Recently, we shared this odd/gorgeous Fiat concept that possesses the best pop-up lighting arrangement ever conceived by man. Continuing on with the theme of extra cool ways to dispens lumens, there’s one particular car that’s both ordinary and extraordinary, under-appreciated, and possesses all the potential to make a really neat build.
We’re talking about none other than the second-generation Mercury Sable.
Recently, we happened upon one enthusiast’s concoction of this marvelous Merc, and gotta say, it’s a little out of left field for a project car—and therefore epically cool. Owner Azhurel Mendes from Utah has put some work into his and has some cool plans in mind; let’s dig into what exactly.
A Labor of Love
Mendes wasn’t quite in the market when he bought the Sable, but needed something as a quick replacement. Here’s how he outlined it to The Autopian via email—it actually helped revive his love of cars:
I bought the car in July 2022, continuing a three-year streak of buying a car every year in summer. Unlike the last cars, though, this one was a necessity. Unfortunately, in April 2022 my beloved first car, the 2002 Mustang GT, was hit at an intersection when a distracted driver ran a red light. Honestly, that was one of the worst days of my life and it took a long time to recover from that. But eventually I did, and my interest in cars slowly started to come back, as I was more & more able to appreciate cars again without being reminded of that traumatic car accident.
The new-to-him Merc didn’t look this clean when he picked it up—quite the opposite, actually. “When I first got the car, it was a mess,” Mendes told us. “It was very crusty, half of the headlight bulbs were out, and the battery was too small; it was literally held in place by a block of wood. The inside was disgusting and reeked, and the tires were so old that they were actually dangerous to drive on.”
So he got to work cleaning it up and making it reasonably safe to drive. He threw on new tires to start, then hired a buddy to give it a thorough detail inside-out. Thankfully, a bit of elbow grease really paid off and revealed a practically good-as-new interior. The same goes for its paint and headlights.
Then, he did as one naturally would do with this-generation Sable, at least anyone who’s reading this: Fixed its iconic light bar. “The next thing on the agenda was to talk to local car guys about getting my headlights LED-swapped,” Mendes said. “That tremendously improved the look and usability of the car, and led to people beginning to turn their heads and give my car a thumbs up at night.”
Upping One’s Game
It’s great he got this Sable to good overall shape, but he doesn’t plan to stop there. “The full build plan is kind of a mixture of a West Coast lowrider/cruiser type-of-build, with a theme of ‘90s sci-fi futurism to lean into that ‘spaceship’ look that the car already has.” We agree; the light bar, skirted rear wheels, and overall shape was definitely forward-thinking when new. He plans to put it on air suspension by summertime, but says it’s tough choosing between that, fixing his 2002 Mustang GT, or being more financially responsible. We’re familiar with this kind of predicament, though less so with the third option.
Additionally, he’d like to throw on “smaller stretched white wall tires, chrome plate the OEM Sable Saw Blades (love that people call ‘em that, by the way), repaint the car in beautiful factory Light Evergreen Frost, and [I] would love to flake the roof as well,” Mendes shared. “That would really set the car off as an eye-catching West Coast ‘good vibes’ type of low n’ slow cruiser.” We thoroughly agree.
Celebrate Neat Cars
This ‘90s FoMoCo icon and his ‘02 Mustang aren’t the only steeds in Mendes’ stable. He’s also got a ‘78 Dodge Charger, which seems far more rare than a clean ‘90s Sable. “As for my other car, the 1978 Dodge Challenger, it’s just so rare, and such a cool timepiece of the ever-fascinating Malaise Era, that it too also holds a special place in my heart.
The Sable is one of the most attention-grabbing cars on Mendes Instagram, where he also devotes a lot of posts to car spotting. “Having this account also furthered my interest in quirky, unusual, under-loved cars, as those are always the hardest to car spot, so they inherently feel the most elusive and special to see.”
