“Crazy ’bout a Mercury!”, or Mercury Blues, was a song written and performed by KC Douglas back in 1948… but what sort of car could inspire such a musical tribute? Keith Harman reckons one like our feature car on these pages right here…
Words and photography: Keith Harman
While there have been many popular songs recorded over the years about Fords and Cadillacs, Mercury Blues stands out as a tribute to Ford’s upmarket cousin. The track was written and recorded in 1948 by Bluesman K C Douglas and Robert Geddins, though it was originally released entitled Mercury Boogie. Since then, the track has found fame with versions by such rock artists as Jackson Browne and The Steve Miller Band, with its biggest seller being a country version by Alan Jackson in 1993.
The catchy number features the line: “Gonna go downtown and buy a Mercury or two” which sounds like a fine idea to us. It also includes the line of our title, and looking at this fine example, it’s not hard to see why you wouldn’t be crazy ’bout a Mercury.
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Okay, so he didn’t actually go downtown or, indeed, buy two, but then it’s fairly unlikely that Larry Houghton, the proud owner of this fine 1951 Mercury Eight Convertible, was aware of Mercury Blues when he saw the car offered on an online auction. Truth is, Larry is not your usual American car owner and, until he recently retired, owned and ran Lamb Engineering in Salisbury, a professional machine shop and also a name well-known in the custom-bike world for building radical and innovative motorcycles that have won prizes and accolades here, in Europe and also in the USA.
In fact, the Mercury is Larry’s first ‘proper’ American car, although he did own a rather lovely 1932 Ford Highboy Roadster hot rod for a while, and also a scratch-built, road-legal, single-seat Miller replica racer that featured a Royal Customs Flathead V8, and a lot of clever one-off engineering. The Miller was recently sold at auction and, in addition to retiring from the firm, Larry was looking for something interesting to replace it, telling us: “I was actually on holiday in Spain in my camper when I saw it online, so I couldn’t view it first-hand, but it looked so good that I put a bid on it, and won!” Needless to say, he wasn’t disappointed!
The car didn’t come with a lot of previous history, but we managed to speak to Bob Thomas, the UK owner who imported it, and he helped out by pointing us in the direction of Bonhams’ Scottsdale website which still had the details from when he bought the car back in January 2020.
If you’ve already scanned our pictures, you’ll have noticed that the car is not 100% original, especially in the running gear department. We don’t know who or where the car’s restoration with typical American modern refinements was carried out, but it was likely done in the Nineties to a very high standard indeed. The car has since enjoyed being part of two notable collections and shows no signs of regular use.
Restoration
It’s possible that the restoration was commissioned by Long Island New York collector, Joe Cardiello, who apparently owned a notable collection of Americana and vehicles. It was then presented in 2014 at a Bonhams Quail Lodge auction at Carmel, California, where it was bought by a West Coast collector from La Jolla, CA (name unknown). We’re guessing it was he who offered the car at Scottsdale, leading to its import to the UK by Bob Thomas, a resident of the Isle of Wight. Bob is a regular visitor to Scottsdale auction and summed up his experience: “I saw it, liked it, bought it, imported it, drove it, and then I sold it”. He did agree that the car drove well, a tribute to whoever did the restoration and modifications.
The Mercury Eight line was first introduced in 1939 and spanned three design generations ending with the 1951 model year. Over this period, Mercurys appeared as two- and four-sedan variants, plus station wagons, as well as convertibles. Ford price-positioned Mercurys between the regular Ford range and its prestigous Lincoln models and, while mechanically Fords and Mercurys were very similar, though with many small body and trim differences, a move to use the larger Lincoln body for the third generation, as with this convertible, proved a sales success; vastly improving Mercury’s share on the market from 1948-49, and boosting the brand to sixth best-selling car in America for those years. After 1951, however, Mercury dropped the Eight nameplate and replaced it across the range with Monterey as its flagship model name, which was used right up until 1974.
These 1949-51 Mercurys when new, of course, were still fitted with Ford’s venerable Flathead V8, although it now displaced an improved 255cu in capacity despite rivals Oldsmobile and Cadillac already having overhead valve V8s as standard. As you can see from our pics, Larry’s Mercury has been upgraded not with a Chevy lump, as so many modified cars built in the States, but instead, it keeps it all in the Ford family with a 460cu in big-block, coupled to a four-speed automatic (probably a C6 derivative, though the info wasn’t available as to what unit is fitted). What we can say is that it is an extremely neat and professional installation; the motor being finished off with alloy-engraved rocker covers bearing the Mercury script, plus an aftermarket billet alloy pulley system to drive the alternator, power steering and air-conditioning which is now fitted.
Bob also told us that soon after importing it in 2020, he booked the car into North American Motor Co for a thorough check over. We spoke to NAMCO (www.namconorthamerican.com Tel. 01252 515750 or email: [email protected]) owner Billy Roe who recalled that the car was running somewhat poorly due to an undersized carb and manifold set-up, but was easily rectified with a larger dual plane intake and a Holley 750cfm carb. We can testify first-hand from our photo shoot that the car now has impeccable manners, starting on the button and running smoothly. A large servo is mounted on the firewall and the big heavy car stops on a dime, thanks to front disc brakes mated to the original independent front suspension.
Custom additions
For a somewhat hot-rodded Mercury, it stands out as a very original looking car, with only the single ‘flipper’ wheel covers, and the single Appleton cowl spotlight being visible custom additions. The Mercury, unusually, still has all its original factory chrome and stainless trim, especially when so many 1949-51 Mercurys were customised as lead sleds with smoothed-out and dechromed bodywork, chopped roofs and moulded body features. The deep metallic red paintwork is flawless, and though reminiscent of the Pharaoh’s chopped Mercury in American Graffiti, it’s probably a way better finish.
Inside, acres of matching dark red hide cover the seats and custom-made door panels, with wool carpeting to match. The front seat, with split folding access to the rear, is electrically adjustable from the factory, as are the power windows. A custom-tilt steering column and three-spoke leather trimmed steering wheel complement the interior, while the gorgeous chrome dash features all the stock instrumentation, stock radio and switchgear. Beneath this, a custom panel has been added to house the air-conditioning controls, vents and CD player.
As you’d expect, the car features a power convertible top in black fabric though, with our shoot taking place on a warm spring evening, it didn’t even cross our minds to put it up. Anyway, convertibles always look better topless! Larry is as pleased as Punch with his Mercury… and why not? We’d be, too!
