The U-Pull-&-Pay junk yard near US 36 and Broadway in North Denver appears to include a vortex drawing in obscure English Fords. Some months ago, I captured a very modified ’63 Consul Capri in the customer parking lot (link here), and this week I found a ’55 Zephyr up on blocks inside the fence.
English Fords were sold and marketed in the US and Canada using a dedicated sales organization from 1948 through 1973 (1970 in the US). A part of the post war “Export or Die” effort, roughly 250,000 British built Fords were sold in the US over that time period. Canada’s British ties seemed to help sales up North, since a Canadian population one tenth the size the US also bought about 250,000 vehicles. Jason Shafer described this sales effort in an article he wrote about a ’53 Ford Consul (link here).
To dive into the English Ford sales effort, I thought I’d compare this car to some Zephyr sale brochure images from the internet. As Ford of Britain’s “Big car,” this page emphasizes the Zephyr’s big size, 6 cylinder engine, and bright chrome trim.
A rather stark contrast to a fairly small car whose shiny features have dulled with the passage of time. This is also an early version of the Mark 2 model, which lacks some of the bright work shown in the brochure.
Next the brochure praises the comfortable interior with center armrest, accessible ashtray, and wide commodious parcel shelf. Three different upholstery types are available, including rayon and PVC! Frankly, I’d prefer to use Poly Vinyl Chloride for my drain pipes, not my seating surfaces.
Viewing the interior today, the passage of sixty eight years have reduced that fine interior to rubble, but on the upside, most of the interior hardware remains in place.
In the last brochure image, we see the six cylinder engine that separates the Zephyr from the lesser Ford offerings. A relatively new engine at the time, contemporary reviews considered it a solid performer, and over in Britain it gained some traction with the Hot Rod crowd.
Here in the junk yard, we see a very stock version, but again, with a complete set of accessories (for the moment).
As we all know, a surge of European imports made their way over to the US all through the fifties, and generated enough sales to garner a response from the big 3 starting in 1960. It would have been an interesting time to be a car dealer, so I did a bit of research into Bob Jones Midway Motors, to see how he fared in the English Ford business.
Based on the 1958 Denver Yellow Pages, it appears Bob Jones was quite successful, with a Ford Dealership in Downtown Denver, and a Mercury-Edsel-English Ford shop out on West Colfax (unincorporated in the fifties, now Lakewood, Colorado). However, by 1961 the Colfax site focused exclusively on the Mercury line, and the Downtown dealership had shut down.
A year later, Midway Motors placed Bill Eggers name at the top of the sign, and now sold Mopar and International product. Clearly, Ford and Bob Smith had parted ways, for reasons unknown. A this point, we’ll never know whether Bob Smith sold out on a high note, or folded his tent and left in the dark of the night.
Thanks to Jim Klein for all photos of the car- He took a batch before I saw the car, and was kind enough to share them.
Further Reading
Someone saved this car for decades, but now no one will buy any parts from the car and it will be crushed. Really sad.
I’ve never seen McPherson struts described as “fender depth springing” but it’s pretty descriptive.
This car (its 1950 version, the Consul) was the very first to use MacPherson struts. And yes,”fender depth springing” is a very accurate and descriptive term. I was referring to that recently in the comments about the Nash Rambler, which didn’t have the struts but very similar high-mounted coil springs attached to the inner fender. In both cases, this was a key aspect to modern unibody design, as the large vertical inner fender structure gave the necessary strength to take all of the springing forces of the front wheel with the minimum of cost, material and weight. It was one of those major milestones, and essentially all modern unibody cars have used it ever since.
On the MK1 Zephyr Consul cars it was a weak point the strut was located by the sway bar and despite rally success the sway bars would let go and youd be skating on the oil pan there were many improvements made on the MK2 to address weaknesses of the MK1.
Remarkably well-kept car. That dry Colorado climate is quite the preserver, although I suspect it’s spent some of that time under cover. It looks so much like a mashup of the ’54 and ’55 US Fords.
What a find. I think the interior is not as horrible as it first appears. It looks like a seat cover is most of the grossness there along with door cards. Remove and replace those along with clean and its probably not so bad. Glass looks ok as well. This could be revived but likely won’t. Shame as it does not appear to be rusty. Perhaps it was not long on the road.
If that was here it would have been scooped up already or the junkyard would have it on trademe for 10K plus its intact and has less rust than many of them from my youth.
