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Edsel Video

I'm an Edsel lover. Never had one, and they're kind of expensive these days. I find it fascinating that collectors started shortly after production ceased. But it's disappointing about the survival rate. This isn't really a video, it's a collection of period promo pictures and styling studies. Anyone know this music? It's driving me crazy.

 
I Take It...

...That Gwendolyn was/is a '58, but what model - a Ranger or a Pacer?

My guess is Pacer; she doesn't look as "strippo" as many Rangers did, and from what I can see, she's not the Mercury body used on Corsairs and Citations. A little hard to tell from the photos, though.

And most importantly of all, what's become of her?
 
Aha!

Just read in the bacon thread that Gwendolyn was a Corsair, which means the bigger Mercury body, not the Ford body used on Rangers and Pacers.

I hope she's leading a good life somewhere...
 
The link wasn't wanting to open for me. So is she a '58 or a '59? In the b&w pic above the two-tone with white top is a '58 but is that Gwen?

I could have had a '59 cheap back around 1980, but the engine was frozen and I just wasn't in a position to do anything about it. I sort of like the '58 better since the front end is even more delightfully hideous than the '59.
 
"Delightfully hideous" OMG LOL!

Ralph, the B&W '58 is a Pacer that was owned by a Farrand Browser back in 1971. My car didn't make it to any club events.
Gwendolyn got mostly restored and painted a nice Turquoise & White scallop. She eventually went to a collector of Pontiacs. I hope she is still driving around Schenectady today.
 
" I hope she is still driving around Schenectady today.

Or just driving around anywhere. I don't get off on cars so perfect that they have to be kept under a cheese bell.

I'm confident Gwen is in good hands wherever she is. And she sounds beautiful in that classic American Grafitti color combo.
 
Oh the Edsel....

One car I WILL own in time.

I think the '58 is a delightful car and in no way ugly. We don't get there until '59 and '60.

I just love the features including the Teletouch controls. Exclusive to 58's.

Problem is, that there are next to none where I live. (That goes for any of the appliances I want as well.)

I've only seen two 58's in person. And quite a few years apart for that matter.

I WILL OWN THIS CAR!

~Tim

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value=""></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
 
I want one also, even a BOL model, as long as it has Teletouch. A schoolmates family had a grey and yellow '58, I saw a blue '58 two door with a '57 Tbird transmission, a white '58 four door hardtop, a couple of '59s around here, one a wagon, but never any at the car shows. Survivors are around 3,500 total, I don't know if that means running and registered or not. Considering the clubs started forming around 1968, that doesn't seem like very many.

112561++1-31-2010-17-13-41.jpg
 
Tim:

Just a little heads-up:

Edsels with Teletouch are expensive, expensive cars to own, so don't try doing one on the cheap. The difficulty is that Teletouch was an electronic/vacuum hybrid system, as opposed to the mechanical-linkage Chrysler system seen in that company's products of the same vintage. Parts of the system were mounted in areas vulnerable to dirt and moisture, and there is a diaphragm that goes bad as well. Don't let any of this keep you from owning an Edsel, just know that you'll need some fairly deep pockets if you ever have one with Teletouch issues.
 
Yes

its the little Teletouch motor that was mounted outboard the transmission. They sealed it with rubber cement which was not salt proof! But today we know more, the same system was used on the Mercury Turnpike cruiser so always search for parts under Mercury. Even all the engine parts are interchangeable with the then current Mercury & Lincoln engines.
 
Alan:

Survival rate on Edsels is supposedly about six thousand, so maybe there's hope for you to have one. If I had enough disposable income to be fooling with gadget-laden late-Fifties cars, I would love to own a '58 Citation four-door hardtop with Teletouch and factory air. Those were a poor man's Lincoln!

Did you know that Kim Novak was Ford's celebrity spokesperson for Edsel? '58 was the height of her box-office popularity, so choosing her should have had more effect on sales than it did. There were some real problems once people went into showrooms and actually looked at Edsels; the two lower series - Ranger and Pacer - looked way too much like Fords, at a higher price. And the upper two series - Corsair and Citation - could get pretty expensive. A Citation in full fig could cost as much as a Buick, without the guarantee of resale values inherent in a Buick purchase.

Too bad; it was quite a car.
 
Thanks Sandy

That sounds more like it, don't know where I came up with the lower figure. I think I heard about Kim Novak, maybe on one of the Edsel sites. My roommate's father bought a '58 Citation 4dr hardtop demonstrator and from what I gather, had it until 1963, when it died on a vacation. They loved that car.

I believe Chrysler was the most successful in the pushbutton transmission department. Lincoln in '58 was to have had pusbuttons, but the idea was shelved quickly. I think Edsel was actually available with a stick operated automatic, for those who were thrown off by those fancy buttons! Don't quote me. Seems also, that the last real Packard, offered push buttons and lever operated Ultramatic, just for the record. Anyone know for sure, let me know.
 
112561: Edsel Transmissions for 1958

The column shift automatic wasn't made for long:

Small Series (Pacer, Ranger, wagons)

Standard Equipment: 3-speed Manual
Optional: 3-speed Manual with Borg-Warner T-85 Overdrive
Optional: Column Shift Automatic (Discontinued on January 2, 1958)
Optional: Teletouch Automatic

Large Series (Corsair, Citation)

Standard equipment: Teletouch Automatic

There is someone about 50 miles from me who owns a nice turquoise Citation convertible with all the bells and whistles.

http://edsel.com/
 
Yes, I have one of those models.

