Ok here's another Mercury we need some history help with. We got this 1951 Mercury from a collector who bought it for big money about 8 years ago and it was sold to him as a true Barris built mercury. He never got any real documents to prove it one way or the other but it did not realy matter to him as he just liked the car. He got very sick a few years after he bought it and had to sell off alot of his cars so he contacted me to sale a few of his cars with one of them beeing this 1951 mercury. When the car was here i could tell the car was orginaly built a long time ago and definitly had the Barris style & quailty of body mods done to it so i contacted George about this mercury but i sold it before he got back to me. The guy i sold it too contacted Barris and got most of the body mod's were done by Barris and documented. The chop is what is in question as George thinks someone else might have done it. Now it has a new owner wanting to rework it but before he does he would like to know all the history before making any changes. GB & Thanks, Rick & Carol Erickson of ExK Extreme Kustoms 951 678-3520 www.exkustom.com
Thats a slick looking merc,quite nice.Any old papers,mag articles anything to go by?..Rikster will have to tackle this head on.Very interesting!
Nice car but the LTD taillights would have to go! They fit the car pretty well and I have never thought of using something like that in one, however they just do not go with the car IMHO. Jim
Just find George Barris, if you can get him away from all the young girls, and have him sign it. Then, he built it.
so, if it was Barris built - it couldn't be TOO old with those LTD lamps in the rear, unless they were added later. If it's a recent Barris build, then there' no need to dust off the archives. dj
Any one know when the idea of butting up the windshield glass in the center actually started? To me that spoils a lot of the period look a car like that needs.
Barris has documented they did the headlights,Olds grill, rounded hood, steel side skirts and the LTD tail lights. He did not gave a year of when they did the work but my guess would be in the mid to late 70's or even the early 80's. Just looking for any old pic's or any other imfo on this car and especialy on who did the chop as it is way different than most mercs done back then. It's more of a fastback style with a shoebox back window
car look great; does it matter who worked on it?? I don't ask a well endowed woman who made her chest, I just enjoy it for what it is.
Perhaps the Barris shop did work on this car, but if they did, it was not done in the 50's. No shop would ever put a 1948 Grille in a 1951 car back then. The goal was to make the car look newer, not older. If the front and rear modifications where done at the same time it must have been done in the 1980's. And even if it was done by the Barris shop, it does not really matter... the shop had then lost most of its Custom Car magic already, and it could just have been done by any other shop. No extra points here. The "designs" of the modifications all scream 1980's to me. Modifications for the sake of doing something to it... for sure not an improvement. The chop fits in the same category. Just telling what I see in the photos... I have no documentation on this car.. so I could not really tell who did the work.
Exactly Rik ,if Barris did the car in recent times it dont make a difference at all. Sam was already gone by that time and his time is when the "Barris kustoms" were coming out and getting built.
I was bidding on that 51 on Gay-bay but thought all that Barris stuff was all bull shit. I liked the car except for a few things like the 1975 ltd tail lights but if Barris did them I guess I would have to think hard before removing them.
When the fuck in the last 53 years did any one ever hear of or see the Barris shop perform a modification on a 1951 Mercury?
The location of the spot lights is just plain wrong, for that matter throw in the windshield, wiper nuts and the wheels go without saying. Although I kind of like the LTD tail lights, the elongated skirt and stock fuel door don't work for me. Sorry, I know you were looking more for history but I couldn't help it.
Another thing you have to remember about Barris cars is they were way different when Sam was there, he knew cars and knew how to make a car flow, George just did what he thought people wanted to see. Jim
Perhaps the Barris shop did work on this car, but if they did, it was not done in the 50's. No shop would ever put a 1948 Grille in a 1951 car back then. The goal was to make the car look newer, not older. If the front and rear modifications where done at the same time it must have been done in the 1980's. And even if it was done by the Barris shop, it does not really matter... the shop had then lost most of its Custom Car magic already, and it could just have been done by any other shop. No extra points here. The "designs" of the modifications all scream 1980's to me. Modifications for the sake of doing something to it... for sure not an improvement. The chop fits in the same category. Just telling what I see in the photos... I have no documentation on this car.. so I could not really tell I'd have to agree 100% I see nothing on this car that speaks of the old style "Barris built" It reeks 1980's....and putting a 46-48 olds grille (beautiful grille by-the-way)on a 49-51 Merc, is a little like putting fake 37 ribbed bumpers on your 50,s car....I love George...but I don,t believe he/or his shop ever touched that car....
looks like something Vinnie from ultra limos would build. that guy used to hack up mercs and i think he was doing work for barris too
I like the chop and the grill, don't love the taillights and what bothers me even more than the weird spotlight location is that piece of chrome beneath the windows... for some reason I can't stand it...
Yep, back in 86' you'd pull in to a cruise night with this car and instantly hear the song below playing as the show promoter handed you repop fuzzy dice. <object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/xDXT7wC9jrc?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/xDXT7wC9jrc?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object> Sorry, A huge Barris fan but i think "Gold crests" or "Documents" are being handed out like Halloween candy these days.
The only thing I do not like about this car is the wheels and the location of the spots. I actually like the tail lights. They fit. I've seen a few cars done up with older grilles like this and I like the look. We all can't have 54 Chevy or DeSoto teeth in them.