This is great guys, history mystery. Thats a huge title in my eyes and one that needs to be figured out. I still can't get over how many Mercs were there. Axle, you did an amazing job!
Axle,did you notice in that poster all the pic's are of Jerry's car and did you notice the name of the poster? "The first photos on the chopping of A merc". That title say's something.
Yes, it says that Marsha was aware of the fact that she was taking the "first photos" of chopping a 49 Merc. It does not (necessarily)mean that the photos were of the "first Merc chopped" There is a difference.
Only the morphine hooker knows.Leave it to me.....Im gonna go prowl the streets of Hollywood with a fist full of fins to find the answer.Lord knows I wont be driving my merc.
Yeah....As a matter of fact Ill have her strip down to her Depends and do some modeling in front of the first chopped Merc on the EAST Coast!!!!!!!!!!!!!Ill make the cover of Rebel Rodz!What a story!IM DONE!Im actually gonna work on the car right now!Talk about motivation.
Just amazing coverage, Rik. I had seen all the other coverage on here, but only after seeing and reading your details, do I really get it! Thanks.
I do not know for sure at this point who was first. Figuring out why the still unchopped car had 51 tags on it would certainly be a determining factor. I do not think that Marsha is the one who put the poster together. That was done years later - obviously after Sam's death in 67, but all the images on it are from the photo album she made, from photos she took, on which had the same "First Photos of Chopping a Merc" title on the cover, so it would seem apparent that whenever/whomever put the poster together (using the images from her album) just lifted the same title for the poster. All I'm saying is that just because it says "First Photos" is not proof that it was photos of the first one chopped.
Like I said, I will be talkin to Jerry when he get's back and that will be some info that is going to make some difference at least to me. Just on the qualities of chops alone,I think Sam's was done after Jerry's it was a much better job and I think that Jerry's was like the prototype.Plus what Jerry told me about the slanted post as oppose to Sam's straight post it all just makes sense. I cant wait to talk to Jerry again.
Rikster ~ What an incredible post & pics!! I am so sorry I missed meeting you. Loved the great photos & stories that your shared. Thank you. I can't wait to show my dad this post!! Seeing the Cool 50 brought me back to the late 70's being young and my dad bringing the entire family to a car run in the Merc 4. BBQing Italian Sausage & celebrating mine and Frankies birthdays under some trees with everyone...Harold Olson and his roadster.....A $1,000 bill that he carried in his wallet... and the Cool 50 having a fire and it having to extinguished (Thank god we had one!) Those were some great times to be had One of the 1st car shows my dad brought me to.
Excellent photos Rik! It was great meeting you, you're a top notch guy, (thanks for the prints too!) It was also cool meeting Bad Bob, and Jeffsled, Jeff your car is amazing! I met lots of other folks who may or may not be on here so be sure and say hi if you are! Other than that I got to see lots of old friends too, It was truely a great time and I'm glad I went!
If you take the title of Marsha's book literally it's saying it's not the first chopped merc. You can interpret that title about any way you want it to read. I went to Rikster's site and studied the Quisnel car (thanks again for your dedication Rik). I've never studied the Quisnel car very hard as it's not my favorite. The front end on the Quisnel car and Sam's car is extremely similar. They are the only two I've seen with the square hood corners. The headlights are very similar as is the front bumper and grill shell. In the construction photos in question, the dips are still in the doors per Quisnel as well as the stock side trim and stock grill. All of these could have been changed after the chop, or not. It's real hard to see,but, it appears that the skirts are stock per Barris, again could have been changed later. After all these are construction photos not finished photos. The similarities between the styling ques of the Barris and Quisnel cars makes me believe that they were built very close to the same time. Everyone was trying to out style everyone else then and come up with something "unusual" and these two are too similar. The Quisnel car has some of the earlier stying cues from the forties. The biggest of which would be the roof flattened in the middle to make it look longer, also, the tailights in the bumper guards,and the stock side trim. While the Barris car is more radical and "updated" with the dips taken out of the doors (actually thats a throw back to the full fadeaways on the forties cars) the taillights in rear quarters. That leads me to beileve that MAYBE the Quinsel car was first, but, it could have been that Quinsel was more of an "old school" guy. Then there's the question of cost. Quisnel's car would cost him less with fewer mods. Who knows. I don't, I wasn't there.
