History continued

So, have you ever had your wife say, you can't get it unless it is free? That was the state of our conversation about me getting another Merkur Scorpio, or Xr4ti. Which I was fine with, because I really had no business investing money in a third vehicle that I would only be using for play. Fast forward to Summer of 2008. I belong to a couple of Merkur user groups online, the only way I could feed my addiction. One day very nice gentleman by the name of Paul posts on Merkurclub.com that he has owned a Scorpio for just under 20 years and is wanting to get rid of it. He lives in Minnesota, but if someone wanted it, he would give it to them for free. My wife couldn't believe it. The next thing you know we are planning a trip to Minnesota. Here is a picture of the Scorpio after we got her back home.



Beautiful car, love the color. The problem? Rust, lots of rust. In the doors, in the frame, in the wheel wells, just about everywhere.





At first I was very hopefull that the rust could be dealt with. After time and a lot of examination it became apparent I could spend way more money / time, and get far less enjoyment out of the car than I needed to justify the vehicle in the first place.

So it stayed in my garage. The leather is nice, somedays I would just go sit in the car and think of what could be, if I had an unlimited budget.

Time goes by, I keep in touch with the Merkur guys, I miss out on the annual pilgrimage to Carslisle PA. for the All Ford Nationals where an annual gathering of Merkurs takes place each year. I am resigned to the fact that this Scorpio is probably not going to see the road again. The 2nd week of June I come across a post on Merkurclub.com about a guy in Texas who has an 88
Scorpio that was given to him by his neighbor and he doesn't want it. He at first is trying to sell it, but there is little interest in a vehicle that won't start and has a lost title. After a couple of days he puts it out there that if someone wanted it, they could come and get it for free.

Happy 40th birthday Darren, you just got another Scorpio!





This is an "early" 1988 model, which means it is actually an 1987 model year, but was held over and imported for the 1988 model year. It has a few oddities that the later cars didn't have.

Example: Cloth interior. 95% of the vehicles had leather interiors. This okay by me, because the leather had issues with it falling apart with age. The cloth interior in this car looks remarkle for its age



Example: Rear "air" option. All of the Scorpios had floor rear air vents, only the early ones had a vent control for it.



Example: Deleted fuel computer option. This isn't much to brag about, they just didn't include a fuel trip computer. It is worthy of note, because only a few "lucky" cars had this "non-option".



Beyond that, it is just a nice black 1988 Merkur Scorpio with 75000 miles on the odometer, paint is sun damaged, but NO RUST. I repeat, NO RUST. This vehicle is a lot farther ahead as far as a starting point for restoration.

Well, its late and I need to get to bed.

Later,

Darren