From The Classifieds: 1949 Ford Mercury Monterey convertible
If you're crazy about a Mercury, maybe this hot pink 1940s convertible could sate your desiresPortraying a bout of teenage angst, Steve Miller (remember the Steve Miller band from the 1970s?) sang in Mercury Blues -- a track on his 1976 album Fly Like an Eagle -- that he was “crazy 'bout a Mercury”.
Miller may not have written the song, and he may have expressed his feelings a little after the heydays of this upmarket Ford product from the 1940s and 1950s but, largely with thanks to the custom car movement, the Mercury has become an iconic brand with possibly even more romantic connotations than the legendary Mustang.
And even though the Mercury Eight was first introduced in 1939, it was the 1949 post-war car that really caught the attention of the public.
Complete with a new, sharp-looking third-generation three-box body that broke free of the war years, Mercury set the stage for post-war styling. It used a 4.2-litre flathead V8 engine more powerful than its mundane Ford stablemates, and offered a range of body styles including coupes, convertibles, sedans and “Woody” wagons. The Mercury was a big sales success for the company.
The romance of the Mercury Eight wasn't lost on car customers, and influential figures in the customising scene at the time focussed attention on the car almost from the moment of its launch.
In 1949, customiser Sam Barris built the first ever “lead sled” and the car subsequently became a popular recipient of the new OHV engines being produced by rival company General Motors.
In fact Barris used a 1951 Mercury coupe to build the Hirohata Merc – which today is regarded as one of the most significant custom cars of all time – in 1953 for customer Bob Hirohata.
Undoubtedly Ford tapped a vein with the buying public with the Mercury and the romance doesn't seem to be going away.
Witness this amazing custom job on a 1949 Mercury Monterey convertible on sale at a Sydney dealership for $69,990.
Sporting a Chevy OHV V8 engine and given the complete lead sled treatment, the two-tone hot pink Mercury possibly turns more heads today than a similar conversion would have done in the 1950s.
Complete with Marilyn Monroe graphic on the boot, a combination of side pipes and dual rear exhausts, white-wall tyres and a superb, cream-coloured interior that retains all the original styling elements including dash and steering wheel, the ultra low-slung Merc brings the 1950s back as a resounding display of the customiser's art.
Mercurys are a timeless definition of cool. As the song (which was written in 1949 by American blues singer K.C. Douglas) goes:
I stole her from a friend,
Fool got lucky stole her back again,
Because she knowed he had a Mercury.”
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