Hiding in this shed is a wonderful classic, offering endless possibilities. The seller states that this 1951 Mercury Eight Convertible is a genuine barn find. They performed a mechanical refresh, returning it to a roadworthy state after years in hibernation. Its needs are purely cosmetic, but the new owner can enjoy the Mercury immediately while contemplating its future. I must say a big thank you to Barn Finder Curvette for spotting the Convertible listed here on Craigslist in Hayden, Idaho, with an asking price of $20,500.
The 1949 model year was significant for Mercury’s Eight. The company introduced its Third Generation, adopting “pontoon” styling for a more modern look than its predecessor. This Generation remained on sale until 1951, with our featured Convertible rolling off the line that year. The seller indicates it is a genuine barn find, though it is unclear for how long it had hibernated. Its Vassar Yellow paint has an impressive selection of chips and scratches, with some developing surface corrosion. However, what I can’t spot is evidence of penetrating rust in the limited listing images. The seller doesn’t mention problems, and if the Mercury is as solid as it seems, it could be a winner. The trim is intact, but some pieces require restoration. Whether the buyer preserves or refreshes this classic, they will need to source a replacement soft-top. The glass looks quite nice, and the whitewall tires perfectly suit this car’s character.
The seller provides only one interior image and no engine bay shots, but the listing includes plenty of crucial information. They say the interior is rough and desperately needs a complete retrim. However, it is serviceable, and with the car in sound mechanical health, it could remain untouched, at least in the short-term. One tempting idea is to leave the Mercury’s exterior as-is and restore the interior to its former glory. The contrast would be striking, and would certainly turn heads wherever this car went. Under the hood, the car features a 255ci flathead V8 paired with the new-for-1951 three-speed Merc-O-Matic transmission. The flathead was a reasonable performer, with that year’s Sales Brochure quoting power and torque figures of 112hp and 206 ft/lbs. The seller’s mechanical revival has been thorough, rebuilding the V8 and transmission, and replacing the fuel tank and brakes. The work transformed the Convertible from a barn find into a genuine driver, ready for action with its new owner behind the wheel.
The new owner has a few options for this 1951 Mercury Eight Convertible. One option is to refresh the interior while preserving the exterior as a survivor. However, it would look stunning if restored to its factory form. The Eight was also a mainstay of the “lead sled” custom scene, and this Convertible would be a prime candidate for that approach. I probably wouldn’t take that path as a buyer, but I’m still unsure whether I would preserve or restore this classic. What do you think?
I would restore it to a good, serviceable condition by re painting it to it’s original colour and replacing the interior and hood. New wide whites, and away we go!
I agree with Solosolo, this drop top Merc is definitely deserving of a quality paintjob in its original color. And a nice interior. Seeing any late 40’s earky 50’s Mercury in original condition is a treat.
Restore it, no lead sled.
I wish more people here in NYS listed items on Craigslist. Facehole is the marketplace of choice.
Same here! At least list them on both. On FB I made a typo and I guess I’m banned for life.
I am also banned from FB as I would NOT send them a selfie video of my face!!
I second that notion Drew!
95-98% of all my buying and selling over the years on craigslist has been positive.
Nicest-looking, by far, of the ’49-’51 Mercs!
Adam a great write up of a beautiful survivor.. You use the word refresh and I use the word rebrurish, but I think we mean the same thing. DO NOT “Lead Sled” this car!!!! If the top frame works, most any boat cover place can build you a new top. If the sellers statement of redoing the mechanical parts is right it might not even need new tires?? Repair any rust, paint it and you would have a show stopper..
Nothing like an ad that overwhelms you with pics and information!
i have been banned as well for no selfie pic. really stupid!
I love those old Mercs and this one is a great buy for someone but unfortunately not for me at this time!
This reminds me of the Merc lead sled convertible from “Grease”! If you didn’t want to restore it to original condition (that color on this car would look great refurbished), then making a similar car like the one in the movie would not be too bad, either. I can see the flames from the raw gasoline coming out of the exhaust now…
Restore it to totally original colour, trim, motor, suspension — THE WORKS. New disc brakes are okay. But no need for seat belts. Have it look in every way like 1951 — including the original radio and electtically-wound clock. And CLEAN UP THAT DASH, so it gleams and the gauge “windows are as clear as new glass. NO LEAD-SLED PLEASE!!! Too many already: save that for some surviving body that is too far gone to repair or restore.
