1951 Mercury Custom - Lead Sled's Revenge

It is early spring in Long Island. It doesn’t know what it wants to be, rainy and cold one day, one foot into summer the next. Today it’s neither. I watch the condensation puff from the Merc’s exhaust pipes in halted, irregular spats. We’re going for a cruise out East, where the roads are long and straight and the traffic light, through the hinterland a few miles from the most insane city in the world, yet far enough removed it’s as if time hasn’t moved an inch in 50 years.

The name Dzus (pronounced “zoose”) should be familiar to all but you young guns. Grandfather William Dzus invented and perfected the quarter-turn quick-release fastener (several different types, actually) that riddled the fuselages of WWII aircraft. His young heir eventually adapted the product for the drag racing world, and in doing so he authored seven patents. The company was sold years ago, but the fastener still stands.

Under a mottled, schizoid sky, Teddy puts a light touch on that Shafiroff 540 and we surge out onto Montauk Highway, make a few quick turns, and soon rumble past the low brick Dzus Fastener plant in West Islip. I was there more than 25 years ago doing a story on one of Teddy’s cars for a West Coast magazine. His rides were mainly for the racetrack, bracket cars, and a wacky tube-chassis ’80 Chevette that ran serious Super Gas. There was the Vega wagon and the infamous yellow ’55 Chevy, but none of these cars were comfortable on the street. So the bulbous, school bus yellow ’51 Merc is a big departure for Ted. A real street car, complete with Air Ride suspension, Vintage Air air conditioning, LED lighting, and an electronically coded entry system.

Teddy’s a big guy; I am not. His seat is fixed for long legs, but so is the one for the passenger, so mine are straight out, and my feet don’t touch the firewall. I was semi-reclined (head room is scant, as the Merc’s mold included a 3-inch top chop), which felt awkward and loose at first, but the more space and time the Merc displaced, the more comfortable I became. Ted drives this car like he was born to do it, steering easily with his fingertips. The Merc tracks straight and true, bustling smoothly down the freeway like a Lincoln Town Car.

Though the big engine runs very cool, it was a real blister-maker early in the project, to the point of having to pull over and let it cool down with the electric water and fans. Ted discovered the super-heated underhood air was completely stagnant and played hell with the engine’s natural tendency to act as a heat sink. With positive venting assured now, the engine rarely crosses 180 degrees.

Mike Ingrossio’s MI Performance (West Babylon, New York) is primarily a fabrication shop equipped for everything from 10-inch-tire Mustangs to complete tube-frame-construction racecars. Naturally, no one makes headers for the 540 in a ghost chassis, so Mike began with a bunch of U-bends and straight stock from Hedman Hedders. His craftsmanship is some of the finest we’ve ever seen; looks like something you’d find on a high-end racer. Mike kept everything above the bottom of the frame and between the ‘rails, merging it with compact Spin Tech mufflers and 3-inch oval exhaust pipes. The concussion from it will surely set a parking lot full of ordinary car alarms to whooping and jangling.

The Merc passes its low-speed response and open-road cruising tests admirably, and somewhere between Patchogue and Yaphank, Teddy boy does something quite out of character. He stands on the gas. That V-7 Vortech stuffs the motor full of boost, and the portly Hoosiers squawk loudly in surprise. The 540 roars, but it is somewhere in the distance. My ears ring in the silence. To Ted, it’s more about the thought of having a big-bore weapon at his disposal (just in case) rather than hogging it frivolously and indiscriminately. He shifts manually through the ATI 400 six-speed automatic (and Gear Vendors overdrive unit), and we are cruising again. The final overdrive in High gear combined with the 4.10:1 axle ratio makes the 540 think it’s thumping down the highway with 3.20s. At 70 mph, the big Auto Meter tachometer sits on 2,200 rpm. Cruising is the Merc’s reason for life. Dzus has done the Hot Rod Power Tour three times in his asphalt eater; that’s thousands of nearly trouble-free miles.

As a proponent of Nor-Tech powerboats, Ted’s affiliation got him a nugget of gratitude in the nick of time. Although the Merc came with a fiberglass rendition of the original dashboard, Nor-Tech perfected the form, using it as a plug for an exclusive carbon-fiber mold.

Who in their right mind would build this car? “Rather than do another Chevelle, Camaro, or even a highboy,” said Dzus, “I went with the Merc for its exclusivity, but quite honestly, it wasn’t really up to me. I asked my very good friend Gray Baskerville what he’d build. ‘In the current climate,’ said Old Dad, ‘You’d only want to do a Willys or a Merc, Teddy.’ I think he would have liked this car.”

See All 11 Photos

Facts BoxTed DzusWest Islip, New York’51 Mercury Custom

CHASSIS

Frame:

Wheelbase:

118″

Rearend:

Rear Suspension:

ladder bar w/diagonal link, Air Ride Technologies

Rear Brakes:

Wilwood 11″ discs

Front Suspension:

tubular upper and lower control arms, Air Ride Technologies

Front Brakes:

Wilwood 11″ discs

Steering:

Flaming River rack-and- pinion, power assist

Front Wheel:

American Racing Torq- Thrust II, 15×6

Rear Wheel:

American Racing Torq- Thrust II, 15×14

Front Tire:

Hoosier Pro Street radial, 26.0×7.50

Rear Tire:

Hoosier Pro Street radial, 31.0×18.50

Make:

Chevrolet Gen VI 4-bolt main cylinder block

Crankshaft:

Eagle 4340 steel, 4.250- inch stroke

Connecting rods:

Manley 4340 steel H-beam, 6.385″ long

Oiling:

Moroso 8-quart pan, high- volume oil pump

Pistons:

Wiseco forged, 8.5:1 com pression ratio, HD wrist pins, Total Seal ring pack

Camshaft:

COMP Cams hydraulic blower grind

Water Pump:

CSI electric

Radiator:

AFCO aluminum, dual pull-through electric fans, Evans coolant

Alternator:

MSD

Heads:

Edelbrock Victor, 112cc combustion chambers, 320cc intake ports, 2.25/1. 90 intake and exhaust valves

Induction:

Edelbrock Victor single- plane intake manifold, BG Demon 1090-cfm carbure tor, King Sumo gerotor fuel pump, Vortech V-7 (Race M) supercharger, air-to-liquid intercooler, Goodridge fuel (and water) lines, 20-gallon fuel cell

Air cleaner:

conical

Ignition:

MSD Pro Billet distributor, 6AL box, Boost Timing Master, boost retard switch, Moroso wires

Headers:

Hedman Hedders U-weld 2 1/8-inch tubing fabricat ed by Mike Ingrossio at MI Performance (West Babylon, NY). HPC coat ed.

Mufflers:

Spin Tech 3″ exhaust pipes and mufflers adapt ed by MI Performance

Transmission:

ATI Turbo 400, ATI torque converter

Shifter:

ratchet type

Trans Mods:

reverse valve body, Gear Vendors overdrive

BODY

Manufacturer:

no longer in business

Body Mods:

Top chopped 3″, fiberglass body channeled over frame

Body Work:

Extensive straightening of original fiberglass by Joe Rupert at Higbie Collision (West Islip, NY); high- mount brake light, dire ctional signals, marker lights, and LED applica tions by Watson’s Street Works (Bozrah, CT)

Paint Type:

PPG Ford school bus yel low (straight from can)

Painter:

Joe Rupert (West Islip, NY)

INTERIOR

Gauges:

Auto Meter carbon fiber

Wiring:

Painless Wiring

Steering Wheel:

Lecarra, Flaming River column

Seating: