Canadian market oddities are a popular topic here at Curbside Classic, and we cover them every now and again. Just last week, we brought you the Pontiac Laurentian, with Chevy-based, narrow track mechanicals hiding beneath spiffy bodywork. And there is, of course, a parade of Plodges in our archives, most recently, a ’61 Dart Seneca. This Econoline truck, however, is even less differentiated than either of those; not really a marketing exercise as much as a bygone way of bringing Ford’s heavier-duty vehicles to rural locales with only a Mercury dealer (Canada is generally more sparsely populated, remember), the Mercury Econoline wasn’t intended to convey additional prestige over the more common Ford.
Having explained this story before, however, it seems appropriate to share Nifty43’s recent upload. As much as we’ve discussed Mercury’s Canadian presence, their small van and truck duo hasn’t gotten the expected visual representation. Thankfully, we can now attach a face to Mercury Econoline name, and it’s the same cute mug expected when the original Falcon-related (not quite Falcon-based) utility vehicle is mentioned, though the deletion of the wrap around rear quarter windows is unfortunate. Seats aside, this example is fully representative of the first Econoline’s honest charm and as the original trucklet wasn’t the hottest seller (compared to the van variant), this Mercury must be especially uncommon. Whoever had the vision to preserve and restore it is to be commended.
Related reading:
Curbside Classics: Mercury Trucks – We Do Things A Bit Differently Up Here
Curbside Classic: 1963 Ford Econoline Pickup – Keep The Sand Bags Handy
Canada Day Classics: Canadian Ford Branding History
CC Brochure: 1966 Mercury Pickup Truck – For the Canadian Paul
Wow. Just when I think I have a pretty good handle on stuff coming from North American manufacturers in the 60s, I find out that I certainly don’t know it all. I learned about Mercury pickups here a few years ago, but had no idea that there was such a thing as a Merconoline.
My love for all automotive oddballs has me drooling over this. I wonder if they advertised it as perfect for messenger services? 🙂
Pretty cool .
I remember riding in new Econoline Vans in the early 1960’s they were noisy beasts but handled Boston’s snow driving O.K. .
Cold too .
-Nate
The Mercury regular pickup trucks are not a rare sight but these Econoline ones would be. I have seen only a handful. Also lesser known are the heavy duty Mercury line up. I saw this C-series based grain truck a few weeks ago.
My first job was with a baby supply company. I was their delivery boy and drove a 61 Econoline van to all the department stores and maternity stores in the Detroit area.
In two years I put on over 40K on the 170 cid Thrift Six and the 3-speed manual and being a new teenage driver, I really trashed this van. I also did all the maintenance and found them extremely reliable and easy to work on. I believe they were mostly based on the Falcon. I remember the dash was the same as our neighbors new Falcon. The interior was spare with a cardboard headliner over only the two passenger seats and the rest of the cargo area boomed with an ungodly resonance when reaching 40 mph.
There was one just like it that was driven daily in my hometown until a few years ago (OK, maybe until 15 years ago!). It was painted bright red and the sides weren’t arrow-straight but it was still an interesting sight.
A friend of mine also had a Mercury truck until a few years ago. It still ran fine when he sent it to scrap but the body wasn’t in good shape.
In the last few years, his wife used it mostly to water her garden! It was parked next to it when I took the picture.
Now that’s a nice old truck. For some reason in the late ’70s these cab forward pickups were very popular with the gearheads in my hometown. I don’t remember anyone finding a Mercury but there were a couple of Econoline Fords around. One guy I knew had a Fargo, which was also sold only in Canada. We had our share of oddball vehicles back then!
61 years on and I’ve never seen one up here. Nice find!
Here’s a 1964 Mercury Econoline van I owned briefly about ten years ago. I bought it at a farm auction and posted some pics of it on an Econoline forum. Wasn’t long before a hardcore Econoline collector in Seattle was in touch, he offered me stupid money for it given the condition and what I had into it so away it went.
I’ll bet that was fun to drive in the snow! Yikes.
And THIS is why Im addicted to CC– I learn something new on a regular basis. I was aware of Canuckian Mercury trucks, but never knew about Econoline based Mercs. Ive long been a fan of the forward control vans/trucks but a rare version of a rare rig is even better! Sweet little rig and so clean you could eat off it.
Nice find.
I’ve seen various Mercury trucks, but I’ve never seen a Mercury Econoline pickup or van.
THANK YOU ALL for the photographs ! .
-Nate
It appears that Ford also marketed Thames vans through Mercury dealerships in Canada, at least in 1962.
Yes, we had a Ford Thames van when I was a child near Vancouver. Can’t remember much about it except that my father said it would only do about 55 mph flat-out.
Wow, a Mercury Econoline pickup! Didn’t know they existed up here. I’ll have to keep a close watch as I know of one small town in Alberta where there is a smalll collection of Econolines including a pickup. Perhaps there is a Mercury among them I never paid close attention. I really like this website, as it’s a great resource of information on old cars and trucks.
Needs some wheel covers with the head of the god Mercury on them. 🙂
Was there a more deluxe dual headlight version or are those grilles just superfluous?
The inner 1/2 of those headlight grilles hid the fresh air intake for the heater…
-Nate
Well that’s another one I never knew about. Very cool little truck!
1964 Mercury trucks catalog on eBay. Not scanned, but pretty good pics of all the pages, including:
Note that not all Ford Econoline pickups had the wrap around rear windows.
Lower trim Econolines were like the Mercury pictured.
My brand new ’61 model was “deluxe” and had all the windows.
It cost me $1635 out the door, so base models could probably have been had for even less money!
Younger readers may be astonished to know this, but college was so cheap in those days that with a modest scholarship you could actually make money attending college. My surplus went into this Econoline pickup.
There were Mercury utes (built and) sold in Australia around 1948, they are a version of the standard Ford pickup and quite rare. I shot one last year, I think it is on the Cohort. I don’t think they sold any other Mercury trucks, but there were Mercury sedans although I don’t think they lasted long into the 1950s.
What a rare find. In HS around 1973 a kid in my class had one of the Ford versions of this truck. Even back then they were few and far between. Some times you would see it at night searching for parties with the back loaded up with partying teens. It was a good vehicle to follow at night when we too were searching.