PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT: BTR’s Red Hot Camshaft
December 12, 2024
THE AUTO BUILDER
Featured
AN AMERICAN TRADITION
Here in the United States, we have been conditioned to find vintage tin in many places. The availability of good cars to build into street rods has become more limited as the years have passed, but depending upon your choice of bodies, there are still quite a few options. Of course, the advent of reproduction bodies has added to the choices. Now put yourself in a foreign land and think about how hard it would be to find a good 70-plus-year-old imported American car to build. That is what Wayne Streams faced as a native of the United Kingdom. Building street rods has grown in both popularity and participation in the UK. There are many vintage English vehicles available, but American cars are the most cherished among British rodders.
STROKIN DIESEL’S TAILGATE SHOOTOUT 2026 BROUGHT THE HEAT TO ALABAMA
On April 18th, the STROKIN DIESEL TAILGATE SHOOTOUT 2026 lit up Alabama with a back-to-back assault on horsepower, starting on the dyno and ending under the lights at the dragstrip. Backed by Diesel Motorsports, this wasn’t a sit-around-and-look kind of show. This was a run-it, prove-it, break-it-if-you-have-to kind of day.
DYNAMIC 88
While most of us equate the term “bubbletop” with early-’60s Chevys, other GM brands had their own versions of these sleek sport coupes, including Oldsmobile. Although these cars shared the same slim roof design, along with its highly celebrated rear window, other unique changes left no doubt about the special nature of these individualistic and stylish machines.
Spotlighter
MERC-O-MATIC MAKEOVER
Wearing a Slick Coat of Black, Gil Losi’s ’54 Mercury Is Simply Awesome
Gil Losi, the owner of this super-slick ’54 Mercury Monterey—which was a year in the making—has quite a liking for the ’54 Mercury body style. He’s owned several of the stylish Monterey hardtops, but this one tops them all with its slammed stance, laser-straight paint and bodywork and 32-valve DOHC engine. One of the many great aspects of this particular Mercury Monterey is that Steve Cook’s team started with a good body. It was solid and already featured a low-down stance, but the crew reworked every part of the car into what you see here.
Author
Tommy Lee Byrd
Photography: Josh Mishler
Mercury O-Matic Heritage & Early Automatic Transmissions
In an effort to catch the attention of potential buyers, many car companies began naming their transmissions and placing corresponding badges on the outside of the car, because in the early ’50s, the automatic transmission was a very big deal.
For Chevy, it was the Powerglide two-speed transmission, while Ford claimed Ford-O-Matic as the descriptive namesake for its automatic transmission. Mercury soon followed suit and debuted the Merc-O-Matic and mounted a Merc-O-Matic emblem on the rear decklid to signify that its car was equipped with this modern convenience. While some of these new transmissions proved troublesome at times, Mercury’s marketing and engineering tactics were successful, as the automatic transmission was a big hit with Merc consumers going back as far as 1951.
Drivetrain Transformation in the Mercury Monterey
A Merc-O-Matic once rode behind a 256ci V-8 in the ’54 Mercury Monterey shown here, but times have changed, and this car now calls upon a 4.6-liter DOHC engine and an AODE transmission as its primary drivetrain components. While certainly a step up in terms of technology and reliability, this new powertrain also looks right at home under the hood. Making all this a reality wouldn’t have been possible without the gifted work of Steve Cook Creations in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Gil Losi, the owner of this super-slick ’54 Mercury Monterey—which was a year in the making—has quite a liking for the ’54 Mercury body style. He’s owned several of the stylish Monterey hardtops, but this one tops them all with its slammed stance, laser-straight paint and bodywork and 32-valve DOHC engine. One of the many great aspects of this particular Mercury Monterey is that Steve Cook’s team started with a good body. It was solid and already featured a low-down stance, but the crew reworked every part of the car into what you see here.
