Customs '49 Merc Hardtop

That would be the find of the year. I'll bet it's not still around.

BB

 

Oh my God, could it get any cooler? What a knockout with just some very tasty mods, my fave grille treatment for these Merc's. Thanx for sharing. ~sololobo~

 

thats nice. looks like it coulda been a factory promo car or something

 

Very cool give's the car a whole new style, good looking car and stock looking.

 

Considering all the content on JJ, GJ and others, I didn't think you slept anyway.

 

WOW! That's pretty cool. Imagine a chopped version!!! I noticed that the hood is shaved too. I also see that the grill is different....centerpiece is gone and it has a chrome surround piece.

 

kinda like a miata.... I know of several cars that would do good with that treatment.

 

I like the chrome/stainless upper lip of the grille surround. The rear glass looks like a '51 Victoria.

 

Somebody get to work on one, now !!

 

This car was featured in the first car magazine I ever bought -- Hop Up, Oct 1951. I've always thought it was a great looking Merc, and wonder why nobody has ever cloned it. It gets just a little awkward at the back of the top, where it sits on the body; I suspect they decided they had to live with the bottom edge of the rear window (rather than trimming tempered glass), so it sat on top of the Merc cockpit surround and doesn't quite match the body line. Pretty anyway, though.

 

I think the magazine feature is in either the RnC first year compilation book, or the Hop up first year book. I remember reading about it, and I don't think I had my original mags out of mothballs.

EDIT: 50 Fraud answered as I typed.

 

One of my favorite Valley Customs by far. I stumbled upon it on Rikster site when I was trying to track down my grandfathers long lost Valley Customs built Merc....

 

Are there any pic's of the rear? The whole rear end?

 

I'm sure the original article credited the roof to a Coupe deVille, but I think it's only partly correct. While the metal portion has the right loft and window opening shape for the Cad, the back glass is a dead ringer for what my Hornet Hollywood had (the forward portion of the Hudson roof had more loft though). Given the talent of the guys at Valley, it wouldn't surprise me they'd mix components to get what they needed for the style. The Cad back glass has angle corners at the bottom outers and hac a little more wrap to the tulip panel. The Hudson was a bit flatter across the bottom and probably fit the Merc better.

Either way, it's one very well done car.

 

modified cars should look better than the original. I'm giving this one a big red F

 

Is that the one that was stolen right after it was finished and wound up in a ravine?

 

I have always liked this merc and I couldnt believe what I was lookin at the first time I checked it out in Hopup.I think if this car rolled into a show today it would still make people scratch their heads in confusion.

 

Yes he worked in a G.M. body shop and ordered parts direct from the factory.They used Lucite plastic for the rear window.

 

They also did some work to the sidetrim.

 

Yeah, the proportions just don't seem right, chop might have helped but I'm not so sure.

 

Could have bought a Hudson Hollywood brand new and driven it out of the show room and had a better car if it were a Commodore 8 or Hornet model.
This Merc is sooooooooooo close in appearance to the Hudson. Yet, it doesn't have "it".

 

Never did understand why pepole wanted there Merc's to look like a
Hudson

 

Everybody seems to be split on this one,but I tend to like it.

 

Ford was clearly taken by surprise when GM introduced hardtops in 1949. Ford was a little slow to respond, and didn't have a comparable product until the well-documented midyear introduction of the Ford Victoria in '51. Corporate caution undoubtedly took a "wait and see" position about a Mercury hardtop until '52, although they could certainly have done one on the same schedule as the Vic.

I think if there HAD been a hardtop version of the bathtub Merc, it might have looked a whole lot like this car -- with a better resolution of the the rear window-to-body fit, of course. I still like the car a lot.

 

Saw a pic a few years back and it barely got a look in from me.
I still feel the same way.

 

Never did understand these Ryan blogs -- since the articles are so short, why not post the whole thing on the Hamb?

 

Here is an interesting Illustration/design I came across today...

 

Though I love 49-51 Mercs and the work of Valley Custom, the hardtopped Merc misses the mark for me. Even chopped, I don't care for hardtopped Mercs. This unchopped one looks a bit light in the loafers. Somehow losing that B post and the Merc roof takes some of the badass out of it.