(first posted 9/12/2016) Right off the bat, I want to make it clear that I’m not poking fun at the driver of what could be referred to as a “transportation car” LTD. A lot of us have been in a similar place, where we had to be seen (sometimes regularly) behind the wheel of something unattractive that would seem to fill up almost the entire width of a lane or parking space. Conversely, some of us dealt with a secondhand econobox that could barely move under its own power. Others of us drove Mom’s or Dad’s dull, former family sedan in great condition that was painfully reliable, as in, it just refused to die, no matter how hard we tried to kill it. Still others of us drove a hoopty.
Hoopty (n.) – a vehicle in poor condition, often large and boatlike, and usually aided by duct tape and/or bungee cords. This was my favorite definition of that time-honored term as taken from “Urban Dictionary” online. Look at this Ford. The corrosion on the rear quarter panel makes me want to scratch the corners of my mouth with my pinky fingernails as if I had eaten too many Funyuns or salty potato chips. Ouch. In this case, “LTD” might stand for “Lurching Toward Death”, but I honestly don’t think this car is headed to the scrapyard anytime soon. There sounded to be plenty of life left in this car, judging by the decisive, steady lugga-lugga sound of what was likely a smog-choked, 148-hp, 351 2-bbl. V8 chugging through its exhaust as it crossed the intersection.
This was a nice car at some point. It’s not a Brougham or a Landau, as it had the exposed headlights, but it still has a nice landau-style vinyl roof treatment and (at least two of) its standard wheel covers. I’ll also say that contrary to some opinions, the overall styling of this coupe really doesn’t bother me. This may be more of a sentimental attachment I have for these big Fords, as my grandparents had a similar-era, mint-green LTD in the late 70’s that Grandpa used to tow their fifth wheel camper trailer between Ohio and Florida. (Grandpa once backed that LTD into a ditch near St. Louis with our whole family in it, and as the story goes, a four-year-old me refused to get “back in that crazy car” for a few minutes after a kind, neighboring farmer had pulled the LTD out with his tractor.) The opera window on the “pillared hardtop” coupes does look goofy, but no worse to my eyes than some other weird window treatments of that period.
The condition of this car in present day still has me somewhat confused, seeming as it does like a rolling time capsule from, say, 1984, when many LTDs of this vintage in the Midwest looked like this one. Was this originally Grandpa’s well-kept retirement car that was passed to Mom or Dad when Grandpa couldn’t drive anymore, which then got passed to the grandson behind the wheel (perhaps after sitting in a garage for a few years)? Certainly, any person born in the decade between 1975 and ’85 (which the driver looked to be) could have selected a more economical way to get around, even with only a few bills to spend on a transportation car. I’m going with “family heirloom”.
I honestly don’t remember the lack of a rear bumper on these cars as being as common an affliction as on, for example, Olds Cutlasses of that period, but I’ll say that I would have hated to be behind this thing in traffic when that giant, chrome railroad tie clunked off. I think that the rear-quarter view of this car presents one of its more flattering aspects, with those outboard, Lincoln-like taillight pods flanking that ensemble in the center of the trunk comprised of that reflector strip, the backup lights, and that vinyl strip of gingerbread connecting them. I honestly hope the car’s purchase price (if not a free gift) is not currently outpaced by that of its cost of operation. Nonetheless, this LTD put a smile on my face, and seemed to be doing a fine job of getting its pilot from here to there. In most cases, that’s really all you can ask of your hoopty.
Rogers Park, Chicago, Illinois.
Friday, June 17, 2016.
I’ve never seen rust like that on a car that is still in use here.
Welcome to Illinois, where there are actually cars in worse shape on the road. The only inspection in the six-county area (Chicagoland) is for emissions, and that’s every two years. Odds are, this guys wins almost all the battles in the area as the beater is given right-of-way first.
And elsewhere in Illinois, there are no inspections of any sort; my parents still live there and my father’s ’98 Dodge Ram has never been inspected. Illinois did require annual inspections for pickups, but that ceased sometime in the early 80s if memory serves.
Shhhh!
They will figure out this is another great way to get money from us and employee their friends and family members.
We don’t see cars that rusted anymore, but back when 70s iron were still being daily driven, this was not unusual in my area. I remember cars worse then this running around. Modern cars have better rust resistance and usually get junked before the bodies get really bad due to some repair being more than the car is worth.
Was that Uncle Buck’s car?
1975-77 Mercury Marquis.
http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_11993-Mercury-Marquis-Brougham-1977.html
That was the first thing I thought of too, given the large gold coupe-ness of it, but Buck’s was indeed a Marquis.
The recent TV reboot of Uncle Buck, which I’ve not watched but have seen commercials for, has him in a box Caprice. If I were car-casting I would have gone for a Panther Grand Marquis instead, particularly a late coupe, but I think most people don’t care about that degree of accuracy…
Tetanus on wheels!
I felt like I needed a shot from just photographing it.
I’m sure this is what my ’73 Galaxie 500 would have looked like by now if I’d kept it. When I bought it in Montana, the quarters on both sides had been proficiently repaired with paint and filler a season or two previously but rust was already starting to poke thru again. Somewhere, something got plugged up and water started accumulating in the wheel wells. I discovered this when I reached down into the wheel well for my bag of tools and came back with rusty wrenches dripping with water. Literally a wheel _well_, huh? lol
I last saw it 11 years ago (damn, time flies) being hauled off on a trailer.
