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Is there room for a Ford in the life of a Chevy guy? Well, the Merc came first.
Get me outta' here!
Go to the Nova Page
Twenty five years before the Nova came my way, I managed to talk my Grandmother out of an old car that had been sitting abandoned in the shed for a few years. $100 and a few tears gained ownership. It didn't matter I wasn't old enough to get a driver's license. Granddaddy bought the Mercury new in Greenville, Mississippi on February 24, 1948. I got it in 1959 but didn't actually take possession until 1965. The old Merc chugged along for a number of years, belching oil smoke and struggling along on 6 or 7 cylinders. I rebuilt the engine out of J.C. Whitney parts in 1968 and I drove it daily until it blew up again in 1970 at 39,000 miles. It sat again until 1975 when I did a total engine rebuild with all new Ford stuff. Back in storage until 1998 when I decided it was about time to 'fix it up a bit.' This turned out to be a frame off restoration taking 1100 hours and more $$ than I care to think about. Everything on the car, right down to the cadium plated nuts and bolts is Mercury NOS. Not Ford - Mercury. Big difference. The car was first shown June 1999 in Reading PA at the Early Ford V-8 National Meet where it scored 985 points and gained a Dearborn Award. Lost 7 points for no jack, which I still haven't found.The car currently shows 5.3 miles on the speedometer. All paperwork and documentation, including original dealer invoice and the cancelled checks with which Granddaddy bought it, came to me from my aunt in 1991. But that's another story. Stay tuned.
