DaFonz Mercury for sale in sweden

whats a matter with c clamps,,the panhead guys i ride with got more clamps and tape holdin stuff on(me included).but we do what these things were ment to do..RIDE HARD AND FAST!!!.And thats what the FONZ did..He drove that thing all the time...I think it was his everyday car.He probally had more fun than some guys in 50k mercs...RIP FONZ

 

Two pics out of 00 MACK's huge photo collection...





Man,that's low...

 

wow that one is nice

 

Yea...it flows really smoothly.

 

I took those pics in June 86 at Hanovr Pa which was the location for KKOAs Sled Scene East that year. This was Joes first chopped Merc and at this time the car had already had 3 paint jobs. The night before this pic was taken,Joe thrashed for 14 hours on getting rid of the 54 lights for the 55 Lincoln units.

 

Daemon...understood your feelings of just seeing the car, but this guy really lived it. I mean, he drove these cars every day, as far as I know, 365 a year 24 hours a day. Snow? Merc...Rain? Merc...and for that one can knock the taste or quality all they wish, but in the end that is original cool.

I only saw his Mercs a few times, one time I remember...it was a Merc with bondo teeth...I was a youngin at a carshow, and this LOW merc...cartoon even...rolls through the parking lot...really gravelly scratchy doowop coming through what looked to be old drivein speakers hidden behind the aforementioned teeth...this thing was a wreck. Out steps this older guy, cuffed jeans, beat to hell and back black leather jacket...he had to be the coolest guy on 2 feet. Ratty cars or not....original cool.

I once heard he was trapped for like 10 minutes in the Bayway circle in Elizabeth with the Merc cause the chop was so severe, he couldnt see past the dummy spots to see if it was clear to get out of traffic or not, so he just kept going around and around...

There was a guy who was friends with him, I think he runs Abernacle salvage on Texas road (opposite side of Rt 9 from the racetrack) had some Fonz goodies there, even supposedly owned a merc of his...worth checking out for any local Fonz fans...

One last piece of trivia...He wrecked as 00Mack said, at least a few Mercs...but cool thing is, right as rain, he would just appear in another one....soon thereafter. It would be chopped in his driveway, everything done in the same driveway (with a flashlight in one hand, spray gun in the other)

A true legend from NJ soil...

 

And by the way, Im TOTALLY with Hotrod29...anybody talking bad about this car is really hitting some bad nerves with the East Coast guys...esp Jersey guys. This guy was the real deal, 1" off the ground in the ***, no airbags, no hydraulics, not even air shocks...one of the baddest dudes in Jersey...

 

and he had a blast in them cars...he showed me a handful of tickets one night to prove it!! ive got some bad*** pics i just gotta find them..i never saw flames come from any other car as bad as his,unless it really was on fire..He was a cool mutha****er.

 

Hi Ya'll

This thred went further than Damon ever expected - I'm sure - Hmm cool car for sale I'm gonna post that on the H.A.M.B. !! And look where we are now!!
All this cool info flowting.... Keep it comming I say, 'cause it so cool to hear all this good stuff 'bout the guy that I see as the do'er for our styling in cars as Elvis is to Rock'n Roll. There - now it's said
Yesterday the coolest thing happend! As we, my wife and I rolled in and parked the Chevy at the Jalopy Jump'n Jive in Asbury (I will post pics from there shortly), Bob came over to us accompanied by this lovely Lady. She asked if I was Klaus and that she'd heard that I knew who had her late husbands car in Sweden!!!!!!!!!
That just blwe me away... Thinking about all the stuff that have been going on here for the last couple of days and here she is Mary Ann Carloni, or Mrs. Fonz as she signed our dashbord. She's such a nice Lady, very kind, sweet and engaged in conversation with everyone. It was so great to meet her.

 

This is an article I translated from the Swedish magazine Wheels #1 1999.
Thought you'd find it interesting.

Wildest of the wild
More extreme than this, can hardly a chopped Mercury be.


