1951 MERCURY 8 CUSTOM 2 DOOR COUPE CHOPPED BY THE LEGENDARY DICK DEAN
454 V8 ENGINE
700R4 TRANS
9 BOLT FORD REAR END
A/C
3RD GENERATION (1949-51) BODY STYLE SLM72B
GEORGE BARRIS & BILL CARR ASSOCIATE & PROTEGE , DICK DEAN CHOP.
1951 Mercury's are legendarily popular cars to customize with the notable change in 1951 of the one piece rear window replacing the 3 piece window used in 1949 and 1950. Also in 1951 the Mercury had the new grille with integrated directional signals. New taillights and trim on the rear quarter panels made the wraparound bumper appear to extend even further around the sides than before.
In 1951, Dick Dean was an honored graduate of the 'Ford Trade School' and after Air Force service in Korea he was to eventually move to California after meeting George Barris in 1959 at the Detroit Autorama, who after to seeing his 1957 Ford Hardtop called 'Orange Peel' at the Autorama, was to offer him a job in California. Dick moved to California the same year and was to start work at Barris Kustoms where he worked on several famous Barris cars. In 1961 he left Barris to work for the 'Mattel Corporation' after being offered a lucrative position there based on his work at Barris. Dick was to later work with Bruce Myers of Meyers Manx fame and Malcolm Bricklin with whom he helped design the prototype and initial production of the Bricklin motorcar.
By the 1970's he was a legendary renown builder with the 'Cruisin Toys' shop in Santa Fe, Ca and who was known to have said "Cars are chopped with feelings and eyes, not formulas and templates" and was a renown custom hot rod builder and chopper of cars for both celebrities, racers and film & TV including James Bond 'Octopussy', the Flintstones movie, Jurassic Park, Power Rangers and the Hard Rock Cafe franchise. He restyled and chopped cars for the likes of: Andy Granatellis aluminum body Indy race car, Teddy Zgrzemski's 1932 Ford 3W Coupe, Jeff Neppl's 1950 Merc, David Lee Roth's 1951 Merc, Noel Blanc's 1951 Merc, Rick Dore's 1953 Buick Riviera, Grant Langseth's 1956 Dodge PU, to name but a few.