Chassis & Suspension Engineering
Starting with the original Mercury chassis, Cook and the crew updated the design with new crossmembers and additional bracing throughout. While Steve Cook Creations handled the assembly of the new suspension components, the guys at Chubby Chassis fabricated new mounts for an updated suspension system, which far surpasses the original ’54 setup. Up front, it’s a full custom setup with airbags and tubular control arms, while the rear suspension consists of a triangulated four-link, also riding on air.
Engine & Performance Build
Custom mounts hold the DOHC Ford 4.6-liter mod motor, a design that blows away the old 256ci V-8 in terms of technology, performance and styling. The huge engine is nicely detailed and features Crower machined heads fitted with special camshafts, which give the Mercury Monterey a healthy exhaust note, in combination with a custom exhaust system built by Rodney Durbin at Steve Cook Creations. Other go-fast goodies include a billet fuel injection system from Imagine Injection Technologies of Phoenix, Arizona, which also includes a custom wiring harness and computer, custom-tuned to this car’s specifications. Bob Reem of Imagine Injection installed the fuel system and ignition, which consists of a crank-trigger system controlled by a Haltech engine management system. Reworked Sullivan cast-aluminum valve covers top off the engine and give it a sinister appearance, thanks to a satin-black finish.
Moving rearward, a Ford AODE transmission receives signals from the All Data computer system, which was also programmed by Bob Reem of Imagine Injection. Farther back, you’ll find a narrowed Currie 9-inch rearend, fitted with a 3.50 gear set and a limited-slip differential, which sends power to the one-off Boyd Coddington wheels, measuring 18×9 inches and wrapped in BFGoodrich rubber. Up front, a pair of 17×7-inch matching wheels is tucked nicely within the fenderwells, while the SSBC Elite brakes hide behind the spokes on both the front and rear. A stainless steel fuel tank from Rick’s Hot Rod Shop is nestled at the rear of the chassis and is painted black to match the frame and body.
Bodywork & Paint Execution
As for the stylish Mercury Monterey body, it was first disassembled and then stripped of its several layers of primer and paint. The body proved to be a good piece, which made life a little easier for the body guys at Steve Cook Creations, but it was still no easy task to make this car perfectly straight. Hours of tedious body blocking with blocks, long boards and increasingly finer grits of sandpaper resulted in one of the straightest bodies we’ve laid eyes on in a long time, and this is especially evident with its slick coat of black.
Obviously, lots of work went into aligning the panels as well, and the effort is most certainly evident when you look at body gaps and the flat, finished panels. DuPont Hot Hues single-stage black covers the body, and the crew at Steve Cook Creations outdid themselves when it came time to sanding and buffing out the DuPont Hot Hues. Perfectly slick and straight in every area, the Mercury catches the eyes of paint and body men wherever it appears. Without a doubt, Gil Losi’s Mercury Monterey is flawless in every detail, and the high-quality work continues on the inside.
Interior Craftsmanship & Comfort
As is the trend nowadays, Gil and Janet Losi wanted to be comfortable in their killer Merc, so the car traveled to Gabe’s Auto Upholstery for one of Gabe Lopez’s awesome interiors. There, Lopez reworked the original seats and covered them in cognac-colored leather, while also using the same material on the door panels and other interior components. This custom upholstery is just right for this simple Mercury, and the climate stays comfortable thanks to an original dealer-installed FrigiKing A/C unit mounted beneath the dash. This old A/C system is very popular today because of its nostalgic look, and this unit was totally refurbished and is cleverly disguised as part of the Vintage Air kit. All the original controls give the Mercury an old-school appeal, and the one-off gauge panel and clock from Custom Rod Gauges finish off the classic-looking interior. For audio, Losi relies on a Sony head unit to send signals to the JBL amplifier and speakers, which fills the cabin with tunes, unless he wants to turn it down and hear the rumbling exhaust note of the mod motor.
