1000 Mile Test Drive Before Delivery: Mercury M250 Crew Cab
Taking the Mercury M250 crew cab out for test miles before it goes home to Roman with Keepn It Classic. We put 1000 miles on every build that leaves our shop to catch issues before the customer does—this one had a hydroboost failure around mile 100 that we were able to fix in-house instead of Roman dealing with it on the side of the road.
This truck is badged as a Mercury M250, which is the Canadian-market version of the Ford F100. From 1946 to 1968, Ford of Canada built Mercury M-Series trucks for Lincoln-Mercury dealerships in rural areas that didn't have Ford dealers. They're mechanically identical to their Ford F-Series counterparts but have unique grilles, badging, and trim. Mercury trucks were never sold in the US, so finding one down here is rare. 1966 was also the first year Ford built crew cabs in their own plant instead of sending them out to coach builders, which makes this thing a double unicorn.
Roman's been flipping trucks and building up to this one for years—it's his personal truck that's staying in the family, and he wanted to make sure it's safe and reliable for driving his family around. We swapped in a brand new FFG custom 4x4 chassis, Gen 3 Coyote 5.0, 6-speed manual, custom leather interior, and dialed in the suspension with 10-inch coilovers and front and rear sway bars. It rides smoother than a new F-250 and handles 60 mph cruising with one finger on the wheel. The hydroboost system that came with the truck developed a vacuum leak during testing—brake pedal would stay down without your foot on it and just keep slowing you down. We caught it, swapped in a brand new Bosch unit, and that also cleared up some intermittent power steering issues we'd been chasing.
We're wrapping up the final 400 miles this week and getting ready to hand it back to Roman. Full walkaround video with the completed build is coming soon.
BUILD SPECS:
1966 Ford Mercury M250 Crew Cab
Gen 3 Coyote 5.0
6-Speed Manual Transmission
FFG Custom 4x4 Chassis
10" Coilovers (Front and Rear)
35" Tires
Front and Rear Sway Bars
New Bosch Hydroboost System
Custom Leather Interior
Dakota Digital Gauges
Custom Dash Valance and Interior Panels
Focal + Morel Speaker System with Mosconi Amp (Bluetooth)
Follow Roman's builds at @keepn_it_classic on Instagram.
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