FAST AND BULBOUS YELLOW

Ted Dzus flips off everybody with a fiberglass '51 Merc

Text and photos by Ro McGonegal

            In some circles, the big yellow jelly belly is classified as a kit car. Though the body is fiberglass that was about all the “kit” there was to it. The outfit that knocked this body off went upside down before Ted finished his own. What he got was a very rough buck, but first he needed a place to lay it down.

            Ted sourced everything he needed from the aftermarket squadron. Veteran chassis builders S&W Racecars in Spring City, PA, laid out a square-tube frame-within-a-frame foundation, hung a fabbed 9-inch axle, built a ladder bar/third link suspension, installed a hefty crossmember, and snuggled a rollcage tight to the ceiling. Then Dzus and a select few built the car from crumbs, attaching the big ones where needed and rolling the smaller ones into trim and styling cues. His thank you list includes Action Powder Coating (Farmingdale, NY), Mother’s Polish Company, Power Lock anti-Theft, On time Auto Parts (West Islip, NY), Gary Ball’s Hot Rod and Musclecar, Design Engineering, Lokar, and P.C. Richard & Sons.  

            Inside, it comes off clean, straight, and pragmatic, nothing exotic here and everything is accessible and decipherable at glance. That red leather rolls crazy, though, vibes ‘50s, vibes pointy bras and turned-up collars. You know you’re not in just any ’51 Mercury Coupe, though. The seats sit on the floor. Your legs go straight out in front of you. You can see out of the chopped top window perfectly because you’re riding at window level, not below it. There is no back seat. The wheel tubs and audio stuff usurped most of that real estate and besides, Ted didn’t build his Merc to haul nine of his friends around. The trunk is an afterthought, a notch at the back of the car harboring a big, fat fuel pump next to a dazzling stainless steel 20-gallon fuel cell. Get around that Air Ride replenishment tank and you’ve got enough room left over for maybe a coupla six-packs and some Genoa salami.

            Ted’s a big dude, though, and needs all the legroom possible, so you could say that the car was literally built around him. The top’s chopped three inches (in the mold) but he has plenty of headroom. The chassis builders did a fine job tying all the ends together; the perimeter frame, mid-frame reinforcement, crossmember, and rollcage instill lots of torsional and bending rigidity, the qualities that promotes good handling, precise steering, and staunch shakes and rattles.