There have been hundreds, perhaps thousands, of different taillights adapted to the quarter-panels of custom '49-51 Mercurys through the years. Some designs are natural fits; others aren't so memorable. Selecting the right style can make or break the appeal of a custom's posterior.
Some of the better blinkers to find their way onto custom '51 Merc quarters originally came on another Mercury-a '54 model. Those are the lenses Tom Kowalski selected when he commissioned Hot Rods by Dean in Phoenix, Arizona, to craft his chopped, traditional '51 Merc, featured on page 16 in this issue.
The crew at Dean's shop put a little twist on this traditional mod by using the ribbed portions of two '54 lenses to build each custom lens, thereby creating distinctive six-rib taillights. These lenses were frenched into narrowed, slightly flared, and expertly metalworked quarter-panels. Fortunately for us, the guys at Dean's documented all this work so we could share it with you. They photographed many other aspects of this custom build as well, so stay tuned for more Merc how-tos in the future. Enjoy!