This find discovered by our own Josh is for those of you that say we’ve gotten soft–that we don’t feature enough “dirty old cars in barns.” It’s located in a barn in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and is up for sale here on eBay, where the buy it now is $2,900 but the seller is “open to reasonable offers”. And it’s pretty dirty and old!
As is common with “real” barn finds like this, we don’t have good pictures or know much about the vehicle either. I’m guessing someone started to create a custom car at some point and got as far as removing most of the trim and lights. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) they stopped there. The seller apparently knows very little about the car.
It looks like at least 1/2 the windshield is gone, and there’s really no telling about side windows as well. The rear window looks okay but we don’t know if there are cracks under all that dirt. It’s also really hard to tell about body condition as well, especially floors and rockers. I would want to see some more pictures before making any kind of a bid.
This picture, however, tells us a lot–and it’s not great. For one thing, you can see a rusty rocker panel. Oh, and that’s a transmission sitting in the driver’s seat. By the way (and the seller confirms this) there’s no dash. No door latches or handles either. And it’s a sedan. Oh, and I forgot to mention there’s no title. So–these are pretty common things when you find a real barn find. However–perhaps you have a long lost love of a particular 1949 Mercury. Maybe it was dark blue. Maybe, just maybe, you’re willing to disassemble the frozen Mercury flathead V8 that’s under the hood and coax it into life again. Perhaps you just have a thing about rescuing barn finds? Is this your long-lost Mercury?
What’s scrap metal going for these days…??
Hi Birdman, apparently, it doesn’t pay for the fuel it takes to get it there.
Good heavens. When I restored my ’50 Packard, I had 4 parts cars, and I junked better cars than this. Parts car.
Looks like a lot of “parts” are already gone. Not even worth scrapping, and that’s a shame; I really dig the Mercs from this era.
What (3) thumbs down? What would YOU do with this hulk? Seriously ( crickets chirping) Uh huh, I thought so.
There seems to be a few people that visit the site that ALWAYS leave a thumbs down. Don’t let it bother you.
Brings back some good, bad and ugly memories of our family hauler – the Canadian cousin – ’49 Monarch, blue with a timely “What’s behind the Green Door”
Younger and a whole lot dumber than now, I was cutting the rear shackles to put 2 1/2″ lowering blocks in; the shackles wouldn’t budge so I got a “bigger hammer” so to speak and twisted them off only to have the car neatly drop over my head and shoulders. My buddys were sitting in a ’32 Ford Vicky drinking some good old Canadian Club and came to my rescue by lifting the rear quarter off me – I’m sure their adrenalin was pumped! All I suffered was a barked shin.
Now guys remember – safety first, don’t jack(ass) your car from the pumpkin when you plan to cut the shackles!
The follow-on, I got to the front end – reversed the spindles and torched them to re-set the camber dropped about 1 1/2″ – not enough so I cut 1 1/2 coils from the springs. Wheels would jamb against the frame at full-lock; car couldn’t clear a 2 X 4 on edge. Dropped a tri-powered 312 from a wrecked T-bird into it and traded it to my twin bro for a ’40 Merc Cvt with flathead from an Egyptian WW 2 tank bored and stroked to 296 ci. Another story for the grand-kids
Hi Sunbeamdon. I’ve got a restored 49 Monarch 4door in my garage. Bought in 77 and on the road by 82. Now its a driver with lots of little road bruises. But I would love to have this hulk. That tranny on the seat could be an overdrive, the panels all look straight and I’ll bet all the stripped off stuff is boxed up nearby. Price is stupid high for this junker though.
I would like to know what is missing before I would be tempted to make a bid. I don’t have a problem with something partially stripped as long as the parts are there. Missing parts are often hard to find.
Hi geomechs, I think it would be easier to tell what’s remaining.
If I were interested, I would assume that all that is left useable is what you see and that isn’t that great. I would assume everything else is going to be roached. THEN if I went to see it I could be pleasantly surprised at anything that did turn out good. Would have to have quite a bit of cash on hand for the rebuild before considering this one. Not going to be easy to make anything other than lawn art.
Hi Lion: this one would be more interesting if it was the two-door version!
Yeah, the great old James Dean car. I lost out on three restorable 49 – 51 2doors before I came across my Monarch on a hardware store parking lot and left a note under the wiper.. But at shows I get a lot of oohs and ahs over the suicide rear doors on my sedan. And I drove 51 Mercs and Monarchs in highschool and this 49 was as close as I came to my teenage ride.
I’d happily take that 49 if I had the dough.
Bob