Ed Suchorski didn’t set out to corner the market on 1942 Mercurys, even if it appears that way.
The Muskego, Wis., resident had even washed his hands of the old car hobby for quite a spell. “I was out of the hobby for about 25 year and just got back in the last two years again,” Suchorski chuckles.
And when he returned, he jumped in with both feet. The affable Suchorski now has the keys to six 1942 Mercs and a slew of other Mercurys. “I own quite a few,” he laughs. “My nickname is ‘Mercury Ed.’ I’ve been in all the Ford clubs, but I never owned a Ford. I just had Mercurys and Lincoln-Zephyrs.
“I have the six ’42 Mercurys now, and a guy said to me, ‘‘No wonder we can’t find any ’42s. The few guys that have the ’42s hoard them all!’”
The flagship of Suchorski’s fleet is a splendid, and rare, 1942 Type 76 Club Convertible that he actually helped the previous owner restore back in the 1980s. “I was instrumental in getting some parts and information to him,” Suchorski recalled. “Since people know me as a Mercury guy, they are always calling me when they are doing something.”
Suchorski eventually got an unplanned chance to buy the convertible himself when he saw it for sale online. The ad had only been posted for two days when Suchorski saw it. “I got in on top,” he jokes.
The previous owner had completely redone the car, mostly for sentimental reasons, then parked it for many years and left it largely untouched. The car had undergone a lengthy and expensive restoration that had been well documented with paperwork and several hundred photographs, so Suchorski had few reservations about the car’s quality. “Back in the early ’80s he spent 70 grand restoring it [laughs]. That was kind of an unheard of price for a restoration. Most of them were 20, 25 grand … but he needed to get it done. His dad grew up with a ’42 Mercury convertible, that’s why he had to have one.
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