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1957 Ford Country Squire
Aware that the market was ever-changing, Ford embraced a dramatic restyling from the ground up for 1957. The Country Squire and the rest of the station wagon family were not overlooked.
Wraparound windshields made use of a reverse-canted A-pillar, while the side-glass area was larger and allowed for better vision. A wider, curved liftgate was employed, and for the first time, two- and four-door wagons had equal amounts of load capacity as all portions of the middle seats now folded flat. The rear seat in the Country Squire and three-seat Country Sedan still had to be removed when not needed, but when in use, both wagons now held nine passengers.
 A new frame design accompanied the totally restyled 1957 Ford models, including the Country Squire. |
A modified version of the 1955-56 Country Squire's fiberglass framing was employed, but the wood-toned Di-Noc shed the horizontal plank look. Side-window frames and the upper tailgate continued to copy the look of wood grain.
Inside, the Country Squire featured four interior color combinations, again shared with the related Country Sedan: blue or tan "Silver Tweed" woven plastic with white vinyl bolsters, or all-vinyl in dark green-and-white or red-and-white pleated patterns. The new instrument panel featured a contrast-color band through the middle and a fan-type speedometer with fuel and coolant temperature gauges built into the ends.
Ford really offered two kinds of cars in 1957. The Fairlane and new Fairlane 500 rode a 118-inch wheelbase and sprouted bold blade tailfins that rose out of the midsection of the car. Custom/Custom 300 sedans and the station wagons shared a 116-inch wheelbase and more-modest fins.
The bumper-to-bumper measurement of wagons grew by more than five inches to 203.5. Height was cut to 58.9 inches on nine-passenger wagons, 58.7 on six-seaters. Contributing to these decreases were the use of smaller-diameter 14-inch wheels and a new "cowbelly" frame. The latter's underslung cross-members and bowed-out side rails allowed floor pans to nestle in between and lower the car.
Other new chassis features included revised ball-joint front suspension and outboard-mounted rear springs. Wagons used an extra sixth leaf in the rear springs, and nine-seaters rolled on wider 8.00 × 14 tires.
One benefit of the new measurements was increased wagon load capacity. With the tailgate lowered and the center seats folded, a 106.5-inch-long cargo area was realized. (Ford claimed 34 square feet of floor space.)
 The upper liftgate of the 1957 Country Squire now wrapped around to the sides of the car. |
One area that did see a reduction was the floor-to-roof measurement, which dropped from 37.4 inches to 34.6. A two-stage latch now served to unlock both the liftgate and tailgate, and a new type of hinge allowed the tailgate to open fully flat. (One-piece tailgates with a retractable rear window were starting to come into wider use, especially among the Chrysler Corporation makes, but Ford would retain a two-piece style for several more years.)
Under the new front-hinged hood, the base Mileage Maker Six engine maintained its 223 cid, but horsepower was further tweaked to 144. The 292-cid V-8 with two-barrel carb developed 212 horsepower. The 312-cid job made 245 horsepower with one four-barrel carb, 270 with dual fours, or 300 with a centrifugal supercharger.
Ford's 1.6 million units for 1957 were enough to wrest model-year sales honors from Chevrolet. That included an all-time record 321,170 station wagons, a substantial 19.4 percent of all full-sized Fords made that year. Country Squires made up 27,690 of those wagons, a total that wouldn't be bested until 1965.
Find details on the 1958 Ford Country Squire in the next section.
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