History MILESTONE CUSTOM CARS: Louie Bettancourt 49 Merc

HISTORY LESSON TIME!!

Just bring this back up incase someone might have missed it.

 

HISTORY LESSON TIME !!!!

Look these guys build cars that were CLASSY not TRASHY. Maybe for people will start building CLASSY CUSTOMS again.

 

wtf ?

 

History lesson time !!!!

 

Great customs!!!! These are not over chopped,looking broke on the ground, and flow from the front to the back. I love these threads!!

 

Two great pictures right here.

 

Anyone know the power train info.? Looks like an OHV engine in those detailing shots.

 

I absolutely love this pic of Johnny cleaning his engine.I wish I could of heard what this Merc sounded like with that rocket in it.

 

Missing cars like this Merc and the Dean Porsche are intriguing to say the least. Sitting somewhere, but where?

 

Yes....this car is sitting somewhere.....I just know it.

 

Exactly. I think those who say that the first version is too plain and gets lost in a sea of custom Mercs are not seeing it with eyes of the time period in which it existed.
I doubt if many back then had the word 'plain' pop in their heads when they saw it.

Hopefully it does still exist. The Colorado story is interesting.
I often wonder if someone is driving around in a custom Merc built from its remains and under another title and do not even know its origins.

 

The only arguement I would have of this is that this was a transition car from the fat fendered cars of the 40's which worked with little to no trim because the fenders added the interest from a side view. With these big slab sided cars the lack of any trim on the side, like Louie's car, and no defined fenders makes them a little bit plain.

I certainly don't think it gets lost because I think this is the greatest Merc ever built and absolutely love the original color but with everything molded on it it could use the spear that Barris added later (or some other side trim) and a bit heavier grill bar IMO.

 

What could be more fitting than that Olds engine? Had to sound very cool even though it looks like it ran a little hot. The louvers in the fender wells and air dams beside the radiator makes me think that he didn't want to clutter the hood with louvers.

 

I had brought this subject up a little while back and this is what I wrote.

 

Hey Jeff,

Given as many owners as this rig has had , legal and otherwise, it's like the Ayala/Stewart/Street/?/Drake/Emil '41 Ford.............pretty cobbled up at this point, even if it does exist?

" Humpty Dumpty was pushed "

 

Yes I know I still would do all I can to bring it back to the Ayala version without cutting any corners.

 

Great to see these pictures blown up like this.

 

Does anyone know if there has ever been a concerted effort put forward to find Louie's car lately? I would asume it was done whne it was stolen but any real serious attempts to find it since?

 

Here is a larger version of the Zupan Merc when it was at the Bill DeCarr shop getting the new grille pan, quad headlights and new taillights with similar pan as on the front. Very nice metal work from Bill DeCarr, and who knows how this car would have looked when finished with all the new modifications.

This photo also shows the unique location of the Appleton spotlights.

 

I like to think that someone has this car stashed, and it didn't get junked at some point. I would think that side body line is still quite unique.

Anyone have a vin?

 

Yeah, I would love to find this car !

 

This vehicle, like the " Miss San Pedro '' merc, and '' Moonglow '' enjoy lots of '' fictional accounts '' as to their whereabouts quite often!

This photo looks to have been taken at the Artesia Blvd. shop of Larry's/Ortega's DeCarr's circa 1960? It wasn't reported stolen by Jefferies until a decade later (1970)?? where was it inbetween, & was it ever finished inbetween?

 

I've always wondered what they had planned for a grill in the final version. Some kind of a tube or cabinet style?????

 

Pimpin Paint...I have always wondered about some of the time gaps in this timeline.I just think there is more to the story that we dont know even before it was stolen.

 

Correct the photo was taken at Bill's Artesia Blvd. shop. There is no date on the photo, but in several other photos the car is parked against the wall on the drive way of the shop. And Ed Roth is prepping his Rotar to be painted by Larry Watson. I have no date when the Rotar was finished, but somebody else might have that, that will roughly date this photo. Or at least the time the car was at Bill's shop. I'm pretty sure this is 1960 or 61.

I have never seen any photos of the car finished more than in the color photo I posted... other than the light color primer that was added. I have never seen any photos showing lights or other bright work re-installed.

Perhaps Bill DeCarr could shed a light to this. I know he is still around, but I have no contact info... somebody else gets to talk to Bill?

 

I don't know if anyone is still looking at this thread, but several questions being asked are answered in my book Lost Hot Rods, pp. 170-171. I interviewed Jeffries two years ago (again) about how he got the car and how it disappeared. Three of the photos reputedly taken in San Francisco are included, along with one Dean gave me of the car sitting between the two finished MonkeeMobiles in his lot on Cahuenga in Hollywood. The book sold out, but it's now back in print, and available from CarTechbooks.com or Amazon. For those of you who say you love stories of lost hot rods and custom cars, that's what this book is full of.

For the person who asked about Jeffries' custom Porsche, it was found years ago and was recently restored and shown at Amelia Island (with Jeffries there). It was also stolen and has an amazing story, which I was going to include in Lost Hot Rods II, but
Tom Cotter beat me to it in his latest "Barn Finds" book. That story is also told in Cotter's complete book on Dean Jeffries, published by MotorBooks in '09. However that book only contains one brief column (no photos) about the "Zupan Merc."

For those interested, Lost Hot Rods II is done, and at the publisher's, who says it will be available in September, so watch for it. It has a chapter on "Missing Mercs" that you should find interesting.

Pat Ganahl

 

Can't wait for the new book,Pat!

 

A chapter on missing Mercs, I need this! I have your first book it's outstanding.