Projects WINTER PROJECT - 49 Merc

For a period of time I had been looking to purchase a car of my own to cruise in. Due to my current limited storage space and time restraints I was looking for a complete and registered vehicle that I could modify over time to make my own. I ended up buying Feder's chopped 49 Merc as I couldn't p*** up on the opportunity to purchase a cl***ic cruiser, that needed a tidy up but that I could get on the road relatively quickly over here in Australia.

The next post has a photo from Feder

After a few months and all the necessary paperwork, shipping and ***istance from Feder I finally picked up the Merc from the shipping company here in Australia eager to get it on the road.

That's where my Winter project began:

Unfortunately due to much stricter registration requirements here in Aus and projects being projects it has become a much bigger and more extensive project than expected as will be detailed in further posts.

 

This is the pic my brother meant....



At this point, I'd like to make it known, that we were aware the car needed some loving, and whilst we didn't appreciate how much, we knew it was going to probably need a 'tidy-up'. Fair enough, no problems.





Now also, keep in mind, we're on the other side of the world, and didn't see it prior to purchase, so, our bad, we should have enquired more...and invested in a flight to visit first.

Great chop, beatiful stance, and whilst being a 20' car, thought it to be a great opportunity.

When the car arrived, impressions were similar, but we wanted it up on the hoist, just to see what we needed to do for our Oz rego, as our regulations are quite 'tight', and there are many standards we must comply to for a car to be permitted to travel on the roads etc...

Here's a few things we saw which we needed to address.

Steering....welded joints not aceptable here...





rust is not permitted...at all.




Ch***is rails and crossmembers needed some love...





Cracked & bent diff housing



We needed a bit more driveshaft tunnel clearance..



plus we needed to rethink our rear suspension, what was on the cards anyhow..

 

So, we thought best to remove the body, as it would make it easier to do the required repairs, on both body and ch***is...





Now, again, the above is not aimed as a 'sledge' to the previous owner/builder, just mentioning a few of the issues which we needed to address before we could get rego down here...

The front suspension was literally riding on bumpstops, and had cracked ch***is/suspension components from driving like this, so, it was decided that the front suspension would be replaced with some JAG components, power steering included (sorry, but that big 429 Cad engine is heavy, plus we wanted the luxury of bagging it easily), repair the centre crossmembers to a similar format as original, and we'd shorten a replacement diff housing, and build a triangulated 4 link.

here...





and here..

 

So....are you happy with the deal,or not? Can't tell if you are complaining or just pointing out some issues you want to take care of.

 

The previous fuel tank arrangement was a fuel cell placed in the trunk, which, our rego guys dislike, so, we removed the previous stuff (rust included)



and fitted a locally made GM utility (comodore) fuel tank



and adjusted floor to suit the new suspension arrangement



Note: the car was 'jigged' at our ride height prior to doing the repair work, squared, and straightened. New ride height is 4 1/2".

Note x 2: alot of help in this project came via our good friend Jim, very helpful, and has done the bulk of the dirty work.

 

Not complaining just making it clear that needed to resolve a few issues, wait young jedi warrior, more coming....

 

here's the repaired hole...





and tunnel mods...



had the ch***is & suspension blasted, and then we repainted gloss black

 

Gloss black is nice...







Then repaired body back on, with the engine/trans recieving a 'lesbian rebuild' (lick of paint, and new mounts & gasket kit)

 

and finally off the hoist, sitting on some temporary wheels.

 

now.....whilst bright etc, this was the previous dash layout



which, we decided to rebuild the gauges to get them to work, as well as paint it gloss black (including the wheel, hope to eventually replace with an original merc twirler if we can find one to adapt).

 

to which, we have since got the car wired back together, handbrake fitted, new seat belts and front laminated gl***. The front seat was another Cad unit, and since Grant wanted to carry p***engers (ie me and my family ) we build a rear seat (previously nothing there) from a cut down HQ Holden rear seat, and retrimmed the lot to suit the black/timeless look we're after...simple, neat, and basic.

