I encountered this car at the PA Motorama in February and was taken with both the car and the story told by its owner.
You’ve heard of “barn finds” before, right? Well this Merc’ is a “farm find”. When Martyn Green was in his teens, he worked on a chicken farm. The farmer was the owner of this gorgeous black Marauder and Marty admired the car from afar. For nearly 5 years he looked at it each day as he toiled away tending to the chickens.
Around the time he was about to graduate from high school, Martyn found out that farmer’s son was about to sell the car…asking price: $500. Marty raced home that day to convince his parents to let him buy the car. It took some convincing his die-hard Mopar family to bring home a FoMoCo product, but because it was a Mercury, his old man relented, “that’s a good Ford, son”.
So, during his off time from college classes, Martyn Green worked on rehabbing the ol’ Merc’. After years of storage on a chicken farm, it had been exposed to flocks roosting chickens. The paint was stained but other than that, it cleaned up well. Over time Marty was able to have the car repainted, which has now lasted 30 years. And aside from a replacement carpet and an engine rebuild, the car is original.
Marty’s research on the car revealed that it is one of 2,721 Mercury Park Lane Marauders with the 63C fastback body and Sport Option bucket seats. Power comes from an FE Super Marauder 390 ci, rated at 300 hp and 427 lb. ft. of torque with a four-barrel carb and a floor-shifted Merc-O-Matic.
Mr. Green is proud to be the custodian of this rolling piece of history and has willed it to a friend with the request that it be donated to the AACA museum in Hershey, PA so that it may be appreciated and enjoyed for years to come.
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