Maybe it’s fitting that Nick Vlasic received this ’47 Mercury pickup from his cousin “Puke”. It’s not the prettiest truck we’ve ever seen but maybe that’s the whole point.
     Nick Vlasic says he’s wanted to build a rear-engined pickup truck since he was a kid. “It just had to be the right style. I’m sure I found it with this truck.”
     Style may not be the first word that comes to mind when you see Vlasic’s ’47 Mercury pickup but it doesn’t take much of a closer look to realize how cool it is. By day, Vlasic co-owns and operates Canning Custom Stainless Exhaust in Princeton, ON and it’s a job that demands a meticulous attention to detail.  (His partner in business and in the truck’s build is Steve “Erkle” Herriman) When he built this truck that same mindset motivated him.
     While the actual truck’s build was carefully calculated, the make and model was the product of a bit of luck and timing. The aforementioned cousin Puke (real name Jason Pakulis) rescued the truck, a flat deck originally, from a 15-year exile in a co-worker’s bush, then promptly stowed in the bush again for another 15 years. “You just can’t buy paint like that,” says Vlasic of the patina three decades of bush-life bestowed on the ’47 Mercury.
     “My cousin told me if I actually was going to do something with it, I could have it.” Vlasic now had a cab but had to figure out how he was going to make a rear-engine pickup out of it. The answer came when Nick’s brother, Eric, donated a ’77 Cadillac Eldorado to the cause. Vlasic and Herriman grafted the front frame of the Eldorado to the rear of the Merc’s original frame. “That gave me the engine, tranny mounts and upper and lower control arms, the driveshafts, spindles and disc brakes,” says Vlasic. The front suspension, is out of a 1986 Chevy full sized truck with the cross-member narrowed 7” to match the width of the Merc’s original chassis. The truck now has 4-wheel disc brakes. Wheels are from a ’75 Cadillac Coupe De Ville with knock off spinners scrounged at the Ancaster Swap Meet and used tires. The engine is a 500ci Caddy with headers Vlasic’s dad made for a demolition car back in the 1980s.
     “I put some motorcycle baffles in them and called them mint,” says Vlasic. As you can see from the photos, the stock gauge cluster was kept and works despite its condition. The cab floor is 1/8” checker plate and the steering column came from the ’77 Caddy which made a 12-foot, 2-way cable necessary to shift the rear mounted tranny. An ’87 Volkswagen Golf back seat is now the Merc’s only seat. The truck box was constructed out of rusted sheet metal, while the rear fenders and running boards — donated from Vlasic’s buddy Bateson — were painted Olive drab green with dirt tossed in for good measure. Vlasic says the truck was constructed for about $1,800, not including his time.
     Not a fan of the rat rod aesthetic? OK, but when you can make childhood dreams come true for less than $2,000 it’s clear why it’s such a popular trend.