To Be OFFERED AT AUCTION at RM Sothebys' The Petersen Automotive
Museum Auction event, 8 December 2018.
Estimate:
$125,000 - $175,000
- A quintessential Southern California Mercury custom
- Built at Fullerton Fabrication by Rudy Rodriguez
- Four-year build; immaculate attention to detail
- Flathead power with Columbia two-speed rear end
Mercurys are the traditional car of choice for many customizers.
Some are done well, others done beautifully, but this car is widely
considered to have been built to perfection. Starting with a
50,000-mile, clean original 1940 Mercury coupe, custom car builder
extraordinaire Rudy Rodriguez created this traditionally styled
custom at his shop, Fullerton Fabrication. Never meant to look like
just another traditional custom car, it is an impossibly smooth and
elegant shape that looks like it could have been a factory
prototype designed by Ford in 1940. Almost every panel on the car
was modified or reworked to achieve the desired look, the goal
being to achieve a pinnacle of elegance and style usually reserved
for European coachbuilders.
Rodriguez chopped the top roughly nine inches in the rear and five
inches in the front. In order to prevent the quarter windows from
becoming too small after the radical chop, the side window
openings, including the rain gutters, were extended further back
into the roof. Two sets of stock Mercury stainless steel quarter
window frames were used to make one set for the car. Each window
frame, jewel molding, and exterior trim piece was custom made to
fit the new openings. The result of this tedious process was window
frames that look factory built.
The grille appears stock, but is handmade, chromed with each of the
fins hand-painted flat silver. The hood latch was hand-made, and
the bull nose was reworked to fit the hood perfectly. The hood was
further shaved of emblems, and the stock headlights were replaced
by ones modified from a 1939 Mercury. The interior is Bottle Green
leather, matched with German square weave carpet with leather
piping, which was also used in the trunk of the car. Black vintage
Mercedes-Benz wool was used for the headliner. The interior
finishes are as fine as any European thoroughbred of the
period.
This is truly an exceptional custom Mercury, a fully realized and
evolved vision of the Southern California custom car craft.To view
this car and others currently consigned to this auction, please
visit the RM website at rmsothebys.com/en/auctions/ca18.
