Projects 1949 Mercury barnfind resurrection

Nice job, looks like a fun one. I'll look for it at AutoRama.

 

Looks like it's cleaning up nice. If your blanket seat covers move around on you a lot when you drive the car, straighten out some coat hangers, weave them into the blanket around the front, back and sides where it tucks under the seat frame, and hog ring them into place just like the factory seat covers. It's a way to get them good and tight and they will stay put that way.

 

The car got a great response at the show, still having engine troubles, thinking about pulling the heads and intake again and pulling all the valves and cleaning them up

 

Yep, looked good and great hanging out with you over the weekend! Here are a couple of the pics I got of your car. I still can’t believe the deal you got on it…

 

Awesome car man done a great job getting it back on the road .

 

Jeff it was great to meet you! I was definitely happy with how it turned out for the show.

 

I’ve been spending a little more time with the merc here the last couple of weekends. The number 3 cylinder never did free up and I found that the number 6 cylinder was very low on compression. The carburetor was also on its way out. Jerry and I pulled the heads off last weekend and started digging into my compression issue. 3 bent valves and a burnt valve ended up being our issue. We picked up a handful of valves, copper head gaskets and a stromburg 97 from an old timer in Detroit Monday. We lashed the valves and freshened up the seats and got the new valves installed. Cylinder heads and a stock 8ba intake went on, we replaced the stock 8cm intake to something that’s a little more user friendly. Taking the generator to have it tested this week, hopefully come next Saturday I may get a good first test drive without it back firing from both ends!

 

Progress is moving along, I haven’t had much time to post here recently with yet another new job. We purchased a rebuilt genuine stromburg 97 which we installed on a late model truck intake. We found out quickly that a standard 97 just isn’t enough fuel for the 255. With a lack of funds currently to put a dual carb intake and a second 97 on the car, we rebuilt the Holley 94 off of the truck intake with great success! We ended up sealing throttle pedals and she’s finally a driver! I took my first test drive with the 94. It tosses both belts… order a set, get those installed. Finally it seems good. I installed a new voltage regulator and it finally charges. It seems like I’m getting pretty close to finally having it dependable. Took it to greenfield village for its second car show this weekend, looks like it’s time for a set of water pumps and thermostats. Leaving the show this evening, mind you we had 90 degree weather today, the car did overheat. I’ve been told I should start with water pumps. Does anyone have any insight on what I should purchase? I see speedway sells a set but it’s not a perfect fit. Shoebox central sells a set but only for 50-51. Can anyone explain the difference between a 49 ford to a 49 mercury?

 

Looks great

 

The Mercury water pumps put the motor mounts in a different position than the Ford ones do, that's why hot rodders using the Mercury engine swap the pumps out for Ford ones (please correct me if I'm wrong, I often am) so if you order new Ford pumps they'll fit on the engine but the motor mounts won't line up anymore.

I don't know your car well enough to say, and I'm sure some others here will have different stories and opinions, but in my experience, every overheating flathead issue (and most old car overheating issues) was tracked back to a shitty old radiator. Sure it might not leak, but when they get old, they lose a lot of cooling capacity due to buildup inside or whatever.

The new aluminum radiators you can buy are not very attractive in an old car, but they do cool with incredible efficiency, and they're pretty damn cheap. What are you running for a radiator?

 

Put a known good mechanical temp gauge on first to see what your engine is reading.
On my '49 ford I did a lot of head scratching and fucking around trying to solve my perceived "hot engine" woes only to find it was a bad sender reading much hotter than the engine truly was.

Try Shay @ Pre60's Auto Supply (just north of you across the bother) he may have some merc pumps for you.

 

Currently it’s still has its original radiator, the price on those aluminum ones are definitely in the right direction. I spent a little time with it today changing thermostats, I put a set of 180’s in it. Didn’t really notice a difference in how “quickly” the gauges read hot. It dude puke a bunch of coolant all over my driveway. I’ve been looking at mechanical gauges also just to verify but moneys still tight here. Everything’s in the cart but the funds

 

Also scored a set of bubble skirts today. They have the right look but I’ve got too many doors

 

Looks like you are taking the old girl in the right direction! You have taken it along way in just a short time.

 

I dig those skirts!!!
Maybe @anthony myrick can chime in with some suggestions on the skirts on a four door.

 

Just need to tell everyone they can’t use the back doors. I like the look of those skirts on it.

