The Jimmy Summers 1940 Mercury part I

One of my all time favorite custom cars is the Jimmy Summers 1940 Mercury convertible. A car that Jimmy built for himself in 1946. The car was built as Jimmy's every day car. And he drove it a lot in the four years he owned the car before he sold it to Tex Roberts. Jimmy drove long distances with his good friend Doane Spencer who drove his well known 1932 Ford Roadster with modified DuVall windshield. 

Jimmy Summers was an very talented body man and besides that he had a great eye for flowing lines and details as well, a rare combination. Jimmy did most of his Custom work in the 1940's basically before the magazines where around, so most of his cars have never been published "properly" in the magazines back then. Dan Post did use photos of some of his cars, including this 1940 Mercury in his Californian Custom Cars and his Blue book of Custom Restyling books. But we can clearly state that Jimmy never got the recognition he deserved back then. 

Fortunate for us his amazing simple and stylish 1940 Mercury is still among us. The car was believed to have disappear in South America, and only very few knew it still excised. The Rodder's Journal did a one page article on the "discovery" of the car in an unknown US location with photos and text by Donn Lowe, who was working on the Harry Bradley designed 1940 Mercury that was inspired by Jimmy's Mercury. Donn had done a lot of research on Jimmy's Merc, got in contact with his family, which ultimately led him to find out the car was still around, and not even to far from his Oregon home. Now we all know the car is in the very good hands of Dick Page. 

Another great thing is that there are quite a few photos of the car from when it was first built - painted maroon, then later in metallic green. Some have been seen before, others have never been published before and will be shown here - and in the next blog or two - for the first time.

I will write more about the Jimmy Summers 1940 Mercury in a next blog, and for now I will let Dick Page tell his stories.

Dick has shared some of his photos of the car with me for this blog, and he will write a couple of stories about the car, how he got it, about his friend Tex Roberts, and perhaps a few facts we might not know about the car.

This fantastic and rare color photo (I know of only three in

this color) of Jimmy's 1940 Mercury comes from the amazing

photo collection of Kevin Wright. The photo must have been

taken in either 1946, or very early 1947.  The car was running

steel wheels with small moon hubcaps back then.

The Jimmy Summers 1940 Mercury tales 
as told by Dick Page.


USAF Col. J, F. "Tex" Roberts bought Jimmy '40 mercury from Jimmy Summers in 1950. Many years later Tex retired to Lakewood washington bringing the famous merc with him, and that's where I first met him.
The year was 1964, he walked into my custom body & paint shop and proceeded to tell me what I was doing wrong...! I liked him right away. Some will say he was a loud mouth bragger... and that's true. He would denied it of course saying "It ain't bragg'n if it's fact". There were a lot of facts in his tool box.

Later Jimmy added ripple disk flipper hubcaps, but the car

is still maroon here.

Ever heard of a panhard rod to control side sway?  They used to be called Roberts bars after Tex developed them for early sprint cars.  Tex was the smartest man I ever met, and the biggest character by far... He built the fastest drag race and stockcar motors in the area, and made sure every body with ears knew it.   He knew everybody, He called Stu Hilborne at home and had him dig out the wood patterns from under a bench and cast me a set of streetable injectors for my Ardun...see what I mean?         
The first time I went to Tex's home shop at the Lakewood country club sitting next to a white primerd XK 120 jag roadster (which I could care less about) I was shocked to find the Jimmy Summers immediately recognizable 1940 mercury convertible parked outside covered by a canvas tarp that was past its prime. Tex was just as shocked to find that a twenty two year old from Tacoma knew of the car and some of its history.     

Fantastic top view of Jimmy's Convertible shows 

of the wonderful trunk to rear fender line.

So simple, yet so effective.

 
The car had been changed some over the years. The headlights were frenched, the door handles removed, and all four fenders where molded to the body. Tex re-upholstered the car in black & white (himself) but that handmade grill was a dead giveaway. It was ('41 GM) ruby maroon for the second time.  I was unaware that it had been ('47 Buick) sherwood green when Tex bought it from Jimmy.     
After buying the car the USAF shipped it around the world, which led to rumors that the car was lost in so. America.   
Tex told me that while in south America, he encountered a washed out section of dirt 'road'. 
he was able to obtain help from local men who cut down small trees, made polls, and carried the car over the breach....wow!     

A great photo of Jimmy and his Mercury. Photos from this

photo shoot where used in the Dan Post books as well as

the May 1947 Popular Mechanics article on Jimmy.

I think the later modifications on the car were done by Jimmy and Tex in late '53, after he returned to California. Tex's wife who was a wonderful and supportive lady told me of spending many hours at Jimmys shop while Tex and Jimmy worked on the car, sometimes she would sit outside and knit baby clothes.   

In 1947 Jimmy repainted the car in 1947 Buick sherwood
metallic green. And he also switched to Lyons aftermarket
hubcaps, the early very bulbous version. We have seen this
photo before, but its just such a great photo.
(photo originally from the Greg Sharp Collection

It always bothered me that this wonderful and historic car was sitting under a tarp, so when I was having a shop building put up at my home and when it began to snow I couldn't stop thinking about it. 
I called my friend Sonny Barrett and asked him to meet me at Tex's with his race car trailer and we we told Tex the merc was coming in from the cold!  We placed the car in the center of the slab and the shop was built around it.   
I did some repairs on it where the tarp pitted the trunk lid. Tex installed a Columbia two speed rear end and we did some other minor work. When Tex wanted me to trim away the lower edge of the body to install chrome side pipes from a van, I refused to alter the car and Tex took it home. We remained good friends. Tex was having some health problems and I was going to his shop and doing some rough-out for his finish work on port & polish heads.   
Tex stripped the car to bare metal avoiding the few leaded areas. He added the hooded mount on the trunk for his SCTA club plaque (the road runners I think). He also added the quad exhaust pipes in the rear pan.   

Never before seen photo of the engine compartment of

Jimmy's mercury. Its was not all show on this car!

Then ...Tex died.... Not wanting to act like a vulture, I waited awhile before asking to buy the merc.   When I went to visit his family the car was gone!  sold!!      
I was crushed. It took me years to find it. The owner was Jerry Jacobs in nearby Puyallup Wa. probably the nicest man on the planet. I traded a '32 ford tub project (I had 31k in) straight across car for car.   Jerry wanted me to work on the '32 but I had major back problems off and on for ten years. (I had back surgery in 2010)   
Jerry moved to Arizona and I lost track of him for a few years. He came to see me in 2010 and wanted to undo the trade and take the merc back to Az.    
He wanted to have a chevy motor./auto trans. installed, and a bright red paint job to make a nice cruzer for him and his wife to enjoy... I wanted to help him get a car to enjoy. I knew my good friend Larry Andren was taking his '40 ford to hot august nights the next day to sell.   
I  sugested Jerry should check out the '40 and if he liked it I would buy it for him and take back the '32 tub project.  
Thats what we did... Later Larry bought the '32 from me.     
Jerry Jacobs later sent me wonderful old 1947 to '53 vintage 8x10 photos of the car including one with my friend Tex.

Fantastic photo of Rex with the 1940 Mercury somewhere
in South America.