I don't know if this is the best radio delete but this 3" dia bullet will do for now. I will see if I can get a matching clock for my gauges and use a merc ring but maybe this bullet will still be there in 20 yrs. My camera seems to light up the dust. I have an idea for my radio and will make a custom trim piece and have it plated but I need to gather the right parts first.
Well, while I am on the hunt for some interesting stainless to seperate the carpet from the rest of the door panel material I have been thinking about sill plates, the ones I want aren't available right now and they are the reproductions from Dennis Carpenter. I see some stainless ones on ebay but they are still quite pricey for being the wrong ones.My neighbour has an 8' break I have access to and I can get some 18 ga stainless so I thought I would experiment. I took an ugly scrap I had laying around the shop, polished a strip through the center of it,washed it with laquer thinner, aplied some duct tape on the polished part, drew out an M with a line, cut it out with a blade, bead blasted the rest, pulled of the tape and this is what I got. If I go this wat I might copy an orgional M or do something fancier but I thought I would post this and see if there are any other ideas or opinions.
O.K. so I am still experimenting with the sill plates, I think I will probably make some of these , I just have to spend some time on the art work and the tecniques. I will grab a sheet of bright stainless tomorrow. Here are some more pics.
To be honest I wasn't sure about the grille before you had it chromed. Now I see what you were seeing. Great job thinking outside the box and doing something different.
To be honest,,, I just about scrapped the grill idea several times and just before I sent it to the chrome shop I considered trading it for a stock grill. Now I am very happy with it. My wife loves it too!
I moved the 40 Ford out of the way so I could get a straight on pic, I'm still short one head light ring but you get the idea.
Sigh, I don't know what I was thinking when I started this project. I'm already thinking about the next merc, maybe we should sell and buy a place on a paved road.
Well,I must get on with the merc but it is difficult when I have to work on other cars. My next project is to install door solenoids, 49 mercs have a different latch assembly than the 50 51 mercs had so I had to weld a lever on the latch for the solenoid to push on.I will make a 3/16" spring steel rod to go between the solenoid and the latch here is a pic of the latch. I'll do more pics next week.
Well, I am working on my doors, I bought a solenoid kit with the remote releases and have modified the latches, I will show pics of all that soon.What has me excited is that I have finally found some more stainless for my door panels so that I will have something to put on the door when the solenoids and wiring are done. The stainless I was wanting is to separate the carpet at the bottom of the panel from the vinyl. In the past I have used lots of straight pieces like from the bottom of a 60s g.m. door panel but I needed something from an older car and the pieces I found at my friends place came from a 59 pont 1/4 panel and front fender. I love the look of these cause they look like miniature 53 buick side trim.
That trim is going to be perfect on your door panels!!! Great idea. Posted from the TJJ App for iPhone & iPad
thanks for the kind words guys. enfieldjoe I will be back hard on my stuff in the next week again.Then I will pop out a few sets of sills.
Thanks but I wish my stable was bigger,, So I pulled the one piece rear window out of my 50 merc and the three piece out of my 49 and switched the rubbers. They are different, the Dennis carpener went into my 50 and it fits,,, but not as nice as the one I robbed, the one I robbed went into the chopped 49 with the Dennis Carpenter three piece divider rubber and now my rear window looks perfect, seems the Dennis Carpenter rubber has a slightly larger cross section size which is not quite correct. Anyway I'm glad this over and done with.
Guys, I'm STOKED! I turned my 49 merc radio into a 12v am fm.Tomorrow I will take some pics. I'm hoping to have it on the road by the end of the month.
O.K. so a bit of preamble,,, I found a radio with am fm, turned out it also had an 8 track in it. I'm thinking the 8 track will come out next winter, I should be able to wire a jack for an mp3 to the head wiring and take the drive motor power to charge the mp3 but I'll figure that out next winter,,,summer is calling. This radio came out of an early 70s full size mercury.I can get a transmitter that plugs into the cigarette lighter and takess a usb stick. This gizmo sends or transmits a wireless signal to the radio but I need an fm radio so here is what I did, some may like it and some may not but at least I can stand to look at this. First I took the front off the am fm radio, as well I took the lid off and had a look inside. Course I started doing this without taking pics at first but you will get the idea. In the above pic you can see I attached three dummie buttons to the 49 merc radio face because these will no longer be used, I went with black buttons becase my radio is a five button radio and the buttons are Ivory in color [yellow] The next pic shows the inside of the radio. Notice the tuner button is hooked to the tuner with a tiny driveshaft and a tin ujoint, this can move side ways but I did have to cut the case to get it to the right spot. Most tuners arewire cable controlled so they are a hassle to move. The volume of course is not an issue but it to had to be moved an equal amount so that the dial would fit the 49 face plate. Yep I had to open the side of the case so the shafts could get far enough to fit the 49 face plate. On the lower part of the radio are the am/fm button on the left and the loc/dx button on the right, I carefully bent the to line up with thetwo left over button holes in the 49 merc faceplate. There was a left right balance switch which was going to be a pain to deal with so I removed it and soldered the wires together. Next I attached the 49 face plate, to cave the open spots on the two side of the case I made covers with black panel board and duct taped them on in a way that dust can not get in the radio. I used some weird knobs I had laying around cause they go with my weird steering wheel.49 Merc knobs could be used but you would need2 volume knob sets to get your front rear balance control functional. Voila! The black knobs are marettes. The left black knob is now am/fm switch, the three center knobs are dummies, the right button is loc/dx switch, the left dial is volume/tone the right dial is tuning/balance and it all works!
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