History WYO HOT ROD HISTORY SAVED!!! Custom Merc Dash

So Ill make the back story as short as I can.

Heres what I knew about the car and put in the Wyoming SG in my wyoming hot rod history thread...

This car was owned by a local guy who is still around. It was a lowered, Black with gold scallops 1950 Merc 2dr. Shaved, Nosed, and Decked. The guy who knowed it was a member of the Conquistadors Car club here in Sheridan in the 50's and 60's. Thats really all I could find out...

This is how it sits now (this pic was the first time I found it a few years ago)... Buried all to hell and rotten as shit. Especially after today and looking closely at it... its time to let it sleep for good.

To my surprise this is what I found inside

Notice the stripes....




Ever since I first saw it, that dash and, well, the whole car have kinda been haunting me. its rare as hell to see a fifties car with custom touches in a creek bank... let alone one that was rather notorious back IN THE FIFTIES.

I know that there is no way now after closer inspection that see will be resurrected from her current resting place. But. I COULDNT LET THAT COOL DASH ROT AWAY!!!

So i went after the Dash today... Oh and by the way NOTHING else is salvagable on the car, I looked and its all rotten!!! so really its not worth it to ask.

heres a photo by photo as the task unfolded.







Planning my attack

Sliding into a very uncomfortable space

This was shitty

This Dash was actually Gold and purple with white stripes.

 

wow ! thats a cool ass story and an amazing find ! looks like she's been there quite some time

 

Sooo Cool. This website is seriously the Best.. Some ofthe stuff shown, and spoken about on here is just amazing........

 

And it COntinues..... (I think I got Hantavirus, lol)


it was tighter and smellier than it looks.

reassess what tools I needed... two bolts where left.


this one screw was rusted to hell and was not letting the treasure got easy.

fighting it every step... had been in there for a good hour. each screw and bolt was rusted down.

 

That's pretty neat.

 

Wow, that's amazing that you were able to save that dash. Have you been able to ask the owner what happened to the car?

 

You look like the Unibomber

 

The entire left side of the dash was packed with dirt and had seen many a wet year.

I had to dig mud out of the way.


Shit was crawling on my and I was still fighting the rusted fucker...





The Moisture from the broken window I knocked out dripped down and showed the stripes vividly.

VICTORY...


Unfortunately with the dirt packed behind the dash the gauge cluster had to stay...

and the corner of the dash that was farthest in the dirt broke free as it came out...

 

Havent been able to ask the owner about it. I was told that his Dad pushed these 4 cars in the creek on their property when he was away at some point. Buried with this merc is a tudor 49 ford, 55 olds 2dr hardtop, 54 olds 88 4dr and a late forties 4dr chev.

... and yes I do look like the unibomber. all the fucking little spider down there probably thought so too.

 

You are the real deal! You saved a piece of history!

 

So heres the way coolest of the cool.... the pinstripers signature SURVIVED!

... and apparently he was a very famous furry cartoon character.

"Mickey Mouse"



Yeah... I know... thats what I said, "what the fuck?"

 

grab those garnish moldings too!

 

sorry about the poor picture quality

 

Nice man, we pick on you guys a lot but you stayed on that like it was a virgin sheep!

 

So I believe I have a great piece of history here... I will try and find out more about it and Hopefully, HOPEFULLY, get a picture of the car in her prime. But until then I have a very cool piece of wall art.









hope yall enjoyed seeing this as much as I enjoyed saving it. Now i will carefully clean it and enjoy it!

 

Right on! 1-800-"visa" builders would never understand.

 

That is pretty cool.

 

gee... thanks... good thing is was right next to a sheep ranch huh.

(not really)

dick...


hahaha

 

Good-on-you, thats what its all about...................

 

dam thats cool,i would be digging the front end out to take the grill for "wall art"

i wish i could see a time elapsed video of how it got there and the years of it "rotting",,that would be cool and sad at the same time

 

very cool..... good save

 

This is a cool ass thread and a great story. You just have to wonder what that car looked like back in it's prime. Who the owner was ?? You really did get a chunk of history. I hate to say it but in the pics there seems to be a lot more worth saving then just the grill but thats up to you.

 

Awsome save!! Here is a pic of a dash I saved out of a 35 coupe a friend had up for sale. I hated the thought of it going to a new owner and getting painted over so I located another dash and traded them out before he sold it. I can just picture some young hot rodder painting the flames with model paint. I'm glad you saved that one, it's got soul!

 

Here's a pic of the dash in my 51 Merc mild custom that was done in the mid 50's.I'm going to preserve it when I re-do my car.

 

Very cool- way to save it. Sheeit! That cat's dad rolled 'em in the creek? If that's true, man..

 

that is awesome great work!!

 

100% NUTS! Slim

 

it was really hard to walk away but I used my hammer and screw driver to dig around and investigated the rest of the car. the grill that you can see starts to dissappear once you move the dirt around it. the top of driver door that you can see open literally is all that is left of that door... when you bump it, it moves because everything that is in dirt is gone. it prolly wouldnt have been so bad if it wasn't at or below the water line it most spots.

Thanks for everyone that posted, I am really happy about saving it.

the guys name is Dave and he is still around Sheridan. A friend of mine has to talk to him for a completely unrelated reason and he is going to ask some more about it and hopefully track down some photos.

My Next mission is to find this car...

 

That was probably pretty close to the look of this dash back in the day.

 

That's really cool man! You might try a little C-L-R from the hardware store to clean it up. Just make sure it doesn't attack that fragile pinstriping. Good job-