If I understand the captive imports of the era, only Buick dealers could sell Opel, and only Pontiac dealers could sell Vauxhall. But it appears that FoMoCo didn’t care if you were a mainline Ford dealer or an L-M dealer, either way you could get an “English Ford” franchise.
There’s a pretty interesting article about North American importation of English Fords at:
https://www.enfostuff.com/history/A_Brief_History_of_English_Fords_in_North_America.html
I learned quite a bit.
My understanding was that was only mainline Ford dealers could get an “English Ford” franchise, but M-E-L (Mercury-Edsel-Lincoln) dealers (later Lincoln-Mercury dealers) could get a “German Ford Taunus” franchise from about 1958 to 1961 or so.
Mid 60s Toronto, my high school Latin teacher drove one of these. I think she bought it for the name (Latin for “ a gentle breeze”).
Wow ~ I wonder what the rust situation is ? .
A real shame to see a classic in such complete and original state getting sent to the crusher .
-Nate
Like some others, I hate that someone gave up on this really rust-free example and sent it to its (slow) death. But then again, had that someone brought it to my house on a trailer, I probably would have shooed him away, so I guess I cannot throw stones.
These are very fascinating to me because my parents bought an Anglia during either 1958 or 1959, which were the lines best two sales years. My mother always called it an “English Ford”. I think these were cars that lots of people tried, with few of them coming back for seconds.
My parents bought a Zephyr in 1959. Basically the same as this car. In my family it was always referred to as an “English Ford”. Actually my parents did go back for seconds as their previous car had been a Consul which got totalled in a head on crash. They were rare enough in 1960s Philadelphia that we were often asked, “What kind of car is that?”
When I was out in the Denver area buying rust-free MG body shells 30+ years ago, the junkyard that was saving MG and TR body shells for me had to retain the VIN number and ID plates. The yard owner said Colorado had a law requiring all vehicles entering a junkyard to be registered with the state using the VINs, and titles were to be turned in. Once registered, the vehicles could not be returned to the road.
Technically he wasn’t premitted to sell these wonderful rust free bodies to us, for use in the rusty east coast areas, but in removing all numbers who would know? And besides, they were heading 2,000 miles east. It was either sell them to someone like me, or crush them for scrap.
I mention this because it’s likely this car, if the state’s laws are still in effect, will never be sold to put back on the road. And the clock is already ticking towards it’s imminent destruction if it’s not generating the yard enough cash.
I have contacted the Ford Consul/Zephyr/Zodiac club in the UK to let them know there is a nearly rust-free example avaliable. In the UK, these cars rust so badly I’ve seen examples where the doors and fenders have literally fallen off the car from severe rust.
“I mention this because it’s likely this car, if the state’s laws are still in effect, will never be sold to put back on the road. And the clock is already ticking towards it’s imminent destruction if it’s not generating the yard enough cash.”
This is one of four corporate chain “pick and pull” style yards in the Denver area, and you’re correct- Once interred, cars do NOT come back out for resale.
its time in the yard is also limited, as the yard rotates stock throughout the year. Once it’s time to clear out a row of cars, all cars in the row go to the crusher regardless of any remaining good parts.
One caveat – this yard will sell a car in pieces. You COULD (and it happens) purchase it in chunks (i.e. Engine, Body, Frame, Interior) and piece it back together outside. It happens with some trucks and vans specifically. but you will NOT be getting the original title back. The VIN itself does stay on the vehicle.
I took these pictures six weeks ago, based on where it is and the volume in that yard it has maybe another month left before going away for good. Dave tells me that not much has been removed, the fact that the yard has it mislabeled in their (online) inventory doesn’t help.
I think the English Fords were sold through somewhat sketchy dealerships. In my hometown, the English Ford dealer also sold Triumphs and Alfa Romeos from a small location one step away from being a “buy here-pay here” type of used car lot. It was located right across the street from a bigger dealership that sold Studebakers & Fiats. Did all these failed brands (at least in the USA) always seem to cluster together?
Ford advertising qouted “A Dollar Day” for the 100E Angila .It was marketed as a second commuter car during the import craze of the last fifties.
This example wouldn’t have stayed in the yard long back on its home turf.
Looks like it got to the red oxide primer stage during restoration then left under cover. Perhaps the owner past away and the car got towed. Sad.
