A Low Act

Vic Palmieri's crazy Kustom '49 Mercury...

- AL O'TOOLE

Ten years ago Vic Palmieri went looking for a Mercury and found this one in Queensland. It was complete and had already been heavily customized from front to back, but it was dismantled. The Merc had also been painted and even had the interior trim completed, but it still needed piecing back together. Vic struck a deal with the owner that saw him complete the rebuild before sending the car down to Victoria.

Once Vic had the car in his possession he decided to make a few small changes to better suit his taste. The car had been built with a column-shifted auto but Vic prefers a floor-shift application, so the existing steering column was removed and replaced with a tilt Flaming River version. This Merc was also sporting a large diameter steering wheel of unknown fifties origin that proved too big to manoeuvre the car comfortably, so it was also swapped out and replaced with a Billet Specialties tiller. The motor received some attention as it was built with a tri-power intake and all three carburettors were operational. Vic didn’t want the potential hassle of having to constantly tune the setup, so the triple carbies were removed and a 750 Holley carb and Caddy air cleaner took their place.