Having had to use Pittsburgh’s lackluster public transportation system, I also never “Poked fun” at any one’s “hoopty”…. They have the luxury of not waiting an hour in 14° cold for the bus! When I got my first car the word “hoopty” wasn’t current, but I sure had my share of “old bombs”! (same definition!)
The localization of rust is odd. Normally salt-rust gets the rockers first, then both fenderwells. This car looks like the rear has been exposed for 10 years longer than the middle or front.
This pattern is very typical for these. Most in the snow belt looked like this after 5 or so years.
Oh yeah. Regular pattern, evidenced by our 66 Mercury Montclair and annual treatments with bondo and paint by the 14-15 year old me in the Mid West [Davenport IA to be exact].
That long rear overhang starts getting rock chips, then exposure to salt, wet muck and water. A perfect environment for rust blossoms to start blooming.
The rockers on my ’73 were still solid in 2005. Anything past the door frame was reverting to oxide, however
It seems like American cars started using galvanized steel in the rockers by the early 60s. In my midwestern youth, the rockers were the last things to go. Rear quarters, dogleg panel (ahead of the rear wheel), lower front fenders were all prime spots for 60s rust. By the 70s, they had added lower doors, lower trunk lid and (especially at GM) the areas around the back window.
Rusty rockers started showing up in the early 90s with the Explorer, Aerostar and then almost everything else built in the USA. 90s Centuries and LeSabres are almost always sporting swiss-cheezy rockers around here.
I call it the Ford pattern. Everything they made at least into the 2000s (the final midsize Taurus being the latest so far) rusts in that manner – Falcons/Fairlanes/Mustangs/Pinto, ect. You even see it on later cars like the Fox and MN12s commonly as well. Even mine, which has a mostly clean body shell, the rear IRS assembly looks like it was salvaged from the Titanic, the front suspension and crossmember on the other hand looks like it spent it’s whole life in Arizona.
I’ve always noticed this being distinctive on Fords. GMs rust out in a seemingly random nature where big splotches appear in the middle of exterior panels, and Mopars simply rust from bow to stern equally and entirely
Don’t forget the very particular case of downsized GM B-bodies, which would prematurely develop heavy surface rust on all the horizontal surfaces as soon as they started sun fading. It wasn’t uncommon at all to see a Delta 88 or LeSabre whose paint scheme had turned into a two-tone of “rust over original color”.
I had almost forgotten about that until I saw in recent weeks a Ninety Eight and a Parisienne that were both so afflicted.
Oddly, it didn’t seem to happen to Cadillacs. Perhaps their paint was finished differently.
Oh they did it, too. Here’s an old picture of an 85 Fleetwood Brougham I acquired for the princely sum of $0. The body work was not my own. Surprisingly, the HT4100 ran well, but they couldn’t get it running. Turned out to be rotted fuel lines.
Wow, that 85 caddy looks like it has leprosy.
Oh, I wasn’t saying they didn’t rust at all–just that they didn’t get that particular “horizontal surface rust” pattern that seemed to particularly afflict Olds and Buick.
Oh and so you did. Apologies. Well, the hood on this long-since-gone Brougham was aluminum, if my memory serves me well.
A friend’s grandfather had a 68 Impala SS that rusted out like that, just the rear fenders, trunk floor, and rear frame. Among his many jobs, he was a farmer. He hauled fertilizer in the trunk of the Impala which lead to the rust issues.
Rodney, My 1972 Impala post sedan leaked water through the rear back light into the trunk. I used clear caulking (not artfully applied) to try to stem the flow but I also had to open up drain holes in the wells behind the rear wheels. Most full size Chevrolets of that era had the visible caulking around the rear window trim, so I assume it was not just mine. This issue may have present going back to your friend’s grandfather. Add fertilizer to the mix and that might have been one aromatic 1968 Impala SS.
The first thing I thought of when I saw Joseph’s post this A.M. was “… even Fords had water leaking into the trunk” and “should have punched some drain holes”.
While water is needed for life, it is very rough on cars, wooden boats (above the water line), wood houses, and most insidious of all, those tall white brick buildings in NYC that builders were putting up in the middle of the 20th century. No one uses white coated bricks anymore for good reason.
Rlplaut: same with my 63 Valiant which spent all it’s life in AZ and CA: trunk floor, lower rear quarters. I am certain it was primarily from water leaks from dried out weatherstripping.
I once saw a guy at the laundromat in LA swabbing out the trunk of his 63 after a big rain storm [when LA actually got rain…].
that reminds me of New York state in about 1983
On the LTD. I miss the time when cars were designed to convey dignity on the driver. That this made it to a mass market car like the big Ford is especially impressive. The trim choices show that Ford understood they were aiming at an unsophisticated crowd but still the formal lines convey maturity. That is something that went away from future generations, who seem to have difficulty with the concept of adulthood. Car designs have changed to reflect that.
On this cars condition. It pretty clearly makes the case for older cars having to pass thorough inspections. The durable drivetrains often outlast a cars rust resistance, but cars like this will fail if they have to make an emergency swerve or a sudden stop. The owner may not use it often or just can’t afford to fix it, so takes the chance.
Dignity is in the eye of the eye of the beholder, and I suspect I wasn’t the only one in 1975 for whom this car didn’t quite convey dignity. Presumably dignity and other qualities that cars might convey to others is all about context. If you were driving this in certain locations, perhaps. In others, not so much so.
