Hey guys I'm going through all my books and literature getting information for a new project I have kicking around. As everything has pretty much been done before, I figured someone else has already done it or at least attempted it. Anywho, I was thinking about putting a '51 4dr Merc on a mid-80s Lincoln Town Car chasis. I know the wheelbase is the same. I'm not sure on the width. I'm thinking the town car would be a bit wider. Has this been done? How far off is it? Would I need to change everything up to get it to match up? As in shorter control arms or play with the rim offset? Any help would be appreciated! Thanks
This belongs to Mercman51 here on the HAMB. Not for the faint of heart. http://landyachts.homestead.com/open1.html
Leave it on a Merc chassis! less hassle. There are plenty of suspension upgrades available to make it ride nicer, change the ride height,and brake better. Don't do it!!!
Hey Fan, I've done this type of barnyard shit myself. Because, I thought it would be a cheap way to get PS,Tilt, yada yada. Needless to say Bad Bob is spot on. Keep what you have and buy the conversion stuff as you can. I spent so much time putting an old pontiac on a 20 some year old frame and when I got done, guess what, I still had a wore out POS. Then I had to replace and upgrade the wore out brakes ball joints ect. "I'm Tellin' Kid, It's Like Wippin' Yer Ass With A Barrel Hoop.....There Ain't No Fuk'n End To It". IMO
If your car is a rusty piece of shit with no floors and a rotty frame, then it's not a bad option. The 77-86 Olds and Buick full size (98, Electra 225) fit pretty well, but even those are 25 years old and the frames are rot prone, so it's a tough call to find a solid one. You can go up to the 1990s Caprice/Roadmaster/whatever the Olds was called, but then you have a car with EFI and an electronic speedometer to deal with that you can either throw all away (which defeats the purpose of part of the swap IMHO) or change the dash to use some kind of electronic speedo that usually looks like shit. So where you going to go? It's a slick swap, but having tried one myself I would try to save the stock frame at all cost, if I was really set on modern running gear on a budget I would sooner try swapping a Jaguar XJ front end onto it along with a late rear on the stock springs.
Ive been thinking about this swap for my 52 chevy 4 door. Ive got my 81 cutlas supreme that ive replaced everything on. I was actually going to take measurements this weekend. I just dont think i could bring myself to rip the body off my cutlass. I could by another G-body chassis and replace everything on it for less than the cost of buying a mustang II kit.
Now a '52 Chevy the Jag swap is even easier, and there are tons of bolt-on kits for the stocker that aren't all super high dollar stuff. A mid-80s GM frame needs the side rails narrowed to fit well, and the front suspension is too wide for them, the tires will rub when you turn the wheels.
The Mercman51 project is exactly what I was looking at. So far I think it's coming out great. Does anyone know if it's finished? Project Option 1 The Merc that I'm considering has it's floors rotted out but the body is solid. Also the Lincoln is in great shape and only has 35k miles. I was going to sitck with the Lincoln 5.0 and AOD setup. Project Option 2 Keep searching for that nice and solid Merc that I can just do upgrades to. I realize option 1 is much more work and won't be any cheaper. But it sure looks like a hell of a lot more fun and I won't have to wait forever to find that diamond in the rough. Thanks for directing me to the MercMan Page.
I think option 1, the swap is not for the faint of heart. I've worked on cars but I never swapped the frame and pans on one. I own a 1951 Mercury that has a later model GM frame and pans and I think you need to be quite the fabsmith to get it done. So I think it comes down to your capabilities and staying power. If it were me and I could do it all over again, I'd look for a nicely chopped roller for $7-9K and go from there.
I agree it's not for the faint of heart, I'm in the middle of a '55 Buick going onto a stretched '78 LeSabre frame. So far, frame stretch done, now fabbing new rear rails to the rear body mounts at the crossmember. Then fab the front mounts at the fenders. My car was solid, but the frame and back end of the body took a HARD hit sometime between 1955 and the last year it was driven, 1964. That is until I got it in 1979. The rear cross member was really Gomered up, the floor was sectioned with sheet metal screws and roofing tar, not even welded. And when we lifted the body off, we found the left rear frame rail was kinked, the back cross member was about a inch higher than the opposite side and about three quarters of an inch forward. Yep, they hogged out the bolt holes for the rear body mount at the left rear corner. So, with what I knew before we started, needed power steering so my wife could drive it, needed power brakes and disc for the same reason, needed more power for me, open driveline, ease of finding replacement parts on the highway, and a general rebuild so I can at least drive this on a planned cross country trip, that's the story. IF I break down on the highway, nothing would piss me off more than having to sit in a motel for a week to get a unobtanium part shipped in from somewhere in the south to East Overshoe Utah. And I;m getting too damn old to have a sense of humor about shit like that too. Comes with working in car dealership parts departments for 40 years. More than a few times I wonder WTF was going through my mind when the brilliant idea was hatched, but in the last four months since the start it is moving right along. So, go for it, you WILL get frustrated, guarantee this. WHEN this happens, just walk away for awhile. About a week after I decide to take a break, I'm geeked up again.
If anyone needs a 78 olds 98 chassis i'll have one all torn apart in april.Body included & all in very nice west coast shape.
This is the part i don´t understand. Every time the topic of "Chassis swap" comes up, the first reasoning is it´s "the best" option because the "floors are rotted out". By "floors" I take it You mean the sheetmetal pans on the bottom of the pass compartment. (Well this is just me, of course but I´ve yet to see too many 60-yo "project" -status cars where they weren´t to at least some degree.) Anyway, my point is, wouldn´t it be easier to weld in fresh, new floorpans in between the existing, readily-matching body(mounts) and frame this body was designed to fit on, as opposed to trying to fit an entire frame and floorpan (usually at least a 25 yr-old, used floorpan) completely foreign to this application, where nothing matches or lines up...(?) Sounds like a lot more work to me. And strictly from a visual standpoint, thanks to the wider track of the´80s chassis, looks like You´d be limited to the ´80s -style positive-offset (=big backspace-) rims too, which of course is up to You to decide if it´s the style of wheel You think belongs under Your mid-century Mercury after all that work. Likewise with the sight of an ´80s EFI SBF as You pop the hood.
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