1951 Mercury Lead Sled Hits the High Road.

from the NYT:
    "A customized 1951 Mercury coupe astonished aficionados over the weekend, selling for $1.95 million at the Mecum collector car auction in Kissimmee, Fla., outpacing the vehicle’s presale estimate of up to $1.25 million. The two-tone green coupe — known as the Hirohata Merc for the 21-year-old Japanese American Navy veteran, Masato Hirohata, who commissioned it in 1952 — is a prime example of the custom car scene that blossomed in Southern California at that time...'This sale is a record for a 1951 Mercury, and the highest-selling custom car that wasn’t a movie or TV show car,' John Wiley, manager of valuation analytics at the classic car insurer Hagerty, said on Sunday. 'The continuing relevance of the Hirohata Merc thrills us. A car that was customized almost 70 years ago, within the context of an emerging American art form, is still revered today.'
    "Few cars share the Merc’s pedigree. It was built by many of the most prominent names in the midcentury Southern California custom car scene, including George Barris..."

AL has posted a bunch of early-50s Mercs, some of them leaded. Here's Mercury Charlie's '51. 

A lead-free '49 Merc for sale in Saskatchewan a while back. 

A funky, faded '49 spotted in the Sierras. 

A '50 in Ely, Nevada. 

And a 1951 Mercury Monarch in Vancouver.

from Wikipedia: In automotive usage, a lead sled is a standard production automobile with a body heavily modified in particular ways (see below); especially, though not exclusively, a 1949, 1950 or 1951 model year Ford 'Shoebox' or Mercury Eight car. In the name, "lead" (as in the heavy metal) refers to the heavy weight of the body, and "sled" refers to the lowering of the vehicle, giving these vehicles the appearance that they were "slip sliding" down the highway.
Period auto body repair, by an auto body mechanic used to be achieved through a combination of re-shaping sheet metal using specialist hand tools and the application of molten lead to damaged body panels, fulfilling the role of more modern polyester fillers.