Precisely. Back in the late ’80’s one of my college jobs was as a QC inspector in a factory. A guy I worked closely with (Korean War vet, lifelong blue collar rough-and-tumble factory worker) waxed poetically about an LTD Landau of this vintage that he’d owned before the ’84 Tempo he was driving when I knew him. His buddy used to “pshaw” his recollections, calling the LTD an eyesore in favor of the Cordoba he himself had owned at the same time (he was then driving a J-car Buick Skyhawk). It’s about the audience. The eye of the beholder indeed. Cars like this LTD were the fanciest and most ostentatious things a certain generation of Americans could afford to own during their driving years, as all that “luxury” was mainstream at the time. For my friend Jack that long-gone LTD was the car of a lifetime. Sad? Maybe. But he likely went to his grave looking at that car as the high point in his automotive life.
What is so sad about it?
These were never my favorites, but I have to admire the way it continues to burble from here to there despite its many problems. This was, to me, the essence of American cars, the ability to keep pounding out the miles long after it should have been declared dead.
Insightful, JP. I wonder what a 2016 Impala would look and function like in 2056.
It won’t make it. Some electronic malady will sideline it and cost as much to repair as a good down payment on a $50,000 2036 Corolla, therefore leading to being recycled. But we’ll still see a lovingly cared for ’55 Chevy being gently driven to a local car show.
Imagine having a 100 year old car! Makes me want to look for a 1916 Model T
MarcKyle64, I agree with you – and I also thank you for part of the premise of my next piece. 🙂
Saw a ’14 T (according to the spare cover) on the road a few months back, taking place in a vintage rally. It was a sobering experience, to drive past a car more than a hundred years old – kind of put me in my place, and made me wonder about my ’00 Mitsubishi Diamante’s future.
What a wonderful blast from the past! These used to nearly have Cockroach status, then suddenly one day they were all gone. I can think of four to five of them that existed (purchased new or near new) in the small southern Illinois town where I grew up.
None ever developed cancer as bad as this poor old girl.
However, if it has life in it, use it. Despite putting out a pitifully low amount of power, the drivetrains in these cars were highly durable.
Jason, you should have seen me scramble to get my lens cap off that day. That was also my experience – that these cars were everywhere and then nowhere, overnight.
Some of my favorite neighbors ever, the Kemps in Flint, had a beautiful Country Squire wagon that always looked (and felt) like an expensive, upper-middle-class machine. To my young eyes, it was a truly beautiful automobile. I realize that comparing the coupe to the vaunted Country Squire is a bit of a stretch, but
I guess my point (there is one! LOL) is that along with the associations with the Kemps and my grandparents, I always thought of these cars as reasonably attractive – perhaps because of those associations.
Reasonably attractive is a good way of putting it. Never my favorite big Ford, it did what big Ford’s were supposed to do – get you there with as little fuss and as comfortably as possible.
All that said, since my earlier comment, I remember riding in yet another LTD of this vintage that belonged to my mother’s cousin. She was the school secretary, one of the umpteen relatives that worked where I went to kindergarten through 12th grade.
Anyway, their’s was a white sedan with a red interior. She brought me home once and that was the only time I rode in that car. The most memorable thing? It was the first time I ever saw cruise control in a car. I asked about it and she set it at 60 or so mph. Half the trip was a paved county road that had some undulations (which were really pronounced in a Chevrolet C-60 school bus); that Ford just wafted over those imperfections at that pre-determined 60 to 62 mph. That is all I remember from that car – that, and it went away for an Olds Delta 88 diesel that was one of the good ones. It was purchased as her father (my great-uncle) had purchased one, which was another good one.
These cars remind me of being at a Ford dealership in the mid-seventies and seeing a big, medium blue LTD Landau sedan. I forget how much it was, I just remember seeing it while my mother was looking at a new…whatever. I think it was an LTD she was looking at, but it wasn’t the top-of-the-line Landau model.
I had the 1975 LTD brochure and I remember thinking how many LTDs came with a sunroof like the one in the brochure. Personally, I have NEVER seen a seventies LTD with this option.
1975 Ford LTD Landau sedan:
These used to be everywhere, and it’s easy to see why. They definitely have a Thunderbird vibe going, but for a lot less coin. I’d guess they were in the top 10 best sellers, maybe the top 5 of the day.
There’s one of these here in Jacksonville, albeit a 4 door, that would be reasonably attractive if it wasn’t painted a “banana creme pie” shade of yellow.
Even though I now drive a Crown Victoria, I lost interest in big Fords between 1969 and 1979….just too big and slab-sided. On the other hand, Mercurys of this time period exude enough “class” to be mistaken for their Lincoln cousins. I’d own a 72 Mercury Marquis, but the equivalent Ford? Not so sure, I’d have to take it on a case by case basis and no 2 door cars.
Ugh! A flood of memories from the 1978 4 door LTD my paternal grandmother bought new and had until 1998. It was green, green and green all over. Paint, vinyl top, seats, carpet, dash, even the steering wheel. The burble of that choked down 400 lazily accelerating is one I will never forget. In the late 1990s, when I was just entering the “need to look cool” early teenage years and that car was not. I remember hating seeing it on accasion in the school carpool line and sitting in the rear floor so no one would see me in the car when we circled the mall.
