1949 Mercury - Blue Moon - Joe Maneri

One of the East Coast’s premier custom car builders, Joe Maneri, chopped and customized this car in 1986-87. Since then it has been driven (never tailored or broken down) to over 30 car shows in Indiana, Ohio, Michigan and numerous East Coast venues. It is still running a fully dressed ’51 Merc flathead engine with Overdrive (and a non-overdrive rear-end). This combination lets Blue Moon run over 12 hours a day at 70 mph with the engine thinking it is only going 50.





If you like to drive your cars – this car is a driver. Front-end was recently rebuilt with Jamco 3" lowered springs and heavy- duty sway bar, new king-pins & tie-rods. Rear is lowered 4" with Posey’s flattened springs. Dual stainless steel exhaust with Brockman Mellowtone steel-packs. It has a unique pair of independent electric fuel pumps, so if one fails on a long trip, just flip a switch to the other one, avoiding repairs on the road. It even has working curb feeler gauges to protect the right side when parking.




James Dean drove a “cool” customized ’49 Merc in “Rebel without a Cause” (1955) and created a Legend. The James Dean Run car show became a traditional gathering point for ’49-51 Mercs in Fairmount, IN every September. Blue Moon was driven to this show over 20 times in 30 years with mechanical upgrades throughout:



1989 - Dressed the ’51 Flathead with 8:1 compression Offy Heads and Offy Intake Manifold with Holley .390 four-barrel carburetor



1993 - Flattened Posey Rear Springs plus extra inch lowering blocks



1999 - 12 Volt Conversion with Mallory electronic ignition added in 2009



2013 – New Kingpins, Tie-Rods & Idler Arm