My '72 was body color, though had been painted black when I got it. The '71 is so rusty I have no idea. I'd have to pull a shock mount bracket to see, that's how I know '72 chassis was orig body color. Both built at Kansas City.
Thanks for all of your responses. I didn't realize that Mercury DSO codes were different than Fords. Getting back to the Marti report, the original bill of sale from the dealership clearly shows a dealer code of 51E457 which coincides with the DSO, since I think that the first two digits of the dealer code should match the DSO. I agree with you that a car being shipped to California should have come from the Los Angeles plant, therefore the dealer code for the selling dealer would begin with 52, and not 51 as the Marti report shows. I think that you are correct, Marti screwed up on this one. I plan to contact him this week. Regardless of all of that, I think that with some work the car would be acceptable to me. I just don't know what a fair offer would be. I wish that I lived closer so that I could inspect it myself, but I live on the east coast in Maryland. I did put a post on the Norcal Maverick Comet facebook page asking if anyone possibly lived close enough to the dealership and would be willing to look at the car for me but so far no one has responded. I don't know if I posted this before, but a dealer in Detroit (GR Auto Gallery) had the car for sale in 2020 with more photos than the current dealer posted. It was apparently sold for 24.9K at that time. Their ad is still up on their website in sold inventory. It also had 97.2K miles at that time, 3K less than now. Any thoughts, in your opinion, on what would be a reasonable offer. Thanks again.
It was good to know that your Kansas City car was body color underneath, as another person told me that was never the case.
The dealer in CA is a Ford dealer, did they even sell Mercurys? These cars were never built on west coast(or east coast for that matter), Kansas City was as close to LA as they got. Only other plant building all years, was St Thomas in Canada(but no Comets). For '72 & '73 Dearborn built both, this was in addition to regular Mustang production(the chubby Stangs weren't selling). In '74 Wayne MI supplemented Maverick production but not Comet. In a nutshell, only plants to build Comets was Kansas City & two years at Dearborn. In more info than you ever wanted dept, Lorain OH built ALL the Cyclone/Montegos and all the Fairlane/Torino convertibles(as well as regular models). Kansas City switched from Fairlane/Torino/Ranchero in March '69 to build Maverick. After that date, ALL Rancheros came from Atlanta. Fairlane/Torino were added to San Jose production but not Ranchero.
Still if it went to California the DSO should be 52, right? I don't know if that dealer in California even sold Mercurys.
I am familiar with the car, though I have never seen it in person. For your knowledge.....that car was hit hard (HARD, HARD!!) Did I mention the car was hit hard? on the passenger side. And when I say hit, I mean it was hit hard. The entire passenger quarter had to be replaced, and the car was "pulled" on as well. The car was repaired and painted by Joe in Cleveland. The car has been in the hands of numerous dealers since it was "fixed". These are things a prospective buyer needs to know. No way would I buy that car without personally laying eyes on it. Those are my thoughts.
do you know when the car was hit and who owned it at the time? when you say it was repaired by a JOE in Cleveland is that Ohio? is there anyway that I can get in touch with him? thank you for contacting me
Joe has a page called Maverick Comet Restoration on Facebook, I believe he has contact info on the page.
This link should get you to the pictures Joe put up. https://m.facebook.com/groups/1636080899994495/permalink/2557732131162696/?mibextid=Nif5oz