I think it’s great to see this old boat still sailing the asphalt seas. Perhaps the owner is strapped financially, but that’s not the only conceivable reason. It’s also possible that they are enjoying a classic that still drives well with a lower entry price. Here in the northern states, the tinworm is nigh inevitable, especially in vehicles before the mid 90s. I have an 82 C10 that looks even worse than this Ford but still runs and drives perfectly. I enjoy it for what it is, and the fact that it’s a true Curbside Classic: you can still see it on the Google Street View image parked in front of its former owner’s house.
https://www.google.com/maps/@42.2570933,-84.3927623,3a,47.2y,312.42h,70.73t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s7R1xC_ZfO29MfxiFiNSJ-w!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!6m1!1e1
I agree. This car is not likely a real hoopty, but the best shot at a “classic” the owner can currently afford. Anyway, he can’t see the rust; all he sees is a 5 acre hood in front of him, a giant soft sofa of a seat, a giant vintage dashboard, and some guy on the street excitedly taking pictures of him as he burbles down the street in utter bliss. Denial is not a river.
And the Flow Through ventilation has to be much better than stock. 🙂
A classic “curbside classic” RUSTBUCKET here in the salt belt. Nice to see one to have survived so long after manufacture. Nice.
A neighbor in Cortland, NY had a ’75 LTD 2-door coupe with NO REAR QUARTERS.
NO. rear quarters.
They had rusted away, and the side trim somehow hung onto the back of the still-intact door frame at the front. And at the rear, the side marker light was attached to that same piece of trim.
This was in 1984.
The LTD in this write-up is a miracle as far as I’m concerned.
Chas, that’s awesome… I’m still trying to get the visual of the lack of rear quarter panels!
Add me to those who hated this generation of cars, and the big Fords in particular. I knew and loved the cars of the 60’s which were, well, beautiful and powerful. This generation were all ugly and emasculated. The slab-sided cars seemed an especially cynical insult to me. Styled, and perhaps even stylish, yeah, but designed to be manufactured as cheaply as possible. Those flat body panels could be stamped out by any home-siding company. These cars were no more than pick-up trucks with different sheet metal and a KMart bordello furnishings department interior. An “EasyBake Oven” version of a real car, if you will.
That this one is still running is not surprising as those big V-8’s with automatic transmission were less stressed than a goverment employee, and the the suspension design had had all the bugs worked out since its first appearance in 1933 or so. That it hasn’t already rusted into the earth is indeed an interesting story. It I remember correctly, these cars were of the generation before Ford body panels were galvanized, and most in my part of the North East started rusting through after four years or so…..
“…those big V-8’s with automatic transmission were less stressed than a government employee…”.
Love it!
YUP! Far as Im concerned, the engine/trans should be scavenged, stripped of anti smog junk and stuffed into a bronco or truck of similar vintage. The rest of the car can hit the heap.
The missing back bumper was common on Ford, Mercury and Lincolns of this Era in the rust belt. The cheap fix was to bolt up a 4×6 timber to act as a bumper to pass inspection.
Yes, some states require bumpers but what constitutes a bumper is left to the imagination. If a fancy, contoured, varnished hardwood beam on a customized pickup truck can legally be a bumper, why not a plain, rough-hewn 4×6? But on this Ford, what would one bolt it to?
Not much much point to even adding the 4×6 in Illinois. There is no inspection for the car beyond emissions every 2 years. I’ve seen photos that Paul has put up of vehicles that get towed away in Oregon, and I can’t help but think that here, near Chicago, that’s still considered driveable. We had a late 1990s Toyota Camry here on the block that had its right quarter panel smashed in. Someone was using it as a daily driver, even in that condition where the driver couldn’t use the trunk! Rogers Park has some like this, but if Joseph went down to the South Side, there’s a lot more vehicles in this exact condition.
I think that the rear-quarter view of this car presents one of its more flattering aspects, with those outboard, Lincoln-like taillight pods flanking that ensemble in the center of the trunk comprised of that reflector strip, the backup lights, and that vinyl strip of gingerbread connecting them.
That, sir, is the most flattering description of this car’s rear end that anyone has ever written. 🙂
So that’s what that is, between the tail lights: “gingerbread”. Perfect. It does rather look like a rolling gingerbread house that has been nibbled on, more than a wee bit.
When my dad brought home his ’76 LTD, I would sometimes stare at the trim on the trunk lid and try and figure it out.
I never did.
Same with the similar trim on the back of my Dad’s 78 Town Coupe. It reminded me of something from a Frigidaire or Maytag.
Hahaha!! So many hilarious responses in this thread today…
I hit vintage and thrift stores fairly regularly, and that strip of vinyl on the trunk (to JP’s point above) looks like something from a Rubbermaid kitchen object from the 70’s.
I tried to imagine what the trunk would look like without that ensemble on it, or how different it could have looked. I actually prefer the ’75 restyle to the original 1973 – ’74 look.
You might already know this, but that strip of “vinyl” was actually hard plastic embossed with a vinyl grain. Which gets even funnier when you figure that vinyl can be flat or grained, the grain trying to imitate leather.
Even better, that hard strip of pure, natural imitation vinyl was usually color keyed to the vinyl top, if the car had one. The high trim Landau LTD’s doubled down on this trim, using the grained color keyed plastic as inserts in full body side length mouldings. (The Landau used a grill textured insert in place of the plastic / vinyl thing on the trunk lid. That was also a head scratcher for me.)
I may sound a bit condescending toward these cars, but its not my intention. I like Broughams, and wouldn’t mind a fully loaded ’76 LTD Landau in my driveway. But, as a kid, looking at that trim would sometimes blow my mind – if the stuff had been actual grained leather, it would have disintegrated in a year in a town like your Chicago.
To my fellow Brougham appreciators, I think we have to admit that Ford’s plastic imitation vinyl / imitation leather trim may not have been one of their Better Ideas. But, at least from 20 feet away, all you could see was the color, and not the grain, and ignore the part of your brain that wondered what they were thinking.
