By Susan Shinn
sshinn@salisburypost.com
CHINA GROVE ó Jason Ritchie is a loving husband and hands-on father.
But he never got over his first love.
In fact, she’s parked in his basement.
Since age 18, Jason has been the proud owner ó proud would be an understatement ó of a 1956 Mercury Monterey.
It’s a rare car, but even more unusual is the fact that it’s been in Jason’s family for 52 years.
The behemoth was first purchased by Jason’s great aunt, Annie Vaughn, and her husband, the late H.W. “Roe” Vaughn.
“We bought it in ’56,” Annie remembers. “That’s the first new car we ever bought. We always bought second-hand. We had Studebakers.”
But the couple decided that the Monterey, Annie says, “was a little more sporty.”
“I think he paid $2,500 for it,” says Jason, now 34.
Uncle Roe sold the car to Jason’s father, Jimmy, in 1972.
“I bought cars and old stuff,” Jimmy says. “Some of them run. Most of them didn’t.”
When Jason moved into his daddy’s house, they pulled nearly three dozen old cars out of the woods.
Jimmy ended up driving the Mercury about a year. It sat in his grandpaw Goodnight’s chicken house until 1986, then at Ray Ritchie’s farm ’til ’92, when Jimmy gave it to Jason.
“Daddy rebuilt the transmission,” Jason says. He’d also had the front seat recovered.
Other than that, the car was in need of a total restoration.
Jason, who’d graduated from high school that same year, decided to take on the job.
“I didn’t know nothing,” he says.
Fortunately, he had some help from his former brother-in-law, David Talbert, and his brother, Tommy Schenk. Jason calls him D.T. (His first name is Donald.)
Jason’s older brother Eddie prefers muscle cars ó he has a 1969 Z-28 Camaro ó while Jason and Tommy lean toward the classic models.
The first order of business was fixing the engine, which had locked up. They removed the spark plugs and used Marvel Mystery Oil in the cylinders for two weeks.
Finally, it broke loose.
Then the guys stripped the vehicle down to its frame.
“We did label some stuff to help us,” Jason says. “Ninety-nine percent of the stuff is original parts.”
“They probably throwed them into a pile,” his mom Judy points out.
“There was pieces everywhere,” Tommy admits.
Instead of having the frame sandblasted ó a technique just coming into use at the time ó Jason took a sidegrinder and wire brush and removed the rust by hand.
For the next eight years, he worked on the car on and off.
“We’d go wide open and then we’d burn out for awhile,” Tommy says.
In the meantime, Jason worked full-time and went to school full-time. He’s now a project manager for Spinnaker Contractors. The company does grading and installation of water/sewer lines.
On the weekends, he visited his girlfriend, Jenni Beaver, at Appalachian State University, who’s now his wife.
“We worked on it in our spare time,” he says, “and we didn’t have a lot of time.”
All told, Jason estimates he’s put $20,000 into the car’s restoration.
One of the most expensive parts of the process was getting the chrome redone. That alone carried a $3,000 price tag.
Jason used a rubber tire loader to lift the body back onto the frame.
By the summer of 2000, it was finally put back together.David painted the car its original two-tone blue. Jason found a new hood ornament at a car show ó a “bird,” even though it looks more like a jet.
It’s symbolic of the “jet age,” Tommy says.
Jason has won a handful of awards from car shows, including a first place trophy.
“The best thing about going to car shows is that men ages 45 to 70 love it,” he says. “They talk your ears off about it.”
(It would be hard to imagine these men being able to get a word in edgewise with Jason about this car, but still…)
This car owner definitely babies his vehicle.
“Since I’ve put it back together, I’ve only had it rained on once,” he says.
That’s because the window seals leak.
“There’s several things I didn’t do,” he admits.
He’d also like to eventually rewire the car, he says.
Jason takes the Mercury out four or five times a year. Tommy drives it more often.
Jason and Jenni married in 1998. They have two sons, Jacob, 4, and James, 17 months. Unfortunately, the car has no seat belts, so the family can’t ride in it yet.
“My family comes before the car now,” Jason says.
He says he’ll add seat belts eventually.
The Mercury is definitely eye-catching when it’s on the road. It’s 17 feet long, and has a trunk so big that Jason and his family could camp out in it ó comfortably.
Although it has automatic transmission, it has manual steering and manual brakes.
“It’s awful hard to drive,” Jason says.
The car was ahead of its time. It came from the factory with dual exhaust. The two-door hardtop has a 312 V-8 engine.
He estimates that the car would sell for around $15,000.
“I’ve got $20,000 in it. I couldn’t get $20,000 for it, but I wouldn’t take $50,000 for it.
“It ain’t going nowhere,” he says, rubbing his hand across the hood. “She’s my baby.”