Since 2017, Garth Robstad has been tracking down parts for his 1949 Mercury M-47 from throughout the province.
The different components came from various communities throughout Saskatchewan, including Landis, Handel, Borden and Prince Albert.
It’s the true Canadiana of the truck that initially drew him to the Mercury.
“The Mercury truck is all Canadian built,” Robstad said. “Everything about it is all made in Canada; it wasn’t even sold in the U.S.”
Although the project has been going on for three years, it’s the extra time granted to him due to the COVID-19 lockdown that allowed him to put in five to six hours of work on the truck daily.
“That’s when I really started to put a lot of work into it, eh. To do that you need a lot of time, space and an understanding wife.”
Robstad may have over 1,000 man-hours into the refurbishing and rebuilding of the M-47, however, it was hardly the most time-consuming part of the process.
“Searching for parts, my god, I spent more hours searching for parts than I did actually building it,” he said.
He may have a little bit of work left to do on the ’49 Mercury, but that hasn’t stopped Robstad from already eyeing up his next project.
“I have a whole 1948 ready to go,” he said. “All I’m missing is the drive shaft so far. So I’ve done quite a bit of work on that also.”
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