Wow, sorry to hear about the problems with the machine shop. I have been sort of struggling lately being able to get that stuff done as well but thankfully have come across a couple shops that have helped me out. Anyway, good to see some progress. Engine bay and dash look great!
Really sad to me, this family built a great business over 50 years but now has to compete with the local aircraft mfg. paying $50/hr plus all the fringe benefits. I don't know how to fix it but I do know I've told my grandkids they need to be thinking about trades jobs Thanks Dr. Dave, the shop owner is a younger guy and has put together a really well organized shop but does everything himself, again says he can't get help he can trust. Did call yesterday about honing the cylinder walls and in the conversation said he is now swamped also but telling people up front his backlog is now 55 days!
Work was done by a small shop (2 employees almost as old as me) called Tony's Auto Bumpers in Azle TX. I can't give you an exact price as he did several pieces for me for one price. If you're interested in a quote I'd suggest texting him at 817-542-1818 with a photo of what you want chromed and he can respond to you. First time I've used him but several of the other "old guys" have also used him and we've been been happy with his work.
You do good work, i'll say that. That's a lot of repairs. BUT!!! I hate the front. Looks like a Pug, with the bumper pulled in. Headlights look good, grill, even though it's not my favorite choice, looks good. That bumper takes away from all the nice work you've done on the rest of the car. Look at another Merc profile, even a stock one. OR....fuck me, just leave it, haha.
Still waiting for block to get back from machine shop so used time to finish more detail items like installing gas tank, running fuel and brake lines etc. plus shorten rear axle. I knew from the beginning I would have to do this but wanted to wait until I had the rims and tires I was going to use to make sure I had the correct length which ended up requiring 1 1/4 inches removed from each end. Purchased longer spline axles from Speedway and their positrac unit, have had good results in the past with their parts. Rather than cut and weld housing I like to use new housing hubs Welded in hubs using an alignment bar and shortened axle shafts Also purchased Speedways disc brake setup, good instructions and really fit well. Everything together and ready to put back in car Measurements were correct and fit is good, now if I could just get my block finished!! Thanks for looking and stay warm!
You are quite the brave man. I would never attempt to shorten and weld my own axle. I’m luck I can get two pieces of sheet metal to stick together never mind something important! Nice job!
Thanks Dr. Dave BUT I've followed several of your projects and know you've done things I've never tried- admire you! Hope you're staying warm, not much work going on down here for awhile!
Won't be cheap.... I was quoted $600-800 depending on how much pitting was present, and that was more than a few years ago. There are also two different die castings for these (difference between '50 and '51? IDK...). If the area at the bottom of the gauge opening (where the radio pushbuttons are) is smooth finished, these plate with much less drama. But some have an 'anti-reflective' pebbled finish there, and if there's any pitting there its all-but-impossible to fix without visibly changing the pebbling pattern. This type seems to be rare, most of these I have are smooth. If you have the pebbled version and there's any pitting there, I'd recommend hunting down a smooth version if you want to maintain the OEM look. I lucked out. I picked up a replated 'pebbled' dash for cheap because the plater took a shot without disturbing the pebbling and it blistered badly there while the rest looked great. As I intend to modify the dash by removing the pushbutton opening and tombstones, this would work for me. I'll grind the tombstones, radio opening and blistering away, then cover the whole area with a brushed stainless panel that I'll epoxy on. This is destined for my avatar after narrowing and a few other mods. I'd be curious to know where OP got the new gauges and specifically the new lens...
Wow, glad I didn't have to use the plater you quoted! Total cost of my dash and 5 other pieces was less than $600 so I asked plater what he would have charged me for just the dash and answer was $350. My dash was badly pitted, this is the only picture I have of it before plating: As I said earlier this is the first time I've used Tony but other old guys had recommended him and satisfied with his work- time will tell how well he did. Gauges are from Dakota Digital and include the lens.
Finally got block back from machine shop and started putting back together, always enjoy this stage of the build. Car is off to the paint shop! Trim and bumpers off to the chrome plater/polisher! Will be quiet for awhile as I wait for everything to get back but that's ok as I'll be helping my sons get ready for the Vintage Air tour which we are really looking forward to. Merc won't make this show but hope to get to the Lead Sled show! Thanks for looking!
Back from paint, still needs to be wet sanded and buffed and then putting back together, slow but sure!
Thanks Jeff, finally seeing the end! Thanks Dr. Dave, seeing it painted is one of those "it's all been worth it" moments to me.
