Projects ACME Speed Shop New Project Car

Hello All,
Look at what I fell into today . This all original 1950 Mercury is reported to have been sitting since 1959, mostly indoors. I guess I can get into Bad Bob's Mercury Club now. Need to get transportation from TX to SoCal and then I can post some more pics of the new project.

 

nice,when did they put the skinny whites on?

 

I see these in black and still think of James Dean driving it in the movies........ Cool score!

 

Looks like the back side was inside and the front side was outside, doesn't it?

There was late 40s Buick convertible coupe in a little town just west of Houston that was half and half out of a little shed for probably decades. The front part in, damn near perfect, but the back side from the last foot or so of the door to the rear bumper, yeah, all the floptop stuff, was rotten as hell. That is, see through floors, quarters, deck lid all around. Very sad.

 

Well I have been lazy about the updates on the project so I am adding a few pics today. First we have the body seperated from the frame.

 

Shortly after that I got busy filling holes in the firewall. I do not want to go all street rod smooth more of a clean classic custom.

 

Next on the list will be to cut the truck floor and get the body on the new KA Customs frame. I want to get the doors hung before I start messing with the inner and out rockers. I have never done this before but it seems to me you will need the doors on to see that all the body lines are looking clean as you add the new sheet metal.

If you have opinions or comments I can always use the advice.

 

Here is what I am looking at for the rockers. The car was delivered with both driver side tires flat. I suspect that was the case for some time as water and then rust has taken a toll on this side of the car. The passanger side is not perfect but it it much better. I still feel lucky because I see some other starting points on here that would have me running the other way.

 

lookin good man!

 

So after some cutting, grinding and lifting I have the body on the new frame. I am very happy with the stance, it just looks good sitting there.

 

looks sweet !!

 

Doug (the funny looking guy in this photo) is one of my best buddies. He is also the general manager of my company SignSource. He is building this car as a "come back" project after sitting on the sidelines of the car building scene for a long time. It is really great to have him grinding and cutting on this project in our little corner of the sign shop we so fondly call ACME Speed Shop.

He got really lucky when he found this project and he is off and running with now. in the next few months you should see some good progress.





Isn't the lighting great in this shop? We get the "sweetest light" in the middle of the day right under the skylights.



Keep up the good work Doug!!!

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HEY NOW! You still have to complete the "Blood Initiation" and shit!!!! You can start practicing the secret hand shake though,LOL....

 

Looks like a good start!

 

Tough looking... I like it.

 

Looks great Doug , love them Mercs John has a great SBC that would fit right in there

 

Very cool Doug and John; I guess the belly tank project in the background there is on hold for now...

 

Nice find. Your progress on it looks great.

 

It's for sale!! The real deal P38 large tank, the one you want if your wallet can handle it.

 

Today I spent the time to extract the broken door hinge bolts that were left for me from the previous owner. It looks like they tried to tear off the drivers door so there was some metal massaging required. The end result is that the doors are hung and I am very happy with the gaps. Take a look....

 

Next up - rust removal

I need some advice here, I posted over in the 49-51 Mercs - Everything and Anything social group but everyone must be on vacation. I will try here and see if I get any input:

So the question is where would you start and why? I have to replace floor boards, inner rockers, outer rockers. I have gathered all the metal, the inner rockers I will make, but I am not sure what order to go in. Your input and suggestions would be much appreciated.

 

I am actually working on a floor replacement now I am really interested to hear or see the best way to do this as it has become very frustrating for me.

I was told when I started to start with the front section, driver seat and floor and then move across and back from there leaving the toe boards for last, from the company who made my shoebox repair pans.

 

Well as you can see no one is offering up any advice so I think I will have to just jump in. I do know a couple car builders so I think I may ask them first.

 

Just a couple basic, and mostly obvious, suggestions. Always make sure you are welding to clean, clean, clean metal. Like freshly sand blasted clean, no rust. If you can't make use of factory seams, make your own with an air powered step down tool...they create a nice sheetmetal thick flange that keeps the panels flat with eachother, and will add some structural strength to them. Use weld through primer-it works. Put weld through primer on both surfaces that mate. Lap welds are usually easier and stronger than butt welds in this application. Unless you're doing a concours restoration, they are perfectly acceptable, much stronger and easier to do. Having trouble clamping and holding awkward panels together? The best welding clamp I ever used is a 5 cent sheetmetal screw-pulles panels together, keeps them aligned, small holes left are easily welded up. And, use a good seam sealer over all the open seams. Otherwise, they will get moisture in them, and all your hard work will be wasted.
Just last week I saw a rocker panel I replaced back in the mid 80's, and it looks like new, because I took the time to do these things. Nice car, good luck with your project!

 

ACME Speed Shop 50 Merc project is on the move. After some collecting of parts, opinions and ideas I am off to the next stage. I secured a primo spot at ACME World Headquarters to take the car to the next level. The inner and outer rockers are trash and the floor is borderline. The plan is to replace all of it with new steel over the next several weeks. I started on the drivers side as it has the most damage. You might remember that the car arrived with two flat tires on this side and judging from the rust damage I would say it spent some years in the weather this way. Below are some pictures and please chime in as I have never done this before. Well hell it's only metal, right??

 

Great seeing you today Doug. Thanks for the tour of the "Secret Shop",that was way cool!!! Matt was pretty surprised how good the frame looked. He said it looks better than his. We are already getting ideas on what to do first. Thanks again for the killer deal! I'm VERY happy with it...
Probably won't be ready for the body swap til next summer.

Can't believe I forgot to take my camera with me! It's surgically attatched to my body!!!

 

Looks like a trip to a friendly to the metal sandblaster is in order. Good project. Keep at it.

 

Cool project. Great work so far. Hope the floor replacement works out, I have never done it before so I am no help. Can't wait to see more of this build as you go!

 

ACME Speed Shop was open today and I got some more work done on the project Mercury. Today I removed the first section of floor pan and carefully cut the replacment out of the donor. My plan is to run a flange on the replacment pieces that will overlap the old metal. I can then spot weld thru to connect both. Here some pictures

 

Here are some pics of the donor



You can see in this pic that I will not be using the donor inner rockers, I plan to make my own.