Restomodded 1951 Mercury m3 pickup
Like many of us, James Robinson was tired of seeing every car on the road sharing the same basic look, the same colour options, and all with relatively minor variations in styling. He decided he wanted something different. Something vintage. One day he happened upon this 1951 Mercury M3 that was just waiting to be given a new life. He fell in love and pulled the trigger.
James found his ’51 Mercury M3 at Dan’s Automotive in Bell’s Corners. He picked it up for a song but had to dig deep for a 6-month long restoration at Wicked Garage that saw the M3 stripped right down to the frame.
Wicked has posted over 100 photos of the restoration. If you’d like to see the full gallery of the rebuild, click here.
By the time Wicked Garage finished the ’51, she was sporting a 302ci out of a 1990 Mustang and the transmission from a 1986 F150.
James decided to bring the Merc in for our $150 baseline chassis dyno test – to get a look at her numbers. After a series of pulls to get the dyno calibrated and the engine warmed, the Merc was making 238 ft-lbs of torque and 215 horsepower at the wheels. That’s not a bad result considering that engine made 225 HP at the crank coming out of the factory.
James had the ’51 at the Montreal Autorama and took first place in the Restomod class. But, this truck is no shiny showroom queen. James has already put 5,000 km on her this year and is planning a trip to Canada’s East Coast this summer.
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Marc Chartrand