I've been asked if I've lost interest or sold the Mercury as there hasn't been any posted progress recently and the answer is I still have the Mercury and looking forward to finishing it but run into a much more serious problem (at least from my perspective). Several weeks after the car came back from the painter I began seeing small cracks or paint lifting in 15-20 areas. I've never seen something like this and had the paint shop (who is a personal friend) look at it and he was surprised too. Shop wanted to take the car back and repaint it but I wanted some time to see if we could figure out what happened before we just tried to cover everything up. Prior to going to the paint shop the first time I had done the metal work, had the car media blasted and painted with a 2 part ppg epoxy, completed skim coating body filler on about 40% of the car, primed car with ppg acrylic primer and then sent it to the body shop where they sprayed a high fill evercoat primer, block sanded, and again sprayed acrylic primer and finally the acrylic ppg base coat/clear coat. The paint is lifting in areas where there is no body filler and if you carefully peel it back its lifting between the last primer coat and the high fill primer coat. At one time in my life I made the basic acrylic polymer for the paint industry so I've talked with one of those customers to see if they could understand what's happening and the only thing their chemists would even guess at is there is some additive in a PPG paint that's reacting with the high fill primer but it doesn't explain why its happening only in the non-filler areas. At this point nothing makes sense, old timers I've talked with are guessing that it's something in the epoxy primer or film on top of the epoxy primer that I didn't get off but is being blocked by the body filler. Painter doesn't agree with this but doesn't have any better explanation so we've agreed to sand the body back down to the body filler/epoxy primer layer, prime with a standard acrylic, block sand and paint. Obviously not going to be feeling like we've solved the problem once this is done but I feel we've looked into it the best we can. Stay Tuned!
Ohhhhhh maaaannnnnnnnnnn.......that stinks BIG TIME! You must be sick!.....I would be at least. I have a few spots on the merc that are cracking and lifting one the paint I did on the top half (9 years ago!!! Where did the time go?!), but knowing I am redoing the whole car eventually, I haven't lost any sleep over it, but also haven't flaked it back yet to see what layer it's in. But on finished paint that should be ready to move forward with, I'd be beside myself. Shoot, I'm sick for you!
Yea, that is never fun. I pealed a complete paint job off a pickup one time when I let the sealer dry too long before I got the basecoat on... I was sick to say the least and was also on a schedule to get it done quick which made it even worse. Hopefully you can get it all worked out soon.
Hope both of you know I always appreciate your comments and enjoy watching your builds. I'm sure we all react differently when we have a screw up and typical of me my reaction was "What the hell did you do this time" and I was headed down the path of thinking somehow I hadn't cleaned the epoxy coating well enough before priming the car. Last night I got a call from the painter saying he was 99% sure they'd figured out what happened, as they were sanding down the paint they were running into soft or powdery spots in the high fill primer so he believes either there wasn't enough catalyst added to the primer and/or mixed properly or it was sprayed in cold weather and not allowed to cure. He has run into some soft spots over the body filler that apparently just haven't cracked yet. He doesn't normally use high fill primers but I'd left enough sanding marks in the acrylic polymer that he chose to use the high fill. I really appreciate him telling me this, as I said earlier they are sanding it down to the epoxy coating and body filler, will prime and then paint. Will get down tomorrow or Thursday and see if I can get a good picture of what they are talking about. In the meantime since I had nothing better to do I did get all my pieces to the chrome shop and hoping that goes a whole lot better!
Glad they were able to maybe come up with the cause of the problem, that will make everyone breathe a little easier going forward that the problem shouldn't resurface. Heartbreaking just the same for all the work ahead to get back to shiny paint. Better to catch it now though for sure. And hey, chrome makes everything better! It's like car guy bandaids to a two year old. Haha!
At least you’ve got me smiling now! Did get by painter and hate to see all the previous hard work laying on the floor but feel positive it will be done right this time!
Christmas has arrived! Picked up chrome and stainless parts and thought plater/polisher did an outstanding job. Should have taken better pics of parts I took him so you could appreciate his work! Also finally found a pair of ‘67 tbird seats I like. Now if I just had a car to put these on/in! Hope you have a great day!
Hoping to have car back by end of the month BUT we've all heard that before haven't we! Hope you're doing well and getting lots of work done!
Man, that's awesome and a pretty quick turn around all things considered! Depends on what you consider lots of work....and on what. LOL. Lake house reno is demoed to the studs and I have alllllmost all the necessary reframing is done. Electrician and I are half way through rough in and the plumber should be in the next week or so to do his. I actually picked up in the shop the last few evenings and have 3 feet of open work bench space! Hoping to have the remaining new lake pipe welded and connected to the exhaust system the next few days on the Chevy. So, kinda work done but scattered amongst the projects. Haha
The Jalopy Journal