I agree that the later versions of this generation full sized Ford looked better. My step grandmother, Momma Dora, had a ’77 LTD Landau 4-door pillared hardtop and I definitely preferred it to my Granddaddy Will’s ’73 LTD.
That strip in between the tail lights was a strange one though–as Dave B points out, on the Landau it was sort of a grille-like insert, made of plastic. Mama Dora had backed her LTD into a post at some point, putting a nice “v” shaped dent into the back bumper and cracking that plastic reflector/grille panel. She never bothered to have it fixed… like a Timex watch, I think the mentality was “it takes a licking and keeps on ticking.”
Another goofy piece of plastic ornamentation was on the headlamp covers of the LTD Landau. It had a stack of 3 stylized lions (!) with matching filigree on each side. I remember staring at those as a kid and thinking WTF? before I even knew what WTF meant…
Those lions actually had quite a bit of Ford heritage, but Ford’s brand police could be a little lax in enforcing how and when they were used. My Dad’s base ’76 LTD had the lions on the wheel cover centers. I too wondered what they had to do with Ford, but they actually have quite a history.
Lions on the 1959 Ford hood emblem…………
Even the base, fleet LTD’s had the filler panel on the rear. No plain look on the taxis and cop cars.
In the US for only one model year, 1975, was a Custom 500 offered, due to recession. But still had the LTD cues.
I’ve always figured they were trying to emulate 60’s ford products that had a “rear grille” treatment. Kind of a Ford tradition, after a fashion–think ’61 to ’64 Continental, Galaxie, Monterey. This is the broughamy 70’s revival of that detail.
I’ve seen the “rear grills” on a lot of ’60s stuff, and the ’59 Cadillac may have been one of the more blatant. But, that stuff was a lot of highly stylized white metal and stainless, and didn’t shout “grill” quite the way the egg crate trim did on the back of the LTD Landau. And, I’m hard pressed to think of another ’70s car that did this.
Not my favorite, by a long shot, but because it’s a big 2-door I’ll give it a pass, as there just aren’t enough big old coupes (or 2-door sedans, I’ll leave it to the rest to debate that point) left running around. Who knows what motivates this guy to drive this thing, or whether he’s delusional enough to think he’ll restore her someday, but as long as it runs, why not? Good for him.
We have a few of those around here. Never saw them until just lately and they’re all in decent shape. If I could figure out how too and have a camera phone handy I’ll take some pics before they’re put away for winter.
Funny you mention the Cutlass bumper. I was driving a ’76 Cutlass when my Dad was driving a ’76 LTD four door in the same trim as the subject car.
My rear bumper started coming off when using the bumper jack. The huge thick gage inner support beam would eat salt water all winter, and rust like there was no tomorrow. I installed a replacement beam myself. For what it was worth, I put a couple of coats of wax on the beam before putting it in.
The bumper on Dad’s LTD held up quite well.
My grandfather had a 1973/74 LTD coupe that he cherished. It was also used to tow a nice pop-up camper that he and my grandmother would tow all over North Carolina for traveling. My brother and I accompanied them on a couple of trips in the LTD and slept in the camper.
Brian, that sounds like a similar experience to mine! I wish my grandpa was alive so I could ask him how well his LTD towed their camper, and what it had under the hood. I was upset when they sold that camper to buy a house in Florida.
My folks pulled a large tandem axle pop-up camper with our ’76 LTD. The car itself was loaded with 5 people, a full trunk – and for improved aero dynamics and weight distribution, a big rooftop carrier!
We had the base 351 2bbl, and it was every bit the dog people claim it was – even with just a driver and no trailer and no luggage.
But, with an after market transmission cooler, the car pulled the trailer just fine. The displacement of those ’70s smoggers was sufficient for a decent torque curve, it just took a while to get our parade up to speed. But, once there, it would cruise all day at extra legal speeds and hills were no problem.
Counterpoint:
Very nice!
+1 – that’s gorgeous. In this shade of blue and in profile, this LTD’s lines look graceful.
It’s much nicer in that shade of blue.
That, right there, is a car made for the whitewall tires it is sporting.
These were pretty sharp when done up in the right colour combo.
I saw this one at a car show this summer. It was so clean you could’ve eaten off the air cleaner.
Gorgeous car–but it highlights a pet peeve of mine when people have these sorts of informational placards blocking part of the car! I love to see some info, but geez, get an easel or something.
[/rant]
The front fenders are starting to go, too. Soon, all that will be left will be the doors, roof and hood – and what more do you need, right 😛
“Hooptie”…now that brings me right back to about 1991 when I was a junior in H.S. and at that time I actually did listen to a fair amount of rap music. Sir Mix A Lot still holds up now, and supposedly he’s still bouncing around Seattle. I dated a girl who worked at a Home Depot up there, and Sir was a regular customer…she said he was a super cool guy who always made time for fans.
This car is definitely a hooptie. As some have said, this looks like a scene right out of the late 80’s or early 90s.
Awesome. I actually thought about linking the video for “My Hooptie”. I’m glad someone else roughly my age thought of the same reference. I’d say my favorite Mix-A-Lot tune is probably the “Square Dance Rap”.
When I see rust damage like this, I so appreciate having always lived on the West Coast away from the beach. With no rust to contend with, it makes owning a CC for decades easy!
Best not drive this LTD very fast over railroad tracks or speed bumps, or the one intact car may turn into 2.
