Every once in a while, a car not found in the wild deserves its moment in the spotlight. Just by virtue of this being a pre-war Mercury makes the case for special attention, but that is only amplified by the story this Mercury can tell. Or maybe the story its owner can tell.
This Mercury belongs to Wes, whom we met a while back. When Todd and I arrived at Wes’s (here’s how I met Todd), I certainly wasn’t anticipating being greeted with a 1940 Mercury convertible. That alone is certainly capable of capturing ones attention. To be further amazed about such a terrific car by learning he’s owned it since 1968 certainly enhances the experience. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Ford introduced the Mercury brand in 1939. While Edsel Ford had realized the need for such a car for quite some time, Henry Ford was being his obstinate, bull-headed self by refusing to entertain the concept. He finally relented; perhaps part of his agreement was due to both General Motors and Chrysler Corporation having an intermediate priced brand.
Sitting on a wheelbase of 116″, four inches longer than found on a Ford, the Mercury helped plug the gap between Ford and the Lincoln Zephyr. Strategically priced between Pontiac and Oldsmobile, the Mercury brand sold 75,000 units in 1939 and climbed to over 81,000 for 1940. During its early years Mercury was usually in about 12th place in the sales race, with many of these sales being new market share for Ford Motor Company.
Motivation was by a version of Ford’s flathead V8 having the same stroke as the Ford engine but bored out to 239 cubic inches (3.9 liters) of displacement. Cranking out 95 horsepower, a Mercury was good for 100 mph, which was quite a feat for this era.
The primary selling points for Mercury were having a bit more room and power for a modest increase in price. Mercury was an early adopter was using a column mounted gearshift for its three-speed manual transmission, allowing valuable interior real estate to be utilized.
For its sophomore year of 1940, Mercury offered a variety of sedans, coupes, and convertibles. This year would also see the one-year only four-door convertible. With the declining popularity of the four-door convertible, it’s hard to understand why it ever saw the light of day. Mercury sold only 1,100 of them.
The two-door convertible, like what Wes has, would be around for another thirty years.
When we arrived, Wes had been in the midst of installing turn signals on his Mercury. Realizing he hadn’t been driving the car very much the last few years, he was anxious to get it ready for more regular active duty.
The phrase “active duty” was very apt when Wes began telling the story of his Mercury. After graduating from the University of Missouri – Rolla, Wes took a job with a petroleum company. Soon after he went to work he found this Mercury for sale somewhere in Arkansas, although it wasn’t Booger Hollow. For the princely sum of $350, Wes was soon motoring around at a faster clip than his 1929 Ford Model A ever allowed.
This didn’t last long. Uncle Sam soon tracked Wes down to give him experience in the United States Army. He would later be assigned to a tank company in Viet Nam.
When telling the story about his Mercury, Wes said he had paid JC Whitney all of $29 for the top. He suspicioned buying one now could cost much more should one even be available.
Wes added the seat covers were purchased at the same time and are just now starting to show a little wear. He figured that wasn’t too bad considering he’s put another 100,000 miles on this Mercury during his ownership.
Where was Wes when he filled out the order form to make this long-ago JC Whitney order? Sitting inside his tank, not far from the front line. At around the same time he also bought a two-speed rear-end for the Mercury. He said some guy had an ad in the back of a magazine and he guesses the vendor did a good job as it still works great.
One of the things we often ponder about around here is what the original owner was thinking when purchasing or ordering their car. This is one of the few instances when such questions can be answered as Wes has spoken to the original owner.
This Mercury was initially purchased by a loving father who wanted to fulfill his daughter’s wish of going away to college in a yellow convertible.
However, despite Mercury having eight different colors available in 1940, none of them were yellow. In order for his daughter to realize this dream, there was only one thing to do…
Take an available car, in this case dark blue, and paint it yellow. At some point prior to 1968 the car was painted black. Wes performed this bit of automotive archeology on the drivers door jamb after talking to the young lady who first had this Mercury.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xf0-Nta4mQc
Like all of Wes’s cars, the engine starts nearly as quickly as the starter motor engages. There is nothing quite like the sound of a flathead Ford V8 – or, in some cases, the lack of sound. This video of a 1953 Ford flathead V8 will give you a good idea of what Wes’s sounds like.
Wes knows keeping these engines cool can be their Achilles heel, so he has installed a larger capacity truck radiator and performed a few other modifications. The old flathead now stays as cool as a polar bears paw in January.
In 1940, Mercury was a new brand, searching to find its ultimate niche in the market. By the end of Mercury’s run in the 21st Century, one might say this niche was never found and the potential of the brand was never fully realized. As a Mercury fan that is a tough pill filled full of potent realism. Regardless of the outcome, it is fun to look back to a time when Mercury was fresh and vibrant to imagine what would be and what might have been.
