Saleofcar.com :Mercury

Mercury Other Villager Ghia (1979)
for sale

Price: US $202.50

Description:

This is a fairly rare 1979 Mercury Zephyr Villager wagon with the Ghia package. I say rare because I’ve never actually seen another one in person. It was the top of the line wagon and is based on the same Fox body platform that the Mustangs, Capri and T-Birds are built on. I’ve really enjoyed this wagon, but my wife just bought her dream car and we just have too many cars now. It came from the factory with the 302 V8, C4 automatic, AC, cruise, tilt, PB and cloth interior. It’s pretty much a survivor car, never been painted and all the smog stuff is intact, although the CAT has been removed because it has true dual exhaust with Flow Masters. The exhaust was done before I got it, but seems fairly new and it sounds good, but not too loud. It runs fine and I drive it everywhere, even drove 600 miles in one day last summer, but it has a couple quirks related to the carb. I was planning to update it to a 4 barrel, but never got around to it. I would rebuild the 2 barrel carb due to it not being very compatible with the ethanol in fuel these days. The choke doesn’t seem to work properly, but it starts just fine in all weather you just have to keep your foot on the gas a little until it warms up. Another issue is that it seems to want to stall if you just barely touch the gas, so when I’m going really slow I just let it idle along. Not a big deal, just takes a little getting used to. A rebuilt carb would solve everything. It has a couple oil leaks that appear to be coming from around the front of the motor, maybe the timing chain cover? You can’t see it leak, but after parking it you can see it marks its territory. The heater core just started leaking, so I bypassed it. It was fine up until I got a little pin hole in one of the heater hoses a week or so ago and when I replaced I think I was a little too aggressive trying to yank on it to remove the hose, so I think I caused the leak. I pulled the carpet up to let it dry and peeled some of the factory coating up because water seeped under it. I resealed it with some spray on undercoating. The fuel gauge only works when it gets down to ¾ of a tank and will work until it’s empty unless you turn the key off. I found a NOS fuel gauge, so the issue is in the sender, I just never addressed it and just fill up every 200 miles. The cruise doesn’t work, but it looks like it’s because the vacuum canister and chain have been removed. It has a couple small dents, one on the left rear wheel well, one on the front passenger door and a couple above the windshield on the driver’s side that looks like maybe a garage door bumped it. You could probably take the headliner down some and push them back out. These dents are really minor and barely show in the pictures. The wood grain looks like you’d expect 36 year old wood grain to look like, some cracks and fading. These issues are very minor and what folks call patina today…Ok, I got all the negatives out of the way first because I want to be completely honest about it. This car is fun to drive, goes down the road smooth and straight. It has Mustang lowered springs in the front and Mustang GT sway bar, with new ball joints, new KYB struts and new brake lines. The rear is stock with new KYB shocks, new brake hoses and axle seals. There’s also a factory Cougar rear sway bar on the rear. There’s absolutely no rust, other than some surface rust on the previously mentioned dents. Even under the trim around all the windows is perfect where most older cars will rust. The paint is really pretty nice, but would probably be awesome with a little rubbing compound and elbow grease. The interior is clean, though faded a little. Door panels are nice and the dash pad is perfect, which is very rare. The original was pretty bad, but I found a really nice one to replace it. I added a tach and old school gauge cluster because I didn’t trust the temperature (idiot) light. I haven’t hooked up the oil and amp ones yet, but I have the kit and will include it. The old steering wheel was cracked pretty badly, but I managed to find a new NOS (expensive!) wheel with cruise buttons and it’s beautiful! The wheels are stock 10 hole Fox body wheels with T-Bird centers and I have a set of Ford centers too. The tires are new too, Cooper Cobras, 215/65-15 on front and 255/60-15 on the rear. They may have 1, 500 mile on them. The AC is ice cold and has been converted to R 134. It has a nice Pioneer stereo with a remote, CD and USB port. I have NOS gauge cluster lenses, not installed, but are included. I have the build sheet and all the receipts in a binder and will download all the pictures I have onto a CD. If there are any questions or additional pictures you'd like to see, feel free to ask. If you're local, E-mail me to arrange a test drive and to check it out in person. I'll be happy to drive 100 to 200 miles to meet the winner part way. I reserve the right to end the auction early because there is some local interest…All in all, this is just a really fun car to cruise in and has room for the kids. The value will probably go up after the new Vacation movie comes out! I already get the occasional Clark Griswald jokes. ☺

_{update: 2015-08-01}