1957 Mercury Voyager

By Jay Hirsch

Mercury was conceived by Edsel Ford in 1937 to be in the market of a Pontiac and just a notch below Oldsmobile. In 1939 the first Mercury appeared. It shared its body shell with Ford. It was not until 1957 that Mercury was produced as its own car, with its very own body, chassis, and suspension. 

The 1957 Mercury was lower, wider and longer than the 1956 Mercury—the “Big M” became the “Bigger M.” The 1956 Mercury was 206 inches long and the Big M in 1957 was 211. The width went from 76 inches to 79, and the height from 58 inches to 56. The hood and trunk lid were three inches lower than in 1956 and the glass area was vastly bigger, making the driver’s visibility better forward, rearward, and on either side of the Big Merc.

The new chassis, with the side rails mounted outboard, had more headroom and overall interior space than the 1956 Mercury, but one has to remember to “step down” when entering the 1957 Mercury as the floor is below the door sill.

There were four model series of 1957 Mercurys: the entry level Monterey, the more upscale Montclair, and the new high-performance luxury Turnpike Cruiser, which came as a two-door and four-door hardtop and a convertible. All Turnpike Cruisers had the quad headlight set-up. A yellow 1957 Turnpike Cruiser was the Pace Car for the 1957 Indianapolis 500. 

The fourth series were the station wagons. All were pillar-less design, also called hardtop. The Colony Park, which had faux wood side panels, was the top-of-the-line with sumptuous appointments and came only as four-door. The Voyager was the middle-of-the-line. and the Commuter was the base wagon. The Voyager and Commuter were available as two and four-door models. The rear tailgate was just that, a tailgate. There was no upper half that swung up. There was the bottom tailgate, into which the glass retracted just as in a passenger door. If an object was too long to fit inside the wagon and was less than 15 inches in diameter, all you had to do was lower the window into the gate. There was no noisy upper half to rattle when riding.

The two-door Voyager seen here is an example of that 1957 style, but it is not exactly “stock.” Lanny Hall, the owner, always liked station wagons, particularly the 1957–1960 Mercury pillar-less two-door wagons. In the spring of 2007 a friend told Lanny that in Fort Wayne, Ind., “someone was selling a 1957 Mercury station wagon.”

Lanny lives in Indianapolis. He asked his friend if he had the phone number for the wagon, and his friend said “sure do — I know you want a Merc like that.”

That evening he called the number and made arrangements to look at the car. The wagon was in a three-car garage separate from the 1920s Victorian house. The owner told Lanny his mother and father bought the car in 1957, and one of the features they liked was that it was a two-door, so they would not have to worry about he kids opening a rear door and trying to get out. His mother also liked the hardtop style. They also had a 1956 Mercury four-door-hardtop, which his father drove to work at his insurance office.  His mother loved the Voyager and said she “would never sell this car.”

After 35 years of driving the wagon and 185,000 miles on the car, it was parked in the garage where it sat until Tom decided in 2006 he had enough of Indiana winters and was going to move to Sarasota, Fla. His mother died in 1999, and his father in 2001. Tom told some local car people he was selling the car and the word got out.

The car was basically rust-free when Lanny saw it. Turns out the car was not used often when Fort Wayne began to use salt on the roads in the late 1960s. Before that the highway department spread sand. Lanny remembers that cars “used to be brown after it snowed, not the caked up white from salt.’

Lanny bought the wagon that day and said he would return the following a week later to get the car. Lanny had a friend with a towing company who “owed me some favors,” and he went with Lanny and a flatbed to get the wagon.

A week after Lanny got the car home he made to-do list. He was going to replace the 312 cid V-8 with a new 5.4 liter GT 500 engine, the dried out and worn interior was going to have tan bucket seats with center console, four-wheel disc brakes, modern air-conditioning and heater. The power windows all worked, including the rear window in the tailgate, so Lanny did not touch them. 

As for the body, it needed some metal patching in the lower front fenders just before the doors. The car was originally white, and Lanny and his wife Roberta liked the color but thought a Pearl White would fit their vision of their 21st century cruiser. All body trim and door handles were remove for a smooth look, but the body was not altered at all. The original 8.50 x 14 tires were updated to radials, with 225/75 x 15 tires installed on the front and 255/70 x 15 on the rear. 

Lanny and Roberta wanted a car they could drive anywhere and also to be able to carry some cargo.

“I like the look of the 1957 Chevy Nomad,” Lanny said, “but as wagon the interior space cannot compare to the Voyager, and that out-of-date, two-piece tailgate does not make it with us.” 

In the sales brochure for the 1957 Mercury it states: “Introducing the very first dream you can drive today…the completely new and bigger 1957 MERCURY with DREAM CAR DESIGN.”

In 1957, 2,283 two-door Voyagers were sold. •