You would allow disc brakes but not seat belts? Odd.
Not odd at all, robt. Disc brakes do not show, for one. I was hit, head-on, in my 1946 Ford with no seat belts, and both my passenger and I walked away. The car that hit us was a 1979 Ford L.T.D. Crown Victoria, and the driver of that car, sadly, wasn’t so lucky. A year later, I was hit, head-on, buy a truck whose driver had died from a heart-attack behind the wheel. I was driving a 1987 Volvo 940 Wagon, but, still not used to seat belts, I was not wearing mine. When the truck swerved into my lane suddenly, and I realised that I had no time to evade the collision, I ducked down onto the passenger’s seat, and had I been wearing my safety belt, the back-side of the hood crashing through the windshield would have decapitated me, even as it chopped the headreast off of my seat. My car was thrown into the ditch, then bounced into trees, and I was pinned to the front seat under the hood. I had compound fractures of both legs from the strut and left-front wheel coming through the floor where the pedals had been, and the hot engine was burning the skin on my stomach. They did not even try to rescue me at first, because, as I heard the cop say, “Don’t bother with the car right away: nodody is alive in there.” And they could not hear me call out to them. It took the Jaws Of Life to get my out, and there was not one surviving window in my Volvo. But I am alive to tell about it, because I was NOT wearing my seat-belt! I realise that was a rare exception, but it has affected my view of seat belts. I wear one now, because it is the law, and my car came equipped with safety belts. But if I had a car old enough not to have them, I would not install them.
I wear a seat belt to hold me in the seat. So that I can concentrate about trying to stay out of an accident. (I volunteer teach at Street Survival classes. Where we give teenagers 10 years of experience in one day. Including pedal to the floor, emergency lane change and back again. Again with never lifting off the throttle. They learn to toss the car and then to toss it back without slowing down. You need your belt on to do that.
And Harrison, I was involved (while driving a Volvo in an accident with a flat bed truck/trailer with no lights on the trailer across the road at night with the high beams on facing oncoming traffic. So no way to see the trailer until too late. I went to try and skirt around to the right. But an oak tree was there. So as I slammed on the brakes I played down on the passenger side. (Still wearing my belt) By laying down the angle of my body shoved the brake pedal under the clutch pedal essentially locking all 4 brakes. The car hit at an angle as I was laying down and my face bounced off the right had portion of the steering wheel. For which I got a fat lip. When everything stopped the trailer was up against my head rest. I was able to climb uot of the passenger door after releasing my belt. And my 144 Volvo was holding up the back end of the trailer with the wheels turning free. Luckily for the tow truck driver, he had a crowbar to untangle the pedals under the dash. Once pulled out from under the trailer (HEAVY DUTY trailer with large angled reinforcement beams beneath the deck. The trailer was loaded with brand new snowmobiles still in their boxes and the tractor backing into the drive got stuck in the snow on the shoulder of the road. Once my car was pulled out from under the trailer it popped up to normal ride height and if the radiator had not been damaged. The car could have been driven home. (Sans a windshield) I always wear my seat belt!
Seat belts work. I grew up as they were becoming available in cars. Even with all the research and data known about how good they were it wasn’t my habit to buckle up.
Learned my lesson in the early 1990’s on a back road in northern Pennsylvania driving my old 66 Fairlane 500. We were renting a house out there and I thought I knew the roads well enough, and who doesn’t like tossing their ‘hot rod’ around 2 lane country roads?
Well on that day a turn came up which I approached as usual, but it turned out to be more than expected. It didn’t seem to stop! It was a much longer turn than expected. I made it thru but ended up using the whole road to do so, fortunately staying out of the ditch on the other side. Also fortunately no one was in the other lane. What really shook me though was that as I was fighting the turn I was also fighting to stay in my seat!, making a rather difficult situation even more difficult. Right then and there I thanked my stars, and then buckled into the seat belt.