In the sequence of step-by-step construction photos in the album (of which there are 37 photos total), it is very obvious from the progression that they are all the same car and that it is the Quesnel car.
You guys shoild go back and fourth should look at spotlight placement and subtle contours around the headlights to compare as well as antenna placement.Sams car hed an antenna after it was finished.In the pics of the Quesnell car bein chopped the hole for the antenna was already filled.That doesnt say which was done first but it shows which car it is for sure.
This is got be the best or one of the best posts ever. As a matter of fact Ryan should be paying you . Nice job.
great thread. it would be great to see all the of the Barris photos as coffee table book and have one of those posters. "i guess the world will never know, how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie pop"
I doubt if we will ever find out who did the first chopped 49 Mercury. The only person who would have no problem telling the real facts on this - Sam Barris - is not around anymore. George Barris wants everybody to believe his Brothers Merc was the first one, and Jerry Quesnel wants the same on his car. And the Ayala's are long gone as well. As long as there is no photoproof with all these cars together, or with dates on them, I think this will remain a mistery... and to be honnest, I like it that way. (for now A few more facts on these two Mercury's Both cars had in finished form nearly identical grilles. Made from two 1951 Ford grilles. Two 51 Ford grilles where needed to form the main grille bar. And the end bullits are from the same 51 Ford. I'm not excactly sure when the 1951 Ford came on the market, but my guess is somewhere mids of 1950. Robbie Radcliffe took the photo below of he Sam Barris Merc grille. It shows the 51 Ford grille component very well. The main grille bar is the stock piece from the 51 Ford grille. Then on each side this bar was extended with another pice of center bar taken from a second 51 Ford grille. About one foot was cut from the second bar on each sides. Then the left side was used on the right side of the new custom grille and the way around on the other side. If you stand in front of the car you will see that the center of the grille bar is wider than the outsides. The extended pieces on the custom grille are wider on the outside where they meet the 51 Bullet. It took me some time to figure it out. And if you compaire it to the Hirohata Grille its completely different. The Hirohata Merc used the outside corners of the 51 grille where it wraped around the front fenders to create the center grille bar ends. The body color painted section behind the chrome bar is also made up of two of the stock 51 Ford units. The one on the Sam Barris (and Jerry Quesnel's) mercury have 9 teeth while the stock unit has 5 teeth And the Hirohata merc grille for comparisation. We have never seen any photos of the Sam Barris mercury in primer, like we have seen the Jerry Quesnel's Mercury in white primer, with Flipper hubcaps and stock (but with aftermarket center piece added). Especially the fact that the car ran flipper hubcaps indicated his car could have been built in 1948-49 as Jerry claims it is. Sam Barris built his 1949 Mercury from the one and only brand new car he would ever own (according John Barris). He must have been a very brave man to chop it fresh from the dealer. Sam Barris had to built his Mercury in his own spare time, using his own hard earned money. It was not a customer car. Jerry however was a customer, and would bring money to the Barris shop to have his car chopped and customized. Judging the photos of the Jerry Quesnel chop it appears to me that the cutting was done a litle crude. And everythign I see makes me feel like they chopped the car like they had done before on mid 40's cars. The 49 Merc needed a slightly different approach. And to me it looks that on the Sam Barris Merc the top looked the best of the two. And to me that means Sam had learned how to chop the 49 Merc top by the time he chopped his own car. Few more facts The Sam Barris, Jerry Quesnel and Louie Bettancourt Mercury's where all 1949 models. The Wally Welch and Buddy Alcorn (also first built by Ayala) Mercury's where the 1950 model. This photo shows the Jerry Quesnel Mercury in white primer with a 1950 model Mercury that was mildly customized. The photo appeared in the October 1951 Popular Sience article in an article about Barris Customs Sam's Mercury appeared for the first time in a magazine in December 1951 two month after the Quesnel merc was in a publication. Edited I just remembered this photo from the Sam Baris Mercury. According to Greg Sharp the photo was taken at the second Oakland Roadster show which was held in January 1951! Here is a list of customized Mercury's and the year they where built and by whom. The list was made by Harry Bradley for an article he did in the mid 80's. The same list (or very similar) was also used by Pat Ganahl in his American Custom Car book. Last facts for now. Like mentioned before in this post the sam Barris Merc had more body work done besides the chop than the Quesnel Merc. And the Bettancourt Merc had even more done than the Sam Barris car. The Bettancourt mercury would have taken the most time to finish all rounded corners and most of the body lines leaded in. While the Quesnel Merc could have been done in perhaps a few weeks or even quicker.
