1949 Mercury - Louie Bettancourt

The Ayala Version

1949 Mercury originally restyled by the Ayala Brothers for Louie Bettancourt. Louie bought the Merc brand new. After driving it around as a stocker for a short period of time he brought it over to the Ayala Brothers for a full custom treatment. Louie's Mercury could have been one of the first 1949 Mercury hitting the street with a chopped top, but Sam Barris' 1949 Mercury was finished before Louie's Mercury. The Ayalas chopped the top 3 inches and removed the drip rails. The B-pillars were also modified by the Ayalas centering the door line on the B-pillars.[1] The seat frames were lowered about 6 inches in order to get more comfort due to the lowered ceiling. At the Ayala shop the body was also shaved of emblems, handles and moldings. Hood and decklid corners were rounded and the car was fit with full Fadeaway Fenders. This was done by filling the factory dip on the doors and by extending the fender line on the rear of the car, fading it into the trunk. The trunk, doors, hood and windows were electrically operated.




The headlights were frenched using 1951 Mercury headlight bezels, which stretched the fenders and provided a deeper look.[1] The taillights were frenched using sheet metal and tubing housings and equipped with custom made lenses. A new grille opening was made by welding a second 1949 Mercury grille shell upside down in the front gravel pan.[2] A 1951 Kaiser floating grille bar was fit in the new grille opening. Louie wanted his car low, so in order to give it the right stance it was lowered 6 inches in the rear by C'ing the frame and installing lowering blocks. The front was lowered 4 inches by stepping the "A" arms.



[3] Fenderskirts, wide whites with Cadillac Sombreros and dual Appleton 112 spotlights were added. Once the bodywork was done, the Merc was painted Scintillating green gold. Inside, the dashboard and gauge cluster were chromed, Louie kept rest of the interior stock.[2]November 10 thru 16, 1952 Louie's Mercury was shown at the third annual Motorama. In the official program the car is listed as a 1950 Mercury owned by Louis Bettencourt.[4]

Barris Version

In late 1952, early 1953, Louie brought his Mercury to Barris Kustoms for detailing and finish work.[5] All the bodywork that the Ayala Brothers did to the car was left alone. At the Barris Shop 1949 Cadillac side trim pieces were added in order to give the car a lower appearance. Barris also created a new grille by using two 1952 Ford grilles and 1951 Ford grille end tips.



The grill teeth in the middle were from a 1952 Mercury.[3] The stock bumpers were replaced by 1953 Pontiac DeLuxe bumpers. The rear bumper was a narrowed and the front bumper was recontoured. 1952 Kaiser bumper guards were added both front and rear with the exhaust routed trough the bullets. Metal casters were also installed in the rear of the car. Barris replaced the Cadillac Sombreros with 1953 Studebaker hubcaps featuring fake knockoffs fitted with Barris crests. Glen Houser of Carson Top Shop upholstered it with egg-white rolled and pleated naugahyde combined with a metallic threaded maroon hair wine fabric. This time the car got painted in mile deep Tingia maroon lacquer.[/index.php?title=Carson_Top_Shop]Carson Top Shop[/url] upholstered it with egg-white rolled and pleated



naugahydecombined with a metallic threaded maroon hair wine fabric. This time the car got painted in mile deep Tingia maroon lacquer.

The Johnny Zupan Barris Version



Louie Bettancourt sold his Merc to Johnny Zupan in 1956. Johnny also brought the car to Barris Kustoms, wanting them to make a new version of the car. Functional air scoops were made in order to cool down the rear brakes. The sidetrim also went trough minor modifications. Carson Top Shop upholstered the car once again in white naugahyde and red frieze with gold lining. A 45 RPM player was installed beneath the dashboard. Johnny also installed an Oldsmobile Rocket engine with a four barrel-carburetor.[6]



The Merc was painted in a metallic gold and rust two-tone scheme. When the car was painted, George Barris called Dean Jeffries and asked if he could come and pinstripe the car. "Jeff" came, and the Zupan Merc was the first car "Jeff" pinstriped for George. Dean added stripes around the trim and to the hood, fender tops, and decklid. He also striped the dash and put some crazy cartoons on the glove box and the heater. George must have been pleased with what "Jeff" had done, because he offered him a job right after the car was pinstriped. Dean said he didn't want to work for him, but that he wanted to rent some space from him instead.[7] Once completed the new version of the car was entered at the National Roadster Show in February 1956.[8] It was also demonstrated in Car Craft July 1956, in "Preparing Your Car For An Auto Show".

Where is it now



Dean Jeffries inherited the car after Johnny Zupan was killed in a heavy equipment accident. In 1970 the car can be spotted in Car Craft July 1970, in a humorous fictional story about the Road Urchins Car Club of Lompoc. Written by Terry Cook, the story features some photos taken outside Dean Jeffries shop next to the Hollywood Freeway. Looking at the fenderline, rounded rear hood corners, and the side trim, there is no doubt that this is the same car. Shortly after the photos were taken in 1970, the car was stolen from Dean's lot. On Rik Hoving's website there are two photos of the car in an unfinished condition supposedly taken in the 1980s.



