MINNEAPOLIS, KAN. ? Months had passed since the black-and-white 1950 Mercury was pulled from a farm building and taken to be restored.

There was a lot of restoring to do to get the car that Warren and Illa Harder, of Minneapolis, had taken on their honeymoon ready for their 50th wedding anniversary.

Both of them were excited to see the finished product. Illa, though, wasn’t noticing what Warren hoped she would.

“Finally the man who did the work said, ‘I’ve got something I can’t figure out,”‘ Illa remembered. “I thought, if he can’t figure it out, I’m not going to be able to. I don’t know much about cars.”

Licensed surprise

As soon as she saw the personalized license plate on the back of the car, though, she figured it out — HONMC54 meant Honeymoon Car 1954.

“It’s the car we took when we got married,” said Illa, 67. “I was really surprised.”

She knew her husband was having the car restored, but the license plate was a surprise.

“I wanted everyone to know what the car was,” said Warren, 73, who retired from Brown Welding Supply in Salina. “It’s a honeymoon car.”

Illa said Warren is pretty sentimental about the car. Actually, she said, “he’s sentimental about everything he has.”

He has two different photo albums that document the history of the car. One of them has the original sales receipt from his purchase of the car in Salina for less than $2,000.

Warren and Illa Harder stand beside their 1950 Mercury that they took on their honeymoon in 1954. Warren Harder had the car completely restored to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his marriage to Illa.

“He’s an old man who’s into old anything,” Illa said.

Illa and Warren “always knew each other,” she said.

She can’t remember exactly when they started going together, but they were married on Nov. 21, 1954.

Texas excursion

The newlyweds didn’t have specific plans for their honeymoon. It had to be something pretty quick, though, because 17-year-old Illa had to get back to finish her last year in school.

Shortly after the wedding, Illa slid into the passenger seat of Warren’s recently purchased four-door Mercury, and they took off. They ended up at Palo Duro Canyon in Texas and ate Thanksgiving dinner in Denton, Texas, before coming home.

On their 25th wedding anniversary, the couple retraced their footsteps from that honeymoon. Warren would have liked to do it in the Mercury, but the old car had been parked since 1966 in a partially open farm outbuilding.

“We’d like to go back someday,” Illa said of the Texas trip.

They thought maybe that’s how they would break in the restored car, but health problems and medical appointments won’t allow the couple to spend that long away from home.

“We’ll take the car to church on Sunday (their anniversary),” Warren said, “and then we’ll take a short trip.”

Better than new

Warren has wanted to restore the Mercury for a long time, but he knew that it was going to be an expensive and time-consuming venture.

When the car was pulled out of the farm building in June 2003, it wasn’t the beautiful piece of machinery Warren remembered. The color was more dirt and rust than black and white. The cloth interior was ripped and falling from the seats, doors and headliner.

Warren knew it could be returned to its original splendor, though. Ron’s Restoration in Glade spiffed up the outside, and a small business in Nebraska did the interior.

But getting the car back to the way it used to be wasn’t good enough. Warren added all the features of a new car, including power everything, tilt wheel, air conditioning, a larger engine, a 10-disc CD player and insulation to keep inside noise to a minimum.

“We could have bought two brand new Lexuses,” Illa jokes.

She admits cars aren’t really her thing, but she is glad her husband took on this task.

“It was important to him, and I’m glad he was able to do it,” she said.

‘In the driver’s seat’

They’ve taken a few drives in the car. Illa, of course, was the first person to slide into the passenger seat, Warren said.

“My son really wanted to go, but he insisted his mother should be the first one,” he said.

The Harders have three children, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Illa insists that she won’t drive the car, though. She doesn’t want to be the one who puts the first ding or scratch on it.

Warren is a little concerned about that first blemish, as well. To baby his baby, he bought a trailer to haul it in.

The Harders live on a farm, and the only way to get there is a gravel road. The Mercury’s tires have yet to touch the gravel.

Warren loads the car into the trailer, hauls the car to the paved road and then unloads the car to drive it. That example, Illa explains, is why she is a bit timid about getting behind the wheel of their honeymoon car.

“Oh, she’ll drive it,” Warren said. “We’ll get her in the driver’s seat.”