Grandfather's coupe found after being lost since 61

Hey thought you guys would get a kick out of this. My grandfather D. Clyngenpeel bought a 1947 Mercury coupe out of a guys front yard in Knightsville Indiana in 1957. It was green and the floors were full of water the interior was tired and the seller told him the transmission was blown. He doesn't remember what he paid for it thinks it was maybe $40 bucks or so he swapped in a 39 Ford top loader only to find out that it wasn't the transmission but the rear axle that was shot! So he left the 39 trans in place, rebuilt the rear axle, ripped out the soggy carpet, painted the rusty floor red, and started driving. He was drafted into the Army late in 1959 (wife and daughter my aunt my mother wasn't born until 1962) and went off to basic training after graduation he returns home grabs all his tools and his beloved coupe and heads west towards Oakland California. January 1961 he reaches Denver where the engine lets go. Broke, alone, and required to report in he leaves the car and all his belongings and walks through the heavy snow towards the bus station. It was cold, brutally cold as he huddled on a wooden bench in his service A's with a field jacket thrown over his shoulders. He didn't think it could get any worse when a pair of military policemen came in and rousted him. The charge? Out of uniform that field jacket over a dress uniform. They went to haul him in but all would be well if maybe he gave them something you know, make them "go away". They walked away with the keys to the Mercury and all of his tools the price? Twenty five dollars for a bus ticket to California... He would regale me with tales of that car how he made a home made two pot set up with a cast iron GOTHA carb inlet and a junk yard 94. A local shop re-ground the cam to "full race" and he made headers out of cast off tubing and straight pipes out of 36 Ford torque-tubes. The heads were stock milled, flycut, and domed faster than his old Model A by a mile and it had a radio! When I left the Marine Corps and got over tail dragging early 60's Ford's with big lazy OHV's I started looking for a "47 Merc coupe" to build just like gran' pa had. I found several all were either way to nice or waaaay too far gone or had the wrong body style. So one day recent I'm stumbling around on eBay when up pops a 1947 Mercury coupe "roller" now I wasn't near the financial shape to buy anything let alone another project car but this pig was intriguing and I fired off a few questions to the seller. A kind man he answered them all and it caught my attention! Yeah, it had a floor shift transmission in it when I got it, someone had painted the floor red.... URP! Wrong color though grandpa's car was black not green. I called my grandfather though fragile he is still alive and has command of his faculties and described the car to him, "No my car was green I wanted to paint it black". HUH! I copied him the auction photo's and waited as he opened them up. He got real quiet for a time and then said, "Brian that's my old car". BOOM! He told me to ask about two things 1) was there old black primer on the back half of the car, and 2) was the dash plastic painted pink at one time. I contacted the seller yes on the primer unknown on the dash as remnants of the original dash trim were present but had aged badly. Three for four and with shaking hands I hit "buy it now". The title for the car was back in a drawer in Indianapolis at the beginning of 1961 and the car was sold without a title unfortunately the title is long lost. The old flattop is long gone and someone started hacking on the firewall and frame to fit a OHV/automatic but it's the same car! Back in the family after 53 years! It had wandered down from Denver Colorado to Springdale Arkansas. Now? It's going to be on a stretcher bound for Las Vegas Nevada.

Great story! Thanks for posting...amazing the car survived with enough identifying items to confirm the prior ownership....

It looks great with the blackwalls and poverty caps on it. Nice patina too.

That is too cool!!

Great story. I hope you have it all back together for Gramps while he's still around.