Gene Winfield’s 1956 Mercury Jade Idol: Wrecked, Sold for Nothing, Then Found in a Junk Shop

The Jade Idol began as a brand new 1956 Mercury two-door hardtop purchased by Leroy Kemmerer of Castro Valley, California. Kemmerer drove the Mercury as his daily car until 1958 when he brought it to Gene Winfield's custom shop in Modesto. He gave Winfield freedom to redesign the car within a $15,000 budget, provided Winfield could use it on the show circuit for a year. Winfield radically transformed the Mercury. He sectioned the body by four inches, creating a lower, smoother profile. It was the first car he had ever sectioned. Handmade aluminum front fenders carried canted-quad Lucas headlights, while the unusual headlight rings were made from 1959 Chrysler Crown Imperial hubcaps. A Frenched rectangular grille with stainless inserts, 1957 Dodge fender flares, rubber-tipped nerfs, and a rolled pan completed the front. At the rear, Winfield grafted quarter panels from a 1957 Chrysler New Yorker onto the Mercury. Red Lucite lenses were fitted into the reshaped fenders, and the rear grille echoed the treatment at the front. The bumpers were custom bars covered with aluminum extrusion and rubber inserts from a Porsche 356. The trunk was smoothed and reshaped. The interior was equally radical. Winfield removed the factory dashboard and built a padded replacement with an integrated television. The instruments were mounted in the steering wheel hub using an Edsel steering column and its center-mounted push-button shifter wiring. Swivel cocktail chairs were upholstered in pleated white naugahyde and green velvet. The stock engine remained, but Winfield modified it and added a Thunderbird automatic transmission with a floor shifter. The defining feature was his experimental fadeaway candy paint, a technique he had developed in the late 1950s. Completed in 1959, the build required a year and ultimately cost $16,500. Kemmerer could not cover the final expenses, so Winfield personally contributed $1,100. The Jade Idol toured nationally under Winfield's name and repeatedly won awards for custom design, paint, interior, engineering, and best of show. Its story then took a dramatic turn. While returning from a Missouri show, the trailer carrying the Mercury overturned, damaging the roof and rear quarter panel. Winfield rebuilt the car himself, including welding on a new roof and repainting it. When Kemmerer finally reclaimed the Mercury, a police officer issued him 14 citations for violations, including its low ride height, missing taillight reflectors, and absent license plate. After several years, Kemmerer sold the impractical custom for only a few hundred dollars. By 1979, the Jade Idol had deteriorated badly. Rod Powell discovered it in a body shop, stripped to a rusty shell and nearly destined for a Corvette chassis. Its original frame and loose parts were recovered, and Jerry Wren undertook an authentic restoration with help from Ted Mitchell and Powell. The car passed through several owners, including Bob Page, John D'Agostino, and Billy Belmont, who restored it again. In 2017, Belmont sold it to collector Tim McMahon. McMahon returned the Mercury to Winfield's shop, where Gene recreated his original fade paint. The restored Jade Idol made its public appearance at the 2018 Cruisin' Nationals in Santa Maria, California. Today, the Jade Idol remains one of Winfield's defining creations. Its 4-inch sectioned body, experimental paintwork, and radical craftsmanship helped establish Gene Winfield as a nationally recognized customizer and secured the Mercury a lasting place in American custom car history.