Projects Bought a Mercury on purpose

Thanks again, under this system the students choose to come to you, and at least some of them will want to be there. How long is a session with you? Do they get to your class once a week for a couple of periods or is it every day for a semester. The reason I ask is do the students get to see the completion of a whole project in the time they spend with you?

 

Dang Anthony, sure seems you love your “paid job” and do the same thing at home. Best of both worlds so to speak.
I love what I do at work, but hate having doing similar things at home

 

They can attend our school 10th thru 12th grade.
I have 3 classes 5 days a week.
most eventually get to see things finished.
But some are long term. One vehicle has been there at least 10 years. But it’s mostly for practice. Didn’t have much to work on when I got there. I had a newer but beat truck, wrecked all over. Bought cheap.
Over the past 10 years, groups of students have learned welding on it. One group body dropped the cab. Another group did the bed. That taught structural repair. Other groups shaved handles, notched and Zd the frame. More welding taught.
then as it progressed, it was used to teach body work. A bed side, a door, fenders and a hood was replaced. Those bolt on panels have been off and on to teach panel replacement/alignment dozens of times. That hood got a custom scoop. It’s been taped, primed, blocked dozens of times. It doesn’t belong to a customer so they can practice and mess up as much as needed. Plus it’s been a seam sealer, bed liner, undercoating…..demonstrator.
It’s been measured tons of times. Loosen up the radiator support, shove it over and students diagnose body misalignment (tram gauge) and correct it.
We cover suspension and I’ve used it along with the bus to teach suspension geometry and service.
Also with the bus. When it fit what we taught, I used it. The bus was sectioned,clipped, Zd.
Cutting, measuring, welding all covered in a creative method.
Both have included our automotive, welding and machine classes.
An educational setting is much slower than work. Safety, theory, demonstration then student practice.

 

It’s cars so yea.
Walked in a body shop at 17.
Started doing my own around 14
Only job I’ve ever had

 

Sounds like you are doing everything you can with very limited budget and support. Praying that you can continue on teaching these kids in a world where the trades are needed more than ever but the world is telling kids to go to college and sometimes even get a degree (and debt) that can’t even get them a job. Thanks for all you are doing. I know many of us appreciate it more than we can express.

Now, about next steps on the Merc... Looking forward to seeing how the flathead runs.

 

That's a nice bracket for that master cylinder. Is that homemade or a store-bought item someone could get? And as far as the Merc Flathead goes get it running it's fun, I just got the one in my 41 running after sitting for a number of years and just made it home yesterday on a 25 mile trip, got to leave for work in a few and see if it'll make it back to the shop this morning haha

 

That bracket is homemade but a pic I found here.
Looks great. The angle is kinda extreme.
That’s why I think I’ll try the AMC with the ports on the other side to reduce that angle.

 

Be sure to post what you come up with for the master cylinder mount, that's an item I need to figure out on my own Merc.

 

Can't remember where I saw it, possibly on the HAMB, but there was some type of later model Jeep master cylinder that would bolt right up to stock location.

 

There’s a 40s-60s CJ master cylinder conversion using the AMC one or similar I posted. That MC or a version of it showed up on Jeeps as well.
The original jeep MC looks very similar to the Mercury.

 

Don't know of this would work or not.
https://carrillocustoms.com/collect...ford-3-bolt-master-cylinder-w-dual-reservoirs

 

Looks good.
The vette style one is kinda fat. I like the one you posted and that AMC one better over the speedway vette style. Plus I was curious, just for the heck of it, if there was one that fit this forum.

 

Got a call from my uncle. Said he had some scrap iron he didn’t need anymore.
55 or 6 272. Car had 55k miles with an overhaul sticker in the door at 50k.
Still has a Ford cap
The exhaust manifolds were given to me earlier this week from a friend. The carbs were freebies and the intake came from a NSRA show around 1999. $35

Turns freely, standard bores look good but a couple have surface rust
Looks to be a standard crank. Has clevite bearings. The rear sump pan is a leftover from my bus.

Ive got the bell, a nice flywheel and an old reman clutch plus the gen and little stuff
If I use it or not eventually, not bad for a few gallons of gas and $35

 

I worked for the automotive program and Southern Illinois University in the 70's. We had a yearly budget and that was all we got. The school generated money from repairing vehicles for people on the parts sale. That money went to the general operating fund for the college and our program never saw any of it. It never seemed fair, but that's the way it was.

 

SCORE!!!

 

Yep.
You’d think educated people could be smarter than that.

it is what it is

 

They may be educated but there is no common sense.

 

Kept the promise to the wife. The 50 is bout ready to go

give it a bath and put it on the market.

 

Plus I gotta make room for the 51 when it gets home.
Gonna put the intake on the flatty, drain the oil and probably run a camera in it. Check it out for sludge. I messed up a 352 that sit for a while. Stopped completely up.
The car is still 6 volt. I’ll stab a 12 volt coil and ballast resister on it. Needs that anyway. Will see if it will crank.

 

I will guarantee the oil pump pickup screen will be blocked, may want to pull pan also.

 

Engine is super clean under the intake. but I’d like to look inside that pan. What you can see of the valves with the plugs out, looks like it was running today. Very clean. Hopefully the bore scope can see inside the pan.
Looks like the pan can drop with the drag link removed if necessary.

 

Cleaned up, those are beautiful hub caps. I ran the set off my 49 Merc on my Dads 312 powered 56 Ford pick up!





Bones

 

Looking up brake hardware kits.
E-bay comes up.
Are the Ford and Mercury the same brake spring kits?

 

Got the brake parts coming.
Students learning to bag and tag

made 2 and 3 inch blocks. We’ll figure out the stance when the front springs arrive

turning locating pins on the “lathe”

2 inch blocks installed

 

Thank God for guys like you who have the talent and desire to teach young people these skills and thought processes. In my youth it was Mr. Doug Beattie, my metal shop teacher. He taught and guided me in metal fabrication. I built a Pontiac powered T-bucket from scratch in metal shop, the frame, steering, suspension, every bracket. He taught me to weld, use a lathe. He taught me some basic mechanical design principles. In my Auto Shop class I was learning to change the oil and filter.
We entered the ’not quite running yet’ car in the Kiwanis awards contest and took second place, losing to a ball peen hammer. The judges thought it was a kit car. He built a fiberglass sports car and enlisted me to help make parts for it, both metal and fiberglass. I’ll never forget him or the things he taught me and I’ll forever be grateful. Guys like you and him are few and far between.

 

In the cell phone age, I’d also teach them to take pictures of anything and everything that they might not be putting back together immediately. It’s so nice to just pull up the photo when those nagging questions arise - “oh yeah, there it is, that’s how it goes”.

 

We do that as well
Plus I’ll introduce them to the old Motor and Chiltons manuals.

 

I do that picture taking stuff every time I take something apart, even if it’s simple! I was really glad I did back in my productive years! I pride my self with being able to figure most things out! But, when I replaced a head gasket on an 8.3 Cummins , I just couldn’t get a line to fit “ proper” ! I turned it every way I thought possible, it just didn’t look right! Then I referred back to my photos and figured how it was supposed to go! I never forgot that lesson!




Bones

 

Same conclusion many have arrived at for many years…SBC, it’s easy and relatively inexpensive…especially if it’s a driver!