Question. How do you tow a 5th wheel trailer with in LTD? The hitch normally is mounted to the frame into the rear of a pickup.
There is the VW Beetle with the roof mounted goose neck hitch and small 5th wheel travel trailer from the ’70’s on U Tube.
That was my question, also. Perhaps welded to the trucklid was a hitch ball?
That would have been ordered off the road years ago here WOF inspectors have become anal about rust none is permitted and especially structural rust like that heap has.
I love this article. It has taught me a new word – “hoopty”, which I needed in my life. The only way in which I would previously have been able to describe this idiom would have been “Uncle Buck-esque”.
A long-held ambition of mine is to buy a “hoopty” upon moving to Minnesota, partly to wind up my disapproving, materialistic in-laws. An LTD is unrealistic nowadays, so I thought I would settle for a P71 Crown Vic. Ideally black and white, so I can fill in the white portions with my own “artwork”.
I think this guy is actually an artist – why drive a showroom example of this model? It looks perfect the way he has it.
I remember my jaw dropping the first time I went to Minnesota and saw cars like this, which would get you pulled over in the UK. The best was an Econoline which someone had “repaired” by seemingly cutting the rusty wheelarches off with a blunt tin opener.
Looks like this LTD sat for awhile and was brought out of its garage 7-10 years ago, and started rusting late in life.
We’ve come a long way in rust protection. Granted it’s not so bad down here in the mid-Atlantic/Southeast, but it still used to be common seeing cars sporting serious rust by the time they hit 10 years old or so. Now? My ’97 Crown Vic, which has never been garaged in its entire life (and washed somewhat infrequently to boot), doesn’t have a speck of rust on the body. I haven’t looked underneath recently, but I imagine the frame/suspension isn’t bad either.
I do give the driver credit for rolling in his hoopty with pride though. If the driver was elderly, it could be a car that he bought long ago and now cannot afford to trade or repair, but for someone under, say, 50, driving a ’75 LTD is a choice. Even if it is dissolving. Maybe it’s an old barge bought for a few hundred dollars of cheap fun until something breaks, maybe it’s Grandpa’s old car that they family hasn’t wanted to get rid of, or maybe something else entirely. But it’s a reminder of a bygone time in more ways than one.
The ’73-’78 big Fords seemed to have some improvments in rust protection – an area where Ford takes a deserved beating in the ’60s.
Our family had one of these Fords, as did several of our neighbors. They seemed to plug away longer and better than the ’60s vintage cars they typically replaced.
At some point, this salty Chicago Ford suffered water infiltration into the trunk / rear quarters, perhaps not even top down. I recall cars in this era would sometimes rust / leak a tiny hole where the rear fender liner was welded to the trunk floor behind the wheel. This was the kiss of death as salty water would be force sprayed into that area all winter – and if the trunk didn’t drain, you had a disaster on your hands.
I kept a close eye on several older cars I had, and this problem would develop. I’d clean everything up, and spray rubberized undercoating over the leak, sometimes an annual maintenance step, and that kept the trunk dry for the duration of ownership.
I’m always willing to fight the uphill battle in favor of old cars but rust protection is inarguable. It took a very long time for automakers to figure out proper platings, coatings, paints, splash shields and drainage, really I don’t think it was truly solved across the board until 10 or so years ago. 4th gen Taurus, Escorts and First gen Focus, W body Impalas, and most Nissans made before 2006ish I’ve seen in conditions comparable to this LTD here in salty Chicagoland.
This is one case where I prefer the 4 door version. Never did like that oddball quarter window arrangement. The 4 doors on the other hand were quite handsome. There’s a ’78 LTD 4 door for sale not too far from me that’s in spectacular all original condition and quite reasonably priced, too bad I have nowhere to keep it 🙁 .
I had a ’76 LTD Landau 4-door pillared hardtop back in the early ’80s. Loaded, of course, with the 460 and the trailer towing package. It handled beautifully for a big ol’ car and could actually achieve 18 MPG pretty easily, if you kept your foot out of it.
One of the interesting things to me about my particular car is that it had synthetic cashmere (Kasman II) upholstery. Quite swanky and hard wearing, if a bit of a challenge to keep clean in Light Gold as mine was.
Of course, being here in California, it never rusted.
And, BTW, only the LTD Landau had hidden headlamps. The easiest way to tell if it was a Brougham was to look for full lower body/rocker panel moldings, front to rear, with neither the base car or the Landau had.
I now need to look up “Kasman II” upholstery to see what it looks like.
And thanks so much for the pointer RE: the Landau’s headlamp doors. I’ll put that in my mental file cabinet. 🙂
For a look at the Light Gold interior my car had (it is the optional Landau Luxury Group interior), see below. Unfortunately, you can’t see the embroidered scroll work on the upper seat backs. Very Broughamtastic.
Intersting so was the landau or brougham the top line model?
An extra ~$350 (~$1,500 / adjusted) over the $5,100 (~$23,000 / adjusted) price of a ’75 Brougham 2-door got you into the top-line Landau 2-door.
Seeing how good that blue, ’75 Landau posted above looks, it might have been money well-spent.
