M2 Machines 1967 Mercury M100 and 1969 Ford F100 Pickups




Now I already reviewed the 1969 Ford F100 from M2 Machines back in July when I reviewed it with the other five vehicles in the latest Auto Trucks release.  These two, in the Wild Cards series, offer a unique twist to this casting.





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First up is the red and while truck with the Mercury letters: the M100.  M2 is no stranger to the Mercury pickups having done the 1956 M100 (1961 Ford F100 with Mercury badging) and the 1956 Mercury COE (again, '56 Ford COE with Mercury badges).  Was this a stab at a luxo pickup?  No, instead it was a way to sell the trucks in Canada since they couldn't sell Ford vehicles in Canada for some strange reason.  To get around this Ford badged the Ford trucks as Mercury's and shipped them across the border.  No Mercury trucks were sold in the US unless you transported one across the border.  This idea only lasted a few decades until the 1970's when Ford can finally sell Ford badged trucks in Canada, meaning no more Mercury-badged Ford trucks for a while.





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The red (more like orange) on white looks extremely good on this casting, with the first use of a separate white roof as well.  The hood has MERCURY letters, the front fenders the M100 badge, and the rear tailgate MERCURY letters.  Even the white steel wheels with chrome center cap give this truck a premium appearance common in the Mercury car line.  The long bed stance, right-side toolbox on the side of the bed still appear, as does the ill-fitting door gaps and blacked-out front grille which should not be blacked-out at all.  Open the hood to revel the blue Windsor V8 and all of its details from the air cleaner housing to the engine block, along with the battery and radiator.  Open the doors to the interior that has a color-matching front bench with lapbelts, 3-spoke steering wheel, and flat dash layout with detailed gauge cluster.  Yup, all of this the same-old F100 casting, just a tad bit nicer and flanked with Mercury badges.





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The other truck in dark blue is the F-100 with the proper Ford letters. This is the first solid-color of this casting which looks great with the white steel wheels and chrome center caps.  Looks like another recolor, but it is more than that.  Open the doors and you'll find the steering wheel is on the wrong side!  This is the F-100 built for the Australian market; even with the use of the car-based Ute pickups the F-series pickup is another strong choice for those in the land down under.  The 3-spoke steering wheel was moved to the right to make for the right market, but the dashboard never moved and inch.  Worse, M2 still detailed the gauges on the left instead of either detailing them on the right or no detail at all; thankfully the flat dashboard design makes it look the same no matter where the steering wheel ends up at.  More than that, open the hood and you'll see a 300 CID I-6 with 170 horsepower with a blue engine block, air cleaner housing placed farther back, and more detail to the alternator and coolant resovoir to make up for the sparse space.  The engine was only pared to a 3-speed column-shifter manual that was unique to this market (US F100 manuals had the shifter on the floor).  Other than the engine and steering wheel placement this was nothing more than your average F100 pickup.




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Talk about two very cool and unique ways to show off M2's new F100 pickup casting.  May not be as flexible as the 58-59 Chevy and GMC pickups but it does show that the F100 does have a few engines, wheels, and even steering wheel to trade places with in upcoming variations.



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Comments

  1. I do hope they do another AUDM Ford F100 but this time with the right dashboard (laziness on their part)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great cars. Great toys. Congrats! For those peoples who looking for 1969 ford truck shop manual pdf book.

    ReplyDelete

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