To be perfectly honest, many new vehicle features are little more than gimmicks, but Ford’s two-way Magic Doorgate was a genuine advance in station wagons.
As we’ve noted before here at Mac’s Motor City Garage, Ford was as aggressive as any of the Detroit automakers in pursuing the station wagon market. But it was a tough and competirive category in its heyday—from the ’50s through the ’70s, roughly—and one where it was difficult to find an edge. Ford engineered one in 1966 with a clever tailgate design that was marketed under the name Magic Doorgate.
Credit for the Magic Doorgate goes to Ford engineer and product manager Donald N. Frey (1923-2010). Many today know him best as the father of the Mustang, along with Lee Iacocca. One of the smartest people in the car biz by all accounts, Frey was a third-generation engineer with three university degrees, including a doctorate in metallurgy, and he spoke three languages fluently: English, French, and Russian. In 1967, Time magazine described him as “Detroit’s sharpest idea man.”
Long story short, Magic Doorgate was a somewhat complicated but surprisingly robust mechanism with a double set of latches and hinges, effectively. This allowed it to be opened like a conventional tailgate, hinged at the bottom and opened at the top, or opened just like a regular car door, albeit a rather long one. The idea itself was simple enough, but probably a challenge to execute and properly develop, we’re betting. Anyway, the feature was a perfect fit for Ford’s familiar ad slogan in the ’60s, “Ford has a better idea,” and it was offered on all Ford and Mercury station wagon models starting with the 1966 introduction.
We can say for sure it was a good idea, because the rest of the Motor City’s car makers soon copied it, offering two-way tailgates on their wagon models. General Motors even made an effort to one-up the feature, if you will, with its disappearing Glide-Away tailgate in 1971. Ford continued to offer its signature feature through 1991, when the wagons were moved aside as minivans became the USA’s favorite family people-movers.
My boss’s father, Albert Hammond, who had migrated from Coventry to Detroit some 8 years prior, was on this design team also.
My old man had a Ford wagon with this tailgate. As a curious lad, I wondered what would happen if you pulled both levers at once? Well, nothing, except it jammed the workings and I had to take the back off and fix it before the old man found out. It should be noted, Rambler had a similar tailgate that only opened like a door, in 1958, I think.
The dual facing rear seats were a good idea too at least for kids. It must have come along the same time.
Bought a used 1970 full size Chevy wagon with that kind of tailgate. Jammed on me, mechanic used to work at a dealer tried to ‘synchronize’ the locks. We never got it working. Had to load/unload through side doors or by lowering tailgate window.