Junkyard Find: 1977 Ford LTD II Station Wagon

by Murilee Martin

Published: February 6th, 2015

junkyard find 1977 ford ltd ii station wagon

In one of those confusing branding moves that’s up there with the baffling Toyota Corolla Tercel, Ford decided to name a Torino-based midsize car the LTD II while keeping the regular full-sized LTD. This went on for the 1977 and 1978 model years, and then for 1979 the “big” LTD went to the Panther platform and sold alongside LTD IIs for that year. Why? Well, that’s like asking why Henry Ford II refused Soichiro Honda’s offer of cheap CVCC engines for the Fiesta a few years before! Anyway, here’s an extremely green first-year LTD II wagon (not a Country Squire, which was based on the larger “regular” LTD) that I spotted in Northern California a couple weeks back.

Do you like green interiors, and by that I mean large expanses of petrochemical-residue-exhaling I Can Totally Believe It’s Not Leather™ vinyl that still looks good and vivid after nearly 40 years of California sun?

This car has you covered! This car’s seats would make nice garage couches.

Ford sent out 23 million of these recall-evading stickers, thanks to the generosity of Ronald Reagan, and thus didn’t go bankrupt in the early 1980s. Most owners didn’t apply them, but this car’s circa-1982 owner did.

The engine compartment had a bit of a fire problem.

We can assume this car was earning its keep until the day of the fire.

Ford didn’t hesitate to pitch the big LTD as more car for the money. Look, bigger than a Cadillac, yet cheaper!

As for the LTD II: if you’re a sporty guy with a sporty mustache, the “trimmer” LTD II is for you!

#1970s #1977 #1977FordCountrySquire #1977FordLTD #1977FordLTDII #1977FordLTDStationWagon #CountrySquire #DownOnTheJunkyard #Ford #FordCountrySquire #Wagon #StationWagon #LTD #Junkyard #JunkyardFind #Malaise #MalaiseEra #FordLTD #FordTorino #Sajeev'sBitterTears #LTDII #FordLTDII

Murilee Martin

Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.

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2 of 115 comments

Amca on Feb 09, 2015

I love the high tech "click-click" of the light switch in the LTD II commercial. Funny to think from today's perspective just how archaic it was - even back then. And that something archaic wasn't seen as a problem for a brand association then.

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Wal65754673 on Nov 14, 2023

I'm looking for 1977 LTD2 interior parts

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