For Sale at Auction: 1941 Mercury Custom in Las Vegas, Nevada

Chassis No. 99A-314034

Southern California has long been at the epicenter of American custom car culture. Aside from an abundance of sunny weather, Southern California was once home to many talented craftspeople who once worked in California's robust pre-war coachbuilding industry. Numerous SoCal workshops such as Earl Carriage Works, Don Lee Coachworks, Walter J. Murphy, Darrin, and Bohman & Schwartz served wealthy clients throughout the height of the coachbuilding era. But as orders for custom bodies waned and boutique firms fell by the wayside, some turned to smaller jobs modifying existing production cars.

Coachcraft Ltd of Hollywood was one such shop that bridged the gap between traditional coachbuilding shops and the customs which gained popularity in the post-war era. Founded by three former Darrin employees in the wake of Darrin selling his operation to Packard, they worked with Ford, Mercury, Studebaker, and the occasional Packard chassis, doing everything from full custom commissions to light modifications.

One of the most famous cars to emerge from Coachcraft Ltd is this, the stunning 1941 Mercury "Stengel" Custom. Commissioned by the heir to the J.S. Bache banking fortune and occasional car designer Peter Stengel, this is a remarkable example of late pre-war American coachwork, as well as a seminal California Custom.

Stengel first approached Coachcraft after seeing a 1940 Ford which the firm built for a local customer Clarence Solomon. Stengel requested a similar design, taking it a step further with a fully custom body fitted with a unique, three-piece, removable hard top. While always registered as a Mercury, it began as a 1940 Ford pickup chassis, with the front clip coming from a 1941 Mercury, and rear fenders from a 1940 Ford. The body features a dramatic sweeping fender line that is carried into the doors and mirrored on rear fenders with their distinct up-swept wheel skirt. The hard top features large blind quarters and separate panels over the driver's compartment-cleverly engineered to be configurable as a Sedanca or fully-open roadster with a sporty profile enhanced by the raked deep-V windscreen.

While Stengel happily accepted much of the credit for this project, even applying a "Stengel Carrosserie" badge on the bulkhead, the design was later credited to Carlton "Buzzy" Petersen, a designer at Douglas Aircraft who also penned the Solomon Ford for Coachcraft. The body is built to Coachcraft's usual high standard and was originally finished in a dark Cord blue over a pony hide interior, inspired by the Hollywood cowboy stars of the day. Power came from a 239 cubic-inch Mercury Flathead, reportedly built with a strengthened bottom end, and equipped with Eddie Meyer finned heads, tubular headers, and an aluminum intake with twin Stromberg 97 carbs, which it retains to this day.

The Mercury was delivered to Stengel in August of 1941, but unfortunately war intervened, and he was forced to sell to his friend George Huntington Hartford II. In 1949, Stengel bought it back, and shortly afterward returned it to Coachcraft for an overhaul and paint job. Typical of customs of the era, the look continually evolved, and the nose was modified with headlamps placed behind the grille, and the roof panels covered in cloth.

Peter Stengel moved to England in the 1950s and consigned the car to a museum where it was displayed for the next thirty years. Finally, in 1985, Stengel collected the car and again commissioned a refurbishment, now in candy red over a gold base. Soon after, it was acquired by collector and historian Mark Dees and was later sold to Pat and Doris Hart, who had the car fully restored in time for display in a special class for Coachcraft cars at the 2007 Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance. It would later join the Petersen Automotive Museum collection, from where its current owner acquired it in 2018. Thankfully, it survived remarkably intact, and retains important features including the three-piece top, spun wheel covers, and period Eddie Meyer speed parts. Rather amazingly, the car is still regularly serviced by Coachcraft, which remains in operation in Fillmore, California; run by the grandson of co-founder Rudy Stoessel.

Resplendent in its current livery of bright silver over a rich dark blue leather interior, the 1941 Stengel Mercury is not just a beautifully crafted one-off custom, but a significant piece of American motoring history, representing the bridge between traditional coachwork and post-war custom culture.