I have a very unforgettable attachment to the 48 or 49 Merc. I was 16 in 1964 and I had to buy a car. I had a part time job at my uncle's service station. A customer put a for sale on his 49 Merc and it was considered an old car by the virtue of the mid 60s. Well I paid $80 for that Merc and I couldn't sleep all night . I stayed up most of the night just looking at my new car. Thanks for sharing your old Merc with us. Wishing you health and much enjoyment...... Miami 33125.
I just saw this. What a beautiful car, as this is my all time favorite car. I bought one in 1956 when I was in high school. Mine was black and I put dual pipes, with glass pack mufflers on it, and had imitation black and white upholstery installed. I can't remember how many older guys stopped to look at it and liked this car so much. These Merc's and Ford club coupes were true classics!! I sold it in 1960 and bought a 1954 Merc Monterey which was probably the most comfortable car I've ever owned. Thanks for the photo, and memories this brought back. JG, Rapid City, SD.
that is fantastic. he has my respect for keeping it all original, at least oem style. thats the way i like to do things. not everything needs to be customized.
Bill is my new best friend! Man! What a beauty this car is. I live in rural PA and could definitely see me driving around in the Autumn on the leaf coloured roads in this magnificent vehicle. Bill is a very lucky man! :)
Very nice car. I guess what he's trying to tell us is that these fine restorations are very expensive. Thank goodness some people are willing to do them. Thanks for the video.
Looks excellent and the video is well-done! I would love to have a Ford or Mercury of those years before the modern '49 came out with independent front end. Thank goodness not all of them have been ruined as hot rods
Tight squeeze in that garage. I have to agree with you Chuck, this is one fine Mercury. I always liked this body style. I still have a real fondness for for the old flathead V8s. Thanks so much for sharing this car with us.
+The Shade Tree Fix-it Man great engines! Love how quiet they are and the exhaust sounds. Dad had a 50 Squire that was dam powerful for that day. The first car I remember. I was 5.
Lucky 19 year old, I had one also but in 1966 so restore it yes but do yourself a favor if you have the hubcaps ( wheelcovers) throw them away because they don't match the style at all ( about as useful as a bumper sticker or a tin foil hat)
Depends on the condition, some junks are just too impractical to restore to original condition. I agree it would be a crime to take a saw to this, or anything like this.
Having designed a bunch of vehicles in my life, it's good to know there are people like you keeping them stock. A lot of my vehicles are already gone. Some types only a handful or less exist. Usually the vehicles that people deem as ordinary go first. I don't mind a few performance mods as long as they can be turned back to stock. But in the end its your vehicle. Keep on cruising...
+RideswithChuck Too many to list but here are a few. EV-1, F-22, F-35, F-40, F-50, NASA stuff, Chevy Volt, 959, Ford Taurus so the mudane to the exotic. I freelanced from a very early age. Worked on the first electronic iginition system. Designed the Vortec, Vtec heads. Ecoboost, Ecotec, Skyactiv and the new variable compression engine from Infinity. A bunch of my cars will have an old school telephone outline in the front or back. Here are a few to get you started... back of a third gen RX7, front of a Veloster and a bunch of Dodges. Lots of safety equipment like ABS, Stability control, traction control. Just so you don't get the wrong impression. I never went in person to any company. I just mailed my plans away. The companies themselves did the rest. I just named them and told them how to build em. If you get some time look up my Caddy convertible prototype and coupe as I think they turned out okay. Well I'm sick right now so tired. Feel free to ask some more questions in a few days. Thanks for your interest!
Beautiful car and love that color. So glad this car didn't become a street rod or restomod. Enjoy it while you can as the days of gasoline are probably limited, maybe another 12-15 years (I hope I'm wrong) According to a book I have, 16,476 of these coupes were built which is low for any Ford product.
Hi Chuck • Be careful backing out of that tight garage. Mercury is a brand that Ford Motor gave up on to soon. Henry would be mad. Great paint job on this Mercury. Lets go for a ride is the best part of your channel. Soda Blasting seems to work out great. Cheers from Michigan
Thanks for the upload Chuck. I remember being fascinated with this model as a young boy. Dad owned a '36 Mercury (with a "dickey seat) & i used to "help" him with the motor. This one seems to have the same flat-head V8. All the best for 2014!
There were still a few of these around when I was a kid. I did think that the Mercury, pretty much a retrimmed Ford, was a lot nicer looking than the Ford it was based on. The Ford had clunky tail lights and the Mercury has sort of integrated ones, plus all those double chrome lines and nicer electric shaver style grille. Very similar dashboard.
Beautiful original factory Merc. I think these cars are best when keeping with an original factory appearance. However, anything that can be done to them to make them more desirable to drive and safer to drive while keeping the original factory appearance is OK, and a real plus. Some of these old vehicles are severely anemic, and a real beast to drive. Vehicles that are not drivable, or nobody wants to drive, wind up sitting in a garage turning into rodent condos, or worse, sitting in a driveway, backyard, or field beaten to death by weather, and slowly but surely rotting away in the elements. Modern chassis, brakes, power steering, and engine are a good thing. I am personally having a 1949 Mercury M-47 pickup restored, and am doing everything possible to preserve the interior and exterior appearance while making it so that persons want to drive it. Restoring most vehicles is extremely expensive, and goes against any financial reasoning. I am glad there are those that believe in preserving these beautiful pieces of history.
I CAN TELL THIS OLD 48 IS BILLS BABY , JUST LIKE MY VINTAGE 1996 HARLEY-DAVIDSON HERITAGE SOFTAIL CLASSIC AND MY 1991 CADILLAC BROUGHAM D'ELEGANCE ARE TO ME !!
Very well done restoration. Thanks for not mutilating it. Those bizarre custom jobs are just a little too far out for me. Auto writer Tom Cahill who used to write for either Popular Science or Popular Mechanics did a piece around '65 saying that the '48 Mercury was one of his all time favorite cars. I can't recall the main points of his article but perhaps he had in mind the '48 Mercury's favorable power to weight ratio or its overall roadability. The long and short of it though was that he was really impressed with this particular model.
I love to see them kept original too. Kudos to you for that! One of my rare exceptions to originality would be to install a dual chamber master cylinder to replace the original single chamber unit, if you are going to drive it. Much safer! They're not very original any more if they get wrecked. Re: "got lazy". Just do the work you love to do. If body and interior work is not your forte, but mechanical work is, then just do the latter.
lovely car! and i liked the exterior shots from another person. but really you should get two friends, one driving and one shooting the video, and follow you around with video from the front, sides and behind you. that would be great!
