10/11/2026
🚨 NEW PITCREW MEMBER ALERT… well, almost. She still needs a name.
Meet the newest yet-to-be-named member of the Nick's PitStop PitCrew — a 1977 Mercury Monarch Ghia 2-Door, owned by my brother.
And this isn’t just another old ’70s cruiser. This old girl has 58,000 original miles, has been garage kept, and is probably 95% original. We’ll be helping my brother go through her, clean up a few things, handle some mechanical details, and get her properly up to PitCrew standards.
According to the Marti Report, she was ordered February 2, 1977, built February 22, 1977, and sold new on March 8, 1977 through Burton-Moore Ford in Caro, Michigan.
She left the factory wearing 8J Medium Tan Glamour Metallic, a Brown Odense Landau vinyl roof, and a tan cloth Flight Bench interior. Under the hood is the original-style 302 2-barrel V8, backed by a C4 automatic and a highway-friendly 2.47 rear axle.
Factory equipment included power steering, power disc brakes, rear-window defroster, AM radio, Convenience Group, Visibility Group, Appearance Protection Group, whitewall radials and wire wheel covers.
And here's where it gets interesting...
According to Marti, of all the 1977 Monarch Ghia 2-door sedans produced:
Only 278 were built with this paint code.
Only 68 had this exact paint and interior trim combination.
So she may not be a Boss 429 or a Shelby hiding in a barn, but she's definitely something you don't see pulling into every cruise night. 😎
Now, for those of us hovering somewhere within 5–10 years on either side of 50, there's a pretty good chance you either drove a Granada or Monarch to school... or rode to school with a buddy who did. 😂 They were everywhere.
Unless, of course, your family was on the other side of the Ford dealership looking at a Maverick or Comet... which were also basically the same car as each other. LOL. Ford really knew how to stretch a platform back then.
The Monarch and Granada were Ford and Mercury's slightly more upscale answer to the changing mid-'70s market — comfortable, simple, rear-wheel-drive cars that were everywhere back in the day and have now almost completely disappeared.
That's part of what makes this one fun.
She's not a restored showpiece pretending to be 1977 again. She actually survived 1977.
Now we get to preserve what makes her original, fix what 49 years has worn out, clean up a few things, and get her ready to officially earn her spot in the PitCrew.
Welcome to the family, old girl.
#1977