 

The front sheetmetal and drivers door goes back on this weekend hopefully.

Again, just thought we'd show people what we've been up to in the last few months, progress is good, and hopefully rego & cruising in the next few weeks.....hopefully.

Cheers,

Drewfus

 

No complaints, happy with the deal just wanted to detail the project and explain why we made some of the mods. As mentioned I was aware of the fact she would need some lovin for Aussie standards.

 

Looking good, and good luck on the finishing.

 

Looks good. The torched out X member was a little spooky looking, your new framework looks very clean.

"Lesbian rebuild" is one I'm going to have to remember, I like that.

 

You do some nice work!

 

So,you're saying that you guys HAVE TO do these improvements in order to register the car in Austrailia? I knew they were really strict about cars coming into the country,but,no rust is allowed? Seems extreme!
You guys are doing a great job Should be a great driver when you're done...
Keep us posted!

 

No rust.

The cars get yearly inspections, including fee's etc, not to mention that because the car is modified, it also has to have RTA certified engineers check it out, do a report and put their name to the 'engineering' of the car, hence the need to have the car structurally sound, well presented, and as 'legit' as we can be.

Cheers,

Drewfus

 

Looks like you will be cruising real soon

Keep up the good work.

 

Looking good guys. Upholstery looks great. As i said i hope to see it at day of the drags as long as you get the engineering paper work sorted it should be there. Good luck.

Troy

 

Good job so far guys. Keep us posted on all the great work being done. Hope you'll be crusin that thing soon and havin some fun.

 

Looking good alright.
You have great taste in choice of ride...
I have a '49 Lincoln coupe and have done much the same.
Ditched the X member. Fitting box section centre section.
Fitted complete JAG front subframe grafted to Lincoln Ch***is.
Boxed pretty well all the ch***is side rails.
It has a Caddy 500" in it.
Jag independent rear as well.
Over here in NZ we have similar STRICT rules and
all engineering needs certification etc for registration
to allow it on the road.

Good luck.

.

 

Hats off boys, doing a great job.

 

Very nice job guys!!

 

Great work.

 

Thanks all,

I should clarify that a lot of the mods we've done have been to bring it up to our strict standards, a number of others have just been upgrades that I decided we'd do whilst we had the thing in pieces.

E.g. the rear suspension appart from improving the setup it could have stayed, but with the decision to airbag it and for handling etc I decided to upgrade properly.

Fuel cell was an issue that I could have gotten around (although problematic), but since we had to cut some rust out of the boot floor I decided to regain the boot and replace it.

Well and a bunch of it is just the usual project experience, you start with something and decide to change it and it has a domino effect and/ or well I've come this far so I might as well upgrade that while I'm at it etc etc All part of the fun, and looking forward to getting the beast on the road.

 

If the cars in the United States had to have yearly rust inspections, We would be screwed !

 

You have done some nice work here...getting the body out of the way really makes for a much nicer job on the ch***is. I am looking at various options for my 50 Merc in the way of IFS. Many of the Ford F100 guys here use the Jag IFS, I was wondering how the width of that Jag suspension matches up with the Merc sheetmetal?

 

great car looks like you are having fun already .keep up the good work .

 

I decided that if i'm gonna fix it I might as well do it properly, so the only way to go is to strip the thing in pieces, and your right it was the only way we could do a nice job on the ch***is.

I've used a Jag front end out of a XJS series 3 including the steering rack so I now have a disc brake front end with power steering. In relation to the ch***is the front end fits really easily. In relation to the front sheetmetal thats about to be found out, I'll let you know for sure once we do it but from the measurements it should fit really easily, we may need to just replace the lower portion of the inner guard to fit around it, but only slightly so no big deal. Only problem is that due to the change of front I need a couple new wheels as the Jag has a different stud pattern than the old Merc pattern.