History Found: Original 1950 Mercury Custom

UPDATE - First I want to thank many of you that spent the time to help me search for the history about this car. I was able to correspond with Barry Simpson Sr. who is 2nd from the right in the old B&W photo. He owned the Corvette next to him (not bad at the age of 20!). Anyway, the gentleman next to him is Audie Galloway who owned the Mercury. Barry also mentioned that there was a "Russian" in the area who did body work without lead or bond (implying that he was quite the craftsman), but did not know if this "Russian" worked on the car or not. For now, Barry does not remember much more. Unfortunately, it looks like Audie passed away in 1998. I have tried to reach out to Linda/Lynda Galloway (either his daughter or wife), but no luck yet (either no one answers or out of service)... So the question is does anyone know of Audi Galloway or a Russian Body Man based in the Porterville area in the 1950-60s? It would seem like Barry and the Russian (if he did the body work) would have gotten some attention at car shows back in the day...
My Plans For the Car - Now that I have this car (along with other projects), I need to find the time, space, and money (like all of us car guys) to move forward. My initial thought is to get it running as-is (keeping the dust/dirt on the car as long as possible). Then eventually do a full restoration back to how it was done originally (I am hoping, eventually, I figure that out).
Thanks Again Everyone!

 

Check your "alerts" for a "Conversation" . Found a phone # you might want to call.

 

The question for today is. Who did the interior. WOW> I`m sure it didn't get done in Tijuana. That's one of the things that makes the car standout.

 

UPDATE #2 - Here are a couple more updates:
1) Found photo in the 1957 Porterville High School Yearbook which states that Marty's Upholstery did the interior work. It appears that Marty's is in business today being run as a side business by a son of one of Marty's employees from the 1950s. Still waiting to hear back, in case he has any additional new information about the car.
2) The owner I purchased the car from found the inside front door panels. Pretty cool, even has the letter "A" sewn in and electric window switches still in tact. Also matches the photo from the yearbook.
3) Received confirmation that "The Mad Russian" or "The Russian" did the body work in Strathmore, California. Apparently he was quite the craftsman and did not use lead/bondo and was known to hammer weld the seams. As a side note, William John Vukovich Sr was a Serbian American automobile racing driver who lived in nearby in Fresno. He was also referred to as "The Mad Russian" although he was actually Serbian. Unfortunately, he passed away racing at Indy in 1955. Perhaps a relative of his had a body shop... So if anyone knows the name of this person or shop he worked at would be much appreciated.

 

Just saw this for the first time now, great car with some history coming to light, looks like a very expertly built car as well! Glad it's in the hands of someone who will care for it and not make changes to it. Not sure what the point of not washing it would be, but as long as it's either preserved as-is, or restored to it's original build, I'm very happy.

 

Wow! What a great find and story. Just goes to show that the good you do does live on after you.
That's why it's important for car owners to keep a running historical account of their car.
I've owned my 40 for 55 years and have kept the history on paper.

 

Nice to see the updates! Researching the history can be a big part of the fun(?) for sure. I noticed the window switches and thought I would mention that my brother's '56 Vicky came with those - and I have some from a '55 TBird in my coupe; in case you need to know the origins.
p.s. the chrome switches are a little harder to find than the more common black bake-lite ones.

Cool find!

Dave

 

Isn't original and custom an Oxy-Moron? Sorry I could not resist.

I got no idea about any historical information on that car but someone did a beautiful job on it, even in its current state its got class. Nice score.

 

hopefully you can replicate that interior... door panel is killer from looking at the picture... again congrats, thank you for sharing this with us..

 

Does anybody know if anything was ever done with this car? Is there more known of the history? Just like this car and was wondering.

 

What a great car. The first thing that popped into my mind too when I first saw the photos was "I wouldn't even wash it!" Please keep us updated on your progress.