Monterey Cruiser!

MONTEREY CRUISER
I was way out on the North Fork of Long Island shopping for something BBQ related when I saw this car pull into the lot. Take as many spaces as you want partner!

This is a 1955 Mercury Monterey in Tuxedo Black. Incidentally the colors offered by Mercury in '55 are some of the most beautiful in automotive history. Persimmon, Lime, Tropic Blue; check these out!

Just look at the stage presence this thing has.

The Monterey was introduced in 1952 as the top of the line offering from Mercury, and remained that way for 3 years. In '55 the Montclair was the name given to the top trim level while Monterey was relegated to mid-tier status. Even the lowest end Custom had plenty of class though. 

The '52-'54 look wasn't terribly different from this ride except that the headlights extended out from the fenders as opposed to being recessed, and the grill was a touch simplified though the same in overall shape. The biggest difference was the flat windshield of the older cars as the wrap-around was unveiled in 1955.

This thing is immaculate at first glance! Even the jewelry remains pit-free and fresh. Dig that stylized hood ornament heralding the Jet Age.

These headlights look more than a little like those of the Packard Caribbean of the same year. In fact several major styling cues are found on both cars that I suppose are a 1950s coincidence.

When you look a little closer you start to see that things are repaired in the driveway as the need arises. The bumpers are spray painted a shiny silver and there are screws holding some of the trim in place. However, if this is a daily driver (which it looks like it is) then how can you possibly fault the owner for patching it up however he wants? He's the one with the '55 Merc not you!

I saw this guy run into the shop to grab some stuff, leaving the windows down. He gave me enthusiastic permission when I asked if he minded that I snap a bunch of pics. Thanks dude!

This design only lasted for 2 years; 1955 and '56. In '57 the dimensions grew a great deal and the Monterey gained a small ocean in chrome. This era suits me just fine with enough glamour to know it's a higher-end car but not in gaudy amounts.

A new motor was introduced this year only to be replaced a year later! The 292 V8 Y-block engine used in the Thunderbird powers this beast. The years previous had a Flathead and the 5.1 Liter 312 V8 took over starting in '56.

Inside is much like the outside; striking and beautiful with only slight deviations from perfection to be found. He added a stereo but thankfully left the original tube powered Bendix intact. Gauges were added below the dash which have to be more reliable than the ancient ones in the speedo cluster. There are more options on display here too; the clock is one, as is the Merc-O-Matic 3 speed transmission. The latter brought with it an increase in horsepower when chosen. This is very similar to the Ford-O-Matic transmission but that was only a 2 speed.

The fuzzy dice and Confederate flag have to go!

Look at the ornate shape of these rear bumpers! This is car design as architecture.

MERCURY spelled out in the bumper center is awesome. Those exhaust tips are period correct aftermarket glitz.

Stuffed animals and fuzzy dice bum me out to an irrational degree, but try to go to a car show without drowning in both. Stuffed animals that get tied up to the fronts of garbage and delivery trucks amuse me to no end, but toss one on the dash and I'm somehow triggered.

That's the most honest taillight lens you're likely to see. 61 years of use has left it cracked and crazed but it's still doing the job. Those reverse lights are worth noting too as they are some of the first available. These might automatically light up but earlier models (and possibly these too) only lit when the headlights were on already. Reverse lights aren't required to pass NYS inspection if your car is from 1968 or older. My '63 Beetle had none from the factory!

This was the perfect sort of day to show off a shiny black car.

The Monterey continued without pause through the 1974 model year. Unfortunately at the end it was a bloated colossus that looked like a slightly larger LTD. It was the only Mercury model to be built in every year of the '60s.

Wide white walls and perfect Mercury hubcaps are doing their part to class up the joint. Ads of the day bragged about the silent driving experience of every Mercury.

Well there we have it; a well loved and well used example of a classic car that's not afraid to go to the store to pick up supplies. I love the idea of the owner living life out on the end of Long Island driving a '55 Merc around! These cars really are simple and easy to maintain. If you don't mind checking fluids, greasing up the chassis (easier than it sounds), changing filters, and driving at a measured pace you can certainly use this as your main transportation. Driving a classic daily is the best thing you can do for it as sitting dormant lets things seize up, dry out, and crack.

Happy motoring, Long Island Mercury Guy!

Show Car Sunday returns with The Classiest Roadster You Will See All Day

DROP DEAD GORGEOUS DROP TOP

You really never know what you're going to get in this city. Somewhere out on the warehousey edge of Greenpoint and Queens sat this stunning little lady right here:

This is a 1955-1958 Mercedes Benz 190SL convertible with the optional removable hardtop. If this is close to the original color it was listed in the charts as Weiß (white in German), while the hardtop is Feuerrot (Fire Red). This is about as classy as a car can get!

From this peek inside the interior we can see it's pretty well equipped with the original Becker radio in the dash and a Kienzle clock mounted on the glove compartment door. The seats are out which makes sense as this seems to be going through a complete restoration.

In 1959 the hardtop window was enlarged from this size to a full wrap-around version which helps us to round down the year. The 190SL was introduced in 1955 and was built for 8 years with very little in the way of changes. These were meant to be the more manageable little sibling to the larger 300SL (which of course includes the famous Gullwing). Where the 300 series had a big straight six these had a smaller 4 cylinder.

