My Forty-One Mercury, One of Four Fabulous Fords in the Family

By Tom Brecheisen

I have been a member of the National Early Ford   V-8 Club of America since January 2019.  I just recently joined the Northern Illinois Regional Group so I could meet and network with local members of the club and participate in some Early Ford V-8 driving cruises.  I am an instructor at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago and I also do environmental consulting throughout Chicagoland.

My Dad and my Grandpa Brecheisen really got me into the Ford V-8 hobby.  Grandpa Brecheisen bought a brand new ‘41 Ford Super Deluxe coupe before getting drafted for World War II.  After surviving two plane crashes, he met Grandma Brecheisen (who was a nurse) at the hospital where he was treated for multiple injuries.  Upon returning from the war, he chopped his '41 Ford in half (gasp) and extended the frame and body so the car had a 129.5-inch wheelbase!  He also sank the original V-8 engine back into the firewall so he could place a SECOND V-8 flathead engine in line beneath the hood.  The cooling water was routed to the trunk where there were FOUR radiators to provide the cooling. 

This car also had air brakes and more modifications than can be mentioned here.  Grandpa Brecheisen also worked for Ford Motor Company building distributors and working on the lathe for them before starting his own diesel service business.

Dad had a ‘37 Ford Tudor sedan street rod and his twin brother, Uncle Tom, had a '36 Ford Tudor sedan street rod. They spent their youth terrorizing the local kids drag racing just like in the movie American Graffiti.  Dad’s ‘37 had an Oldsmobile J-2 Golden Rocket engine bored out to 407 cubic inches with triple deuces and a progressive linkage, an Oldsmobile rear end, traction baster bars and coil springs in the rear.  Uncle Tom’s ‘36 had a 425 cubic inch Buick with dual-quads, a late model Ford rear end with traction bars and a Dynaflow transmission.  They didn't race each other that often and whichever one raced would win because they worked on their cars together to make ‘em go faster!  Twenty years later as I was growing up, there were all kinds of books about Early Fords around the house so I looked at them a lot and learned the body styles of all the Early Fords up to the '49-51 Fords and Mercury’s.  It was fun trying to correctly identify cars before Dad could.

This '41 Mercury Sedan entered my life at around age 14 or 15.  My Dad found it in Petoskey, Michigan.  It was a Wisconsin car that had been used on a farm and thus it didn’t have rust or corrosion from the chloride-saturated roads of the northern Midwest.  Unfortunately, after the purchase of the car, the seller hooked up a tow-strap and began to tow it while it was in gear, which led to a spun rod bearing.  Dad replaced the rod bearing and miraculously salvaged the crankshaft, much to my grandfather’s surprise. 

Grandpa Brecheisen rebuilt the distributor and the carburetor but there was still an issue with the car, as it would run great for a half hour before it would begin to sputter and miss badly.  At that time, I had no idea why the car didn’t run right.

Nonetheless, off we went to Uncle Bill's in Harbor Springs, Michigan for the bodywork and a quick paint job.  Uncle Bill is a highly skilled V-8 man who had his own auto body business; he did an amazing job on the trunk lid, the rocker panels, and the inner fenders.  Then something terrible happened.  I graduated from high school and went off to college and the ’41 Mercury began to sit.

When I got back from college in the mid-1990s, I went back to Uncle Bill's and the car became a frame-off restoration under his tutelage between 1995-1996.  He had a sand blaster that greatly led to the frame coming off.  We rebuilt the fuel pump and the braking system, cleaned and painted all the chassis and drivetrain parts with a satin black GM primer, including the floor of the car, the firewall and the inner fender wells.  The engine was painted Ford green.  We put the chassis back together and mounted the body onto the frame and got it back to my Dad's in around 1996.  I got the dash and steering column back into the car and Dad got half of a dual-exhaust installed but then I found a job and moved away from home and the ’41 Mercury had been sitting ever since.

Obviously, I've been trying to get the ‘41 Mercury finished for quite some time now but progress is being made.  My Dad and I got it started over Christmas for the first time in about 25 years.  It sounded great.  The mechanicals should be done now thanks to a brand new coil and condenser that we picked up at the Central National Meet in Auburn, Indiana last August.  Grandpa's rebuilt distributor just needed its points cleaned and it started right up! 

The car is now waiting for the second half of its dual-exhaust, paint, chrome, glass, tires and a complete interior, but I have found almost everything I need to finish the car.   It is all there.  The parts and fasteners are labeled, there are tons of extra parts now from swap meets, eBay and Craigslist, and the plan is to get it painted this summer.  It will be dedicated to Grandpa Brecheisen because this car has the last of the hundreds of distributors that he rebuilt on it.  It will also be dedicated to Grandma Brecheisen who specified the color for the repaint, which is to be the same as its original color – Black.  I just hope I will not be afraid to drive it when it is finally done.