Thursday, May 8, 2014

EDSEL FORD

Oh yeah Edsel's were built by Ford, no Edsel Ford, Henry Ford's only son and president of Ford Motor company until his death in 1943. Edsels children were Henry Ford II, Benson,Josephine and William Clayton. Grandchildren Edsel Ford II and Bill Ford, the whole clan is and has been the Ford Motor Company upper echelon. Back to Edsel who always was upstaged by dad, Henry and at times was embarrassed by him in public.
Ford had introduced the Edsel as a breakaway line and the rather aggressive look may have been too much, the line lasted only 3 years 1958-1959 and 1960.
The project was E for experimental and they decided to call the line Edsel with great push back from Edsel Ford II, grandson son of Edsel. 



Often thought of by some as a lemon,but in reality was the same mechanically as any other Ford successful vehicles
and one never built 
There were wagons, ambulances, police cars, taxis and some odd custom trucks using Ford line pieces. 








 A friend of mine just bought this Taxi


Why an Edsel was chosen?
HUH?
All the pickups were crossdressing Ford Rancheros
Looks like a lot happened in 3 years, but the car was a sales failure costing Ford millions!
A few concept cars too.

What if the Edsel continued like Ford into the future?

Turns out Rob Cerame, who I know was behind this 5oth anniversary Edsel tribute!


 Not the first time that idea was used!







Now the point of where I was headed!
Edsel (the man) is however responsible for the Lincoln Continental and Mercury line which is his legacy.
He was also behind the Lincoln Zephyr 
Edsel had many many custom built cars made for his personal usage. I guess if you had the Ford designers at your disposal that would be pretty easy, huh?



This custom had a 6 cylinder and Fords were all 4 cylinders at that time!
 Ran into Edsel's 6 racer in Nebraska

Dual Cowl Phaeton
 Ran into Edsel's 32 Boattail Speedster at Amelia Island 2013 



1939 Continental prototype by Edsel himself


 When the Edsel failed the Continental moved in, design and the foresight to predict it was Edsel's strength 

Brewster Ford town car
The boat tail 6 cylinder
In his signature family Blue have you ever seen an opera window/vinyl roof and molding delete Mark V?
Even the rear window was frenched! 
I believe this was built for Henry Ford II who must have got the custom bug from dad Edsel?
Ran into these 2 custom built for the Ford family cars in Florida
Edsel was the force behind Lincoln Continentals.
This Blue paint was exclusive to Ford family personal cars.
Just ran into Edsels personal chauffeur driven one off limo! 
Just found this one in Virginia last month!











Edsel Ford's failure certainly had some extended life! 
paul Revere and the Raiders, it is an Edsel keyboard 

The 1960 Edsel with a more attractive grille did not have enough time to save Edsel as the line was dropped in November 1959



Oops! Edsel already planned a smaller Edsel based on the Falcon Platform and was to be the Edsel Comet, since it was already ready to roll out they did as a stand alone car THE COMET sold at Lincoln Mercury dealers, so for 1960 and 1961 it did not say Mercury on it until 1962! 


Ford codes it parts and some parts were coded as Edsel, Front signal lamps were 1959 Edsel parts, tail lamps look a lot like the big brother lens. 
The 1960 and 1961 (Edsel) Comets sold more units then the entire run of full size Edsels so maybe this would have saved them?  


A non-believer? The trunk lock cover has the iconic Edsel grille image and the keys are Edsel, but they just changed the E to a C

 











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