The color matching hubcaps lend to the class on this sweet little ride.

While the mighty 300SL gets the multi-million dollar auction money these smaller cars are starting to catch up quick. In 2014 one of these sold at Sotheby's for a cool $341,000! Regardless, here it was parked amidst minivans and Mustangs above the oil slick that is Eastern Greenpoint. Glad I found it when I did!

Twofer Tuesday returns with back-to-back episodes of Mr. Belvedere!

BELVEDERE VS BELVEDERE

Finding just one of these cars was plenty exciting for me, but finding another was just crazy! Without further ado I present 2 1955 Plymouth Belvederes:

This first one is a bit of a beater, but it was sporting current plates and valid registration & inspection stickers so I suppose it's mobile. Unfortunately the hood looks to have been used as a surface for laying something down that needed to be spray painted black. That's just lazy! Wasn't there a piece of cardboard or newspaper around? You HAD to use the hood of a 60 year old car wearing its original paint? And what's with the drivers side headlight getting a blast of black paint too? Animals!

 Regardless this is a '55 wearing at least some of its original Miami Blue paint. I encountered this up in a quiet corner of Astoria that was fully stocked with parked classics. Sometimes you pass a rockabilly loft with several cool Kustoms, other times there are a couple of body shops near each other resulting in a bevy of old rides being scattered about. I think this was a combination of the two.

Belvedere in script makes for a quick identification on this ride. Plymouth had 3 trim levels in '55, with the Belvedere being the top of the heap. Below this was the mid-level Savoy and the truly spartan Plaza. The trim levels were all named after famous hotels while the color choices are all named after towns in both Florida and California (some color examples are Biscayne Blue, Glades Green, Palm Beach Gray, Mohave Brown, Santa Rosa Coral, and San Diego Gold). The forward-leaning front announces the fact that this is the first example of legendary designer Virgil Exners Forward Look. The spare tire from a modern car? At least it's keeping it off the ground.

Oh, ok, here is a perfect example of why Bondo should be practiced on a junkyard car first by the amateur. I don't know the level of rust that this is hiding but it looks like paper mache now! I do love the fuel filler door with the airplane motif.

This is pretty plain-as-day for a Belvedere. The fact that the chrome spear on the side is an unbroken horizontal line means that this is a one-tone car. If there was an optional PowerFlite automatic transmission in this car it would've been announced in chrome script on the right side of the trunk lid so I think this has the standard Syncro Silent trans. The gearshift for '55 was a one-year-only setup where a small chrome shifter came right out of the dash. The next year they would change that over to the fabled push button transmission.

Basic, but well proportioned is how I would describe the '55 Plymouths. They are notably restrained compared to the gaudiness of other domestic cars of the day.

One last detail to point out on this ride; that free-standing chrome emblem on the front of the hood between the ornament and the grill is horizontal. This means that this car was equipped with the PowerFlow 6 cylinder engine. If it was built with the Hy-Fire V-8 that emblem would be in a V shape (like the one below). The spelling for both of those engines is exactly how it was written in their brochure by the way. Now on to a nicer example!

Alright now we're talking! This, too, is a '55 Belvedere but this one has the aforementioned V8 as announced by the hood emblem. I encountered this sweet ride in the Kensington/Borough Park area of Brooklyn.

This thing is beautiful and I would have gladly used it for Show Car Sunday had I not run across the other one. Here we can see the difference in chrome side trim for cars ordered with the 2-tone paint.

These are the correct original hubcaps for this car which to me seem somewhat cheap and unfinished. They further support the understated overall design I suppose.

This is a curious little item. Listed as a "Distinguished Medallion" in the Plymouth literature, it is trumpeted as a hallmark of quality. It was supposed to be found on only the convertible and 2-door sport coupe, but I'm guessing it went along with any 2-tone cars that had this chrome treatment.

This is a damn fine looking ride in its 2-tone scheme. I think the blue color is Tampa Turquoise with the black being listed simply as Black.

This ride has the optional PowerFlite installed. This transmission only lasted from '54-'61 but has a reputation of durability to this day.

I have no doubt that you could jump in this thing and drive off immediately. Some cars look shiny and nice but there's a feeling about them where they probably don't get much use. This car sits level on properly inflated matching tires and all the minutia such as mirrors are adjusted for use.

2-tone cars were huge in the 1950s, with some automakers even producing tri-tone schemes as well. This setup with the roof and lower-rear body being different from the rest is about as standard as it gets. This is the first year for the wraparound windshield which Plymouth refers to as the New Horizon. Combine that name with the Forward Look and you can see how much they were selling the modern American optimism as much as their cars.

This has a set of chrome eyelids installed which cover the top half of the headlights. I'm usually not into them, but this poodle-skirt edition Plymouth is just the sort of ride that would have had them installed way back when so I'm alright with it. I doubt I'll have too many Twofer Tuesdays with cars this old or cool, but at least I was lucky this time.

*One detail to let you know you're way out on the outer boroughs; all those power lines in the background! There haven't been overhead wires allowed in Manhattan since 1884 (though it took a blizzard in 1888 that too down most power lines for the electrical companies to follow suit). Brooklyn was given the same law in 1885 ordering the borough to bury their lines but the telephone (and now cable) wires were allowed to remain.