Early in the month we brought you a sneak peek into the “making of Reprise” – Jerry Horton’s full-custom 1951 Merc. If that name sounds familiar you might be a rock fan as Jerry Horton is the guitar player for band – Papa Roach. Jerry began this build with a “custom” he bought a few years back with the hopes to turn it into the lead-sled that he had always envisioned.

Jerry Horton and Max Fish pose for a shot with their custom creation.

Entrusting Max Fish and the team over at Bio Kustumz with the build, they soon learned that this wasn’t a “lead-sled” at all. As they dug deeper they realized it was much more of a fiberglass and bondo sled in need for some serious repairs. So Max did what he does best and began to cut, weld, and shape entirely new panels and lines, turning this once poorly treated Merc into the beautiful custom that you see here.

Stripped down, Reprise started to come together with custom metal work from front to back. The hard work began to recreate the Merc to Horton’s exact specifications, and all though Jerry Horton is no self-proclaimed car builder, he knew exactly what he wanted and how he wanted it to look from the start. To give the car the look Jerry was after, Bio Kustomz hand formed each body panel and rechopped the roof.

The front clip, which was found to be fiberglass, was replaced with hand-built steel panels flowing the new lines from front to rear. Bio even custom-built the car’s quarter panels to eliminate some of the bulk and give the Merc more sharp, yet subtle lines. Max couldn’t stop there, with everything needing to match perfectly, Bio decided that no wheel currently on the market was exactly what Jerry was after, so they machined completely one-off wheels to finish off the Mercury in style.

After all of the pain-staking metal and body work was completed, Reprise was sprayed with a custom-mix of House of Kolor paint, giving the car an almost green/orange chameleon-esque finish. Even the House of Kolor team was impressed and intrigued when checking out the car in person. Jon Kosmozski from HOK asked about the paint process and “really loved the way it turned out.” Jerry Horton’s initial reaction during the debut in the Kinetik Audio booth at SEMA was that of someone in pure shock. At first all he could muster was “Whoa.” Then a few minutes later when he realized that he plans on driving the car he said, “What did I get myself into?”

Both Max and Jerry are extremely pleased with how the full-custom build turned out and they’re all smiles from here. Although it was a long grueling road and Max told us, “She fought me every bit of the way…” the efforts were worth it and we know we’ll see more of this amazingly detailed 1951 Merc – stay tuned for the full feature shoot right here on Rod Authority.