Low

Low, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

Didn't we do this last week? Anyway, here's another beautiful chopped custom, this one a '49 or so Mercury Eight. The first postwar Mercs to both have all-new styling as well as being significantly different from current Fords, the '49 Eight was immediately popular with the custom car crowd, both for it's style and it's V-8 engines. Some of the most famous customs were Mercury Eights, including Sam Barris' original '49, as well as the legendary car of Bob Hirohata. The Eight just looked good however you reworked it, from mild to wild.

This one features a lot of the classic touches-a chopped top, a new grille and bumpers, flipper hubcaps, rounded hood corners, and the removal of the original badges and logos. I also love the color-it's very subtle, like a lot of the earliest customs were, and is suitably elegant.

Chop

Chop, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

Chopped, channeled, nosed, decked, Bellflowers, two tone, chrome, teef.

Monterey

Monterey, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

Mercury's Monterey was the company's jack of all trades, at various times being the entry level, mid-level, and top of the line full-sized offering. Introduced in 1950 as an upscale coupe in the Mercury Eight line, the Monterey became it's own model line two years later, with coupe, convertible, and sedans on offer.

This taillight is from a '61 coupe.

Sometimes you feel a little low....

...and sometimes you feel reeeeeal low! Car customizing has been around for just about as long as cars-before that, really, since coachbuilders built coaches before cars. And I'm reasonably sure that the first owner of the deDion Bouton asked for custom paint and upholstery.

Anyway, car customizing in America became very popular in the immediate pre-war and postwar years, as young men sought ways to make inexpensive, often used, cars look newer, and more modern, and just plain unique. This could run the gamut from special paint all the way to reshaping panels, adding trim from other cars, radical lowering, and completely new upholstery. In some cases, it's hard to tell what the original car was.

This '39-ish Mercury coupe features quite a few tricks of the early custom car trade. It's been chopped (the roof lowered for a sleeker profile), the badges and trim removed (to partially hide the origin of the car), new wheels, and it's been lowered. It's a classic example.

¡Fuego!

A classic, subtle kustom Mercury. Well, as subtle as a car with flames painted on it can be.