In fact, he’s so dedicated to all things automotive, that he’d love to pursue writing about them as a career. He’s currently majoring in English in college, so he’s well on his way. We wish him all the luck with his studies, and look forward to seeing how his stable of cars progress.
There’s something undeniably cool about doing this with a typically “uncool” car.
I have always liked the front light setup on that generation of Sable.
We rented one when they first came out to take on a trip because we owned a Pinto as our “good” car. We got flashed non-stop by people who thought we had our high beams on.
I’ve never seen a Sable without at least one of the front bulbs burned out, so one with a full working set looks pretty rad just on that facet alone.
These Sables were so futuristic at the time. The first thing that pops in my mind when I see one from this generation is a conehead sticking up through the sunroof. Awesome job on the lighting fix
There is a reasonable number of 90s cars that I’ve through of doing this kind thing to.
Most of them are rears, maybe the Mecury Sable and Topaz are the only ones that had front light bars
2nd gen Subaru Legacy
SVX (and maybe the front counts as light bar too)
Eclipse
Prelude
Saab 900
Chrysler Concorde
Some already had lights built in like the Catera. Although the Mk VIII was probably the best one.
The Topaz’s “light bar” didn’t illuminate though, ditto for the Tracer. The Villager’s did illuminate. Grand Prix had an illuminated light bar also.
You are correct, the Topaz lightbar didn’t illuminate. A few sockets and a few bulbs was all it took to rectify that situation.
https://i0.wp.com/www.curbsideclassic.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/lightbar03.jpg
My first car was a ‘94 Concorde, and high school me always wanted to complete the tailgate bar
The 2000 Pontiac Bonneville has a full width taillight bar that doesn’t get illuminated, and it looks quite strange. Especially considering how bright the corners are.
Typo in the third-to-last paragraph. Is the third car a ’78 Charger or Challenger? Those are two very different cars.
Challenger — and his Instagram hashtags are clear on the Mitsubishi heritage
Celebrate Neat Cars is a great motto.
He’s gotta get rid of those ugly white wall tires. Find some SHO slicers and bolt those babies on!
Absolutely not! Those whitewall tires were everywhere when that car was new. It looks minty fresh with those tires. Those cars look odd with blackwall tires.
+1. That era was the absolute last gasp of “whitewall” tires – just a thin line at the point, but still so fitting for a Mercury.
Counterpoint: White wall tires are not, have never been, and never will be ugly. They give tires with actual sidewall the visual illusion of having larger rims. Same reason concept cars have ridiculously huge rims. It just looks good.
I’m with you, I think it can look good on the lowrider build as the owner envisions, but on the factory wheels it looks out of place and usually does on aero designs to me. On more traditional/classic designs sure, they were definitely still standard on the Grand Marquis at the time – but as I can recall they were never offered by the factory on the Sable. That was just the type of image it was trying to shed.
Nah, hard pass on any white walls. I just don’t like it on any car, even classics. But to each their own.
For 1950’s and earlier cars giant whitewalls on the tires just look right to me. After that it’s a case by case basis.
For the owner of this Sable trying to mod it period-correctly, whitewall tires are perfectly acceptable. Of course that may be influenced by having lived through that time and having grandparents who proudly rocked whitewall tires on their late 1980’s K-car and Caprice, respectively. My parents opted to turn in the whitewall when given the choice at new tire time.
Grandpa would always spring for the white walls for a little panache. No different here.
Beldar Conehead : A personal conveyance named after its inventor, an assassinated ruler, a character from Greco-Roman myth and a small fur-covered mammal.
I always loved the “what if” mod where a car is modded in period largely using the OEM’s contemporary parts bin as well as features that look OEM so that the car appears to be a factory rarity or prototype. When these were out, I liked the idea of making an SHO version. Not just a drivetrain swap and the Ford exterior parts, but a distinctly Mercury version with its own badges in the same typeface as the Sable (Cyclone maybe or a unique name, maybe Xtreme or something similarly fitting for lame ’90s marketing). Anyway, this just made me think of that.
