The Saga of the Mercury Mustanger/Marinerstang

I have been driving it, the above mentioned vehicle for the past 2 weeks and the stares and comments are more than I expected when I came up with the idea.

The backstory about all of this is required to understand it properly.  I have over the years created custom one-offs of things or as I call them "frankenitems" as I take what is easily available and combine them to create something that is unique for me.  It is not fully custom since I don't have the budget, time or skills to create a 100% custom bicycle or guitar for example.  I do however have the skills to take some parts and create a bike or guitar that is "frankened".

In the past my most successful of these have been a triathlon bike (you have seen them the bicycles with handle bars going out straight over the front wheel).  I always wanted one when I was doing triathlons (yes I have raced and finished triathlons, but that is another blog post for another day).  Problem is they are very expensive and horribly uncomfortable for us with a larger middle section, (it is hard to breath when your lungs are crushed by your fat belly).  Not to be deterred I still wanted a better aerodynamic profile, but I know I will not be winning any races, so I don't need it to be a perfect profile, just better.  I am going to catch the wind no matter what, I am built more like a Semi, than a Ferrari.  So, I took a flat-bar road bike and put the fancy triathlon handlebars, shifters and tires on it.  It works, and I am faster on it than my regular road bike.

I have also created various "franked" guitars over the years.  My flying V made from 3 different guitars is a prime example.

Anyhow, when I found that the rear quarter panel on my Mercury Mariner was rusting out, I decided I would have that repaired, and in the process have some fun.  I had the rust repair done, but instead of just having the repaired part painted I took the opportunity to have the entire vehicle painted (a different color entirely I might add went to blue from red).  I then had them leave all the Mercury Mariner badging off, and I replaced it with 3 mustang emblems.  The standard Mustang pony on each door and then on the rear door, the 45th anniversary horseshoe pony logo.

It looks good enough to have people ask me, if it was a promotion car for the 45th anniversary of Mustang, or if it was a special edition pace car or something.  So now my most successful semi-custom creation is something I use everyday, my one of a kind Mercury Mustanger/Marinerstang.

Perhaps in the future I will create a Ferrari pickup or one I have wanted to do for a while the Scion XB (cube looking small car) painted brown and then UPS logos put on it.  An instant mini-UPS truck.