Thanks Dave for making something out of the pictures. It’s too good a car/find to not share but you did it more justice than I could have currently…
Obscure? Not to any Kiwi from my age group by the way thats a highline MK2 56/7 – 59 bigger engine than the MK1 2.6 litre upsized from 2.2 L wider stronger diff the MK1s broke halfshafts very easily without the need to drive them hard, MK2 gearbox was stronger too it had to be with extra torque to cope with and the front struts had better locating hardware of course all this could be retrofitted into the lighter MK1s,
These were the go to car to hot up in my youth and it was easy overbore the engine to accept 214cube Bedford truck pistons or 225 Valiant slugs plane the head fit headers in place of the terrible hockey stick factory effort more carbs side draft SUs from Jags were popular regrind the cam as wild as you dared, then go out and fry some rubber, as an afterthought usually when you weapon refused to stop fit very late 62 assembly disc brakes or pay more and get MK3 Zephyr disc struts and booster some Jolly brand wide steelies and a racing stripe and you had the complete car,
Of course a lot of them had custom bodywork and V8 implants and even the odd Raymond Mays cylinder head appeared on the 6,
Years ago I had an early 62 MK2 Zephyr and the posted car has less rust than my one my one had 6 inch Valiant Charger 14s and a set of headers and died of a broken piston. Not worth fixing it was a very tired car.
The Mark II was even a major character in a NZ movie. https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/mark-ii-1986
That’s how remember the Zephyr/Zodiac of that vintage..Now classics in G.B. & N.Z , not so much in OZ where we now live , they’re obsessed with drey Holdens & Falcons , pay telephone numbers for these sub standard pieces of crap ..
Fifty-five Chevy taillights. Nice find. Gotta be pretty rare here in the U.S.
Bob Jones Skyland Ford was at the three way intersection of 23rd Street, Arapahoe Street and Broadway. This location is just north of downtown Denver. 23rd Street is now “Park Avenue”.
Bob Jones Skyland Ford in the ’50s sold a sort of “customized” Fords – with improvements like louvers in the hood and pleated vinyl interiors. These were similar to later conversions by Nickey Chevrolet in Chicago or Royal Oak Pontiac or Yenko Chevrolet. It was a special Ford dealership – until Ford Credit found something wrong. If you can still find one an old, old Denver hot rod guy can talk about Bob Jones Skyland Ford and their special offerings (which probably did not include any Zephyrs).
This is old Colorado – some of which I learned about when living in Denver in the ’70s as well as from old hot rod guys in Wyoming in the ’90s.
Bought a 1956 Ford MK 2 Zodiac in 1964 . Question the year date of 1955 shown in the illustration above . The MK 2 wasn’t produced by Ford of England until 1956 , when it superseded the MK 1 …
Very possible- The model year was based on the junkyard data which is not particularly dependable, especially 60 plus years out.
Strangely, I never saw any of these when I was kid in the 1960s. There were a fair number of old Opel Rekords and Olympias and Vauxhall Victors. There were a even few imported cars from England and France that were from manufacturers that would later be bought up by Chrysler, (Hillman, Sunbeam, and Simca, but this was before Chrysler had bought them. Not any Fords from England or Germany, though, not until the late 1960s and the 1970s.
In England in the early to mid 60s I drove quite a few old ones, mostly the 4 cylinder Mk 1 Consul for cheapness but also had a 6cyl Mk 2 Consul convertible for a few years, the engines were bulletproof…oil was expensive… in 1967 I drove a 4 year old Mk 3 Zodiac from London to Istanbul and back, quite uneventfully apart from pulling the silencer off twice and breaking a spring on the atrocious main road across Yugoslavia. These Mk 3s Zephyrs and Zodiacs became famous in a well known British cops & robbers TV series called Z Cars, being used by the police in Liverpool. Unfortunately all my old photos of these have vanished over the years but I have posted photos of the old Dolmus taxis in Istanbul then in a forum here.
These cars are strong !
IN the winter of ’69 my friend managed to overturn one of these in a lonely Scottish glen, driving like a maniac with bald tyres on icy roads – 19 year old me was in the backseat with a girl. Slowest ten seconds of my life, the crash seemed seemed to last for hours
The car was remarkably intact given that it had hit a stone wall and somersaulted.
I got away without a scratch and the others only had cuts and bruises.
Thanks for posting. Again like in NZ, such a seemingly rust free and fairly intact mk2 Zephyr would never have end up in the breakers here in the UK, I have seen much worse cars going for strong money – such a shame!