There's a solid line between cutting up some sheetmetal and bolting on a bunch of miscellaneous components, and building a custom. All you need for the former is a garage full of random parts, a car to bolt them onto, and the tools to do the damage. Building a custom, however, takes a lot of imagination and a good eye to make sure the proportions are perfect and the parts that weren't originally designed for the car look as though they were.
When enthusiasts in the Southeast need somebody with that kind of imagination and eye, they go to auto upholsterer Jim Gilbert. When we covered the Goodguys Nashville Nationals last summer, we ran across a bunch of beautiful customs with Jim's handiwork in their interiors. One of our favorites happened to be Jim's own ride, this '53 Mercury Monterey convertible. And in this case, his talent and taste extend beyond the interior to every corner of the car.
Jim didn't have to look far to find the Merc. It was owned by one of his best friends, Kelly Puckett, who kept it completely stock. A couple of years after buying the car, Jim sold it back to Kelly, still in its original condition. After another couple of years had passed, Jim repurchased it, still untouched, and brought it home.
Kelly said he didn't care who built the car, but that it needed to be done. "There's always room for one more nice car," were his words. Finally determined to customize the Merc, Jim decided that a complete body-off buildup was needed to make sure the car didn't just look right, but was built right too.
With the car apart, Jim could upgrade the frontend with a '70 Nova subframe. He widened the core support 5 inches to accommodate the larger radiator from a '69 Chevy big-block and hand-fabricated a new floor structure, braces, and body supports from the firewall to the trunk. The doors were too far gone to rebuild, so a pair of N.O.S. doors from a '54 Ford post-car was modified for the convertible, with the door tops removed and finished with the tops from the original Mercury doors. The cast convertible top frame was chopped 2 1/2 inches. All of this before he even got to the almost-too-many-to-name cosmetic modifications he made to convert the former stocker into a more-than-mild custom.
Jim finished the project in two and a half years at a budget less than under $20,000. We saw it for the first time in the dark parking lot of a Nashville hotel. Even in the dark, we could see there was a lot to look at. That was confirmed the next day, when we tracked it down and found it to be "one more nice car."
Rod & Custom Feature Car
Jim Gilbert
Parkersburg, West Virginia
'53 Mercury Monterey Convertible
Chassis
A big-block '70 Nova subframe, including shocks, springs, and disc brakes, was added to the front of the original Mercury 'rails. In the back, a '75 Granada rear was added, along with a monoleaf spring from Durant Enterprises.
Drivetrain
Jim decided on a drivetrain package consisting of the popular 350/350/9-inch combination. The small-block engine is a 290hp GM crate motor running a single Edelbrock four-barrel and intake manifold and a pair of Springfield Street Rod two-piece chrome-plated valve covers. The '66 TH350 automatic is operated by a '63 Galaxie shifter. The 2.79-geared rearend comes from a '75 Granada.
Wheels & Tires
General Tire P205/70R15-series radials with 1-inch whitewalls were mounted on 15-inch solid disc wheels from The Wheelsmith, with '57 Cadillac wheel covers to add the final touch.
Body & Paint
If there is anything simple about this exterior, it's the paint. Jim shot the DuPont Chrysler Radiant Red, free of graphics, to let the body mods do the talking. The convertible top was chopped 2 1/2 inches, and the stock scoop was reduced and brought forward with a handmade grille. The frenched headlights match the '66 Pontiac Bonneville parking lights with modified bezels and handmade Plexiglas lenses. Jim molded the Plexiglas around a wooden bowl using a heat gun (burning five bowls in the process, his wife Connie confessed, but the finished product looks great). A '57 Chevy bumper was modified to match the contours of the Mercury hood and fenders and wrap around the '56 Chevy grille. The '56 Packard taillights, minus the backup lights, were a perfect addition in the rear. Jim narrowed the '48 Buick rear bumper and flattened it to fit flush with the quarter-panels. John Wright's Custom Chrome Plating in Grafton, Ohio, handled the chrome work.
Interior
By now you've figured out that Jim has a knack for building a custom, but it's on the inside where Jim's talent really shines, proved by the way he completely reimagined the Merc interior as a four-seat sports car. He replaced the homely stock dash with the flat dash from a '56 Packard, trimmed it to fit the cockpit, and filled it with Amega blackface gauges from Haneline. The steering wheel is '62 Cadillac modified with a Mercury head center cap. A '63 Thunderbird console was the starting point for a one-off hand-fabricated centerpiece, and the armrests are from a '57 Pontiac. Jim replaced the front bench with '65 T-bird buckets covered in tan vinyl stitched with 1-inch pleats. The stock rear seat was upholstered to match. The boot for the convertible top was made from the same material, and it matches the color of the top.