There are many reasons to take on a project and the family connection ranks at the top of the list.
‘Beyond that is the choice for a project and that’s when the degree of difficulty is a huge consideration.’
This ’65 Mercury pickup has both family connections and degree of difficulty factored into the project’s equation.
Darrell Bierback and his son wanted to take on a project and this old Merc truck made a lot of sense but it came with a few conditions as he explained: “Me and my son decided to do a project together but his allergies to dust and stuff seems like everything else got the best of him”.
Darrell didn’t have to look too far, “I had a half started project sitting in the back yard with the wife on my tail to do something with all of my junk”. Buy-in from the spouse is gold in any project situation so the Merc was go at this point.
The next stage is the “what direction should I go” piece of the process and Darrell had a great plan: “I had heard of the Crown Vic front suspension swap and I found a police car that had gotten vandalized and put in a bid at the City of Medicine Hat and got the whole car for $350.00”
He mapped it out: “I did some measuring and got some stupid ideas and away I went with it. I ended up cutting apart the police car with a sawzall which was great fun by the way. I went through two sawzalls, 40 sawzall blades and about 80 zip disk blades to get the police car body off leaving the floorboards, dash and rad saddle still standing”.
The process moved to another stage: “Then I cut out the floor of the two cabs I had welded together and lowered the cabs on the cop car dash and seats and welded it all together, I fabricated the box sides to match the wheelbase used the cop car gas door on the box side, stretched the front fender wheel well openings out 2 inches each side for clearance”.
Darrell moved on to the smaller details: “I attached all to the rad saddle used the power window motors from the cop car, I used the trunk button to activate the power tonneau cover.
He moved on to the interior and exterior: “I fabbed up and made custom overhead and lower consoles, custom backlit door panels with backlit flames and painted it in my buddy’s garage taped off the flames and airbrushed them. I also airbrushed the tailgate to make the letters look like chrome”.
There were very few details that Darrell farmed out: “The upholstery on the tonneau cover and the glass installation was the only things I didn’t do myself”.
This truck is not a trailer queen: “I drive the truck every day in the summer, I drove to the Radium show for the last 2 years and the Red Deer Super Run last year. It gets 22 mpg and cruises like a new Mustang”.
Darrell has some clear future plans: “I still have to finish the interior and at this point it’s going to stick with the family”.
‘That’s how the story should end for a ’65 Merc truck with a Crown Vic police car heart.’
Jerry Sutherland
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