Fred and Connie Speer, right, logged more than 100,000 miles on the Mercury ragtop before parking it in a barn in the early 1960s. Clinton and Nancy Moyer finished a frame-off restoration of the car in time for their son, Joshua's wedding a week ago.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
The stylized hood ornament leans forward into the future atop the long, peaked Mercury hood.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
The all-new styling of the '49 Mercury included a beautiful new horizontal dashboard with full instrumentation. The original factory steering wheel had to be rebuilt and the horn ring rechromed.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
Even the door handles of the '49 Mercury were style-setters; the chrome trim was refinished to show car quality.
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The original leather and fabric interior was replicated perfectly by Downey's Upholstery, just in time for wedding photos.
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Looking more like a custom inner door panel than a stock piece, the unit features a set of hydraulic switches to operate the power windows.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
Mercury built only 16,765 convertibles in its new body style in 1949. The Speer/Moyer Merc is one of a handful to survive and be fully restored to showroom quality.
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Reproduction Mercury sill plates were used to accent the new carpeting; the small button in the trim panel controls the hydraulically actuated front seat.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
Fred Speer says the restored '49 Mercury convertible looks better now than the day he bought it brand new at the Dick Price dealership in downtown Wichita.
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Nancy Moyer remembers riding in the broad back seat of her parents' car with her brother. `Dad built us a little wooden bed in back so we could rest,' she recalls.
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Decked out in wedding day graffiti, the nearly new '49 Mercury convertible was ready to transport newlyweds Fred and Connie Speers on their honeymoon.
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Clinton Moyer / Courtesy
The front end of the '49 Mercury featured smooth, sculpted-in fenders and a wide, horizontal bar grille, making it an immediate favorite with customizers.
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The level of detail inside is impressive, with freshly chromed roof ribs stretching the cloth top taut.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
With the top down, the Mercury is ready for a brisk ride down a country lane covered with autumn leaves.
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Craig Chandler / Courtesy
Since the Mercury was a longer, heavier car than its Ford cousin, it was rewarded with a larger 255 cubic inch flathead V-8 engine producing 110 horsepower, compared to the 239 cubic inch, 100 horsepower Ford.
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Fred Speers in his Air Force uniform during his days as an A-26 bomber pilot.
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Clinton Moyer / Courtesy
With the tattered original top a long-gone memory, Scott Downey stitched up a beautiful new color-coordinated roof for the drop-top Merc.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
A rare car in a rare color, this 1949 Mercury convertible in Lima Tan Metallic has stayed in the same family since it was purchased brand new by Fred Speer. His son-in-law, Clinton Moyer, and grandson Joshua Moyer, pulled the old Merc out of storage a few years ago and began a complete restoration of it.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
The stylists didn't forget the rear of the new Mercury in 1949, blending the softly rounded lines into a look that quickly became an icon to lovers of auto artistry.
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Clinton Moyer, a colonel in the Kansas Army National Guard, was deployed to Iraq during the restoration project, but managed to stay closely involved via e-mails home.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
One of the few non-factory items on the car is the set of dealer-add-on fender skirts, which accentuated the low, smooth lines of the body.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
The nifty functional spotlight was added later by the original owner, while the outside rear view mirror shows up on the original bill of sale, with a $5.75 charge noted.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
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