1955 Mercury Montclair

During most of its initial 15 years, Mercury was a Ford-based medium-priced car built on a slightly longer chassis with a more luxurious interior. In 1955, the Mercury finally gained its own personality, being lower and longer than its predecessor, and adorned with a bold grille-bumper assembly and vestigial rear fender contours with bright trim. Additional styling cues included hooded headlights and a wraparound windshield.

Power was from a 'Y-block' overhead-valve V8 displacing 292 cubic inches and delivering nearly 200 horsepower at 4,400 RPM on the Montclair and Monterey and 188 hp on the Custom models. A three-speed manual transmission was standard, and overdrive and Merc-O-Matic automatic were optional. Power brakes, power steering, power windows, a four-way power seat, a radio, custom fender skirts, and custom two-tone paint were also optional.

Passenger cars rested on a 119-inch wheelbase and station wagons had a 118-inch wheelbase platform. The length of the sedans measured 206.3 inches and the station wagons at 201.7-inches. In the back was a live rear axle on leaf springs while the front used a ball-joint independent setup with coil springs. Four-wheel hydraulic drums provided the stopping power. An automatic chassis-lubrication system, marketed as Auto-Lube or Automatic Multi-Luber (a concept devised between Ford Motor Company and the Lincoln Industrial Corporation, the company that invented the lever-action grease gun), kept the chassis well-lubed. A button on the dashboard controlled a reservoir under the hood and sent a measured amount of grease through various hoses to multiple points on the chassis, providing the necessary lubrication.

The 1955 Mercury model lineup included the base-level Custom, intermediate Monterey, and top-of-the-line Montclair. The Montclair was comprised of a sedan, hardtop coupe, convertible, and Sun Valley hardtop. The sedan was priced at $2,685, the hardtop coupe at $2,630, and both the Sun Valley and Convertible at $2,710. The Sun Valley was the most exclusive, with 1,787 examples built in 1955. 71,588 were hardtop coupes, 20624 of the sedan, and 10,668 of the convertibles. The Sun Vally had a tinted plexiglass section over the front half of its roof.

The Mercury Montclair had a round medallion and the model name on the front fenders, two-tone paint, and a narrow band of chrome under the side windows.

Period advertising boasted, ''You don't have to look twice to tell it's a Mercury.'

by Daniel Vaughan | Nov 2020