To this day anytime I’m driving I am wearing a seat belt. So yes I would retro fit seat belts into any classic old car.
Never could understand or justify that silly extended fender line, ‘specially without extending the interior of the trunk. It looks like what it is… tacked on change for the sake of change. The only worthwhile change for the ’51s was the addition of the B-W-O-Matic gearbox, this from the guy who hates automatics.
But then, to each his own.
This is the only one of the ’49-’51 Mercurys that I liked — specifically BECAUSE OF the extended rear fenders; also, the revised grille and hood and trunk trim. I wasn’t fond of the ’49-’50 Mercurys; but the ’51, I liked, because it broke from what I did not care for in the previous two years.
Well if I had money I’d tell you what I’d do.
“Crazy ‘Bout a Mercury.”
Alan Jackson, one of the great ones.
I’m trying to see $20,500 in this car.
It’s a good car but it will need another 20 K added to the buy in to have a really nice car!
Chop it, drop it, candy paint it and cruise it. You older gentlemen can have it all stock, you were around when customs were a lot more common. I’m 51 and I would love to have a lead sled. This is the perfect car for that, but I can’t afford it and it’s half the country away. To each his own, make mine a custom.
I was around, all right — and I HATED hot rods even then, before this car was new!!! They ruined nearly every 1932 Ford coupe in existence!!! I hated to see all of the perfectly good older cars, chopped-up, “Frenched”, lowered, tops of hoods cut out for ridiculous carburation sticking up in the air (and of course the ubiquitous “moon” hubcaps, chopped roofs, blue dots, fuzzy dice, and other doo-dads — just to scream up the street at 115 m p.h in a 35 m.p.h. zone!!! I hated that scene then, and I hate it now. What I LIKE, is an unusually old car surviving just as it left the showroom, the kind that an 88-year-old man would drive — like a 1939 78 r.p.m. record in its original factory sleeve, which still looks and plays just as nicely as it did when brand new. And I hate it when people chop-up a perfectly good four-door sedan, simply as a parts car ro restore some coupe or convertible.
Again, sir, to each his own. I love all cars, stock, custom, race, it’s all about what the individual person wants their car, that they paid for, to be to fit their personalities. I would also love to own a bone stock 1968 Pontiac GTO, verdoro green with a parchment interior, but I’ll probably never find one I can afford.
These year Mercurys are hard to beat, especially a convertible. Sounds like much of mechanicals have been done. She’s a survivor, driver until one wants to replace the top, refresh the paint and tackle the interior. A refresh and preservation is a better path, IMO. In the mean time, you could just drive and enjoy her.
These are really nice riding and driving cars in stock form. Many are turned into low riders though.
Give it a cosmetic and mechanical restomod makeover. Stock looking body with nice wheels, new suspension and disc brakes, mild SBF/auto. just for dependable cruising. Mild upgrade to interior for comfort. Leave dash relatively stock looking. Perhaps dark gray metallic paint. Would be awesome.
