Good comments everyone and the conversations are great! But in the words of Gene Winfield "I think all Mercuries should be chopped." But what the hell does he know.... just kidding. I myself have always liked the early 50's kustom look. They look as if they were a concept car that was never built. Every line enhanced to make the final product look better not different. As a kid I spent hours sitting across tables from George Barris and he would talk and go into fine detail about different features of the early cars he created. At 15 it dawned on me, he's not a car guy, he's a fucking artist. His early art is what I gravitate to. Thanks for listening, now lets all get to work!
I wpuld maybe putting he chop on the to weighting list. Concentrate on getting it to run well or put a late model engine and trans first.
I agree, and that car has great lines as it sits. But ya know what? It’s not mine, and I bet the OP will make it look right
Let the fun begin !!!!! Never let a good thing go by if you can help it... Great score my friend !!! Although I might be biased.... all be it '39.
It's a car site and many of us have differing opinions. I'd say Sideswipe had an idea that there might be ideas exchanged, and no one's giving him grief.
Unchopped with big wheel openings. It's the 49 I have the day my Dad bought it. It's kind of a full circle thing... Haha
Say @41 GMC K18, if the mercury in the pictures is the one I’m thinking of I knew the original owner. Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
I shot those photographs of that Mercury when I saw it over at the old MARCO shipyard in Ballard , about 23 years ago when I was delivering a prop shaft to the shipyard. Hope that jogs your memory a bit !
Yeah, that’s it alright. The guy who owned it at the time was named Russ Russell (it’s a long story). Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
Pretty amazing how small the world really is. I hope the story was a positive one! Being that I recently retired from FOSS Maritime Co. Was it possible that he may have worked for FOSS later on, as a Chief marine engineer on one of then FOSS tug boats?
I can’t remember. I do know that he had his own excavation business for a long time. And yes the story was a positive one. Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
To chop or not to chop, that is the question, Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to leave original or cut the top, The right or wrong thing to do a beautiful flame job, to preserve or to customize, to maintain heritage or to make righteous in one's own mind, but to chop means it is original no more, to never be whole or it's original self again, but then we must ask ourselves, Are we customizers , or are we restorers?
The Jalopy Journal
