69 marquis, any good??
 

hey guys,
im looking at buying a 69 marquis 2 door of my friends,
its completely original down to the paint, tires and even battery. it has the 429, c6 transmission and runs really well. needs a new front bench soonish and paint eventually. it has one, quarter-size rust hole in the passenger door but other than that its in really good shape. one owner from new and 49,000 on the clock.
he wants like 2 grand for it. does this sound fair?
any chronic problems with this car?
cheers guys, Alistair

It's kinda of hard to judge without seeing it, but that price doesn't seem too far out of line, especially being 2 door with a 429, low miles and unmolested....

AS far as chronic problems there isn;t anything major.. Age will be the biggest issue.. Seals and gaskets dry out and become brittle over time.. Same goes for belts and hoses..
Rust is a biggie, but with proper care and keeping it out of fowl weather (pending on where you are located) that can be prevented...

Read this thread, most of it applies to your '69..
https://www.mercuryforum.com/forum/s...ead.php?t=2964


The 429 is simply the older brother of the 460.. It shares most of the same parts.. I would bet your engine is probably 10.5:1 or 11:1 compression which is pretty high by today's standards.. Premium fuel is recomended.. This engine will also have the softer valves and seats intended for leaded gas.. AS a weekend cruiser you'd be fine, but for long trips and such a lead additive woudl be recomended to prevent valves from burning.. Pending on what you plans are for the car you may also want to consider upgrading to electronic ignition.. There are several rather inexpensive ways to do that..

I'm not sure which carburetor you may have on that.. If it's a 4 barrel I'm guessing it's a Holley already but I think they did use some autolite 4bbls yet.. The 2 barrel carb woudl be a Motorcraft.. All were pretty decent carburetors.. Once again from age, and detergrents in modern gas a rebuild down they road is not out of the question...

THe only other thing I woudl suggest is to post som pics so we can all look and drool!!!