I purchased this car in july of 2013 and wondered if anyone on the hamb new any of it's history.It came out of Wis. and appears to have been built in the late 50s or early 60s.It's powered by a 55 buick nailhead and is adapted up to the original 3 speed overdrive.It looks like it had a rootbeer candy paint job over a white base which faded pretty much of the car. The body was pretty much left stock except for being nosed and decked. I'm posting some photos of it when it was purchased.I have since performed an immense amount of work which I will be posting at a later date
Looks like you have a good start to work with. My 50 came out of Prior Lake Wis. never have been able to get hold of the folks that owned it,
You've got yourself a nice Merc. Stainless trim looks good too. Get all the parts you need to build it ASAP as 49-51 Merc parts are not as available as in years past. Don't throw anything away. Good luck with your build.
Looks cool, post some progress pics when you can! I don't have any history to offer unfortunately but I like the car. Am working on a '51 coupe myself which has some unknown mild custom history, very similar cars. 19fordy hit the nail on the head about lack of parts availability, what little is available seems to be very weak, almost homemade quality. As popular as these cars are, it's shocking how little is made for them.
Super great very sound starter car. Agree you are lucky on having the trim. If you chose not to chop it, it is just cosmetics from there. Clean the engine compartment and do anything there anytime. Question, what makes a Mercury a Monteray?
Hope you kept the cool old school running gear. Dropped into overdrive it would've been a nice high way cruiser. Sent from my SM-T805Y using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
The Monterey had a vinyl covered roof, to compete with the other brands that had a hardtop to offer. They also usually came with the optional steering wheel and some other fancier shit. The Monterey had the stainless trim on the drip rails to separate the painted body from the covered roof and the trim is still on this car, that is some super rare stuff to find.
How in the hell does all of these out-of-staters keep stealing the good stuff from under our noses? Maybe we drink too much Pabst around here to know when something good is up for sale.
I think '51 Merc threads are my favorites. Definitely post progress photos. Check out my build thread for a lot of '51 Merc related info and links to help you along.
This car is not a Monterey because a 51 Monterey had completely different shaped drip rails behind the 1/4 windows .
You said in your first post that you had done an immense amount of work to it since you purchased it, are you going to tell us about it? Maybe post up another picture or two? Im a sucker for a '51 Merc