Gordon Butler was a young guy when he bought a 1966 Mercury Park Lane convertible for the princely sum of 375 bucks in 1974.
His timing was good because North America was in the middle of a gas crunch due to the Arab Oil Embargo, so pump prices went through the roof in a hurry.
As a result, giant convertibles equipped with big block engines were available at fire sale prices back in 1974, so Gordon became the owner of a large car with very poor gas mileage at a bargain price.
Jim Sutherland
Gordon previously owned a 1967 Ford convertible and liked it enough to want another large drop top from the Blue Oval people. The opportunity to purchase a Mercury convertible appealed to Gordon based upon his earlier experience with the ’67 Ford convertible and the fact he is a fan of Ford products.
Gordon told MyStarCollectorCar he drove the car from 1974 until 1977 before parking it with the idea he would restore his convertible at a future project.
For the record, Mercury was a luxury car brand in the Ford family and was just under Lincoln on the company’s prestige totem pole. Also, the Park Lane was the top line of Mercury models in 1966, so it had plenty of automotive whistles and buzzers available at the time.
The luxury item list on Gordon’s Park Lane included power front seat, power steering and power brakes. Additionally, the car left the factory with a beastly 428 Super Marauder big block engine, but the engine was pulled in favor of a rare high performance 390 from the same era. Gordon added that he was able to get the car’s original 428 engine block, but he is very happy with the replacement 390 big block.
The car has a 3-speed automatic transmission coupled to a highway gear rear end and can easily handle highway speeds with little stress on the engine. “It floats nice down the highway, and I have to keep the speed down”, according to Gordon.
As mentioned earlier, Gordon parked the car for several years before he decided to restore it, long enough for a tree to grow in the Mercury convertible. His kids joked about the car and predicted it would be a 30-year process to restore it, but Gordon managed to pull it off in five years.
For Gordon, life had gotten in the way with other responsibilities and more pressing issues, so the Park Lane restoration had to take a back seat in his world until he was able to use his rare spare moments to tackle the project.
Gordon is a hands-on guy who was not afraid to immerse himself in the body work required in the project and breathe life back into his 59-year-old convertible.
Gordon is now a grandfather and started a new annual tradition with his grandkids after he reintroduced his ’66 Park Lane convertible back to the road. Every year, he picks them up on the last day of school and takes them out for an ice cream in the car.
Talk about a cool grandpa.
Jim Sutherland