My Search for a 1953 Mercury

By Tom O’Donnell

When I got out of the Army in 1956, I bought a 53 Mercury.  It was a 2 toned green Monterey Fordor sedan with overdrive, power brakes and power steering.  It also had the optional windshield washers, heater and radio with rear seat speaker.  The car had almost 85,000 miles on it but ran like new and was in very good condition.  The car was used for our honeymoon.  It was a very comfortable car and we both have good memories of it.  I traded it in on a 1961 Comet.  One of the mechanics at the dealership bought it and still drove it in 1974 when I bought my Capri.  By then it had very serious rust problems in the rear quarters and the rear doglegs. 

When I was in California in the 80's, I saw a couple of nice 53 Mercurys and thought that I would look for one for me.  It had to have the power steering, as I could always find the parts for the power brakes and other accessories.  There were a lot of Mercurys in CA that had a 302 and a C4 trans with rack and pinion power steering.  I did not care for that configuration, I preferred stock.  As I was looking I became aware that there were very few Mercurys with power steering from the factory, so I decided to give up my search. 

In 2003 I was in Dearborn and saw an identical car, except that it had the Merc-O-Matic.  I approached the owner about selling it and he declined to accept any offers as he had just purchased it after a 20 year search.  I told Madeleine about it and she said that I should look for another.  That’s when I found out that the 53 Mercury was a desirable hot rod or a base for customizing.  These cars were liked by the tin-worm and most of them showed signs of repairs in the rear quarters.  When I would find what looked like a nice Fordor, the engine had been removed and a crate engine had been stuffed in the engine compartment.  The prices for the Fordors ranged from $5,000 for a rusty one like the one in Fig. 3 to $20,000 for a fully customized sedan.  The Sport coupes ranged from $15,000 for one in poor condition to $35,000 in nice condition. 

I looked at a Montana car in Rockford that was supposed to be rust free.  The rust was free, but the car was expensive.  The mice had made rags out of the upholstery and when I reached under the rear fender to check for rust, my finger found no metal in the inner fender.  There was no motor or transmission and it was bargain priced at $4,995.  There were chunks missing from the steering wheel.  I started to look at the Sport Coupes as they seemed to be in better condition for the money.  Again I found that there were more customized ones available than stock.  I started to look at them to see if I could find one with automatic transmission and power steering.  When I would find one, it had either a rat engine or a 302 like the example in Fig. 5.  A lot of them had been painted a red color for resale.  Neither Madeleine nor I wanted a red colored car.  We preferred a green, blue, tan or cream in that order.  There was a cream colored Sport Coupe at a Mecum auction.  The description said the chrome was thin and the doors were hard to close.  It had an Overdrive and sold for $22,000.  There was a nice blue fordor at the auction also.  After a further examination of the car, it was friendly.  (It waved to you as you went by).  It sold for $18,000 with an OD transmission and no power steering. 

I saw what looked to be a presentable 53 Lincoln at a “Classic” car dealer in Palatine.  After I took a good look and had someone check out the mechanicals, I found that it was basically a 60 footer with dents in the roof, and a wrong carburetor that was leaking gas all over the engine.  That got me interested in Lincolns for a while.  I saw an ad for a nice tan car in Georgia with air conditioning.  It was priced as a No. 1 car, but the dealer said he would accept offers.  I contacted an appraiser in Florida to do a pre-purchase inspection.  It was a very thorough report and gave a good description of the car’s good and bad points.  All of the stainless needed attention, most of the chrome needed to be redone and the paint was in poor condition.  I made an offer on the car based on Old Cars Price guide of a No. 3 car, as this car fell into the No. 4 category.  The dealer refused the offer, so I passed and basically gave up on finding a nice 53 Mercury or Lincoln that would meet my requirements.  On my birthday last fall, I was looking at the classified ads on the Early Ford V-8 Club’s site and found a 38,000 mile 1953 Sport Coupe for sale.  I mentioned it to Madeleine and she told me to explore the car further and see if I wanted to buy it.  I contacted the owner and he gave me a complete description of the car.  It still sounded too good to be true, so I hired an appraiser from North Carolina to do a pre-purchase inspection.  He fell in love with the car and missed some of the problems that the owner had told me about.  I decided to fly down and inspect the car myself.  It turned out to be a very nice car and the owner had the history of the car from new.  Next month, I will show pictures of the car and the history that I received from the owner.