My father had a ’76 4-door pillared hardtop (LTD Brougham) from ’76 till ’79 when he finally upgraded to a Cadillac. The 400 cubic inch engine in the Ford tried…..it really tried to motivate the car, but compared to mom’s ’74 Caprice with a 400 cubic inch, the Ford was slow and ponderous as hell and pinging could be heard if you were aggressive with the accelerator. If you were climbing a long grade on the highway like the Grapevine, the car was frantically revving in second gear, wheezing and pinging it’s way up the incline at 50 mph – the gas gauge steadily heading towards “E”. The high center of gravity meant the car scraped the side view mirrors on the pavement if I tried to round a corner too quick, stopping took forever and the wishy-washy steering offered no feedback. Compared to the Chevy, I thought it was a POS. But it had a comfortable ride, that HUGE deep well trunk (24 cu. ft. approx), the air conditioning blew cold driving through the Arizona desert and it was comfortable to ride in.
The LTD and mom’s Caprice were the cars I learned to drive in. I also learned how to use the bulk of those cars to my advantage when trying to get out of the LA Coliseum parking lot after a football game. If no one wanted to let us in, Dad would say “Just keep coming and don’t even look at him”. “He’s driving his Jaguar/Mercedes/BMW and he doesn’t want your bumper to mess up his sheet metal – he’ll back off and let you in.” He was right too !!
Dad could easily afford – and had looked at – a 450SEL. He bought the LTD because he didn’t want his customers to think he was too prosperous and stop doing business with him. “Foreign cars” were risky too because of the union workers at the aerospace plants, power plants, copper mines, etc. that he called on. The Chevy’s engine had to be overhauled at 54,000 miles, whereas the Fords he drove never needed overhauling, so he stuck with Fords.
Eventually some of his friends in business convinced him that at age 50, he had earned a nice car and no one would look down on him if he showed up at their offices driving one. So he got rid of the Ford and bought the Cadillac. He drove Caddys until 1997 before finally treating himself to a Mercedes E320.
I the 2 a coupe and a sedan same color blue as the pictures. They were great cars. The coupe had a desmogged 400 and had decent power and was good on gas. 18-27 mpg. It was reliable and sturdy. It had fender skirts. I think those are black cats on the back up lights and headlight covers. It almost never broke down. It was a good quality car. Only weak point was the armrests on the giant doors broke.
The sedan had a desmogged 460 and had great power. It cost 600$ and lasted me 14 years and my friend 3. My boss called it a hooptie. It was great in snow and rode good and was reliable. I like these. They were much nicer than the competition, easy to get extra power from, just advance the cam 8 degrees, gut the cats, disconnect her and the spark delay, add some 3.55 gears and dual exhaust and it wakes them up. My coupe was mint and the sedan was a hooptie. Somewhere along the line it lost the flip up lights and got a 73 galaxie. 500 front clip and a base trunk lid. It was painted mausoleum blue with a white top with Lincoln turbine wheels and a hood ornament off a continental. It served me well.
I have driven one or two such “intimidation mobiles” in my time. The larger the better. Want to make a lane change? Just go for it. Taffic will move out of your way and sometimes part like the red sea to avoid contact with the rusty, dented and sometimes primer blotched “I don’t give a crap about another scuff” machine. Drive it ’till it dies or a ten day repair it ticket, whichever comes first.
I was never into the big Fords of this era. To me they looked like shoe boxes with wheels. My friend’s father bought a ’75 LTD back in the early 80s. It was a nice car. Low mileage and pristine condition it was like riding your sofa anywhere you wanted to go. “Handles like a couch on casters” is how he described it. It was there for a while and then it was gone. I didn’t even notice when it went away.
While this was never one of my favorite era of the Ford LTD’s looking at this era of the Ford LTD’s takes me back to the late 80’s/early 90’s when there were still many of these cars on the road over in Southeastern Washington State, I prefer the Ford LTD’s over the pre-1977 GM biggies (especially the 2 door coupe’s).
I wouldn’t be surprised if this is a daily driven car. Looking at the pictures, I bet this was a car that was well kept up until fairly recently. Probably some elderly owner who garage kept it with low mileage, then was sold off cheap because who want’s a ’75 LTD today? A few years of running this car daily and through salty winters would be all it would take to make a car that was in decent shape look like this. I also wonder if the damage to the rear quarter sped up the rust? It’s hard to tell if the rusted are was also damaged from the photo, but if that area was damaged and not repaired, that would certainly speed up the rusting in that area versus the other areas. I wish there was a shot of the left side of the car too.
I had a friend who bought a few 70’s cars like this, old low mileage well kept 70’s boats for cheap. They’d get driven daily (hard) year round through our brutal winters until they were ready for scrap in a few years. It was amazing how fast some of these cars that were in decent shape became beaters when no longer cared for. I always thought it was kind of sad these cars survived 20+ years, then they got killed off so quickly in the end.
Ford eventually improved it’s rust proofing on this cars, and I remember the late 70’s ones being pretty rust resistant (for a 70’s cars). There always seemed to be lots of ’77-’78 LTD’s that lasted a long time (same with the Lincolns). But any Ford from the early to mid 70’s literally fell apart very quickly around here, so bad that there were class action lawsuits against Ford. I do remember quite a few without the rear bumpers too.
Interesting the comments on Uncle Buck’s Mercury too. That car was only 12 years old when that movie was made and it was made out to be a dinosaur from another era ready for scrap.
Bill, I’ll bet you’re spot-on regarding this specific car’s life trajectory.
About your friend who purchased older nice cars then watched them disintegrate in a few years after hard use, I witnessed one such phenomenon on a ’74 Pontiac Grand Ville I wrote a piece of fiction about last year. It was sad to watch what looked like a really nice survivor get so banged-up and rusty in such short order.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/cc-capsule-fiction-1974-pontiac-grand-ville-i-love-you-to-death/
My great aunt and uncle had a ’79 Nova as their last car, and was still in great shape in ’85. Then was given to granddaughter in ’86, and it looked like it was 10 years old in no time flat.
