The Muddy and Mild Merc!

Here’s a tale of woe for you gents- Long before the invention of a “Carfax”, let alone the internet, it was much harder to track the complete history of a vehicle for sale. Imagine buying a Salvaged car from a dealer, with no idea until you drove it away and then discovered hidden damage. Thats what happened to John Yates of Santa Ana, who unknowingly bought a flood & mud 1949 Mercury that should have been a total. Luckily, he turned a lemon into lemonade, and built the minty mild custom you see here. What I really admire about the ’49-’50 Mercs is how little modification they require to look striking. All it took in this case was frenched headlights, a clean floating bar grille, and liberal shaving of the trim, handles & brightwork. The owner also installed a set of ’51 Buick taillights on their sides, which is an interesting choice, but it works in this case. Obviously with a formerly submerged car you get lots of rust, so many parts were chrome plated that might have been left stock, including solenoids, generator and garnish moldings. To top all the water-related issues off, the stock motor also gave up mid way through the restoration, and had to be swapped for a ’52 Mercury motor, which was then hot rodded. Yates ended up with a really nice mild custom Merc, but he got there in a really painful way!