Final Impression
It’s little wonder that Losi’s Mercury receives so much recognition; it’s a tastefully done hot rod with cool details throughout. A low-down stance, a set of one-off Boyd Coddington wheels and one of the slickest and straightest bodies you’ll ever see make it hard to miss. But a peek under the hood or through the window is enough to stop anyone for a second, longer look. Losi kept a Ford in his Ford, and the guys at Steve Cook Creations helped make it all work, but the entire build was definitely a group effort. The guys at Chubby Chassis, Imagine Injection Technologies, Steve Cook Creations and Gabe’s Auto Upholstery played a huge part in the build, and it all helped to make Gil Losi’s Mercury the spectacular car you see here. A step up in technology and a step up in style make for one cool car that is hard to ignore.
Nestled in the reworked engine bay, a Ford 4.6-liter DOHC mod motor rides in place of the original V-8, which brings this Mercury to a whole new level in terms of technology. The modern engine is fitted with a custom fuel injection system from Imagine Injection Technologies and features a sinister appearance thanks to the satin-black Sullivan valve covers.
Sliding behind the wheel of Gil and Janet Losi’s Mercury is a treat, because it’s like taking a step back in time. The interior provides comfort and good looks, as Gabe Lopez and the crew at Gabe’s Auto Upholstery stitched cognac-colored leather onto the reworked Mercury seats and door panels.
Cleverly named automatic transmissions were all the rage in the ’50s, and Mercury’s contribution was the Merc-O-Matic. Cars equipped with this transmission came with a cool emblem, mounted on the decklid, but fortunately for Losi, a modern overdrive transmission rides behind the mod motor.
MERC-O-MATIC BUILDUP
1. Losi’s car was in good shape when it entered Steve Cook’s shop, but a total restoration was in order. The new engine is mocked up within the framerails, and the body is about to be removed so the crew at Cook’s can strip it to bare metal.
2. Before it could be stripped, the Mercury needed to be bolted to a rotisserie. Here, the car is turned on its side to reveal the flawless floor pans, which still have some undercoating here and there. This will be removed with stripper.
3. The crew goes to work with paint stripper and putty knives, taking off the paint and underlying primer. It’s a messy job, but it will be worth the effort when it’s complete. This car is super solid and needed no replacement panels.
4. When the Steve Cook Creations crew completed the stripping process, they applied a couple of coats of epoxy primer to seal the precious metal from the elements. Here, the car is hanging together once again so the panel gaps can be perfected.
5. Every aspect of the ’54 Mercury was carefully restored, and you can see one of the members of the Cook crew preparing the bottom side of the hood for paint. After it was painted, even the underside of the hood was sanded and buffed to perfection.
6. With the car fully stripped and back on the rotisserie, it was time to paint the floor pans and entire undercarriage. The surrounding areas were masked to prevent overspray, and the floor pans were treated to the same preparations as the topside.
7. Here’s the key to getting this car straight—lots of hard work and very limited time with air-powered tools. This hand-powered long board is the hot ticket for getting a long, slab-sided car straight, and the effort certainly paid off, as this Mercury is laser straight.
8. After being updated with new crossmembers, mounts and additional braces, the bare chassis was trucked into Steve Cook’s spray booth and prepared for matching black paint from DuPont.
9. Fully prepped and assembled, the 4.6-liter DOHC engine wears its new Sullivan aluminum valve covers, which are awaiting a new coat of paint. The engine is giant, even though it displaces less than 300 ci, but it’s definitely efficient in many ways.
10. With the rolling chassis fully assembled, the crew could roll it outside and concentrate on completing the body. Here, the airbags are deflated, and Torq-Thrust II wheels are installed, just so it can be rolled around the shop. One-off Boyd Coddington wheels now adorn the Mercury.
11. After applying the DuPont Hot Hues single-stage black paint, the guys at Steve Cook Creations spent countless hours sanding buffing and polishing the fresh finish to perfection. Here, the car nearly ready to buff, and though it’s a lot of hard work, the finished product speaks volumes of the effort put forth.
12. When the initial sanding and buffing process was complete, the crew placed the body on its refurbished chassis. With the bags deflated, the car looks awesome, even though it still has a long road ahead in terms of reassembly.
ARTICLE SOURCES
Steve Cook Creations
At Steve Cook Creations, we don't restyle cars beyond recognition, we finesse them to perfection. Paying homage to the past, but refining them to a look unseen before.
