Eh' there.

My name is Mike Filz out of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. This is a site for my Fathers 1964 mercury Park Lane Convertable which he and I are having retored. This is a really interesting car with some funny options for a luxury car.

This is an original, documented car and was "gennie" when we took possesion. The car was, unfortunetly, not in the best of shape wen we took possesion, but that half the fun. Anyone can cosmeticly restore a "survivor car", but it takes a REAL car guy to save a rusty odd-ball car.
I am, admitidly, a GM type of guy and I was a little taken-a-back by the compleat and tottle LACK of after market support for these cars! I had an 1000% easer time finding ANYTHING I needed for my 69 year old Chevy.

We started the restoration by doing a strip down of the convertable and finding ALOTT of rust. This had been a country car and the entire undercarrage had been blasted by years of graval road driving. The boxed frame was FULL of sand and stones which caused the bottom portions of the frame rails to rot out. The passanger compartment, trunk, and pretty much the back half of the car had surcome to "cancer" and needed to be replaced.

First order of bussiness was to address the rough body work. We media blasted the entire car while still on the frame and concluded we needed a parts car to continue. We sourced a 63' Montclaim Breezway coupe out of Arizona. Now, Arizona is assumed to be an arid state and thusly a place for rust free cars. This was, unfortunetly, not the case. The car was sourced online and was shipped to us by a associate. We salvaged all the usable parts from the 63' and along with the parts and pieces form our 64' vert, we were able to piece together what we needed.

Once the body was roughed in, we pulled the frame and set it out for sand blasting. The frame itself is a super neat part. The "X" brace that spans the rails is a super heavy duty piece. It looks as though it came out of a bridge!
We had to cut out the bottom portions of the rails and weld in new metal. There must have been 20 pounds of sand hidden in the frame rails!Once the repairs were compleat the chassis and suspension was sent out to CENTRAL SANDBLASTING for powder coat.

The engine and transmision are the cown jewels of this car and are what makes it so unique. The engine is a 390cid big block and is out fitted with FACTORY tri-power carbs {Three 2 barral carbs}. The trasmision is a FACTORY T10 four speed gear box and, of course, a 9" rear end. These options, in themselvs, are not that rare, but the fact that they are in a PARK LANE CONVERTABLE, and they were put there in the factory is the oddity. The Park Lane is the upper end, flag ship of the Mercury mark, and a convertable to boot. these "racy/performance" options seem out of place on a convertable car that was geared for pampred "Big Wigs" bent on luxury.

The motor is being rebuilt by TURBO AUTOTIVE'S Jim Kruze back to near factory specs. We decided to add forged pistons of durability, hardened valve seats for todays gas, and a more aggressive cam just for fun.
The T10 is being gone through by TRANS-TEC. They are simple replacing the seals and gaskets, syncros, and a chipped reverse gear. A new clutch and pressure plate are manditory.
The rear end is being left alone for the time being. Just blasted it and did the breaks.

Thanks for the interest!

This is ground zero. A rusty but un-screwed with 1964 Mercury Park Lane convertable.

The inside @ ground zero. Note the shifter!

This is a shot of the 390cid big block and another of the 3-2s. All factory and verified through Ford of Canada.

A few shots of the rust we had to contend with on this project. Not as nice as it seems in the first picture is it?

Some more pics of the increadabe amount of rust that needed to be contended with. One is the trunk floor and the othe is a shot of the underside by the gas tank/exhaust.

First order of bussiness was to salvage all usable parts from our parts car. Here is a before and after shot.