My Search for a 1953 Mercury (Part 2)

By Tom O'Donnell

Last month, I finished with my flight to Asheville, NC on December 30.  The next morning, Dale Benjamin, the seller and I met at a shopping center and he drove me to his home where I inspected the car.  He took me on a short drive out of the forested area that he lived in to more normal type roads and then I drove the car for about 30 minutes on all kinds of roads.  We went back to his home and came to an agreement on price, so I gave him my check.  I spent New Year’s Eve in my motel room and left Asheville at 6:00 AM.  We arrived at O'Hare just before the snow hit on New Year’s day.

I started my search for someone to transport the car from NC to Palatine.  I contacted a couple of Club members and checked out the carriers that they used.  Both of them had their cars transported by brokers.  I had heard some pretty horrible stories about brokers, looking for the cheapest trucker that they could find to move a car.  Some of these people are very good and some are very bad. I did not want to take a chance. I called Gilmore and asked for their recommendation.  They gave me two carriers, Reliable and Terry Bortell that have done a good job for them.

Terry Bortell has a motor home with a garage and a trailer, so he could haul 2 cars, and they would remain in their place from the pickup point to the destination.  I contacted him to get his price and found that his price was just a little over the price that I found on the Internet through brokers.   While I was checking his references, he booked another trip and could not pick up my car.  I called Reliable and booked with them.  I hung up the phone and received a call from Terry’s cousin, Dan Varro, to tell me  that he would haul my car.  He gave me 5 references and all of them had nothing but good things to say about Dan, so I cancelled Reliable and booked Dan.  He did a great job of inspecting the car before loading and it arrived with no damage.

The car was originally sold in Rockford to a mechanic that lived in Byron, IL.  He did not drive the car much and it was in  storage from 1965 to 1985.  It was sold to Dale Benjamin by Dave Southwick and Don Johnson from  Rock Valley Ford Parts in 1990.  It had 26,380 miles when he bought it. It came with the original title, owner’s manual, a letter from the salesman, battery warranty card, clock instructions, radio, heater and chrome care instructions.  All of the paper work, including the pre-delivery inspection report were also included.  Dale sent those along with shop manuals, parts manuals, advertising material and other literature in a large box in the trunk.  He also included a car cover and 3 large boxes and a milk crate of new and rebuilt parts.

Dale put 12,525 miles on the car in the 23 years that he owned it.  He took very good care of the car and it still looks and runs great.  He drove it to many AACA and Lincoln and Continental Owners Club (LCOC) meets as well as showing it locally.  He was more interested in touring than showing, so he installed seat belts in the front seats.

He liked everything to work on a car, so that when he got in and turned the key, he could drive off with confidence that he would not break down.  The car handles very well and has nice comfortable seats. It has power steering, 6 way power seats, power antenna and an automatic transmission.  The spare tire is the original one from 1953, and I hope that I never have to use it.  The other tires are newer (about 2,000 miles on them) and I feel safe driving with them.

The car was the cover car in the September/October 2001 LCOC Continental Comments magazine.  Dale had entered the car in the display class at the Eastern meet and the editor liked the car.

I am looking forward to driving it next year when we have a summer, or if we get one this year, I will have it out on tours.  My intentions are to have it at the Springfield meet in August.  I haven’t been able to take the car out for shakedown drives, so I don’t know what issues are lurking under the pretty sheet metal.