Matt Z found this very well done double-ender, spliced together from either two Mercury Topaz, or a Ford Tempo (with a Topaz grille) and a Topaz. I’ll explain later why it’s not quite certain.
Of course it reminds my of the CoronoroC, which is still sitting the same place it was a decade ago, at least the last time I drove by.
Here’s the genuine front end, thanks to its headlights. It has a ’83-’85 Topaz grille, but that’s probably been added to what started out life as a Tempo.
That’s based on Matt noticing that the “front” end has a Ford steering wheel, and different interior trim. He identified them as an Escort and Lynx. Close, but not quite, although the Tempo and Topaz are heavily based on those smaller siblings.
The “rear” front has had its headlights covered with what looks to be red covers of some sort. Calling Daniel Stern…
I suspect this may well not get driven much, if at all, as its purpose in life appears to be an eye catcher for R J Body Shop.
Here’s the rear compartment, with its Mercury-badged wheel and different trim.
Matt did a Niedermeyer, by getting down on the ground and shooting the undersides. I can see why these were donors: plenty of rust there.
The rear suspension looks to be a former front suspension minus the axle shafts. So unfortunately, this is not a bi-directional, twin-engine affair.
It may be rusty underneath, but folks at R J Body did a nice job on the exterior, including cutting the Topaz’ rear window to make a very symmetrical middle window.
That bodywork and the center widow do look very well done.
This car is on Google StreetView from back in 2018, and it’s shown then with what looks like a fading iridescent purple/blue paint job. And fog lights at both ends. Doesn’t help us much in figuring out the donor cars, though:
That paint looks like ‘Mystic’ that was available on Mustangs for a brief period. It was an expensive option, as well as being very pricey to respray for collision repairs. Ford would later offer a similar, but not nearly as dramatic, color-shifting option, with a correspondingly lower cost.
Regardless, it’s a good color choice for such an eye-catching, two-headed custom job.
Whats the address? Lmao
Before reading all the way through, my only comment was going to be about what a shame it was that they cut off the most trouble-free part of each car. But then I saw that this is not a genuine PushmepullU.
We have to admire the nice bodywork, though. It makes me think of the other possibilities, like joining a Tempaz coupe on behind a 4 door sedan to make a limo.
Neither side is from an ’83 or ’84 model, as those had a flatter dashboard than the ones seen here and didn’t have the shelf on the passenger side.
I doubt those red covers make the taillamps legal, but on the plus side it does have amber turn signals…
Love this, good looking job and two donors that won’t be missed.
That is the suspension photo I was looking for in my Topaz COAL article. Look at the small amount of stuff holding the wheel onto the car, tiny little control arm, and the sway bar is the fore/aft link of the suspension.
That suspension is a true MacPherson strut suspension where the anti-roll bar does double duty and triangulates the lower control arm.
There is a whole lot of mishmash of parts from the Tempo/Topaz, so lets break it down.
The front end (with the clear headlights) has the headlights, header panel, turn signals, grille and hood from a 1984-1985 Mercury Topaz. The Topaz hood has a narrow rise in the middle of it, just a little bit wider than where the round Mercury badge would have been if it were still in the middle of the grille. The turn signals are also much more square shaped than was on the 1984-1985 Tempo (see attached pic).
The rear end (with the red covered headlights) is almost exactly the same. It also comes form a 1984-1985 Mercury Topaz. Same grille, “headlights” and turn signals. However, the hood could be from a 1984-1987 Ford Tempo or a 1986-1987 Mercury Topaz. The middle of the hood is slightly lower than the edges. There are body lines that flow back from the inner edges of the headlights. With the 1986 slight areo restyle (both Tempo and Topaz gained composite headlamps), the Topaz switched over to using the Tempo hood. (see attached pic)
Both of the interiors come from 1985-1987. The 1984 dash were vertical, and in 1985 the upper portion angled back towards the driver at the top couple of inches. The “front” interior has the Ford branded horn pad, but has Topaz door panels. The Topaz door panels have a silver strip that runs backwards towards the armrest and then out onto the armrest as it continues rear ward. The front doors also have power windows (switches are on the center console between the seats). Speaking of seats, the seat fabric is that of the Topaz.
The “rear” interior has the Mercury horn pad, Tempo door panels, and Tempo seats (fabric design is different than the Topaz). The Tempo door panel has a smaller black strip that runs rearward on the door panel, and then up and over the arm rest staying on the door panel. Also has manual windows.
My guess is this. The base car (front of the car, with drivetrain) is a 1985 Mercury Topaz. The rear car that was grafted on was a Ford Tempo 1985-1987 sedan that had the header panel, grille, and turnsignals replaced with units from a 1985 Topaz (to match the front). When the car was put back together, the horn pads were put on the “wrong” interiors by mistake.
Thanks for the definitive deconstruction of this.
Thanks for fleshing out what this car is actually made out of. I didn’t do my due diligence into researching what it actually was and went off of my faulty memory of 80’s cars.
The first time I saw this car was back in the late 90’s on the highway. Yes, the auto body shop used to drive this thing around the area quite often. I think it was painted in that chameleon color that was the rage back then, just like Eric703 found a picture of. I would see it on the road occasionally into the early 00’s and then didn’t see it again. I didn’t know it actually came from a body shop, but I had a hunch. Fast forward to this spring when my coworker sent me a picture of it and location details, which finally confirmed that it was a car from a local body shop.
As “bad” as that rust may appear on the bottom of it, it’s certainly not bad enough to warrant being taken off the road in this area. There’s a lot rustier vehicles than this used as daily drivers around here. The last registration sticker visible on the plate is from 2002, which coincides with about the last time I saw it on the road, though.
As far as the taillights go, when I first saw it, I think they used headlights that had been covered with cellophane or similar as the taillights, which looked more pink than red. These covers appeared to be fairly new to me or may just have a fresh coat of paint over what they came up with from the past. They look too opaque to be useful but certainly look better than what was on there originally.
If you look close enough in the picture of the underside of the rear of the car, you can see a sanding disc from a da sander to the right of the muffler.
Matt, thanks for the backstory on this. I like it even more now that I know that it is (or was) actually roadworthy!
I think that you could have a lot of fun with this car. After a night out with the boys having a few drinks you could have your designated driver pull up to the drive thru window so that the back seat lines up with the window passing out the food while you and a passenger are facing the wrong way. After receiving your food you thank them and have the real driver pull away, all the while you are behind the non operational wheel facing straight backwards and looking very disinterested in anything but your burger.
I like this .
In the 1950’s and 1960’s double ended cars were a fad, I remember plenty being made from junkers , quite often used as body repair shop adverts .
-Nate
Even zooming in, I can’t quite see what those covers are made of. There’s a horizontal striation to them, almost bands of red tape stretched across (and around the perimeter of) what could be a pair of those clear(ish) plastic guards that used to be available for sealed beams—they sandwiched between the retainer ring and the lens, and stood ahead of the lens plane to (theoretically) bounce rocks that might otherwise pit or break the lens.
I think a better result would’ve been had by spraying the lenses with this stuff, but I don’t imagine this car’s brake lights actually light up—at least not often.