Alyn Edwards
Rare four- wheel- drive 1967 Mercury pickup left derelict for 30 years was given back to original owner after a complete restoration
Brian Beard owns many great classic automobiles, but few are nearer and dearer to the Fraser Valley man’s heart than his 1967 Mercury pickup truck.
( This is the first part of a two- part series, with the second installment running Friday, Jan. 20)
Brian Beard was astonished when his cousin called him to say he wanted to give him his original 1967 Mercury 4X4 pickup back after he had “made it new again.”
Beard had left the rare four- wheeldrive three- quarter ton truck for his cousin to use on his farm when he was an engineering student and could no longer afford to own it. That was more than 40 years ago.
The truck received rough use on the farm north of Edmonton for a number of years and then was parked by the shop in 1979. It would not move again for the next three decades.
Beard was 18 years old when he “factory ordered” the truck.
“In those days, four- wheel drives were a very rare commodity,” he recalls, noting a neighbour who used a Dodge Power Wagon 4X4 to go hunting year round introduced Beard to four wheeling when he was 14.
“Every Sunday in the winter, my neighbour went coyote hunting in deep snow through ditches, plowed fields and bush. This was my introduction to the amazing things a four- wheel drive could do. After my first ride, I had to have one.”
When Beard got his driver’s licence at age 16, he started a small oilfield hauling business after school and on weekends with an old pickup which eventually fell apart. Then in Grade 12, he convinced his father that he should buy a new truck — a 4X4 because used 4X4 trucks were usually worn out.
Dealers didn’t stock 4X4 trucks in those days, so, with $ 500 of hardearned savings and an agreement with the bank to make payments of $ 107 a month, he ordered his new truck, which was to be a Mercury M250. The cost was $ 4,000 because a four- wheel drive truck cost twice as much as a regular three- quarter ton pickup.
In Canada, Ford trucks were sold by Ford dealers and the same trucks rebadged as Mercury models were sold by Mercury dealers. The last Mercury truck was produced in March 1968. Beard estimates that there were only about 125 of the three- quarter- ton Mercury 4X4s built in the 1967 model year.
He ordered his truck to be as special and heavy duty as possible with the Custom Cab option, Spicer free running front hubs, a 352 cubic inch V- 8 engine, 4- speed transmission, twotone paint, cab lights, AM radio and a front bush bar.
His truck was built at the Ford Twin Cities truck plant in April 1967. As the arrival day got closer, young Brian would stop by the rail yard to see if his truck had arrived. One day in early May, his truck had arrived on top of a rail car, just as he had ordered it.
“Wherever I went with my truck, people would remark that it was the prettiest truck they had ever seen,” he says. “The truck and I went on many adventures. But working and going to high school was one thing. Going to university with the cost of fees and books along with all the studying made it impossible to keep my truck.”
The young engineering student worked out a plan to give his truck to his cousin to work on the farm. When the battered and bruised Mercury 4X4 pickup was finally parked in 1979, it had travelled 69,823 hard miles ( 112, 400 kilometres).
“Over the years, I spent time at the farm and would always visit my old truck and feel sorry for the way she had ended up,” he admits. “I promised that one day I would restore her back to her original beauty.”
But an engineering and project management career that took him all over the world building pulp and paper mills, mines and refineries got in the way. Then in 2009, his cousin Buck called him at his Fraser Valley home east of Vancouver to say he wanted to make the truck new again.
“Buck said that he wanted me to have it back the way it came to the farm and I could take her home,” Brian recalls.
Rebuilding the truck to new condition in Alberta took more than two years. Another 1967 Mercury pickup truck had to be purchased to replace the rusted and badly damaged body parts on the original truck. The parts had to be from a 1967 Mercury pickup because of its many one- year- only pieces and a truck in good shape was difficult to find.
Beard’s truck was completely disassembled, the frame sandblasted and painted and the original 352 cubic inch V- 8 engine rebuilt along with all running gear components. The cab, box and front fenders were sandblasted and repainted the original Holly Green and Wimbledon White. Even the original bush guard was reinstalled after being repaired where it had been twisted and bent from towing tractors out of the mud.
Ivan Perry of Gibbons, Alta., rebuilt all the mechanical components: engine, transmission, transfer case and front and rear differentials. The bodywork, paint and reassembly were handled by Bev Boudreau of Onoway.
The 1967 Mercury 250 4X4 pickup truck that Brian Beard bought 45 years ago is now a showpiece that is often displayed alongside its garage mate, an equally rare 1966 Mercury 250 four- wheel drive pickup that he purchased from the Saskatchewan farmer who was the original owner. That owner had restored his truck himself with new paint to its original colours.
“Words cannot express the happiness I felt bringing my old truck home and being able to take her to car and truck shows,” Brian Beard enthuses. “It’s wonderful to be able to tell people how rare and special she is.”
( Next week’s story will detail Brian Beard’s fabulous Fraser Valley “fire station,” filled with vintage fire engines and one of the finest fire engine collections in Canada.)