It Drove Into His Life

Rick Jenkins wasn't really looking to buy another car since he already had one. He had seen a rare Mercury Meteor before and had even talked to the owners but then one day about a year ago the car literally drove into his life. "It just drove right into my drive-way," he said.

It seems that the owners found themselves in a tight spot and needed to sell the car. "I didn't really think about it," Rick said, though he admitted that he probably should have. "But I'm glad I bought it."

The Meteor name only existed for three years as a Mercury (for many years it was released as a Ford in Canada) from 1961 through 1963. The first year it was planted on Mercury's low end full-sized cars and for the last two years was a stand alone mid-sized car.

Mercury chose the name in an attempt to latch onto the excitement generated by the space race. For this division of Ford it didn't work. At the time Mercury was going through something of an identity crisis as the suits at Ford didn't really know what to do with it. The brand was trying to make itself more affordable and chopped off the two most expensive cars in its line and replaced it with an entry level full-sized model, the Meteor.

The next year the folks at Mercury decided to place the Meteor name on a new line of mid-sized cars based on the Ford Fairlane, which itself was based on a long wheelbase version of the Ford Falcon. Because of what seemed like constant indecision at the top, Mercury eventually dropped the Meteor name and elevated its Comet marque to take over all of its mid-sized cars.

"You see a whole lot more Farilanes out there because basically they were cheaper," said Rick. His 1962 Meteor is a pretty rare car. "Other than this one I don't think I've ever seen another one on the road."

He didn't have to do a lot of work on the car which is a good thing because parts are hard to come by. "The engine, the mechanicals, they're all Fairlane parts so those are easy to find. It's things like the trunk and the carpets, the upholstery that you can't find.," Rick added.

Parts such as hubcaps are almost impossible. Rick told of a guy who claims to have over one million hubcaps and promises a set for every kind of car. It took Rick three different trips through the vast sea of hubcaps to find a set. "I used to throw those things away and now I'm finding myself having to pay stupid money for them," he added with a laugh.

The car is pretty much original but there is one addition Rick made, putting in seat belts. "These cars didn't come with seat belts but if I wanted to drive my grand babies around I had to put some in," he said. "It was a good investment."

Though he drives the car mostly to shows he will take it out to run errands as long as the weather is nice. It's not his every day driver but since it does get 20 miles per gallon he isn't afraid to put it out on the road. In fact, he admitted, he drives this more than his other classic car.

"I'm glad they picked my drive way to pull into," he concluded. Not bad for a car that literally drove into his life.