 

Regarding 8BA era water pumps.. Basically, there are three different mounting options (Mercury, Ford Car, and Ford truck) and a choice of wide or narrow belts. Here's how they line up :

1949 Ford cars - wide belt, Ford car mount.
1950-1953 Ford cards - narrow belts, Ford car mount
1949 Mercury - wide belt, Mercury mount
1950-1951 Mercury - narrow belts, Mercury mount
1952-1953 Mercury - narrow belts, Ford car mount
1948-1952 Trucks - wide belt, Ford truck mounts (same s '37-'48)
1953 truck - a weird combination I have no experience with

All pumps bolt to the block the same. Early Mercury and Ford truck pumps use "mounting ears", but the Mercs are higher than the trucks. This means you can use Merc pumps in a truck with spacers, but not truck pumps in a Merc (without drastically screwing up the engine position). Ford cars mount completely differently on the bottom of the pump. I have heard some folks make strap steel adapters to allow them to use Ford car pumps in other vehicles, but I have never seen or done it.

No one else has mentioned it, so I will. If you use a stock 8BA series distributor, you must use a stock matching carb (either the Merc Holley 885 or a Ford 94). During this period, Ford use a unique, all vacuum advance system called a "Load-A-Matic". It has no mechanical advance mechanism and needs a special vacuum signal from a port located in the middle of the rear of the carb. The reason the 97 didn't work well is not because it was too small, but because you had no way to advance the timing. If you change the carburetion on these, you have to change the distributor to one with a normal advance mechanism. A converted SBC distributor works fine as well as certain aftermarket units (Mallory, etc.). In my opinion, the best carburetion for a set up like this is a Rochester small base 2G on the Mercury manifold. The carb will bolt right on, but the throttle bores in the manifold need to be bored out to 1 7/16". One last hint : If you mount the 2G backwards, it makes installing it much easier, and the carb doesn't seem to mind at all.

I have to disagree about those skirts.

 

Yea. Cut em

 

I like the shirts . Maybe attach them to the rear doors and cut them at the door gap ?

 

This is really good information, I’m sure I could pick up a set of 50-51 merc pump. I wonder how hard it would be to swap pulleys or if it would be easier to swap the crank pulley?
I’m not sold on the skirts myself but I couldn’t beat the price

 

Has anyone mentioned "Skip" Haney in this thread yet? He is the "Go To Guy" for flathead water pumps. He specializes in the earlier pumps, (mainly because they need more help), but I know he does the later pumps. I'm sure he could rebuild yours (unless they are completely shot), which may be the solution to your water pump problems. I'm sure he could swap pulleys as well. They're kinda delicate, so don't try to do it yourself without the proper tools and knowledge.

A wanted ad on this forum can produce some good results (I just scored an aluminum Canadian Merc intake manifold for a decent price.) And as always, keep looking on the various online marketplaces (eBay, Facebook, Craig's List, etc.). Going to swap meets is kinda fun, too. With a car that complete, I wouldn't start throwing a lot of incorrect parts at it just yet.

 

Haven’t heard anything from skip, but I’ve seen his name pop up in other threads

 

I love your 4 door Merc, and the skirts too. I like the idea of cutting the skirts on the door opening. Once they are color matched they would look great!

 

I SEND MY WATER PUMPS HERE FOR REBUILDING. WELL WORTH IT, YOUR CAR WILL RUN COOLER WITH SKIPS REBUILT PUMPS.

 

Slow progress is better than no progress, decided last week I was going to break down and order an aftermarket radiator for the merc. While the parts were in the mail I went and snagged a flush kit from the local auto parts store and drained the radiator. Yesterday I pulled the radiator out of th car, no wonder it wasn’t cooling, half the fins were smashed. Checked out the insides of the water pumps without removing them also and they looked decent. I drove the car for the first time yesterday in over a month more than 5 miles without any sort of issue overheating. It runs about 3/4 temp on the gauge but with a temp gun shows 185-195 on the head. Sorta thinking I should have put a 160 thermostat in it instead of the 180s.

 

I suppose the next venture i plan to tackle is exhaust. Been doing some reading on here about manifold/headers. But nothing about fitment, I’ve heard the original fenton’s fit perfect but the repops don’t. However when comparing photos they look identical. I’ve got a buddy who swears by the redd’s but the fenton’s are more my budget. Any insight? The passenger manifold has a decent sized hole that pushing exhaust fumes into the fresh air box that’s desperately in need of a new seal, so all i get I fumes in the car while driving