As mentioned in the bacon thread, my '59 Corsair four door sedan is in rough shape and probably not worth restoring. As much as I usually dislike most rat rods (I have seen some neat ones), it is in better shape than many rat rods that I've seen, so maybe I'll do something like that to keep it alive. I would only have to clear coat it and get a running drive train into it, verses having to do a restoration. They only made 3300 of these four door sedans, but sedans are the least valuable.

Sadly, there was a '58 Citation convertible in a junkyard 30 miles away, but it was way beyond saving, even considering how much they can sell for now. I looked it over closely, but the frame was sitting on the ground, the car was rusted out from the bottom up two feet, a tree was growing through it, and even the convertible top frame was beyond hope.
 
I thought you had one of those models

Great!

Granted, the four door hardtops and sedans draw the least money and interest, but in my opinion, deserve to be saved, unless only useful for parts, like that poor derelict Citation ragtop. Four door anythings are more for budget hobbyists, two door hardtops and convertibles, are naturally more desirable for people who invest as well as collect. Station wagons are now considered desirable, beyond the Nomads and Safaris.
 
I like a four door simply for ease of taking friends with me - no having to lean the seat forward so that they can get in back. That was why I originally bought this Edsel. I also have a four door wagon, a '57 Pontiac. It is also rough but is a rare model and thus worth the cost of restoring. It is one of the few four door wagons that can bring almost as much money as a Nomad or Safari 2 door. I want to make it my vacation car: style and lots of luggage space.
 
I like a four door simply for ease of taking friends with me

X2

My first car was my grandfathers 1973 2 door Dodge Dart Swinger with 42,000 miles that was garaged its whole life. Loading and unloading my friends was not only a huge hassle, but every time they got in and out, they would mar up my seats with shoe marks and stepped all over and cracked my plastic seatbelt housings. It was also a PITA to vacuum and clean! Ugghh!! I'll NEVER own another 2 door car (except a truck) as long as I live!!!

I'm mostly into vintage land yachts (late 50's to mid 60's), and they just look much classier in a 4 door, IMHO. 2 door Cadillacs and Lincolns look funny, if not "white trash" (especailly if they're in poor condition), to me.

BTW, cool pics Jetcone!!!
 
That Wagon...

...Was called the Bermuda. Very pricey it was, too. Someone in our neighbourhood had one, though I recall it being '63 or so by then, so it would have been a pretty well-used car by that time. As much as we like to sigh for the good old days, the sloppier manufacturing tolerances and more primitive lubricants of the '50s saw to it that cars wore out pretty quickly then. A car with 75K on the odometre was old, or at least highly suspect as a used car. Ring and valve jobs delayed the inevitable a while; at least the cars were simpler to work on for such major repairs. If you got 100K out of a car then without major work, you were doing very well.

The Bermuda was sold only in '58. For '59, disappointing 1958 sales caused Ford to thin the Edsel herd quite a bit. The TOL Citation was dropped, as was the next-to-BOL Pacer. The three wagons (TOL Bermuda, MOL Villager and BOL Roundup), were pared back to just the Villager. A restored Bermuda would be a far rarer car than any of the Edsel convertibles - to say nothing of a far more difficult restoration, because of the problems in finding replacement Ye Olde Fayke Woode Graine.
 
"the sloppier manufacturing tolerances and more primitive lubricants of the '50s saw to it that cars wore out pretty quickly then. A car with 75K on the odometer was old"

eeeehhh

My 1959 Pontiac has 200K miles. The motor was untouched and surprisingly showed little wear during the tear down. The transmission was rebuilt only once, in 1969. The rear end still has the same gear oil it left the factory with 51 years ago (not good, since it's a limited slip which requires strict oil replacement intervals). It's all in the design.

What I found interesting about the Pontiac was that the manual very strictly called for 10-30 oil. Remember, this was in 1959 when most car manufacturers still called for straight 30 or 40 weight oil. I bet multi-weight oil was a major PITA to locate back then!
 
Dan:

Sometimes you got lucky, as my parents did with a BOL '56 Chevy One-Fifty sedan. That car ran and ran and ran. It wasn't unheard-of to get - or top - 100K without some engine overhauling, but it wasn't common, either. That started to change in the '60s.
 
danemodsandy

I know of the problems with Teletouch. It seems Chrysler is the only ones to get it right, and I think it has alot to do with where the controls were placed. Being in the steering column to me, would wear it out faster. More moving parts, etc. If I remember right, there were Chrysler cars all the way up into the 60's with the push button option.

I think that having Teletouch is an important feature to have. If you don't there's no use in having an Edsel. Especially one with an aftermarket floor shift or something.

I've learned my lesson on project cars. They are a money hole. Never again. I intend to get one in good driving condition with working Teletouch.

As you indicated, it's quite an expensive mechanism to repair, but that's the risk I'm willing to take.

The closest I've gotten to driving an Edsel or any old car was my friend's 67 Plymouth. It was big, powerful, automatic and had steering as smooth as butter.

;)

~Tim
 

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