Love it.
Wow. What a car and what a story!
+1!
Thanks Wes for sharing your stories with Jason. Thanks Jason for your excellent write up!
You could say, though, that in the end, Henry Ford was right – you don’t need multiple ‘ premium’ brands – just one big old strong one covering all the bases – FORD.
A more cohesive shape than the Zephyr, and patinated black is perfect for those curves. ‘Two-speed rear-end’ – does that mean the diff works like a gearbox with a driver-actuated shifter?
Correct. Road tractors have benefited from them over time plus these older cars with low gearing. When I started elementary school in the late 70s, the Chevrolet bus I rode had one.
Cheers Jason. As ever, your humanity shines through in this piece.
Ford started offering 2 speed Columbia rear ends in 1934 as option. It worked like an overdrive planetary gear transmission. It had a vacuum-controlled canister that was mounted to the differential.
What a great story. When cars get this old, there is just no one around who remembers the cars in their youthful glory. Thanks for passing this story on.
I am impressed with the quality of the JCWhitney parts. It must have been hit or miss but two hits here. The 2 speed diff makes it have 6 forward ratios on the 3sp?
Great submission, thanks for sharing.
The car is gorgeous, especially in black. If only Edsel lived longer . . .
Fabulous! The Mercury may have been the most beautiful and perfectly proportioned car of 1940, a year with many lookers. Then to find one that has lived so long in a more or less original state, this makes my day.
I recall reading that the 2 speed axle was a fairly common installation on that era’s Fords. OD was never a factory offering and the rear axle conversion did not require messing with the torque tube.
I am not a fan of bumper stickers on old cars, but if I had one on my bumper, one from a place called Booger Hollow would be better than most.
Agreed on these being such a terrific design. Peak Ford.
So much to love about this piece, and super-informative. Wes is the man. Pretty incredible to consider the history of this 3/4 century old car can be traced back to its inception. The first owner must have had some $$$, given it was 1940, he was buying a new convertible for his daughter, and *she* was going to college…in 1940. Love the simple, expressive lines of this car. Thanks for (again) pulling out all the stops for another great read, Jason.
Not only did the original purchaser buy his daughter a new convertible, it was a mid-priced brand, and he promptly had it repainted too.
As everyone else has said, thanks for sharing this. A well written piece about a well preserved car.
It appears that the phenomenon of the well off college student with a very nice brand new car isn’t so new after all.
Back then I’d guess that the average college student was from a much higher income family (adjusted for inflation) than now, as a college education was a prerequisite for far fewer jobs. It was, in many regards, a luxury for those who did not have the economic need to go straight to work.
FoMoCo late-1939 promo shoot, football/campus-themed:
The sad fact is that if Henry Ford came back to life today and tried to get a job in the company that he founded, he would likely not be hired because he would not have the educational credits that are now required. Hard to believe.
Fine closeup pictures. Shows clearly how different the ’39-40 Merc was from the Ford. Every curve was smoother and more ‘organic’.
The company’s drawings in ads blurred the difference for some stupid reason, and the similar grilles also fuzzed out the distinction. Seems like a waste of design and tooling money!
What a great find. Ford products from the late 1930s are very attractive, a testimony to the ability and good taste of Edsel Ford and Bob Gregorie.
Initially Edsel Ford called the car the “Ford-Mercury,” probably as a way to get it past his father. The earliest cars shown to the dealers even had the “Ford-Mercury” name on the hub caps and hood.
Gregorie told him that this was a bad idea, but it wasn’t until the dealers were all over Edsel about it at the first roll-out of the car that he relented and simply called it Mercury.
Great to see an original, unmolested example. So many ’40 Merc’s are modified that some think that a stock coupe is a custom design.
These essays that blend the history of a particular car with the overall history of the make and model are among my favorite CC contributions. A terrific blend of information, pictures, video and historical information.
Interesting to look at the bumpers on this era of car. They appear to be on springs, and look to be sacrificial in protecting the overall body work. AMC sort of reintroduced this look on some of its mid 1970’s cars, and I thought it was among the better approaches to government bumper “bump” standards.
The later incorporation of the bumpers into the body with some cars having very skinny and light bumpers – the ’65 Mustang is a good example – were undoubtedly the source of much well intended but misdirected concern by our Federal regulators.
Thanks to Wes for sharing his car and his service to his country.
With bumpers like that and cars breaking a lot more and getting stuck a lot more people thought nothing of pushing one car with another.
I thought that unlike GM, Ford didn’t have much in the way of a styling department. But Ford products of the 30’s are consistently beautiful.