This Mercury is without a doubt the wildest Mercury Custom we have seen so far in Sweden. It is Styrbjörn Persson from Kristinehamn who owns the car and he found it approx. 10 years ago in The USA.
“I went to The USA to look for a Chopped Mercury. I probably looked at 40 different chopped mercury’s before I got a tip about this one. I fell in love with it directly when I saw it” Styrbjörn tells us.
This car is originally built during the 60’s by Joe “The Fonz” Carloni from New Jersey.
He started with a 4-door and welded the rear doors shut and then chopped the roof to the max. Styrbjörn dosen’t know how much the roof is chopped, but The Fonz took quite a bit.
The front is heavily modified with extended fenders, louvered hood and a grill from a De Soto. The parking lights come out of a ’56 Ford. The rear is equally wild because The Fonz extended the fenders with ’57 Chrysler tail lights and the bumper is built from different parts a**** others ’55 Oldsmobile. The Fonz was in the club ”Lost in the fifties” so of course the magnesium club plaque (sparks nicely when it hits the street) still hangs from the bumper, when the car was sold to Sweden. So, in this way, does The Fonz advertise for the club even in our distant country.

Thunderbird interior

According to Styrbörn, The Fonz was the first to put a Thunderbird interior in a chopped Mercury. The Thunderbird back seat “was made” for the Mercury and even the bucket seats fit nicely. Both the front and rear seat are mounted as low as possible. That is very much needed because of the low roof on this Mercury.
The Fonz attended a bunch of car shows with this Mercury over the years, and had a whole wall filled with trophies that he received for the car. He’d even had the car in a TV show.
The car has been modified a number of times during the years of driving the car. The tilt steering column came later. The illuminated die on top of the shifter has on the other hand been there for many years
When Styrbjörn met The Fonz, he had more or less stopped using the car for shows and used the Mercury as a everyday driver instead.* It had a Chevy 350 ci engine and a coat of candy red which had seen better days. There were even a couple of dents in the body, but the style was wonderful so Styrbjörn wanted the car.

Repainted with mural

When he got the car back to Sweden he straightened the body and a couple of friends sprayed it purple. Styrbjörn laid the flamed himself and the friend Ronny Steen from Ottenbäcken finished off with a mural of Marilyn Monroe on the side and one of Mel’s Drive In, from American Graffiti on the back.
The old custom rims came with the car, the same goes for the real Appleton spotlights.
The long cruiser skirts helps give this lead sled the extra heavy look. The suspension is as it seems lowered a lot, so you have to look out for white lines and other obstacles on the road. Speed bumps are a pure nightmare for a car like this.
Styrbjörn had some trouble with the engine the car came with, so he rebuilt a 400 ci. small block and TH350 transmission that was mounted as soon the car came to Sweden.
In the beginning there was a lot of cruising with the car in his hometown, but a couple of years ago Styrbjörn got an interest in Quarter Horses, so now horses are all that count. The Mercury is therefore mostly sitting in the garage. We think that is a pity, after seeing this low beauty gliding down the road. Wilder than this can a Mercury custom hardly get.



* The translator believes that the statement is inaccurate. I don’t think that Joe “The Fonz” Carloni ever had a Mercury he’d only used for shows and meetings. I believe that all his cars were meant to be driven at all times.


Klaus

 

Yeah agreed Klaus...not awhole lot of truth in the article but still fun reading! Great to hear about its life on the other side of the ocean! Shame though, I just got back from the barn where our two horses are, time to eat and watch a movie, then hit the 55 Olds later. No rule saying you cant do both!

Thanx for the translation Klaus! I was dying to know what some of those words were in the for sale ad Daemon posted were!!

 

damn shawn.. I remember seeing that car in bloomsburg too.. this fonz dude certainly lived it..

KLaus thanks for the info on the other fonz cars..

sawzall

 

Wow, what a blast from the past...this ****in car is what its all about for me....no ****.............White, you hit the jackpot with those pics from 86, i dare anyone here to dispute the KOOL factor of that car.............

