History Found 52 Mercury Kustom Convertible

Weekend bump for fresh eyes!

 

As a Edsel owner I totally agree. That car is one of a kind and not for everyone's taste. Cool car just the way it is. Nice score

 

This one....all day!

 

I don't hate the current grille but I'd love to see what it looks like with the squared-off hood scoop of the first photoshop. The V shaped pink hood piece with the clown nose on the end just doesn't go with the very boxy grille/front bumper treatment.

I do like the '58 Ford front bumper as well, but I'm curious to know what the current setup would look like polished up and with a revised hood. I certainly don't hate it, and I think it would clean up surprisingly nice with a full day of careful cleaning and polishing. Won't cost much other than time to try.

 

Interesting ride... it will be fun to see what ya'll do with it.

 

Right behind the doors -- three styling ideas in a crash mode. What's going on here and what's supporting it?

 

It's 55 Royal Lancer trim with a second rear piece turned upside-down to create the cover effect.

 

I wouldn't do a damn thing except shine it up and drive it. "Needs to look more like this other car..." words that should never be said of kustoms. If your buddy makes any changes they should be to his taste & only his.

 

We are East Coast through and through, don't give a hoot how or what they do in California.

 

Says it all...

 

The Merc in post 28 is a definition of “ good taste,” beautiful custom.

 

I would not change a thing.This is my 54 Mercury

 

As an experiment, maybe lose the grille teeth and that strange hood "pimple'. I bet that will clean it up a bunch.

 

Maybe an early Mary Kay rep. car?

 

The shot of the 57 Chev the "California Gold Nugget" is perfect example of a car that spent its life on the show circuit and the changes that were made to keep the car competitive and winning .
This is from a article in Customs Illustrated September 1963

 

Interesting car...drive and enjoy it.
I have been looking through my collection of "Little Pages" found this car that I posted , it's got some of the features your car, or who ever it belongs to, but after looking at the car you posted I would guess it was built in the 80's to the style of a late 50's early 60's build...thats when the customs were becoming popular again ,late 70's 80's , it's a cool car and someone has done alot of work , check to see if bondo or lead was used in the body work, but just the way its put together and the side mirrors ,70's after market ...I know you can put mirrors on any time but them and the way they are fitted with the chrome strip ,I would say that they were installed at the same time..I will switch over to my 80's/early 90's custom car magazines and see what I find.

 

Nothing built in the 90’s needs to be considered sacred it would seem. The grille is an opportunity to make the car your own. I think the dagmars fight with the headlights for attention, and I would lose them. The turn signals look like an afterthought. Possibly a recessed dark background with some mid century modern drawer pulls in a sort of twinkling light motive would work and be cost effective. Some sort of period appropriate turn signals, or something muted/disappearing. Are you keeping the survivor paint? If so your chrome doesn’t need to be perfect, maybe what you have will shine up. I wasn’t around in the custom heyday, but they are starting to grow on me.

 

Since my last post, I have found much more information about the car. Interestingly enough, with all the drama comments from a certain few concerning how much better kustoms from California were, this car was originally customized out there. It didn’t come east until the mid 70’s when it was purchased by a much younger Ted Vernon, the guy from the now defunct TV show, South Beach Classics. Ted sold it, along with an Edsel, to a department store chain called Burdines. Basically a high end version of Macy’s. The car sat in the young men’s section of the store in the Sarasota Square Mall for several years until it was purchased, along with the same Edsel, by a gentleman named Ron Puleo in 1988. Ron sold it to Ken Endicott, who drove it to the KKOA show in Salina, Kansas and the World Of Wheels show in Atlanta in 1990. He then parked it in his garage for 32 years before I got it a few months ago. According to Ron, who I had the pleasure to speak with, the car had receipts from the Barris Shop in the glove box. Ron believes the Merc was built there, but anything in the glove box is unfortunately long gone. He did provide me with a few earlier pictures, which I am including here.

 

I dig it! Polish that shit up and rock it!

 

The 1990 KKOA show was not held in Salina Kansas.

 

I wonder why I didn`t take a picture of it. Darn it.

 

Endicott was from down south. Maybe it was at the Florida KKOA show.

 

The location was my assumption. These all came in the car. Can you pinpoint the location based on these?

 

According to his wife, the two of them traveled all over the country in their cars for years. She enjoyed telling me stories of their breakdowns and what it took for the em to get rolling again.

 

Wow, this is absolutely awesome.

 

The new pictures showing the car with Winfield fade style quarter panel paint and lacking the ball on the hood, I must say I like that version.

And you just know, someone had pictures of this car when it was in that department store. Not sure how you'd ever find them aside from asking some Facebook groups from that area of the country if anyone ever shopped there and remembered the car, but I'd be shocked if no pictures existed of it at that point. That'd be cool to find.