What an awesome post Rikster! I have spent the better part of 2 days reading this and I have tried to digest all the historical information that is contained within. Thanks for taking the time to post all of this along with all the pictures. 5 stars for sure! I hope someone stickies this too!
Great post Rik! Anybody know what happened to the Quensel Merc? Is it hiding someplace waiting to be discovered?
One thing to add to your last post Rik, Jerry was working at the Barris shop every night of the week and weekends after he would finish his framing job.So you can say he was a customer but really he was also working there.
Heres a thread I wanted to start for a while.This might lead to the discovery of the Quesnel Merc!!!!!!In 1965 Poular Customs did a full feature on a Purple 50 Merc owned by Robert Kirkpatrick,which was originally built by the Alexander Bros in the early 60s for Dick Bailey.When Bailey had the car it was featured in the Feb 62 Custom Craft magazine with full credit rightfully given to the Alexander Bros.The chop itself was featured as a 2 part tech article in another magazine and was a very different roof than Jerrys car and as I said it was a 50 not a 49.HERES WHERE IT GETS FUCKIN GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!In the 1965 Popular Customs article,the story stated that the owner Robert Kirkpatrick moved from the Southwest,Arizona I believe, with another merc but decided to take the Alexander Bros recommendation to buy the "JERRY QUESNELL "merc from Dick Bailey and redo that car.THE ARTICLE IS SUB TITLED "JERRY QUESNELLS BARRIS BEATY GETS A MAKOVER" .........or something like that,.Now ,as I said,there is no fucking way that the Bailey car,which was awesome in its own right was ever Jerrys 49!The funny thing is that my hero Pat Ganahl even believed the 1965 article and said so wen he wrote "The American Custom Car" LOL Now...This leads me to believe that maybe Robert Kitkpatrick came from the Southwest with the Quesnell car and for some reason didnt redo the Quesnell car and wanted to pass the Bailey car off as the ex Barris car.IT GETS EVEN FUCKIN WIERDER!!!!!!!!!!!!Last weekend I called a Robert Fitzpatrick out of the phone book in Fort Wayne Indiana and said introduced myself.I said sir....Did you ever have a custom 1950 Merc on the cover of Popular Customs????????The guy goes I have a 50 merc sitting in the garage right now! But then he proceeds to tell me that he never owned a chopped car and the one he has is a two tone 4 door with a continental kit!!!!!!!!!He emailed me pics of it hours later.WHO IS ROBERT FITZPATRICK??? I really think the fact that the article confused the two cars needs to be looked into further if for no other reason,the fact that there was mention of two real cars in it.For whatever its worth,Ive had pics of the Bailey car in its 1965 form since i was 10.Rik also got the same pics from Barry mazza and theyre on hisd site.The pics were obviously from the 70s and the car was still in its 65 configuration but had Ohio plates.Did Robert Fitzpatrick move to Ohio ?Can he tell us anything about the Quesnell car?fuck,for that matter can he tell us about the Baily car?Was the guy I talked to the same Robert Kirkpatrick?Could the Alexander bros recall which 50 merc Kirkpatrick brought from the Southwest?
The only thing cooler that seeing your pictures is passing the cars on the open Highway. Thanks for sharing your photos.
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