My 51 where it sat for 15 years baking under the hot Florida sun. Picture from the early 1980’s. Built by Wyatt Lockman out of Mansfield, Ohio.
Great car, what's the story on why it (and it looks like several others) just sat outside like that for so long?
Squablow, long story short, the guy I bought the car from was creating a museum for his collection. He had the building about 80% full, with about 20 cars still sitting outside when Hurricane Wilma came through and collapsed the roof. He had been negotiating with his insurance company at the time. When Wilma’s path was confirmed, the insurance carrier decided to wait until it passed before securing coverage. The building was 15 miles inland, so the owner didn’t expect any damage. The exact opposite occurred, and he was left with millions of dollars in losses. He posted a guy up to watch the site in an RV, and it took him seven years to finally go look at the mess. When he finally decided to start selling, I was able to get the Mercury. He was more of a purist than a hot rodder, so I got the Merc for a bargain. My friends and I used to drive by the place and stand outside the gate like little kids at a candy store, staring at the goodies inside. His loss was incredible, with many rare and valuable cars destroyed in the building. I have pictures that would make any car guy or gal sick to their stomach.
I had posted a picture of the Mercury on Facebook last night, and I woke up to two interesting comments this morning from the builder of the car. First comment: That's a 51 Merc and it's either one that was done at my shop about 30 years ago or a twin to it! We frenched the head and tail lamps and shaved the hood, decklid, front fender mouldings and moved them to the doors and shaved the door handles. The hood louvers were done elsewhere but the spotlight was installed by us too! Can I ask where this car is(general area), I'm in Ohio not that it matters because cars get shipped all over the place any more but I'm 90 percent sure it's the same car! Second comment: Yes Wyatt Lockman!! Out on South Main street just past Cook road on the right! I knew it was the same car! I was off by the better part of a decade though! it was closer to 40 years though, The work that we did was done with lead though ,The head lights, trunk emblems, tail lamps ,headlamps, moulding holes in the fenders door handles and the hood emblems, I think he had to braze a piece of steel to the bottom edge of the hood and build the lead up to it to shave it and it still line up because the chrome moulding/ emblem was real thick and made the shape of the edge of the hood! My partner was a bodyman starting in 1955 when they didn't have filler and he metal finished and leaded when the need arised! I know the car had previos work done on it and maybe some since but the custom work and paint job (Acrylic lacquer) was done at our shop Action Autobody in Mansfield Ohio, The shop is closed now but I'm still the owner of the property and use it for my toy box, I have quite a few cars myself and keep them there, The building used to belong to Bob Riggle and the first Hemi Under Glass was built and campaigned out of there and after it was gutted of the whole drive train it sat next to the building and rotted!! Yes!!! That looks familiar!! I can't believe it! The first picture looks pretty good still other than the hood where it looks to be rusting and the dull paint which would still shine if rubbed out if it's not checked to death. That hood will be a problem if it's rusted through because if someone tries to weld on it the lead will have to be removed first. I just can't believe I'm seeing that car on here after almost 40 years! The guys name is Danny Casler. He was pretty excited to come across a car he built 40 years ago.
"Upgraded to GM Column" Wheel and column look so out of place compared to the rest of the interior. Could use some chrome on the back end as well but overall pretty cool car. And those mirrors.
That ranks as one of the worst looking column swaps I've ever seen! Too bad, the rest of the interior upholstery is actually nice looking. This is one of those cars that looks to have been built to a pretty high standard of quality but with some questionable taste. If someone were to undo the horror column, swap out those mirrors, trim the swimming platform on the back down enough to get a rear bumper back on it, and just toned down some of the tacked-on gew-gaws, this would be a real nice custom Merc.
Remove the dork from a Merc? Who on earth would do a thing like that? Lol. The column that came in mine was pretty close to that cool...a tilt and tele 70’s caddy column with a flamed billet wheel. The gap between the column and dash was trimmed with silver tinsel. But at the end of the day, as dorky as it was, it was still a chopped Merc and it was mine. ....but I did fix that whole mess. Haha
Here´s an oddity i found online. Not really a custom at all, but a styling clay. Maybe some ideas here for somebody to use, or make a clone?
@alchemy I`m slowly going thru the magazines you gave me. I knew the Sam Barris merc was in Iowa for a time. But not this early. Featured in Motor Trend, December of 1951.
I'm really sharp today aren't I! Don't know why I missed that but I do like the look. I see you are still keeping yourself pretty busy!
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