Projects My 1951 Mercury Restoration Part II

HELL YA! I hope it's what we talked about. Cool shit John!

 

John, car looks good. is that the grille from my old Xbox?

 

If you are the guy who I bought the '51 Ford grille from, then yes! That is next along with the door stuff. Interior can wait until next year.

Mike the old exhaust wasn't 2.5, it was smaller. It was 2.0 or 2.25. With the new 2.5 dual exhaust and these manly mufflers, the car is actually faster. I had it on the highway and it ran happier up to 80 mph.

I like how it sounds so much I drove it again before I put my boys to bed.

I put 2 chamber flows on there if anyone is curious, and you can really hear the cam now too. I love it. Haven't had a set of these mufflers on a car since 2000.

 

:d! 4 ya!

 

I too am going through a restoration/build project on a 51 merc coupe. Mine is chopped, frenched lights, peaked hood, 53 Chevy grill, shaved deck lid and doors. and radiused corners.

I just bought a 53 dash and plan to put it in. Engine-wise, I'm putting together a dual 471 supercharged flathead. The engine was built by Eli Tanner in Chandler, AZ. Tom Roberts in Ventura, CA did the intake and supercharger drive set up. The blower set up is a Jerry Magnuson design and build.

I'm still undecided on color and plan to take most of the rest of this year off and take a break from it.

Tequila Bob

 

Sounds cool Bob.

A number of my switches are housed in my awful tweed console. So removing that and figuring out what I'm doing with them all is a project all by itself.

Does anyone know the approximate width of the Sam Barris Mercury grille or know anyone who has access to the car?

 

I'm going to try the following guys to polish my vent window stainless:

Courtesy Metal Polishing

<cite>maps.google.com</cite>

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</td><td valign="top"><table class="ts"><tbody><tr><td valign="top">735 N Addison Rd # B
Villa Park, IL 60181-1469
<nobr>(630) 832-1862</nobr>
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I've read good review of them, and so hopefully I will swing by there at 7AM tomorrow morning, hours are 6am to 3pm.

 

I dropped off my vent windows with Tino at Courtesy. He actually took the time to polish part of one, and I really liked how it came out... I'll post the pic I took.

Can I get anyone thinking of adding chopped-down vendows to their Merc?

SEND THEM to Matt Towsend! He can bend them and cut the excess. Most folks cut down the frame and the window frame, and then it creates a bunch more work. My local guy did cut and weld with stainless not steel but many DON'T. My local guy hit the final products with a grinder and that just created more work for the polisher. It would have been better for him to leave the extra weld crap on there.

If you use Matt, you are probably only looking at $50-100 to polish the parts instead of double that. And the finished product will look better.

 

That sounds great. I was going to try for full window glass and delete the vent windows. And I'm not even sure that that is possible.

My problem is that my car is in Michigan and, at the moment, I'm in Mexico.

Tequila Bob

 

My car had smaller glass fixed in place instead of vent windows. Looks bad, saves money.

Check out the difference after he polished part of one, this was in 15 minutes:

 

Very nice PSJ.

 

Yep, I was impressed. Look at the bottom part of the polished part, it has a little dip in the edge? That's what happens when you grind off too much of the weld, the polisher can't add back in metal. We plan to grind it down and hopefully it won't be noticeable.

 

I swung by and picked up the polished vent windows, came out really nice. I left the frames by my buddy who will drill out the rivets for me since I he has a work bench and I am a city dweller. Then I'll pick them up, the u channels will be off, and then I can bring back the top section to Courtesy and have those polished too. So in next 2 weeks I can put the door windows all back together and in the car. Polishing cost me $75 for both wind window frames, they were really crappy too. Tino fixed up all the metal where it was pinched in and stuff.

Again, use someone like Matt Townsend for this stuff, my local guy cost probably twice as much and we had to fix stuff.

Pic:

 

Those look great!!!!!

 

Nice! It's the little things that set off an elegant gangsta custom. Well done PSJ!

 

Nice ! details make em pop

 

They look good!

 

All that little shinny stuff will make the merc really pop! Glad you finally got them all situated john

 

Looks good John. It is great to have a driver, it allows you to accomplish little tasks, but still cruise. I know have both of the Mercs in my shop now and neither one is a driver.

 

Speaking of driver, I drove the Merc two hours today straight, which made up for not driving it the last 1.5 weeks... Some pics for Chopnweld...

 

wow. it turned out beautifully!

 

Car is lookin great. I look forward to seeing it in person someday

 

Damn! That thing looks great in the sun. Nice choices everywhere on your sled PSJ! Something to be said for listening to those guys on the HAMB with experience. slddnmatt comes to mind amongst others. Thanks for the pics; looks sweeeeeeet!

 

Driving notes:
-I've been blowing off fixing the brake lights, but I'll dig into 'em the next time I mess with the car.
-I wish I had 100 more hp, I can't imaging bombing around in one of these cars with the stock flathead, I'd be bus slow.
-I've had it up to 90mph... I need to rebuild the front rack next year.
-I kinda wish I had front turn signals but I don't want to cut into the front of the fenders... Suggestions?
-What gaskets do I need for my door glass? One set of wing window gaskets, but then another gasket or two more?
-My buddy is removing the u channel from the vent window frame, then I can get it polished, and then I can re-rivet that and put it all in the car.
-When installing the wing window setup, do I put the wing window in the frame first, gasket and all, and then put the whole deal in? Do I put the frame in and tighten before the big door glass is installed?
-What size adhesive strip do I use to connect the wing window glass to the open-ended frame?

 

enjoyed this thread, merc looks ace, sam grill,lotsa good info and opinions, also a lot of good talent and taste here.

 

How about incorporating them into the grille bar?

Bill Busch Merc:



Dale Marshall Merc:



Dan Landon Chevy:



Barris used many variations on this theme (including bullets in the Quesnel Merc.)

 

For turn signals, check out the headlights with a turn signal built in to the bottom. You can find them on ebay.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1950-1955-M...Truck_Parts_Accessories&vxp=mtr#ht_1288wt_858

 

Wow Doc, those are cool, that could work! Thanks! Mo, been thinking about doing something like that... even discretely mounting some lights... Old grill had some small lights behind the grill looked sloppy.

I've "fixed" my brake lights again. Problem I have is a I have sloppy pressure switch on a bracket that has side play in it. When I'm off the brake, the switch is pressed in by the brake pedal. I got tired of having folks tell me my brakes didn't work.

I snuck out and drove Mercula again for an hour. I'm pretty much at a point where the car is reliable. I drove 3 hours this weekend and no issues except for the sloppy brake switch.

Other things I need to do....
-Find a better looking steering wheel that will bolt to a late model tilt column
-Do you guys know if the door sills are stainless? I will get mine polished. Should I put something under them like felt to keep the sills from scratching the heck out of the body there?
-What are folks using for felt type door stoppers... keep it from being metal on metal when the door is closed?
-I'm thinking of running a rear view mirror that screws into the top of my dash like a Corvette, any parts suggestions?

 

Mo, what do you think those end bullets are with the lights? Buick?

 

I'm sorry I can't say, John. I edited my post with a couple more examples, and identified the cars, so maybe they can be researched.
I would think there are many to choose from (possibly including '49 Chevy, or '54 Plymouth?) that would best suit your grille. If I find specifics on the Bill Busch car, I will let you know. (I expect someone here to recognize them first, however!)