Have we ever decided if a heckblende can exist on the front of the car?
No.
Lighting laws, however archaic they may be, exist for a reason. As car modifications go, lighting mods have the most continuous and dangerous effects on other drivers. Sure, a stretched tire *may* be more likely to pop and throw a car out of control, but lighting modifications *will* blind other drivers, potentially causing mayhem. Light responsibly.
My thought too. I hope that the LED swap included a test to make sure that the aren’t blinding to oncoming traffic. Specifically with that center bar… I’m guessing that ye olde bulbs were not bright enough to warrant any sort of aiming mechanism. Is that thing just indiscriminately throwing light in front of the car above the road?
Happy to be wrong though. I drove a contemporary Taurus in high school and have lots of good memories of it.
I mean, that last photo makes me pretty optimistic. You can see the mist in front of the headlights, but not in front of the light bar.
Yeah, back in the day, the light bar just glowed (when it was working, I mean)…it didn’t really project. Given the owner’s attention to detail, seems likely he’s replicating that.
I’m so confused because I got LASIK and I’m fine driving at night. I only feel that maybe 1/100 cars’ headlights are too bright.
Plus I’d take too bright over too dim anyday, especially having suffered the latter in my old Econoline.
I swapped my Prius’ bulbs for LEDs in early 2020. It still has a clean cutoff well below the windows of other cars on the road, and no one has flashed their highs at me since then.
The owner might have confused thumbs with the middle fingers.
You are the best kind of correct (“technically”), but the LED “bulbs” have improved dramatically in this area. 5 years ago, they all put the emitters several millimeters away from where the filament is supposed to be, spraying light everywhere. Today, the good ones are within a fraction of a milimeter of being optically correct – good enough that I consider the factory LEDs to be a bigger manace in any location with even the slightest elevation change.
I finally hopped onto that train after getting tired of replacing expensive H13 bulbs yearly. The LED bulbs I have appear identical to the old H13’s for cutoff and spread.
The results in projector housings are nothing short of amazing. Better than top tier luxury car HIDs 15 years ago. I would go so far as to say that I’ve never seen the LED “bulb” retrofit not have a good beam pattern in a projector, but cheap ones don’t actually produce enough light to be a net benefit.
Reflector housing really do need to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, though. One needs to honest with oneself and not hesitate to pull the bulbs and send them back if the pattern is bad.
Agreed. If the listing says 20,000 lumens from a pair of 9005 bulbs, what else are they lying about? Those are 1700 lumens each, which is pretty good for halogen bulbs. Now if something says 5-6000 lumens for the pair, I’d believe that since 9011 bulbs are 2300 lumens or so and fit* right into a 9005 housing. But always be diligent!
Unfortunately it’s worse than that if you’re shopping on Amazon. The best ones I’ve found were labeled “40,000 lumens”. They are not 40,000, but they are a lot. The labels are completely useless – the only way to judge is based on price and maybe reviews. You can probably use the numbers to compare two from the same “brand”.
“Reflector housing really do need to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, though.”
That is why each and every aftermarket headlamp and taillamp kits as well as the LED bulbs have to go through the rigorous testing process before it is approved for road use by Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt (KBA) in Germany. Once approved, the kit has the certificate and stickers to apply to the designated areas in the car and on the car’s documentation.
The problem with the American system is many of them are “self-certified”, meaning they could theoretically meet the FMVSS but not. The packages always have this warning: “For off-road use only”. Yet, nobody’s enforcing the compliance.
No way any of them have any certifications at all, self or otherwise. There’s far worse stuff than this rolling around on our roads though, just don’t be a dick.
BAD lighting modifications *will* blind other drivers.
You know you can modify lighting without blinding people, right? Light responsibly, and that doesn’t mean you can’t have any LEDs lol