 

that would be un-possible!!!

(although I doubt it had A/C, and seeing as those are indeed mailslots it probably wasn't very kool in the car!)

 

Back from the dead!

Da Fonz mercury still? or again for sale here in sweden

http://www.blocket.se/vi/7910649.htm?ca=6_s

 

I knew joe back in my "keansburg" days before "Happy Days" was ever even thought off.I used to see him at all the local shows with that ever present cig hanging from his lips.Nice guy that joe but no bodyman thats for sure.Must have been 10 gallons of bondo on that"great balls of fire" merc.R.I. P. joe

 

I've been going to Lead East for the past 20 years. The Fonz was the guy
everybody waited for to appear. He would draw a crowd wherever he went.
His Merc would shoot some mean flames too. I really miss the guy. His
car was at last years show (Great Balls of Fire). Don't know who owns it now.
Tony

 

how much for the chopped merc? wylieshane@cox.net

 

im building a east coast ****in dragger 4 door shoeboxed with welded up rear doors, 7'' and 10'' chop....... in honor of fonz

 

Would it have been possible one of his cars was subframed? I know one had a tilt column (I think it was the wreck car) Story was he was racing the Jersey Torch, beat it, and when he went to shoot fire, turned the car off forgetting about the GM tilt column in there (locking in off) and car went off the road. I would imagine that he just ran a tilt column for shorter wheel/windshield clearance, but who knows.

 

Hi Guys, I´m the man who bought the car in this topic.

In Stockholm there are too many speedbumps to drive this car so i´ve bought Hydraulics to mount during the winter. The spoiler is all too fragile to even be hit once...

It is really much work to be done- it´s pretty worn down my car

 

all that you said was true but joe was a one of kind guy that i artie and all that knew him loved him he was in for the love of customs and a true hot roder i once saw him make a set of bubble skirts out of card board and gorilla hair he would make things work miss him

 

yes it was the last one before he move out of jeezeey and took to w.o.t.s.r in pa . lost a ball joint in the park i help him fix it

 

I think I remember seeing him doing the ball joint in PA. He was the real deal. I saw him with his merc all over. I never knew him but, I never heard a bad word about him. I remeber him driving the merc around and the pinstriping and paint was burned off the trunk from him throwing flames. I heard he lit the back of the car on fire at one point.

 

ju

 

i love stories like these

 

found pictures of fonzie last great balls of fire the guy that owns a junk yard in south jerzey owns it i can.t rember his name but he keeps it the same has when joe had it

 

Teddy ,When Jow built that he was a shell of his former self.Im sure he built that car on guts alone because he was very ill at the time.

 

THIS WAS THE LAST CAR AND YES HE WAS SICK WHAT I WANTED TO SHOW THAT AS SICK AS HE GOT HE STILL WAS DRIVEING A MERC TILL THE END GOD BLESS AND MAY HE R.I.P

 

Hi, I was very close with Joe. I'm from Hazlet NJ..My dad was the owner of a 50's resturant years ago. My family is very close to this day with his wife Marryann, and daughters Donna & Debbie. When I was reading all the things about Joe and seeing some pictures of him, it made me cry. I miss him very much. I would be with Joe everday, and I had been for a ride in everone of his cars. I would feel so lucky when everyone was leaving a car show and I was getting into Joes car. Joe drove his car's everday, that was his everday driver. People would love to see him come down the street, if you were from Monmouth County NJ, you knew who "the Fonz" was.

I would love to get one of his cars if anyone knows were one is. I do know that his last one was in NJ, but I'm not sure if the guy still has it. If anyone can let me know, it would be great. I asked Marryann but she is not to sure anymoe.

Joe was my Buddy, and I miss him everyday

One of the hardest days was going to his funeral and his car being parked outside the door, I just keeped thinking he was going to walk out.

R.I.P Joe!