed before reaching the car occupants. This occurs primarily through entrainment of surrounding warm air into the supply jet (a venturi effect) which results in a mixed air temperature higher than the air temp leaving the diffuser outlets. Solar gain through the windshield would not be warming the air much in comparison to hot surfaces heating air in the car via conductive and convective heat transfer.
Entrainment is a contributing factor to why air leaving dash outlets when the car is first started does not feel very cold. We typically compensate for this by speeding up the blower. As the car air temperature pulls down, the supply jet gets colder, and the blower speed is reduced. The car interior surfaces are also cooling down, enhancing the perception of increasing thermal comfort. Air conditioning for comfort is a combination of lowering air temperature, humidity, and surface temperatures within the vehicle.
Speaking of humidity, I’ve measured car interior humidity levels with the a/c on and set for recirculation vs. fresh air intake. It can get quite low in comparison to humid conditions just outside of the car.
As for my vote on the Merc’s dash outlet effectiveness, I’d give it a better chance than many modern systems, especially if that Merc’s compressor was circulating R12. Amazing refrigerant, just nasty to the ozone layer.
Enjoy your M3! I’d really love to get one, and have come close to it a couple of times, as it is undoubtedly the most compelling and innovative car out there. It’s history in the making; a bit like buying a BMW 2002 in 1968, but even much more revolutionary.
But I just wouldn’t be able to use it enough to even vaguely justify it, not that it needs to be. Still….
Thanks! I agree with everything you said about the M3. It’s a fantastic car. Truly modern, innovative, and a game changer. It will make my 40 mile daily commute much more enjoyable.
To our future curbside classic, the Tesla Model 3!
I’d be happy to have you do a write-up on it, if you like. 🙂
Paul, I would be honored to contribute to your fine website. Curbside Classic has been one of my favorite go-to “comfort sites” during the long wait for my Model 3! 🙂
I agree that the location of the vents at the base of the windshield probably were quite effective in that car. It should be more effective than in dash vents in keeping the entire car cool as some can be directed up and over the front seat passengers. Solar gain was much less on the older cars thanks to mostly flat rather upright glass, even if there was much more glass. I know my Travelall has much less solar gain than a modern vehicle and it has a lot of glass.
As far as the condensation question, it will not be a problem on the inside of the windshield at all, the humidity in the incoming air will be condensed on the evaporator. Now condensation on the exterior of the windshield might be a problem.
Talking about the ’57-’60 Mercury’s striving for identity, the Mercury had beaten its richer older brother Lincoln to the punch in a few areas. Memory seat, parallel wipers, electric wipers and front mounted A/C were a few of the features not shared with the contemporary Lincoln. It was probably a reflection of the chaotic management structure at Ford, this would never have happened at a contemporary GM.
In 1940 GM introduced perhaps the most significant option of all time, Hydra-Matic transmission, not on the Cadillac but Oldsmobile. Seems GM was worried about sullying Cadillac’s image if it turned out to be a flop. Hugely successful, Cadillac featured it the next year.
The ’57-’60 Mercurys are interesting cars. Ford tried hard to give these their own identity, and in fact succeeded. They were far different from Ford, Edsel and Lincoln and offered the features you described. Trouble was the ’58 recession killed the upper medium car market and the public didn’t much care for them anyway. For ’61 it was back to being a deluxe Ford. Many of the features you mention made their way into the restyled ’61 Lincoln, so using a lesser brand as a guinea pig was in Ford’s playbook as well.
As to Ford’s management at the time, Thornton, McNamara and the rest of the Whiz Kids had long since brought the company into to 20th Century and Ernie Breech was a legendary auto executive. Infighting at the time perhaps, but HF II always had the good sense to hire strong number 2’s and give them authority.
That Mercury ventilation system is perfect for the 50s. That is a perfect smokers’ car. With various combinations of those vents and windows you could really control some thru air and create that positive pressure that forces ashes out of the slightly opened window. Two rear passengers could even smoke at the same time with that roll down back window.
Perhaps that explains why Mercury has been consigned to the ash heap of history…
I was 4 yrs old in 1957 when my grandfather bought a new Montclair. It lacked AC, but, OMG, that pushbutton transmission. wrap-around windshield, and gold-tinted aluminum rear trim ….. all in a pillar-less hardtop with hooded quad headlights, sent me to the moon.
Gramps wasn’t crazy about the dual exhausts, that needed to be replaced — each set, in alternate years,…… but I spent many hours in the drivers seat, pressing every button, toggle, and lever I could reach.
My ’78 Zephyr had dealer air installed. As I recall it worked well. Only time I saw a non-integrated system.
