Recognize this 40 Merc convertible?

Does anybody know the history of this car? The owner believes that it's a Barris creation. When he purchased it out east, it was painted pink.

Thanks!

 

http://www.oldschoolpride.com/barris/

 

If that is the same pink car as the link above.... THEN this IS a Barris car.
But not the Sam Barris 1940 Mercury the then owners were trying to sell it for.

In fact this is the remains of the Johnny Zaro 1940 Mercury!
Kurt McCormick had bought the Johnny Zaro 1940 Mercury in very poor condition.
The car had lived a very rough live after Johnny sold it.

Kurt bought another 1940 Mercury that was used in the restoration of the car. He cut of the top of the Pink Zaro Merc and used the interior remains as well.
I think there where no papers with the Zaro car, and he would not have been able to register it properly. So the Johnny Zaro Restoration Merc was based on the other Merc (are you still with me?).
Then the remains of the Pink painted Zaro Merc where sold... and the new Owner rebuilt a car from it most likely using another 1939-40 Mercury... and they did not do it very well. They tried to sell it as a THE Sam Barris 1940 Mercury!


The car (Johnny Zaro Mercury with 1939 Mercury grille) as Kurt bought it.




Not happy!





The pink parts where sold... and a new Convertible windshield (most likely modified Coupe) and other parts where added.

Note the paint chip on the passenger front fender is the same as the McCormick Photos






New owner after Kurt did a new "Top" bad!!!






Look at how poor the A pillars aligned after the chop of the new windshield.









The last I heard about this car is that the owners told everybody it was the Sam Barris Mercury. Some friends of mine in California went to look for the car and could tell right away it was not the car. I hope your friend realizes it is not the Sam Barris 1940 mercury... but the remains of the Johnny Zaro Mercury.

However it looks like this black merc has actually more of the original Johnny Zaro Merc body panels on it than the "real" Johnny Zaro Merc owned by Kurt.. which basically only has the chopped top.

 

Looks like a nice car. Confusing story though

 

Where would we be without Rikster!!! Seriously, I don't know how he knows all this knowledge!!!!

Thanks Rikster that was a cool read!

 

I know that I'm a dipshit but why would Kurt totally destroy the Zaro Merc and basically build a clone if he's such a great Barris collector ? The pink car didn't look that bad. It was good enough that some lesser caliber guy made a pretty decent car out of it.

 

I have heard only bit about the story on the Johnny Zaro when Curt got it.
But this is what Pat Ganahl wrote in his book...

"The second photo shows everything Kurt threw away after finding most of the car was galvanized sheet metal pop-riveted together. with buckets of Bondo on top. The frame fell apart when he cut the sheet metal away. The only parts that where saved were the roof, chrome dash with laminated knobs, the shift knob, and pink slip."

This was the car in not such good times, far before Kurt bought it.




An earlier version... shows a Pontiac grille.

 

I went and looked at this car a few years ago when it still had the pink paint. It was not put together very well at all. Nothing lined up right and all the gaps were way off. It's neat that is has some history but I would hate to see what was lurking under the paint and bondo.

 

And I got alot of the smaller leftovers from the Zaro car for my own 40 coupe.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=212942

 

No Shit! I can't imagine the hours of research that Rick has packed into his brain. What a tremendous asset to this community.

 

what a sad story.

 

i dig a good car story its nice to find out what happened to a famous build , thanks for sharing your knowledge

 

What I don't understand is why isn't this car considered "The Zaro Merc", because it is. Doesn't it have the frame, floor, hood, fenders, doors, deck lid, etc ? Isn't the other car a totally different car with just the Zaro roof, dash and title added ? I'm not trying to be an Ahole, I'm just trying to understand.

 

Thanks to all for responding to my question. Ratatat nailed it right off the bat and I must say that the Rikster never fails to amaze me with his total command of the world of early customs.

I was considering buying this car, but I kept asking myself the same question that bubba67 asks, "Why isn't this considered the Zaro Merc?", so I started a list of the original parts on the pink Merc.

We know that the original frame fell apart and that the original drivetrain is long gone. It is unlikely that the original front fenders survived the Pontiac and Vega grille swaps and the original grille would have disappeared during this time, along with the front bumper... and the current owner admits that the rear bumper is not correct, either. He also says that the floor pan has been replaced, which leads one to believe that most of the original channel fabrication is gone. How much of the Barris windshield chop was lost in the conversion to a convertible?

