Something kinda special in the shop...

[Ace-Garageguy]

This rolled in the other day to get revised door-poppers (anybody versed in "kustom" knows what they are).

The car looked vaguely familiar, and then I noticed the Barris crests. I thinks to myself "self, if this is the car I think it is...holy cow!!".

Well, I think it is.

And like a lot of "kustoms", it's been around the block a few times, and has been rebuilt. But the provenance appears to be genuine. See the link below for more info...and notice the grille. 

MORE INFO HERE:

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/recognize-this-40-merc-convertible.535016/

Edited December 4, 2022 by Ace-Garageguy
CLARITY

[stitchdup]

not to be "that guy" but which car is it? i got lost trying to follow the linked thread as it weaves it way through 1 lot of parts split between 2 cars. its a cool car either way

[Ace-Garageguy]

1 hour ago, stitchdup said:

not to be "that guy" but which car is it? i got lost trying to follow the linked thread as it weaves it way through 1 lot of parts split between 2 cars. its a cool car either way

Exactly. I haven't spoken personally with the owner yet, and I'm trying to pin down the grille...whether it was a commercially available aftermarket part, or a custom fab job. So far I've found (apparently) a couple of cars with that grille, so there's confusion there. Add that to the fact the car now sports Metranga Merc-style side windows and surrounds, molded running boards and rear skirts identical to one of the two "parent cars", but entirely different lakes pipes...

But yes, it's a very interesting car, and everything visible is excellent quality.

 

Edited December 4, 2022 by Ace-Garageguy
TYPO

[keyser]

Bill, that’s a dead stock 39 Merc coupe grille. Dump the lakes and trunk hump, change steering wheel and put interesting dash in it. Front bumper cool, unsure if period. Unless Sam did it, prob better off not  ???

[Smoke Wagon]

The car that rolled in your shop looks a lot better than the pink Merc in that link. If Bondo Barris had his hands on it then a fun way to help narrow it down is to run a magnet around the bodywork. 

[Oldcarfan27]

A clone of the Nick Matranga Merc?

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/milestone-custom-cars-nick-matranga-40-mercury.64715/page-2

[keyser]

Here kids. Lots to look at. Great site if you’ve not seen. Rik Hoving part of this iirc. 
https://kustomrama.com/wiki/1939_Mercury

https://kustomrama.com/wiki/1940_Mercury

Edited December 5, 2022 by keyser

[stitchdup]

16 minutes ago, keyser said:

Here kids. Lots to look at. Great site if you’ve not seen. Rik Hoving part of this iirc. 
https://kustomrama.com/wiki/1939_Mercury

https://kustomrama.com/wiki/1940_Mercury

this is rik hovings site-   https://www.customcarchronicle.com/

and this is his fotki-  https://public.fotki.com/Rikster/

i should warn you its very easy to spend days on both

[Ace-Garageguy]

10 hours ago, keyser said:

Bill, that’s a dead stock 39 Merc coupe grille...

Yup...I should have checked that prior to posting anything...and I should have suspected it was stock because of the apparent crank hole.

Thanks to you and everyone else who's responded with links to more info. 

I hope to speak with the owner this week.

I understand he owns this too, also currently in the shop.

 

[Mike 1017]

10 hours ago, keyser said:

Here kids. Lots to look at. Great site if you’ve not seen. Rik Hoving part of this iirc. 
https://kustomrama.com/wiki/1939_Mercury

https://kustomrama.com/wiki/1940_Mercury

I subscribe to Kustomrama newsletter. It is a great custom site.

[Mr. Metallic]

12 hours ago, Smoke Wagon said:

The car that rolled in your shop looks a lot better than the pink Merc in that link. If Bondo Barris had his hands on it then a fun way to help narrow it down is to run a magnet around the bodywork. 

"Bondo Barris"(I assume you're refering to George) typically would not have had a hand at this type of customizing. This would have fit the style of his brother Sam, who was a very talented fabricator and customizer and had a real eye for style. Sadly, when he passed the Barris brothers were no more.

[keyser]

The link to the 39 and 40’s I posted has backstories to the cars. Many were taken to Barris and had help from Sam, George was shop foreman at one shop, then started his own. The owners would take them over, learn and work on the cars themselves, with the Barris brothers teaching them. Not a “send it to shop get it back done” deal. Kids drove them partly done, in primer, fun stuff. 
I’ve got a resin Ayala Merc (Don H) and a Matranga (unknown, but killer). Dead stock Merc coupes cool, Convertible sedans too. I’ve got AAM CS, but I’ve never seen a stock 39-40 coupe in scale. 

