1950 Mecury Custom - Barrett - Jackson Auction - Mec1950

Summary: Originally chopped and customized by the late Dick Dean, the hall of fame custom builder known as "the man behind Barris" and "the sultan of chop." Less than 1,000 careful miles on a complete, 2,000 man hour restoration. Tons of modern upgrades.

Details: The 1950 Mercury known as Wasabi. Originally chopped and customized by the late Dick Dean, the hall of fame custom builder known as "the man behind Barris" and "the sultan of chop." He worked for Barris from the early 60's off and on until his retirement 6 years ago. In 2005 this car underwent a complete show quality 2 year restoration with over 2,000 man hours and over $140,000 spent.

The Merc was stripped to bare metal to uncover the body with no patch panels. All of Dean's modifications were left intact but all of the bodywork and gaps were massaged. The paint is a custom mix by Johnny Vegas in a PPG 5 stage Candy Pearl called Wasabi.

Custom pearl interior was expertly stitched. Powered by a 383cid stroker backed by a 700R4 automatic overdrive transmission. Modern amenities include power steering, power disc brakes, Vintage Air, tilt wheel and amazing sound system with navigation. There is even a backup camera when you put her in reverse.

The suspension was completely gone through and was upgraded to an Air Ride Technologies Level Pro system. It rolls on custom billet aluminum rims designed to replicate a 1957 Cadillac hubcap. Less than 1,000 careful miles since completion. This car was sponsored by Meguiars in 2008 in their SEMA show booth. It was also awarded the PPG dream car award at the goodguys southwest national last november 2010.

Designs By H. J. Nick and Scottsdale Art Factory a handmade in America custom furniture manufacturer and museum - collector quality restorer based in Scottsdale Arizona has been designing, building and restoring some of the worlds finest antiques and restomods for some of the world's finest designers with ordinary clients as well as most prominent and successful Persons,C.E.O.'s, leaders, royalty and celebrities for the last 97 years. Most of our clients want a furnishing or restoration that has a BIG WOW factor as well as elegance. All want investment value and artifacts that makes a proper statement reflecting their personality or the personality of the environment for witch it is intended.

To renovate a item without updating or upgrading it by keeping in line with how it would have appeared when first offered for sale. Non factory paint codes and even paint schemes, interior and chrome trim of the time period may be used if they were commonly shared between similar models of the era so as to look the part. Many restored cars may lose their original engines and have a similar capacity or model related engine installed or A coke machine may have a up graded compressor and fans etc..

A complete restoration includes not only repair of the parts that can be seen – the body, the trim, the chrome, the wheels, and accessories – but the parts that are not necessarily visible or otherwise evident, including the motor or engine and the compartment, the trunk or inside and under, the frame, the mecanicals, and all ancillary parts like the brakes, accessories, engine cooling system, electrical system, etc.

Besides repairs done to correct obvious problems, repairs are also done for cosmetic reasons. For example, even if a wheel is covered by a hub cap and not seen, and is structurally sound, it should have the tire unmounted, then any required repairs such as rust removal, straightening, priming and painting.

Restoration is sometimes confused with the term "restomod." A restomod places some portions of the car as they were when the car was first offered for sale, and changes (updates) others. If any part of the car is updated, the car has been "restomodded," and not restored.

An "original restoration" puts a car in the same condition as when it was first offered for sale. Many antique and rare cars may not be able to have a true to original restoration done because some parts may not be available to replace or to imitate fully, yet with the proper research, they may be restored to an overall authentic condition.

A complete auto restoration could include total removal of the body, engine, drive-line components and related parts from the car, total disassembly, cleaning and repairing of each of the major parts and its components, replacing broken, damaged or worn parts and complete re-assembly and testing. As part of the restoration, each part must be thoroughly examined, cleaned and repaired, or if repair of the individual part would be too costly, replaced (assuming correct, quality parts are available) as necessary to return the entire automobile to "as first sold" condition.

All of the parts showing wear or damage that were originally painted are typically stripped of old paint, with any rust or rust related damage repaired, dents and ripples removed and then the metal refinished, primed and painted with colors to match the original factory colors.

Wooden parts should go through the same meticulous inspection and repair process with reglueing, replacement of rotted or termite-damaged wood, sealing and refinishing to match the factory specifications. Chrome and trim may require stripping and repair/refinishing. Fasteners with tool marks, damaged threads, or corrosion need re-plating or replacement-unless the car was originally sold that way.

The frame must be thoroughly cleaned and repaired if necessary. Often sandblasting of the frame is the most expeditious method of cleaning. The frame must be properly coated to match the original.

The interior of the car should be examined and repaired/replaced to match those that were available from the factory. The seats must be repaired before being re-upholstered and the coil springs repaired, replaced or retied. The instrument panel, or dash board contains a number of gauges, each of which have to be inspected and cleaned/repaired/replaced to be brought back to both operational and cosmetic standards of the car when it was first sold.

Before and After In a complete restoration, the repair and refinishing of the car's body and frame must again go through the careful inspection and subsequent repair,and re-coating as necessary to bring the car to as first sold condition.

As part of the automotive restoration process, repair of the car's frame is important since in serves as the foundation for the entire car. The frame should be inspected for straightness, twisting, alignment, rust damage, and condition of the mounting points for the body, suspension, and other components. Any problems must be repaired, which can be a costly process.

For many popular cars, replacement frames can be purchased from parts suppliers specializing in that make of vehicle. This is often a better option than investing money into a severely damaged frame. Depending on the frame construction, mud and water can make their way inside the frame and cause rusting from the inside out, so it can be seriously weakened with little or no external sign. This, and the fact that many replacement chassis/frames are galvanized, provides sound additional reasons to consider a replacement frame.

