Customs Who's that 22 yr old daily driving that chopped 51 Merc?

Well, a few years back I would say that was me, but alas, it is time to pass the torch! I have been super busy and haven't had much time on here but wanted to take some time to post up the future of hot rodding and customs, the younguns! This car belongs to my friend Ryan, Dropndrive on here, more like a little brother, who is ALWAYS down to help me out with a 2nd set of hands on one of my cars or go for road trips to get projects etc. Recently Christina and I (no joke, Chris and Christina...) bought our first house and it was a HUGE project gutting the whole thing and of course, there Ryan was damn near every weekend lending a hand getting boring lame-0 sheetrock/framing/cabinet hanging etc done. So, to repay his faithful friendship I figured I'd use my only real God given talent, and that is locating 49-51 Mercs! I met a really nice guy on here down in NC (51leadsled) a year or two ago, and as we are talking about his 51 2 door he is building he mentions he has a parts car 51 4 door. No way! So talks go on, yadi yadi and about a year or so ago we strike a trade deal! Now the only problem was getting the time to get down and back. Well, 2 weeks ago it was time to roll! We hopped in my $300 wonder Chevy pickup with an awful engine knock, cranked up the ipod and hit the road! Well, 24 or so hours of driving later in less than 2 days here we are! And that engine knock? 3 days after the return I went to Mazdaslam's to get a 50 Merc parts car and upon the return trip 10 miles from home the main bearing came out of the oil pan with a frenzy! It was a 1960's Batman smoke screen on the Garden State Parkway south. Can't win em all!

So that long winded story past, I found him some semi-rotted coupe doors on ebay that he happened to be the only bidder on, and scored a free running 85 Town Car from a high school friend around the corner so it is going to be a chopped 51 coupe with a 50 back window with a 302/AOD. HOPING to have this thing running and in primer for this years Lead East, and under a $3500 budget. Enjoy!

Here it was sitting in the bodyshop parking lot in NC. Im convinced there were snakes there, wasps the size of birds so why not?




Here it is loaded up on the trailer with Juan-ton™'s bed crammed and ready for the ride back to Jersey.



Here are the former and new proud parents, John (51leadsled) and Ryan. It had to be easily 4,000 degrees out that day in NC. Easily.



Popped the front end off to see what we are dealing with...sooo solid under there. What a great start!



Time to get to the inner rockers! This thing had more outer rockers per side than the car had doors total! And that's a lot of doors!



Carefully cutting it down after some bracing...



He then bent up some (what we call) floor caps (the 90 degree bends) and inner rockers. Popped the doors off and had at it!



One side completely done with new lower A pillar (these always rot out)



And the other side!





Seems the Town Car proved to be more than just a drivetrain donor! Ryan turned it into a doorskin donor! The previous door wasnt terribly rotted but Ryan hates bondo, and it had a ton of dings and dents so he wanted to straighten it out the right way.

The victim...





And the new skin tacked in place, really some great work here for zero dollars spent except welding wire and a cutoff wheel.





And here it is after a long day resting in my garage. At least it has friends!



That's all for now!

 

good start!

 

keep us posted.

 

looks like a good start..... keep us posted....................john

 

Cool story man. Great to see you are paying it back the best way! I will follow this story with great interest.

 

Nice project, i'll be following this build.

 

excellent start man ..

 

Good luck guys. Looks like a good start

 

I'm sure when he signs on later he will be happy to see the support. And "guys" nothing, he's done everything himself so far, I think he knows these cars better than me at this point haha. I'm just taking pictures unless asked otherwise. And I told him he's only allowed to sell it years down the road if he's putting a down payment on a house.

 

You, Sir are a very good man.
Thats what I like so much about the HAMB. Its the best American Hot Rodding has to offer.
Mostly like the part about starting a road trip with a knock. Thats classic.

 

cool chris, glad to see things moving on your side!!!! keep it up ryan!!!

 

Great story, great example, nice start.

s.

 

Great story and one hell of a way to get what I expect to be one bad- ass when Its done.

 

you sir, are a class act, as always.

 

Very Cool. hell of a way to get yourself a merc.