[Oldcarfan27]

1 hour ago, keyser said:

Dead stock Merc coupes cool, Convertible sedans too. I’ve got AAM CS, but I’ve never seen a stock 39-40 coupe in scale. 

This is as close as you'll get.

https://drasticplastics.proboards.com/thread/6665/mercury-convertible-reproportioned-itc-kit

[keyser]

“Close” relative term. Close but no cigar. Never a 39-40 5W fan. Merc, otoh, killer. 
That rebuild of the convert is stellar though. Wow. 

Edited December 5, 2022 by keyser

[Ace-Garageguy]

Well...I'm down in the shop looking at it. And it's sad.

First 10-foot impression a few days ago was "golly gee, what a beautiful baby!!! ", but after looking it over carefully, it's a mess.

Typical "kustom kar", carved from lead and bondo, very inconsistent panel fit, badly wonked A-pillars and door hinges making the doors WAY too tight to use any solenoid door poppers I've ever seen (which is what it's in for), no weatherstripping where it's really necessary, seems to be just generally poor engineering and fit overall.

I'm so disappointed. 

Kinda like finding out one of the most beautiful women you've ever seen is all bodged plastic surgery and thick makeup.

Edited December 10, 2022 by Ace-Garageguy
typo

[keyser]

Basically a date in internet times. Lol. 
 

[Oldcarfan27]

7 hours ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

Well...I'm down in the shop looking at it. And it's sad.

First 10-foot impression a few days ago was "golly gee, what a beautiful baby!!! ", but after looking it over carefully, it's a mess.

Kinda replicates the work of the original 50s customs. Great on the surface, horrendous underneath. Back then, it was mostly about getting to the end result, not about quality engineering. They didn't call them "putty sleds" for nothing. 

I remember reading a story about the restoration of the original Barris/Hirohata Mercury and they said that most of the beauty was puttied on, but most of the internals were crude at best.

I have to give Jim Jacobs, Pete Chapouris, Boyd Coddington, Troy Trepanier and Chip Foose credit. They took metalworking to the next level - bodywork that looks just as perfect without paint as it does with it on.

Edited December 11, 2022 by Oldcarfan27

[espo]

Sounds like some work I had done on a '57 Ford from long ago. Had a local, highly recommended body shop, shave the hood and the panel between the hood and the grill. They never closed the holes in the body panels, and I had several inches of pink bonds hanging from the underside of the hood. They did get the hood smooth and primered. 

[Ace-Garageguy]

13 hours ago, Oldcarfan27 said:

...I have to give Jim Jacobs, Pete Chapouris, Boyd Coddington, Troy Trepanier and Chip Foose credit. They took metalworking to the next level - bodywork that looks just as perfect without paint as it does with it on.

Agreed, but there have always been metalworking wizards whose work looked every bit as good naked as it did in paint. 

It's not a recent development.

[keyser]

Phony and Flashy, Weymann, Saoutchik, JGN, Murphy, Locke, LT et M, Murphy, Fisher, Fleetwood, LaGrande, Brunn, Pininfarina, Boano, Scaglietti, Frua, Viotti, Zagato, Bertone, Ghia, Ghia-Aigle…all built one/few offs, hand hammered over wooden bucks. And I only hit the few that struck me. 
I won’t post all the body buck pics I have. ?

[keyser]

Ok. 2. 250LM, and the Reventlow Scarab. 
Bonus points if you can ID the bodybuilders of each  First is Italian

Second is Californian

Edited December 11, 2022 by keyser
Quiz

[ZTony8]

The 250 LM is Pininfarina, the Scarab is Troutman and Barnes.

[keyser]

Yessir. Battista Pininfarina in the background pic with Enzo. 

[Ace-Garageguy]

Shame on me for not recalling the body builder's name right off hand, but Mickey Thompson's Challenger I was a fine example of the metal shaper's art, shown here in bare alloy way back in '58 or '59.

As the car was one of the early influences driving me towards learning to do metalwork (and building things from castoff parts in the true hot-rod tradition), I went to some considerable effort to represent it in scale as introduced to the press in 1959, in naked metal.

 

 

Edited December 28, 2022 by Ace-Garageguy
CLARITY and ACCURACY