Always thought it odd that Ford went with the factory hang on unit as its only A/C option until 1965, years after its competitors had integrated systems. Same with that exposed transmission shift linkage they kept for far too long.
My uncle’s ’58 Cadillac with A/C had cowl outlets similar to the featured Lincoln. IIRC it was very cold and distributed the air just fine. An engineer friend told me that those early GM systems were more powerful than the typical room air conditioner of the day.
I hadn’t realized how pricey these were in ’57–as ritzy as a Ford loyalist could get before ascending to Lincoln territory (Edsel, of course, appeared for ’58):
The $3500, of course, included neither the A/C nor the continental kit–if price was no object:
My ’58 Mercury wagon had the AC setup shown. Contrary to your assumption, I remember the thing as working very well. The vent location was particularly handy for clearing windshield condensation almost instantly. The only problem I ever had was the compressor clutch required periodic brush replacement.
Having experience the ’56-’57 Lincoln A/C system with the vents overhead, I can verify that it was highly affective at cooling the inside of even the four door hardtop. I’ve yet to see one of these dash mounted systems on a ’57 or ’58 Mercury, the take rate must have been low indeed.
Underdash or ‘hang on” A/C has one great advantage. No metres of plastic ducting under a black dash top to get heat soaked. The evaporator is mere inches away from the ducting, so you get cool air faster. A mate had one in his ute. The combination of a small cabin, good old R-12 and under dash unit meant great cooling. It did tend to over cool the driver’s left knee on a long trip though.
How well did the did the defrost function work on ‘57 Fords and Mercury’s with the factory SelectAire set up? Those vents look like they would direct air away from the windshield. No defrost label on the ‘57 Ford’s controls. The ‘58 Ford do have “defrost “ on their controls. Was there a problem with the ‘57s?
I have recently acquired both a 57-58 Ford factory A/C set up and one for the larger 57-58 Mercury. These are complete except for the dash board vents. Does anyone have those parts? Would consider even broken pieces for models to attempt to repro.
I am looking for the compressor mounting bracket for my 1956 Mercury Montclair if anyone would have this I would be interested in them.
Please email me at vernramey56@gmail.com
Woday1313@gmail.c
om my brother had a mercury with the air conditioning tubes in the rear.I was 8 years old we went to monterrey Mexico mh brother put his son’s baby bottles in the tube to keep the milk cold.
I have seen two 1957 Fords with factory air in the dash vents. A Ranchero and a retractable hardtop.
I was 9 years old when my father bought our 1956 Mercury Medalist “Phaeton” 4-door sedan, one of the reportedly 6685 made. It was the first automatic transmission car we had. It had a radio (am, of course) but otherwise no options. No power steering, no power brake, only dog-dish hubcaps, and certainly no AC. Like all ‘56 Mercs, it had a 312 cid Y-block with a 4 barrel carb. Ours was one of the 40% that had a Carter with vacuum secondaries instead of a Holley unit. Rated at 210 hp with 312 fp torque, it was considered a hot item in its day, theoretically capable of hurdling its more than 3500 lbs to 60 mph in a tic under 10 seconds. Riding in the back seat with the windows down and no B-pillar, the lack of AC was never a problem.
I saw a Cadillac (55 I think) that had a/c. Pretty simple (sort of) . Most of the a/c system was in the trunk. It had ducts that went through the package tray and into the roof and was ducted out front and back on both sides. How’d it work? I don’t know but it was discontinued pretty soon after that.
Early model Honda Civics (1970s vintage) had the same AC outlets along the base of the windshield. I system behind those outlets was undoubtedly different, but at least in how the air was delivered, the systems were superficially similar.
56 Pontiac had in dash AC similar to today’s units. I had one I bought in 1995 and restored. The AC was overbuilt!
It would freeze you in the car in Texas in August.
IIRC Pontiac had modern “all under the hood” A/C in 1954, with vents in the dash, while Buick, Olds, and Cadillac and others still had the trunk set – ups. Also IIRC Nash Rambler introduced their advanced integrated “Weather Eye”! A/C system in ’54, it was simple, efficient, and relatively low – cost compared to other rigs… everything was compact, under the hood; vents were on top of the dash…
Saw a sticker on a 65 Mustang and a V8 and an auto were 85 and 89 dollars. So $400 in 57 for AC is a lot of money.
I remember not having AC not to be a serious problem now in my dotage I need it all the time .
A lot of good info to be culled here .
I want to get the AC on my 1982 Mercedes 240D going again, I’m going to use a odern Freon and am not sure what pressures I need to look for high/low .
-Nate