1949 Pro Touring Mercury

This 450 horse-powered, 425 cubic-inch Buick Nailhead V8 inhales through (2) four-barrel carburetors and exhales through a set of Gizmos custom headers, hand-built exhaust, including a set of stainless steel Porter Mufflers.

The customer new he had a cool car to start with but, he wanted it to be able reliable while driving it cross-country in comfort and in addition, he wanted to retain the exterior paint job. When Gizmos received the '49 Merc, the original frame was in poor condition, the wiring was scary and, the doors wouldn't shut.

As a distributor of Art Morrison Chassis, Gizmos new this is exactly what it needed. Gizmos had a new custom chassis built that included, big disk brakes, double-adjustable coil-over shocks and, a Ford 9" rear axle housing.

Gizmos went to work. The old frame was removed, the fire-wall and part of the floor were cut out and, all the old wiring and plumbing disconnected and discarded. All this work was being done while not effecting the exterior paint-work. Once the new Art Morrison Chassis showed up, Gizmos went to work retrofitting it to the Mercury Body. New body mounts were fabricated, the brake system was installed and, new sheet metal was formed for the firewall and floor section. The 425ci Nail Head was fitted to the frame and engine mounts were fabricated. Now the ceramic coated exhaust could be custom-built with American Made Porter Mufflers.

Once all the fabricating was done, the new frame was painted along with the firewall. The underbody was undercoated and the car was reassembled. The Gizmos team fitted this beauty with an all-new frame, front and rear suspension, drivetrain, exhaust, firewall, brakes, a custom hand-built stainless steel fuel tank, and all new electrical and plumbing.

The Buick Nailhead worked great, lots of power an a very cool look! The car now handles and drives like a dream. Right away, the customer drove it 1600 miles to the NSRA Street Rod Nationals! This is a very cool car that is now able to be properly enjoyed.