FEATURE

FEATURE

During the early eighties, a good friend of mine, L. D. Long built this radical four door Mercury. The Merc sits on a 79 Cougar Mercury Frame with a 302. Needless to say the sled drives like a dream down the highway. A few years after the build was complete, Bill Watts was tired of it and wanted to sale the Merc. Because it was a radical kustom, he was having a tough time selling it. I was at the right place at the right time. And I bought the car. Even though it had some cosmetic issues ( it was ugly) it was built right.

Over the years, the car has gone through many changes and in this case, change is good.

Because of an accident, I replaced the rear quarters with ‘51 Merc rear quarters. I love the tail dragger look and adding a ‘53 Caddy back bumper helped to obtain that look. The Merc was taking shape, but it still had the awful 240 headlight buckets. Gary Mundy called me one day and said that he had an idea that would do away with the ugly buckets. The change would pump new life with in the Merc and I could not believe the difference that it made. My vision was becoming reality. Currently Ralph & Nancy Schindel is working over the Merc and when they are through , you will not recognize the Sled. List of modifications: We’ve removed the rest of the weight off of the front and moved the headlights towards the back. Exchange the pancaked hood for a decked and peaked hood. The Merc had the ‘79 Cougar Dash, so we are adding a ‘53 Merc dash. The grill will be made from two ‘54 Chrysler upper grill bars. Oh, I forgot to mention, we’re converting the four door into a two door. Major changes that should have been done day one. I would like to thank the Mundy’s and the Schindel’s for all of their help. Thanks to some good friends, this Kustom Geek is gonna be one kool kat…..