Lost & Found

This Mercury Was Lost, Found and Lost Again

It’s possible that somewhere near your home sits a building housing a fine example of an early hot rod or custom that nobody remembers seeing at shows or in old magazines. There’s no doubt that most of them are hopeless junk pieces that have given way to years of exposure to the elements, but there are always intriguing examples that one day may have the potential to achieve legendary status, just like the Doan Spencer Deuce roadster and the Hirohata Merc. These are but two examples of the many great cars that have reached legendary status in our hobby over several generations, but how many more might there be?

There are many reasons why the icon cars have achieved the lofty status they now enjoy, but one of the more obvious reasons is the simple fact that they were finished. Their existence and subsequent high-level exposure have inspired many a young lad to undertake similar projects, and for every famous car built in the early years, probably two others were started in an attempt to either copy or outdo it, but they never saw the light of day.

If history had gone as planned, then we all would have recognized this ’40 Merc, but instead of becoming a magazine feature car, it was one of the many obscure cars that never saw the light of day. The good thing is that the car is still with us, and this is how it looked in the late ’40s as an unfinished project.

There could be any number of reasons why the other cars were never completed and remain just as they were when interrupted by the harsh realities of life. In some cases, these efforts may have qualified for the same high honors that the legends have enjoyed, or they could have at least been held in high esteem were they finished and shown to the public. The ’40 Mercury shown here is such a case. One look at the style tells you that it could have been a highly regarded magazine feature or even a cover car, and a closer look at the workmanship indicates that it could well have become another highly regarded custom hot rod.

But before we get into what little we know about this Merc, we must say that for years we heard stories of this car’s existence around California’s Central Coast. When we made mention of the car to the right guy, we found ourselves standing in front of it an hour later. We took the photos you see here with the intention of writing an article some time in the future. However, we moved to Tennessee and lost our notes somewhere along the way, so now that story can only be based on memories that are spiked somewhat by reviewing our photos.

Does this look like your typical ’40 Mercury? It looks more like a ’48 Talbot-Lago cabriolet or something French. The fade-away fenders are superb from this angle.

The story as we remember it went something like this. The Merc was bought new somewhere on the East Coast, but the car was promptly wrecked. It was then sent to a junkyard, where the car would be scrapped and picked apart for salvageable parts. As for what happened next, no one was particularly sure, but somehow the badly wrecked Merc got into the hands of someone who really knew what he was doing, not only from a styling standpoint, but in terms of the bodywork and know-how as well. Bearing in mind that customizing was in its youngest days in the early ’40s, the overall shape of this car is very striking and most certainly would have been a real trendsetter in its day.

Back in those days, restyling generally consisted of emulating what master coachbuilders were doing to the luxury automobiles for the very wealthy, which was giving American cars a European look. Everybody was after the long and low look, and this Merc got it big time. The extended fade-away front fenders added length while the chopped windshield and channeled and sectioned body with raised fenders generate lowness. Nobody knows how roadworthy the car was at the time, but we know that it made it all the way to San Diego during WWII while towing a trailer. It showed no evidence of having had a top, bows or even the mechanism for a very long time, which leads us to think that those parts were stripped in the junkyard, making that cross-country trip even more of an adventure. It changed hands a couple more times and wound up in the garage of the current owner’s grandfather after obviously spending the vast majority of its time sitting dormant. Luckily for the Merc, that grandson is in the business of building and restoring cars in his shop near the San Luis Obispo Airport in California. When we shot these photos, he had tracked down the previous owner, who promised to mail him a stack of old photos that he had found in the car, which would hopefully answer some of its historical mysteries. Later that year, we saw him driving it up Spring Street in Paso Robles at the West Coast Kustoms Memorial Day bash. It may have had a few new primer spots on it, but the old Flathead sounded strong because we heard he had driven it some 40 miles from San Luis Obispo.

As for where the car is today, we’re not really sure. We are curious because we find the car striking as well as one of the real efforts of its day. If you stumble across this or other cars, let us know as we’re always ready to look back in the day, especially when that history is finally finished.