50 Mercury M47 Pickup
It may be that you’ve never seen a 1950 Mercury M-47 Pickup truck before. That’s because they were only sold in Canada. Ford Motor Company sold Mercury M Series pickup trucks in Canada from 1948 through 1968. They were the cousin to the Ford F1 and F100 which were sold here in the United States. The Mercury M Series is rarer since they were produced in limited numbers.
I thought getting an old Pickup and refurbishing it as a show truck would allow us to do car shows this year.
I found this 1950 Mercury Pickup.
The man who owned it had Alzheimer’s and could no longer drive it.
I was impressed with what I could see of the chassis, front clip, and under cab which were rust free. The motor started and ran very well, and the seller indicated the motor, transmission and clutch were recently rebuilt. From a compression check we determined that the flat head V-8 had indeed been recently rebuilt, we also confirmed it is numbers matching. While that was done, I had the oil pressure, water flow and generator output checked, and they were all fine. Unfortunately, the previous owner could not remember a lot, but the family indicated it was painted his flower shop colors and he used it for marketing and parades, had always garaged it and never drove it winters. I believe that is the reason for its exceptional condition.
As I did not care for the present color scheme and graphics, I had the truck re – painted. The work was done by Steve’s Custom Body and Paint in Sydney, Maine and if you want to talk to him about what was done, he is at 207- 547- 3017.The existing coatings were removed, the whole thing sealed, primed, and painted with Ford colors of the time. There is no clear coat on the finish to keep it original looking.During that process we discovered mechanical damage and poor repairs to the rear fenders and running boards. I purchased new replacement steel fenders and running boards. You can see that the original grill was dented, and I found a perfect original replacement in Canada.
The rims were blasted, and powder coated, and we installed 5 new Coker radials.
We installed a new teak bed and side rails.
Before installing the new bed, from the photos included here, you can see how the chassis and cross members looked, they had an existing coating and no rust. Since they were now accessible, we top coated the chassis and cross rails under the bed with an anti-corrosive.
We installed the tailgate with all new hardware.
The previous owner had the seat redone and the interior replaced with an original, correct replacement kit. As it was in excellent shape, we left it the original off-white color.
The previous owner had the electric system professionally converted from 6V to 12V and the truck rewired. We have not done anything under the hood other than the tests mentioned above.
We installed new glass packs on the exhaust.
MDA83AHN-34748
37,746 miles, not sure if this correct.
During the time we have been working on it, health conditions have presented conditions to where I will not now be able to use the truck.