No, PLEASE, Uncle Larry! If it is all there and all original, then RESTORE IT just that way, TOTALLY STOCK, as it was in 1951!!! I drove a 1946 Ford for 27 years, and it was fully able to navigate any modern road; though I will.admit that the original owner had the good sense to have it equipped with Columbia Overdrive, which allowed it to cruise all day at 70 m.p.h. on the Interstate, with its original 1946 100 h.p. flathead V-8. It wouldn’t “burn rubber”, but only a fool wants a car to do that. But I could drive it anywhere, and I did. I grew weary, quickly, of hand-signals in the rain, which other drivers ignored anyway, and so I located an original genuine Ford accessory turn-signal kit for the 1942-1948 Fords, and installed it. Problem solved. The turn signals would not automatically shut off the way that modern ones do; but when you have to shut them off manually, you remember to do so, whereas many of the automatic shut-off types are not always triggered and leave a driver roading for miles with the turn signal.flashing. That is not a problem, when you need to shut it off manually each time: you remember by habit to do so. I never had an issue with my drum brakes, because taking your foot off the gas with a manual shift is an automatic brake. If this car has Merc-O-Matic, then I could see front disc brakes. But I HATE AND OPPOSE RESTO-MODS AND RESTO-RODS, unless the originally-equipped car is beyond saving and restoring as it is. But this one is running and driving as originally-equipped. And these are very hardy cars, as well as simple to work on. If you take care of them according to their owner’s manual (including the drop of oil in the generator and fan bearings every few hundred miles), and you tend to the chassis and spring grease-fittings, one of these cars will run practically forever. And that oil bath air cleaner does a much better job than a rippled paper mesh filter! If you want what you would get from a 1995 American car, then buy a 1995 American car! But don’t ruin the originality of a survivor simply to have modern comforts! Buy it AS a 1951, then drive it just the way we did in 1951, 6 volts, tubed tyres, vacuum wipers and all!!! My 1946 had a manual choke, and I don’t know if these cars still were equipped that way in 1951. But it takes seconds to learn how to operate a manual choke. And if you have one, very few people will know how to start your car and have it keep running! My ’46 had a dead-bolt locking the steering column from turning when the car was shut off. Neither could you turn on the ignition switch. So you turned the key to release and disengage the dead-bolt. And then you flipped the ignition switch on. Next, you reached under the left side of the dash to the starter-button. You pulled the choke knob all the way out, pumped the accelerator pedal twice, then pressed the starter button to start the car. And it would start with a quite high idle, But if you did not soon begin easing the choke-knob gradually back in, the idle would quickly run roughly, and the mixture would run way too rich. But the knack of this is intuitive and easy to learn: you keep easing the choke knob in to keep the idle smooth, and soon you would have it all of the way in. Then you would depress the clutch, put that column shift into first gear, and begin driving away. At the appropriate points you would depress the clutch pedal and go to secind gear. And then, as you got it toward cruising speed, you would then go to third gear. NOTHING TO IT! Your Dad or grandfather did it automatically, without thinking. So did I. I had to think and dissect the process, to describe it to you here. But sit me in that 1951 Mercury, have me figure out where the controls are (as opposed to my ’46 Ford), and I will start and drive it and think nothing OF it. It’s like riding a bicycle: once you learn how, you can ride any bicycle on cue.
With all the old geezers dying off like flies because of a certain thing i cannot mention , who is left to drive this old jalopy ? The only way to get the younger generation to look at these is with all the upgraded protouring stuff and by then it’s way past their budget , not many can afford a $100000 loan for a car , while paying a mortgage, a big pick up and a car for the wife !
Where does this leave this big thing ?
To robt and your turn on an old country road: your problem wasnt the lack of seat belts; it was RECKLESS DRIVING! In close to ninety decades of life, I NEVER had an experience such as that behind the wheel!! SAFE SPEEDS exist for a REASON. One MORE reason that I hate hot-rods! Even as a teen-ager, I drove like a grandfather — not “slow”, but at a safe speed and careful at all times. I never had any desire to use an automobile as if I were at a drag strip. Roads are for driving safely at all times. What your story says to me is, had somebody been coming the other way when you had that experience, there would have been DEATH on that highway, seat belts or not!
To each their own Harrison.
I would not have considered my driving as reckless. You missed the whole point of my comment. I was surprised by a turn that was other than expected. I was driving on an empty road and could see there were no others coming from the other direction. Bottomline, had I been wearing a seat belt the experience would have been much less stressful.
Through your comments on this post it seems to me like you could stand to learn how to relax and not try to control all you survey.
Stay in your lane and I’ll stay in mine.
Ninety decades of life , you are a miracle living close to 900 years , no wonder you know so much !
NINE decades!!! Or, ninety Years!!! Sorry for the ridiculous typo — and I didn’t CATCH it!!! (I’m getting old…). I hope you-all got a laugh out of it, anyway, and don’t want to attack me with baseball bats!
It’s disappointing that there are only 4 pics of this Mercury 8 and it’s engine bay. Especially after having that beautiful flat head engine rebuilt. There are a few ways to go for the buyer to bring this beauty back. But ultimately, it’s up to the guy who shells out the time, money and labor to decide HOW that work will be done. The buyer isn’t doing all that to try and please everyone else.
Loose the aftermarket skirts.Car would look better with out them IMHO