that
" flaming mercury"

      
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Since purchasing a 1950 Carson Topped Mercury Kustom from Chicago, Illinois in 1996, right hooking & rebuilding the car to ASRF engineering requirements, I have harboured a passion to build a 49/50 Merc Coupe in the true 50’s style, but with hidden late model refinements. I began searching in1999 through friends in both California and New Mexico.

In 2001 the “Mercury Kid” Louis rang me to tell me he had found a rusty Coupe in Texas that had been sitting in a corn field for 20 odd years, the coupe was very reasonably priced but after looking at the photo’s I could see why, no rear window, total rear of the car badly rusted, floor eaten away, no fuel tank, rear quarters badly rusted, no diff, motor or gear box, but what the heck, it was still a Mercury Coupe. Louis trucked the Coupe to Los Angeles, along the way picking up a rear cut from a 4 door to supply most of the rusty panels.

The Coupe landed in Brisbane in October 2001, and was delivered to AJ’s Hot Rods in Nerang where I totally stripped the car to a bare shell and a complete new floor was channelled 2” into the body, the original firewall looked like it had been attacked with an axe, so it was delivered to Sun Sheet Metal who formed a replacement, other panels were also hand formed and welded into place, the body was remated with the chassis which had been sand blasted, fitted with disc brakes, shortened Commodore rack and a Chev 12 bolt Diff and Chev Fuel Tank, HQ discs & Callipers, all Airlines from the Air Ride Technology Airbag System were hidden inside the chassis along with fuel lines and electrical wiring, heavy duty gas shockers were fitted on all corners.

The body was then delivered to Kerry Fehlberg in Mullumbimby about 110 kms from the Gold Coast and I made the round trip most Sundays for 15 months whilst extensive repairs and Kustom modifications were carried out, these included the angled chop 4-1/4 front 4-3/4 rear quarter windows fixed and lengthened every corner rounded, the bonnet was shortened 2-1/2” and welded to the cowl, vents were added, the whole front of the car was moved back 1-1/2” and every seam welded, the body was lengthened 9” to accept the frenched ’54 Ford Headlight Rims and ’53 Mercury Tailights. Bumpers were moved closer to the body, another Mercury Front panel was obtained, flipped upside down and welded in , forming a shark style mouth, all chrome trim, handles etc were shaved and emblems removed. Rear Bar modified to accept HQ style Fuel Filler behind No. plate. A 1954 Chev Grill was fitted with 10 extra teeth, a ’52 Chev front overriders were narrowed and fitted to the Front Bar which had all Bolt Holes welded and smoothed as was the rear prior to rechrominghe list of minor mods was extensive and time consuming, a ’53 Buick Coupe gave up its side trim, ’57 Lancer Caps grace the wide whites, and Kerry then painted the whole body in a 2 Pack Deep Black and with the help of a friend flamed the body, additional flame work which was done by Tony Hart graces the dash, Rocker Covers, flaming’ Mercury skull on Glove box and a Great Air Brushing of Marilyn Monroe adorned the Boot Lid as most of my previous Kustoms have had done

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A 010 350 4 bolt Chev Engine was totally rebuilt fitted with 383 Scat Crank & Rods, forged pistons, Pete Jackson Gear Drive & the whole shebang was balanced by Russell Jones who fitted the Competition Cams Bump Stick, and blue printed the Mallory Distributor to match the Cam. The Heads were delivered to Paul Gilbert who shaved ported & flowed them, and fitted the hardened seats and guides, a set of Manly 202 stainless valves and competition springs with titanium caps were fitted and the heads machined to accept screw in studs, roller rockers and hardened push rods operated by anti pump Comp Cam Lifters.

An Edelbrock Tri-Power with 3 Rochester Carbs was bolted on with Chrome Block Huggers, gear starter, 100 watt alternator, Hi Flow water pump, hi volume oil pump and all Alloys were polished and anything that could be chromed was. The engine was mated to a V.R Commodore V8 Turbo 700R which was modified by Precise Automatics to work with out a computer, but still lock up the converter for overdrive. A pearled Thunderbird wheel sits atop an owner modified column with Auto Shifter

The Mercs’ dash panel was cut up to convert to right hand drive by fellow club member Lenny Belcher and the diecast panel was rewelded by Highway Aluminium, an XA Falcon gave up its brake pedal assembly, booster and master cylinder and all plumbing was carried out by the owner, as was the extensive wiring.
Front seat is original but lowered 2” for my 199 cm frame, rear seat which was totally rusted away is made up from an XY base and EA back widened 3” and all upholstery in 2-1/2 tuck & roll was ably carried out by Dallas who is responsible for the owner designed confederate flag roof lining and ‘8 Ball” mats. Quarter vents were removed and the doors straightened. ZF Fairlane supplied electric windows, door and boot is remote operated electric.
The Merc has a stack of other add on Kustom touches and the Cruises are made much more pleasurable by the 1200 watt  Stereo CD with 6 speakers and two 300 watt 12’ Subs in the boot.
Wheels and tyres are 15” steelies with white walls, skirts are owner made from the rear quarters of a Kombi Van thanks to Paul Kelly from Smooth Cruisin’ for the idea.
Al would like to thank fellow Clubbies, Al Loose, Rob Llewellyn and Mal Storey for the engineering assistance and help with welding.
The Merc took almost 3 years to come to fruition and I am looking forward to many years of cruising pleasure