About the top – I have no idea, but if original patterns are around you should be able to get someone somewhere to sew up a replacement. And there are probably a relatively high number of cars of this type around so there must be some demand. Doesn’t take tooling like a body or trim part. Just the right materials and a sewing machine.
I’m guessing that this car is worth some major bucks.
I don’t think you would say they were on springs, but I think the whole lot had some ‘give’ including the bumpers themselves too. Earlier bumpers looked a lot more ‘springy’.
Thanks Jason for a wonderful story about a beautiful car. I was born in 1956, so I came of automotive age after the Mercury performance heyday, despite some forays in NASCAR, NHRA and SCCA, and the swan song Maurauder. Still, as a kid, the ’40 Mercury coupe and of course the ’49 Mercury had iconic status. Slant back windows were memorable also; less so, the Mystique and Australian Capri. Even today, I enjoy listening to “Mercury Blues”. Here’s my current favorite rendition http://youtu.be/zVHsIqx2TxE
I went back and re-read Jason’s story again, including clicking on the “Facts and Features document. As I read about the colors, specifically the two grays offered, I had a sudden, vivid image of the first ’40 Mercury I remember seeing. I must have been about 6 years old (1962-63) and it was parked at the end of our block. ’40 Fords weren’t uncommon then, at least in the Hot Rod magazines at the drug store, and even occasionally on the street, so I knew what those looked like. But this car was similar to the Ford – but different. Two door, and gray. So I did a quick Google search and found this site about Mercury promo models, which shows models in all the colors. Folkestone Gray, a very distinctive shade. I can see that car as clearly now as 50 years ago! Thanks Jason for helping to dislodge that memory. http://azgaycar.com/mercury-1939-1979-the-silent-innovator-of-promotional-models/
My folks were lucky that I wasn’t born 1st, instead of my sister. From looking at that promo write-up they would have been drowning in Post Toasties. As it was, my Mom HAD to buy dozens of boxes of Post Rice Krinkles while I amassed a fleet of 58 T-birds.
Thank you! I’m glad I could help dislodge that from your memory banks.
The first car that I bought with my own money was a Mercury….a yellow 68 Cyclone, so I really relate to this story.
I agree with others here that Ford’s designers were on a roll in the 30s, culminating in the 39 and 40 models.
And all this time I thought JC Whitney parts were “2nd rate”. As the top and seat covers on this beauty show, they were definitely NOT 2nd rate.
What a lovely car and great back story .
-Nate
A beautiful car, one that shows the purity of the original design, and one that wears its years and miles as a badge of honor. It’s also wonderful to hear the original story of a car like this. The “automotive archaeology” is very cool too– a visual confirmation of the remembered order of things.
I wish that the Marauder convertible that made the auto show circuit in the early 00’s could have actually seen production. This car, and that never-produced convertible, would have made wonderful bookends for the Mercury brand.
I bet this car’s good looks were a major factor for the original owner. Instead of a yellow Buick or a yellow Packard, she got a blue Mercury and painted it yellow? If I owned this car, I would be tempted to sacrifice the patina and repaint it yellow. Great post BTW!
One more cool FoMoCo pic (Oct. 1939):
Great car and equally great history on it. How many people have owned a car purchased when it was 28 years old, owned it for 47 years and had the opportunity to get it’s history from the original owner as well?
We need some pix of 1940 Mercury Coupes ~ they’re real standouts , much more so than the beautiful 1940 Ford Coupe .
A few years ago I was driving across Washington Blvd. and a battered old 1940 Mercury Coupe in green pulled out of a side street , it was a real survivor , like this wonderful Rag Top , it was rougher though and had all mis matched bias ply tires on it , one was a 4″ wide white wall . two *very* Elderly people in it , a Man and presumably his Wife .
-Nate
Its great to read about a nicely-preserved, long-held pre-war car, would that there were more of them, thanks.
The four door convertible sedan got bumped up to the mid-priced Mercury from the 1935-1939 Ford Deluxe where it had been among the most expensive styles offered along with the station wagon. The published production numbers for U.S. sales was 979 units; 1,083 including worldwide markets. Always among the highest-priced, lowest production of all body styles, the four door convertible sedan was in its last years then until the hand-built 1949-51 Kaiser and Frazer models and the elegant 1961-67 Lincoln Continentals.
I am assuming the tick noise I hear in the vid is an exhuast leak. I have ressurected a couple of old Ford flathead V-8’s from the dead. One was in a 1932 BB model 1-ton truck. That thing idled soooo smoothly, even down to 200 RPM’s. i swear I could have balanced a nickel on that block whle it was idling!
I’m interested in your 1940 Mercury Convertible Coupe.
What is your asking price?
I didn’t see it posted anywhere.
My Ph. #1-(650)201-0021
Thank you,
Bob