“That car was only 12 years old when that movie was made and it was made out to be a dinosaur from another era ready for scrap.”
Also showed you how much public perception of the Detroit landyachts had changed by the ’80s.
As a “Hooptie” driver I applaud your restraint.
That car has no business on the road.
Illinois has no inspections, it’s up to the Officer on duty to determine if a car is worthy.
This guy must be a local.
I vote we block this guy.
Does anyone remember the 70’S Ford silver paint turning red? I assume it was the primer underneath, but a LOT of them ended up looking like 2-tone! We had a neighbor with a loaded 1977 LTD Landau sedan that they purchased brand new. It was silver, and in about 4-5 years it was turning red. I remember when they got rid of it, they bought a Buick Electra Park Avenue – it was dark blue – that was around a 1983 model. My Dad’s ’82 Country Squire was at the local Ford dealer for an oil change and lo and behold – there was my neighbor’s old LTD parked in the back lot! I have no idea how it got there, but I am certain it was the same car – some things you just cannot forget.
Sad looking car with that Stage 4 body cancer. Wonder how much it metastasized.
He HAS to be getting major exhaust fumes in that car!
Well thats a time warp, feels like you are in Akron circa 1982 when big old rusty hulks like this were about every 3rd car on the road.
Joseph I just love your pieces here and way of describing things! That poor car can actually go for a long time with it’s full frame as long as the spring shackle to floor attachments are good. We used to use aluminum signs as cheap but strong floor patches in the big holes when young and trying to keep our ’71 Fury and ’74 Olds 88 on the road long past when they might have been junked, as those strong drivetrains just wouldn’t quit! Who cared if the radio and heater didn’t work, that’s what the boom box and blankets were for… I’ve been there. Fabulous find, I love it, it almost makes me want a hoopoe of my very own!
Oh and my uncle once used a washing machine lid to repair the rear 1/4 for his ’75 Nova, complete with handle… in NY you did what you hadda do.
Admittedly a Ford guy more often than not, I’d have been as far away from Ford cars like this in 1976 as possible.
Bronco, yes. F-Series, not my favorite generation, but sure. Gimme both with an I-6 and a 4spd. These? No way in hell. If I had to have a car in the era, an Olds Cutlass Supreme or Pontiac Grand Prix would’ve been fine with me. Big but not too big, handsomely styled for the era, conveyed everything this was supposed to…just, better.
It’s been years since I’ve seen a serious hoopty like this on the road. I suppose a lot of the reason for that is the demise of body-on-frame cars. If a more modern car were to attain that level of rust, it’d simply crack in half.
But man, I used to see these all of the time and truth be told, my first car had turned into 75% of that before I voluntarily pulled it off the road in the mid 1980s. I will say that while I retain nostalgia for many things automotive, I have no warm feelings for rust. Even looking at pictures of rusted cars (on the road…in junkyards, no problem) is kind of traumatizing for me.
I’m not sure why, but this one sorta reminds me of a 1977 LTD Landau sedan Mom had for a little while when her much loved 1979 Firebird was getting a heart transplant in 1989-90. The Landau was blue on blue on blue on blue, featuring that dark navy metallic blue paint that must have started oxidizing before the car made it to the end of the production line. It had a full slew of options, and most of them seemed to work. I remember it being a reasonably okay car, and it wasn’t rusty. It had a 460 that was a very heavy drinker, and made an occasional chuff-chuff sound out of the exhaust at idle, between the slightly longer periods of smoothness. I distinctly remember sitting in the car, feeling the little quivers and judders through the plush seat as my divorced-with-joint-custody parents bitched and yelled at each other, which was so often the case back then (they’re actually friends now, WTH?!). I also remember the extended “Psssssshhhhhhh…ffff” sound as the vacuum released the headlight doors when Mom turned the headlights on, and that the high beam indicator was red (it changed to blue for 1978). I also remember the heater core letting go while waiting at a traffic light on a cold and rainy night, and Grandpa Dave pouring in Bar’s Leaks Wishful Thinking Concentrate more than twice, so the car eventually got a new heater core along with the replacement of some other components with non-leaks that were sealed off by the Bar’s Leaks.
Apologies for venturing off course, but Joseph’s mention of the “lugga-lugga” sound triggered a memory of the “chuff-chuff” sound emanated by our very blue ’77.
I am glad I left the East Coast in 1966 as none of my 65-91 vehicles, six of them, would have lasted as long as they did out here in California.
Nothing a roll of chicken netting and a barrow full of bog wont fix, at least thats what we used to do to disguise rusty old dungas to try to fluke another dodgy WOF inspection for 6 months more use.
Hey, it definitely beats walking.
Probably beats sitting in most cars (for comfort) actually.
Rather have any running car than the very best pair of shoes.
If I lived in the Loop or somewhere with decent public transport maybe my priorities would be different.
Nah, I’m a car person. I’d rather sit in traffic in my own cocoon than be so close to so many people.
I need my own space.
Even if it’s a rusted LTD with lopsided suspension and no bumper.
But I’d at least try to get it all it’s hubcaps ’cause I’m just that classy.
Actually, that 73-78 generation of LTDs (save for the 73) didn’t rust too bad as compared to the 69-72. I do remember seeing late 70s Thunderbirds without rear bumpers. Insofaras as that the mid-size GM 2drs were the worst.