Retaining the original hood and trunk lid would have been a no-brainer to someone with Kurt's sense of history, so he must have had reason to doubt their authenticity in order to let them go. However, he did keep the roof, the dash and a few other parts... and Mazdaslam has a truck full of the original parts that he purchased from Kurt for his own build.

Basically only the rear fenders are left and they have had at least 3 taillight treatments over the years, so more original metal was lost there.

All of this aside, I still think it's a great looking car as seen in the photos and it does have a lot of history... but not much originality. If the build quality equaled the looks, it would be worth the 39 grand that they're asking.

 

Johnny Zaro Merc




Left over Merc




Thats why the Left Over Merc is not considered the Johnny Zaro Merc... because it does not look like it anymore.
Now if they had turned it into a coupe... then perhaps they could have called it the Johnny Zaro Merc.... but even then!...
What really makes these cars are the chop Sam Performed on them. And that is on the Merc Kurt has. So I still consider that to be the Johnny Zaro Mercury.

The Black Merc looks ok... needs a better top thought.. and possibly a better windshield, but thats hard to tell from the recent photo.
51wagon... do you have some more photos to share of the car how it now looks?

 

The complete top, including the cowl is on Kurt's Mercury, so the windshield chop was all new by the people who rebuilt the Pink parts on a donor car.

 

Rikster,

More photos.

 

The Left over Merc has a 39 hood and grill.

 

Here are a few more and larger photos of the 39-40 Mercury created from the Johnny Zaro Left Over Parts.

Its not a bad car... and could - in the proper hands - be turned into a nice custom, that has some Barris history to it.

But I hope that the current and possible future owners will not try to see it as the Sam Barris 1940 Mercury Convertible, s it has been advertised in the past.
All Barris created body work remaining on this car is basically only the molded in rear fenders. The doors rear quarters and trunk are most likely also from the original Johnny Zaro Mercury, but the rest comes from another - 1939 - Mercury. And the top is a modern addition... and should be replaced with a proper looking Carson Style padded top.. that sure will improve the overall looks of the car.

 

Any updates on this car ? Did it sell ? Who is the owner and has any more work been done to it ?

 

I agree with this too and im wondering if this car did sell?

 

Great Coverage, Thank You, Thank YOU..............


__________________________________________________

Wonderin'
Why, in the last year ???
I haven't seen or red enything 'bout my '40 Merc Coupe, that went from Tenn., to Pa., Then to Ariz. ??
(Matranga Clone ) True Hard-Topper.

Smokey Also

 

It looks like this car has come back on the market, new top and all. Check out ebay. As of this afternoon, $33,000 bid...$42,000 Buy It Now.

 

The curent owner has been trying to sell this one as the Sam Barris 1940 Merc several times on ebay in the last few month.

I send the seller some emails why he was misleadingly trying to sell the car as the Sam Barris Merc while it is clearly not.

I see he now has his text altered... but he is still using photos of Sam's Merc in the ebay ad.

Sad!

 

It's up to $35,100 tonight. Getting close to the Buy It Now.

 

It's probably a shill bidder, I've seen this car get bid pretty high in the past and either the bids get retracted or it hits the reserve and then gets relisted. It's a shame because I feel that the car should be considered the actual Zaro Merc, which it is,but instead it has been labeled as the "cast off Zaro parts"

 

Zaro mercury

 

he doesn't need to shill bid, he doesn't need to sell the car, it's one of many that he could care less if it sells or not

the connection to sam came from george and his sidekick historian who i can't remember his name, although i have spoken to

tom is a friend of mine, as a matter of fact he got me into hotrods and motorcycles and has been building great cars since the 60's, as far as emailing him, good luck with that, he truly is "old school"

As far as the car goes, it's a cool car, typical old bodywork that was redo by another close friend Dano, the car is bitchin for 40k someone will get a good car with cool history

 

Why is it listed as a ratrod ? Being that it is a 40 where is the 40 grill ? Where are the vent windows? Im a little confused.

 

I think that if your friend would write down some more accurate information about the real history of the car. And show the parts of the original car that were used to create this. Then he could sell it much better than the way he is trying to do now.

The Barris connection is legit, we all know that, but just not for the car that is mentioned and or shown.