 

Good job guys.. looks real good. Cant wait to see it at lead east. And nice truck... wish i had one like that

 

This four door turned into 2 door hardtop was done by a local about Ryan's age, but I believe he stretched and reskinned the doors. I think it was his daily driver for awhile.

 

very cool !!

 

Awesome, Chris! Maybe you'll Both roll into Lead East this year! Heh,Heh.

 

LOL...The "victim" seems eerily familiar to me...so does the Mercury... KEEP AT IT!!!!

 

Great story, and a great start to a cool car... keep it going!



Malcolm

 

chris glad to see you helping a young gun get started.

 

This is awesome

 

Thanks for the support everyone! it really is a dream come true after seeing and getting to help on Chris' past cars, I finally have one of my own!!! I'll do my best to keep the updates coming...

 

It's stuff like this that will keep hot rodding alive into the next century! Great job guys, enjoy the build and a great friendship into the future!

 

Cool story, I cant wait to follow the progress!

 

awsome story and good luck with the project. I wish I hot rod mentor at that age...might not have gotten into as much trouble as I did. hehe!! Keep us posted on the progress, should be fun to watch.

 

Hey time does fly. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and all that jazz, haven't been on here in like 5 months. Well, what have we here...

Life has gotten in the way of this project for awhile, Ryan has since started a band, and time was tough, Ive been very busy and the job market hasn't been too kind to him, so project car always comes last in the totem poll of finances right?

So, last weekend, around noon, we rolled up on a very unsuspecting donor. As I winched him onto my trailer, I think he knew what was up as the spring shot out of what was left of the lower control arm. Here is the predator and the prey loaded on my rig.



Then we get the trailer into my back yard, make some measures, make some cuts, unroof some Mercs! Figured the easiest was going to be using the entire B pillar and trim the upper quarter to fit flush once tacked in place on the car. Worked out really really well. Thats me leaning on the diesel on my cell phone like one of those real estate people in their ads.





Next took a little more time than we had hoped with all the thick bracing in the back by where the trunk mounted, but in about an hour it was kind of sorta maybe looking like a two door, without a LOT of parts on it!



Broke for food at that point on Saturday night, ended up getting into a food coma from some Wawa and called it a night. They melt the cheese a certain way on their subs..mmmm.....

So bright and early Sunday morning we get out there, start hanging doors on the car. Realized he had no hinges so start pouring through my door stash to rob 4 good hinges. Get one on, and fight like the dickens to get it aligned.



At this point, it starts to rain. Beautiful. So, move some cars around, remove my still masked for paint Monte Carlo SS (please, I know, don't laugh haha) and get Ryans car inside. This is where we get both doors fit nicely, after a ton of fitting and refitting. Now comes the really tedious part, cutting the old four door doors to get a nice shaped lower quarter. Came out nice tho and the gaps are pretty homogenous.





Next my favorite part, installing Green Mountain rocker panels. If you have never put them on a car, best way I can describe it is like it's installing sex. It really is.



At this point we are into Monday morning, his girlfriend saved the day by bringing the rockers down for us, she works in the next town over so we just ran down to pick them up. Monday sucked. My garage flooded, we kept the wires, welders and tools elevated, wore some rainboots and kept it moving, had to get it done by Monday evening. It was also the day of tedious little patches and this and that.

Fudge a little lower quarter and dog leg.





And we are done to roll it outside, and push Edgar's (fermiumhalo on here) '49 coupe back in to get floors and inner rockers done. They briefly met in the front yard in transit, to strangers in the early evening.



And after the 3 longest days in our lives, the product was a legit factory faker 2 door sitting behind my garage!





The door gaps were the hardest, figure everything on the car is up for adjustment, but we pretty much got paint stick all the way around as you can see in the pics. It's going to be a daily driver going to the food store and to work and back, but doesnt mean just because of that it should fit like gawbage.

Next up is the chop, since this pic everything has been finish welded, just gotta order a rear window gasket so we can install the window before chopping it. Its the only way to really get a good idea how the roofline looks is to have the window installed while chopping it.

Holla back.

 

lookin' good so far!

 

Damn,you guys are good..all that energy,too..Think in the same amount if time,I've moved your trunk lid from one side of the garage to the other...ahhhhh,progress....