San Francisco Street Sighting - 1962 Mercury Monterey

Sometimes when I go into the city to look for cars I end up spending the whole day in one neighborhood. The day I photographed this 1962 Mercury Monterey four-door hardtop, I also found a 1950 Hudson, 1955 Chevy wagon, 1962 Magirus-Deutz fire truck, 1965 Ford Fairlane, 1977 Pontiac Sunbird, 1982 Toyota Starlet and several other interesting historic vehicles I'll be featuring here at a later date. All were in San Francisco's Sunset district.

Santa Cruz Street Sighting - 1965 Mercury Monterey

A few months ago we looked at a 1965 Mercury Park Lane Marauder four-door hardtop sedan in San Francisco. Now we're looking at a lower-spec Monterey four-door pillared sedan from the coastal community of Santa Cruz. The Monterey was Mercury's cheapest full-size car for '65, but still came with standard 390 V8 power. This one seems to have found use as a metalhead's rat-rod cruiser.

Oakland Street Sighting - 1963 Mercury Monterey Custom Breezeway

I have a bit of a soft spot for the 1963 Mercury Monterey. An acquaintance of mine owns one, a two-door with the Breezeway rear window that was a daily driver and occasional autocross car until it met a concrete barrier at an event. As of this writing, it awaits restoration.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1962 Mercury Monterey

Occasionally in the city I'll run across something entirely odd, or a mainstream vehicle that just doesn't have a strong following. The Mercury Monterey is not an obscure make or model, but for the life of me I can't remember the last time I'd seen one from 1962 until this clean white example turned up in the Inner Richmond in San Francisco.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1958 Mercury Monterey

Remember the '58 Oldsmobile post where I mentioned that 1958 was a weird year for the auto industry, whose designs are often criticized for being really strange? This is pretty much the poster child for "ugly" in 1958. Most will disagree with me and point fingers at the new-for-'58 Edsel, but that's too easy. Besides, I like the Edsel.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1959 Mercury Monterey Cruiser

San Francisco is full of Prius-driving yuppies, but every so often you find a true car enthusiast. While going to look at a used Mazda Protege5 in the city, I asked to take a route I've commonly walked in the past. This route has led me to find many of the cars featured on this blog, and a trip over Lone Mountain near Golden Gate Park revealed an extraordinary collection of old cars. Seems a collector lives in this area who specializes in unrestored daily-driver 1950s cars, and his street-parked 1959 Mercury Monterey Cruiser is a prime example.