If rust is present on a body panel, the panel was damaged by a collision, or other damage is present, there are several options for repair: fix the damaged panel (minor damage), replacement (excessively damaged panels), or cutting out and replacing a portion of the panel (moderate damage - for many makes of vintage car, small partial patch panels are available and designed to be welded into place after the damaged portions are cut out).

Although, this may seem simple in principle, in practice it is highly skilled work. One of the highest skills in restoration is the use of the English Wheel or Wheeling Machine. Many panels, (especially if from different sources), may be a problem to fit together and need reshaping to fit properly. Variation in panel size and shape and 'fettling' by skilled metalworkers on the factory production line to make panels fit well, used to be common practice, especially with British and Italian sports cars. Even genuine New Old Stock factory panels may require panel beating skills to fit.

The re-installation of the repaired or renewed panels requires that the panels be trial fitted and aligned, to check their fit, that their shape 'flows' and the gaps between panels are correct. Consistent gaps are very important to a quality finish.

The doors, hood, and trunk should open and close properly, and there should be no interference or rubbing. Steel or aluminum door skins and wing/fender edges can be generally be adjusted with a hammer and dolly, in extreme cases a pulsed MIG weld bead on a panel edge, that is shaped with a grinder, can be good solution. At one time it was common practice to use lead loading to achieve tight panel gaps, especially in the coach-building business, but also on the production line. The panels have to 'look right' together. This is a process of repeated adjustment, because the adjustment of one panel often affects the apparent fit of another. If there are multiple styling lines on the side of a car, it is generally best to align doors on the most prominent one.

When we are satisfied with the panels on the car, they will be primed and painted a correct historical color for the vehicle (although this is debatable - the owner might want to have the car painted to look like a particular specialty vehicle such as a police car, or a delivery van painted to look like it would have in grandfather's company colors, etc.)

Individual painting of the panels is generally the correct approach, as this will result in all parts of the panel being painted as opposed to partially re-assembling and then painting, leaving parts of the assembly that are touching or "blind" unpainted. It is useful to mark in some way, if possible, where the panels fit before removal for painting, to aid re-fitting. The separate painting approach should also result in no over-spray on other parts of the since they will not be on the car at that point.

It is important when re-assembling painted panels, to be aware that the paint is at its thinnest, and most easily damaged, on corners, edges, and raised styling lines, and to take extra care with them. This is also important when using ultra fine wet flatting paper before polishing, (or when using an electric polishing mop) for the best mirror like finish.

Colors and treatments applied to the panels, from the factory should be considered. A car's owner may wish to have a panel or portion of the car entirely painted when in fact it may have come from the factory with undercoating or other coating applied to one side, which may be less attractive than a smoothly finished and painted panel.

In other cases, the owner might paint or plate a collection of small parts to look similar for a better appearance, when the factory might have installed these as many different colors since the factory's prime concern was function and not appearance. This makes the car a "Restomod", and not a restoration.

The entire engine and all related systems are inspected and what ever is necessary to get them into original pre-sale condition is done. The engine and all of the ancillary components – starter, generator/alternator, radiator, distributor, carburetor and all others – must be inspected and corrected to factory specifications.

The engine itself, plus the transmission, clutch, overdrive unit and even the drive-shaft must be meticulously inspected, cleaned and measured for wear. This will show up as deviation from original factory specifications. All of the parts – block, crankcase, head, transmission housing, etc. – should be inspected for cracks or other damage.

All moving parts – pistons, crankshaft, camshaft, oil pump, bearing and bushings, flywheel, water pump and all others – must be cleaned and measured against factory specifications and, if necessary, machined or re-manufactured to bring them within specifications.

The same goes for the transmission, clutch, differential and all other moving parts of the power line and drive line. All of the electrical system has to be inspected and, if it shows wear or damage, replaced. Then the entire engine/drive-line will have to be reassembled, replacing all worn bearing and bushings, seals, gaskets, belts and gears.

Reassembly Finally, the engine/driveline has to be re-installed in the frame, the brakes, wheels and other parts re-installed, the body fitted to the frame and the entire car rechecked and tested.

Restoration of a car is a daunting task, not one to be undertaken lightly, or by the inexperienced. A full restoration can take many years by some individuals and can cost tens of thousands of dollars; often, and generally, well in excess of what the finished value of the car will be. At Artfactory.com we get this job done in the fastest amount of time. Most can be done in less than 95 work days.

There are different levels of automotive repair and restoration. The highest quality level, (generally unobtainable for the amateur restorer,) is the Concours d'Elegance level; these are cars that are frequently restomoded to a degree often beyond the quality that they were when they left the factory.

There are virtually no deficiencies in the quality of the parts that were actually restored. Those parts that did not come on the car as it was first sold must have the highest level of fit and finish, and appear to have been original parts. Many Concours d'Elegance cars are not driven except for the short distances from their trailers to the show field.

Only when a car is completely placed back into the condition it was first sold in is it considered to be restored. Various aspect of a car may be repaired without the car being restored. A car that does not run can be repaired to running condition, but that simply means it will now run and does not mean that any part of the car has been restored.

Automotive Restoration means that the car was put back into the condition it was first sold as. Anything else is either repair, or restomod. Between these two extremes are the vast bulk of cars that are seen as drivers, neighborhood show cars, 20-footers (they look great from 20 feet away). Many value guides offer six levels of quality, from a ‘parts-only’ car to a Number 1- absolutely perfect in every way.