All: I'm about to dig into my gasser build. It's going to be period correct for circa early 60's. Full interior etc. It's a 1953 Mercury Monterey hardtop getting a '63 vette 327. Anyway, full custom interior (uphostery, not metal etc) and other neat stuff. Just figured some will be interested, just don't know where to post the thread so I don't tick off too many people. (Although the 327 into the Merc just hit some nerves...) THx!! Here's a link to Project Quicksilver, although not much has started on it yet. www.facebook.com/quicksilvermerc
327 in a merc, Well it is a race car and Chebbys were race motors, weren't they. Never the less just to get it out of the way, "Belly Button, Belly Button, Belly Button !!!!!!" Nyah, Nyah. There now we can have a real thread about a real period gasser, I'll be watching. It will be nice to see a genuine traditional gasser for a change. You won't get to sit with the "really cool kids" but there is always room at my table in the cafeteria.
Thanks! yea it SHOULD debut at the Meltdown next year. I'm cutting off any styling/mods at 1963 roughly. I've got some good reference pics of a '54 Merc gasser that is helping with direction. No straight axle, it will run the original suspension and either squat the back a little or put some stronger coils in to get the nose up a little. With no front bumper on it it might sit right all on it's own. And as far as belly button yea I wanted to do a y block or FE but the $$ involved with that was quite a bit higher so knowing that true racers and hot rod guys back in the day stuck whatever they could get the hands on into the cars pushed me towards the 327 . And it's a real unmolested 327 (not stroking etc) circa 1963 with a forged crank and iron heads. NOS Offy dual quad intake etc etc... Will be fun to build, hopefully people enjoy. Thanks for the razzing... I enjoy it!
I just stick everything on the main board, or general discussion. If it gets movedto a more appropriate place that's fine and if not its still fine. It sounds about perfect. In '63 you would have seen more old heaps running stockish suspension than straight axles. Hell in '65 this car won Indy and it was running independent, by then a straight axle was actually legal.
Here's some of my inspiration... '54 with slightly modded wheel wells, no bumper. This was 62-63 due to the pic owner's 3 window in the background...
I owned half of one of these in high school set up like the '54 you posted. We had a lot of fun in that old car. It still wore the original blue paint, and it shined like a new dime.
here's the car currently... well, the front clip is off now... I'll start an official build thread soon...
Hey Brando In 63' there were cars like mine that had a tube axle, and to be gasser correct you should have full radius rear fenders for the rears to stick out a bit as that is the was it was DND
You do realize of course that an FE will bolt right in there with factory mounts, right? Old trick is turn Y-block mounts around. Trans and clutch linkage are easy, came that way. And the cheaper thing just doesn't factor if you know where to shop- a 416 FE is ridiculously cheap to build, just need a 360/390/410 block, a set of late + .030 390 pickup pistons, which are actually 410 Mercury pistons and very cheap on epay, a 410/428 crank, and some ARP rod bolts. It'll have lotsa torque, shake the car pretty good and thunder real good- and not bastardize a nice car with a justanotherboring Chebbie engine. In the real world, it'll take a lot more work to install the scrub engine than an FE, so the whole cheaper argument is not valid
Based on almost free block and crank and free engine build cheaper is a valid argument in my situation. Plus the SBC has bolt in motor/trans mounts from Butch's and a good aluminum radiator. I researched a lot of combinations and keeping within budget and being period correct means yanking the flatty (which goes in my Model A) and inserting the 327. I'm a ford guy, have a '30 A sedan, a '32 roadster with a flatty, a '46 coupe and the Merc. Following true history period correct, anything goes on the engine as long as it was available in 62-63. I'm not gonna get butt hurt like others over the SBC thing but I'm fairly certain there won't be another '53 Merc like this one anywhere.
Forgot to mention that this is also not an A/G car. Little cubes. Only Ford option was Y Block and that's big $ for horsepower. Love them, my fav next to the flathead but spending those valuable dollars elsewhere on the car.
Why would the Y-block be the only option? FE has been around since '58. Sorry, just hate to see a nice car get bastardized like that- if it was a 53 Chebbie, by all means- but it ain't a Chebbie, and the "reasons" for using a Chebbie engine are hollow at best. It's not ever gonna be a real gasser anyway, just a hot rod in gasser style, so a class is kinda irrelevant
This is a forum for hotrods and customs. Put whatever you want in your car but this guy wanted one of the most popular engine in those days.
The Jalopy Journal