Magazine Features

Trend Book 105 Restyle Your Car
Popular Mechanics April 1953
Car Craft May 1954
Car Craft October 1954
Custom Cars 1955 Annual
Car Craft July 1956
Car Craft September 1956
Trend Book 133 Custom Cars 1957 Annual
Custom Cars October 1957
Car Craft July 1970
Kustoms Illustrated 15



http://www.kustomrama.com/index.php?title=Louie_Bettancourt%27s_1949_Mercury

This first gold green edition of the Bettancourt Mercury is seldom seen in magazines. Three photo’s of it appeared in the ’52 Restyle your Car, the April 53 Issue of Popular Mechanics and it was featured on the cover and inside of the ’52 Motorama catalog.
Becuase it was never in the magazines a lot it appears not many people know to much about this version of the car. In issue 29 Of the Rodders Journal Pat Ganahl wrote in the Sam Barris mercury story that "the Bettancourt Mercury went to Barris to get final finish an paint (and crest, of coars), so Sam Barris Merc was finished first." Well I believe that Ayala did finish the Bettancourt mercury. The credit in the "'52 Restyle your car" was given to Gil Ayala. (Gil Ayala built this fine example of a Simple-Conservative custom Merc).




Extreme clean appearance. The fadeaway line looks extremely well in combination with teh chopped top, angled b pillars and rounded hood and trunk corners



The ayala brothers performed all of the customizing on the first edition of the Bettancourt Mercury. The ayala’s where together with Sam Barris and Jerry Quesnel the first to chop a 49 Mercury. Ayala chopped the top and created a very smooth flowing roofline and just as Sam did on his personal ’49 Mercury Ayala also created full fade away fenders. Not sure if these two builders had contact with each other or had seen each others work, or that is was just a case of two genious craftsman with the same idear at the same time.

All corners including both on top and botom of the trunk where rounded with a larger that "ussual" radious



Ayala createdvery craceful taillights out of round rod and sheet metals and hand formed the lenses from red Lucite.



A second grille shell was turned upside down and molded in the front gravel pan to create an extremely smooth and rounded opening in which a 51 Kaiser floating grille bar was mounted. The hood corners where rounded with a large radious on the front which flows perfectly with the frenshed headlight and at the back of the hood the ends where cut of with a large radius and the remaining piece was molded to the cowl and front fender. The flowing line gently sweeps into the chopped windshield frame. The trunk corners where rounded in a similar fashion.
What is really exceptional on this version of the car is that it has nearly no chrome accents on the outside. No side trim and even the side window trim was removed. Only a few accents chrome accents where added, the grille bar and a set of 112 appleton spots. The bumpers where stock 49 Mercury items. Most likely the interior could not be redone in time for a show and remained all stock. The body was painted a Scintillating green gold and the gauges clusters on the dash where chrome plated.

The Barris Version of the Bettancourt Mercury.

In late ’52 or early 53 Louie wanted to update his custom Merc and brought it to Barris. The second version of the Bettancourt Merc is one of the few second version that is as good and perhaps even in improvement over the original version. Ussual second versions get overdone and are just to get ahead of the changes in the scene, but not so with the Barris version of the Bettancourt Mercury. The modifications done by Barris to Ayala's original custom work where subtile, stylish and with respect for its original look. The original car had the feel of a custom with its all shaved body. Barris must have realized a bit more sparkling and lines/directions (side trim) where needed to make this custom flow just a bit better.

Below the Bettancourt Merc can be seen at the Barris shop.The body has been sanded and prepped and looks to be ready for it new paint.



Al the wonderful Ayala bodywork was left alone, that was perfect already. A ’49 Cadillac side trim was added to the side, mounted lower than the stock Merc position and actually covering the top of the wheel opening, thus visual lowering the car.



A extremely beautifull grille was fabricated (arguably one of Barris best grilles) using several ‘52 grilles for the horizontal part and 51 Ford grille end tips. The teeth inside came from a 52 Mercury.



The stock Mercury bumpers where replaced with 53 Pontiac Deluxe items with those wonderful end extentions. The rear bumper was made from a narrowed and recontoured front bumper. Both front and rear where fitted with */7878787878787878787852 Kaiser guards. And at the rear the exhaust was routed thru the guard bullets. The rear end extentions of the bumper work absolutely wonderful with the frenched headlights Ayala did a few years ago.



The Caddy Sombrero hubcaps where replaced with ’53 Studebaker units with fake knockoff’s and fitted with Barris crest. (imho the one thing that was overdone on this version). Two Barris Crest where also added to the frontfenders just in front of the doors. Barris painted the Bettancourt Merc in a mile deep Tingia maroon. Glen Houser of the Carson Top Shop created a fantastic interior using an egg-white tuck & roll with wine colored fabric which was butten tuffed.

In '56 Bettancourt sold his merc to Johnny Zupan and he had Barris made a third version of it. This time however all Barris did was just to much and I lost intrest in the car.





Much later the car was owned by Dean Jeffries and the car had undergone some more ugly modifications including quad headlights!!! The custom was stoledn of his property and never seen again. Although some believe it still ecits somewhere, nobody seams to really know where. I hope however thatone day this car will become in the hands of a tru custom car enthusiast and be turned into its first or second edition. This one is a true milestone custom that should be around for us to enjoy.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/milestone-custom-cars-louie-bettancourt-49-merc.75590/

Barry's car is not a real clone though. He never intended it to be an exact clone. It was just very much inspired by it. And in its later live - after Barry had sold it - the car was presented as the real things at some auctions.... not good.

Barry's car...







http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/milestone-custom-cars-louie-bettancourt-49-merc.75590/page-2

Here is a larger version of the Zupan Merc when it was at the Bill DeCarr shop getting the new grille pan, quad headlights and new taillights with similar pan as on the front. Very nice metal work from Bill DeCarr, and who knows how this car would have looked when finished with all the new modifications.

This photo also shows the unique location of the Appleton spotlights.

 

 

 

 

c'est tres beau, pur...., la base est intarrissable