Our Anniversary Car

By Earl Heintz

 On a Sunday in August of 1977, Gene and I had planned on going to a street rod swap meet at the Woodstock Fairgrounds.  Unfortunately in the morning when we woke up it was pouring rain so we decided to hold off and see if it would let up.  At noon it finally stopped raining and the sun came out so we headed out to Woodstock.

As we entered the fairgrounds I noticed a nice blue 1951 Mercury Coupe with a “For Sale” sign on it.  The owner, Floyd Griebel Jr., happened to be there and he told us he had just arrived because he didn’t want to drive the car in the rain.  As I looked it over I could see there were no dents, scratches, or rust on the vehicle.  I thanked him and left to walk through the swap meet.  We found nothing worthwhile to buy, but kept thinking about the ’51 Merc we saw earlier; I couldn’t get it out of my mind. 

On the way out we noticed it was still there for sale so we stopped and asked if it would be possible to test drive the car.  Floyd said sure, that he was just ready to leave shortly anyway and would meet us at a designated place.  As we started walking to our car I heard Floyd start the engine and then we heard nothing.  I said to Gene “Don’t turn around and look for I don’t believe it started.”  The words were no sooner out of my mouth when the car rolled past us.  We were shocked that it was so quiet and the car ran so smooth.

We met Floyd down the road a piece and took it for the test drive.  Needless to say we were very excited because the car handled so well and was in such good condition inside and out.  When we got back Floyd said he was asking $3,500 firm, which we thought was a fair price, so we ended up purchasing it that same day and have really enjoyed driving it and still do to this day.  We were told that the original owner was a lady from St. Louis, Missouri, and she had sold it to Floyd.  We bought it from him, so we are the 3^rd owners of the car. 

In the summer of 1982 our Northern Illinois Regional Group V-8 Club toured to the Quad Cities in Iowa to meet with their V-8 group for the weekend.  On Saturday, the Iowa V-8 Club set up a very nice tour, but with so many cars, they divided us up into two groups of 15 cars.  Gene drove the ’51 Mercury and took Gladys Duzell, Lois Wall, and Harriet Lawrence with her and I went with Lloyd Duzell in his 1940 Ford Pickup.  The tour was wonderful, a beautiful day and everyone was having a great time.  After our last stop at the John Deere factory we started back to meet up with the other group.  As we approached the town of East Moline there was a line of antique cars stopped ahead of us and a police car with red lights flashing.  Marty Duling was running up the road waving his arms at Lloyd and I and he told me that Gene and the other girls were in an accident.  She was the 11^th car in her group and was going through an intersection with the traffic light green for her when a gentleman driving a 1970 Buick Electra 4-door sedan ran the red light and at the last second turned and hit our Merc broadside.  Luckily no one was injured in either car and we were able to drive it all the way back home. 

The next day I called J. C. Taylor Insurance and informed them of the accident.  When the adjuster came to look at the car I told him that this Merc was not going to any body shop and lo and behold he agreed with me and said that would be fine!  I talked to Lloyd Duzell and he agreed to do the repairs. Lloyd suggested we try to find a new right front fender since it had been so mangled.  He suggested Garton’s Auto Parts in New Jersey.  I called and found an NOS fender for $250!  It arrived on a semi truck packaged in a crate made of 2x6’s.  It was so heavy that the driver and I could hardly lift it off the truck.  The fender had never been on a car and even had a Ford sticker and the part number on the underside.  As you can see from the pictures, Lloyd’s repairs turned out great.  Since then we have gone on many tours and car shows with nice trophies to show for it.

In 1998 I purchased two new water pumps for the car and asked Lloyd if he would install them for me.  When he removed the old pumps you could spoon the sludge out of the engine, it was so bad, so Lloyd suggested we take the engine out.  I agreed and we took it to Mike at Performance Engineering in Wauconda, IL, to have it rebuilt.  While the engine was out of the car, Lloyd detailed the engine compartment and installed a new wire harness from Rhode Island Wiring Service.  When we received the engine back from Mike, Lloyd painted it and installed it back in the car.  As you can see from the photo it turned out like new, thanks to Lloyd Duzell.

Gene and I have always called this our “Anniversary Car” because we were married in the year of 1951.