Kit Car

1951 Mercury Custom - Lead Sled's Revenge

Ted Dzus Does A '51 Merc Right

By Ro McGonegal

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.

The width disparity between the front (6 inches) and back (15 inches) rubber doesn't turn the car into a plow, either; combinations like this have been known to steer by the rear monster rubber rather than the skinnies traditional for a rod with similar stance and purpose. That the steamrollers are pliable radials rather than bias-ply construction and the revamped steering geometry all make a sizeable difference. Road noise is minimal. Noise from the car is nearly nil due in part to the torsional rigidity provided by the rollcage and chassis envisioned by S&W Race Cars. The engine provides all the aural entertainment, as it should be, though talking above the exhaust in normal tones is always necessary. The doors close easily and latch completely the first time. When the side glass is down, it tends to rattle when you shut the door, but thereafter it stays strangely quiet on the road. Heads turn. Kids' eyes brighten; mouths turn to O's. They point, babble, and are awed by the sight.

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.

But before any of this ever occurred, Ted found himself with a big problem. The outfit that made the Merc was several hundred miles south of West Islip, and it suddenly went fish belly, leaving our hero on Long Island with little else but an unfinished body, imagination, and a telephone. At nearby Higbie Collision, ace body man Joe Rupert laid hands on the Merc and did some extensive straightening, then priming, then more and more straightening until he'd nearly gone mad from the block-sanding. But one look down the Merc's flanks in the sweet light shows you how well Rupert's ministrations have paid off. For the skinny on who did what to whom and a little bit of history, see Dzus' Web site at www.qtrturn.com. While we're giving props, Ted also thanks Action Powder Coating (Farmingdale, New York), Mother's, Power Lock Anti-Theft, On Time Auto Parts (West Islip), Gary Ball's Hot Rod and Muscle Car, Design Engineering (header wrap, body insulation), Lokar (linkage, transmission and oil sticks), and P.C. Richard & Sons (audio system).

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."