1952-59 Ford 1956 Mercury project update 1

I am in California but from your pictures it looks like you are running a later model small block Ford. What transmission do you have? This is a stock Mercury driveshaft and I have no ideal if it will work if you are not running a stock transmission.

 

Yes I’m running sbf and T5

 

How's that paint stripper working for you? I'll just share this. I took my entire '54 down to bare metal in a couple of hours using polycarbonate discs and a 4-1/2" grinder. It's amazing how fast those discs chew through 6-7 layers of paint, surface rust and old bondo!
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01B8GQ0BW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_***le_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1

 

wow, the stripper works but it’s kinda a slow process. I’m going to look into these discs.

 

Carpet in today

 

My neighbor wiring up stereo for be

 

Seat in to

 

Man that is looking NICE!

 

Times 2

 

thanks guys!! it’s getting there

 

So I got one of these discs. Any advice on technique?

 

Not really. Slap it on the grinder and have at it! Wear a mask and safety gl***es, it'll make a mess. One other thing is, it leaves the metal fairly smooth. After stripping, go over everything with 80g on a D/A to give something for the primer to bite to. On mine I covered the bare metal with 2 coats of epoxy primer followed by 3 coats of SlickSand, blocked that then sprayed 3 coats of 2k urethane primer.

 

thanks! I’m thinking I’ll use up my supply of stripper and then knock myself out with the grinder.

 

Today put a driveshaft in her so she moves under its own Power. Then put on pulleys and lucky for me I had a belt that fits on A shelf. Then more stripping..

 

Not meaning to bore anyone. But tracking progress and this is my running journal for this jalopy

 

No need to apologize ever for posting pictures! Asking for help or just asking questions WITHOUT posting pictures is something to apologize for. You are making great progress! Mark

 

Thanks Mark!

 

Got after it today with the wheel evintho recommended and we’re almost there. I treated the whole body with phosphoric acid and I plan to remove the remaining trim and door handles and sand the whole car again with 40 on the drum finisher thing. I think next time I put in a day off this it should be ready for dtm epoxy. After that there is plenty of bondo and blocking to do.

 

Great progress!

 

Door locks and handles out. Big thanks to Jimmy six for the insight!

 

I should have taken pictures when I had my doors apart, fortunately it was a couple of weeks only so they went back together easily enough.

My doors were almost empty shells, I bought a donor Edsel door and parts from a wrecking yard on the west coast. All in I have about $800 into both doors.

 

So got most the paint off the bottom of the car with a combination of chemical stripper and those stripper wheels. Then washed the car with phosphoric acid, last night I went over one quarter panel with 36 grit on an electric sander. I think once. I’m slightly worried about the real fine surface rust that’s hard to get off. Hopefully the phosphoric acid wash gets the bits down in the little pits neutralized.
I also worked a little bit on getting the dents hammered out, although I can only get a comma Dolly in the inside so I’m limited on how much can be done but the crease behind the door and the door itself are slightly better. And I think I’m ok with using filler the rest of the way. It’s been a long time since I had to do body work and I’m thinking about using rage extreme filler cause that’s what I remember using when I was a kid in the body shop. Any advice to speed up the process or come out with better outcomes in all ears.

 

I'm a big fan of Rage filler. It goes on smoothly and is easily sanded however, I just use the basic Rage. No need for the higher priced Ultra or Extreme. As far as the rust pits, I've never used phosphoric acid on a car so I can't really comment. If you have access to a cheap HF blaster, maybe a quick spot blast on those areas. The winning primer combo for me was, epoxy primer, SlickSand and 2k urethane primer. The SlickSand is basically a thin coat of liquid filler. Once you block that, your panels should be laser straight.

 

Thanks!! On my way to pick up filler today. Possibly some epoxy. Kinda want to hustle up and get it roughed in and protected before it flash rusts.

 

Don't rush the primer just to prevent flash rust. You mentioned a "wash" with the phosphoric acid. To be really protective, the phosphoric acid needs to be kept wet for about 15 minutes or more. I like to keep working it wet with a skotchbrite pad. When you see the gray coating start to appear, it's been on long enough. That coating should be protective for quite a while. I'm pretty sure Houston has a higher humidity than Amarillo, but I've had a door here protected with just the phosphoric for 6 years now, inside, but no flash rust on the part. Be sure when you are ready for filler or primer, you jitterbug the area back to shiny metal removing the gray coating. That coating, as previously mentioned will cause issues with paint or filler making a mechanical bond.
I'm also a rage filler fan, I use the Rage Gold.

 

I agree, I got that weird gray color on the panel and am sanding it off before I spread putty or primer. I think it’ll last a while even here if I don’t sand it off.

 

And it begins…. I always wonder why I can’t seem to spread the right amount and have so much on the ground lol. Been a while since I’ve done this.

 

LOL......yeah, with me it was always mixing too much, so 1/2 left on the palette, then sanding off 3/4 of the other half that got on the car.
It's looking good.

 

Is that yellow power tool in post 82 a stud gun? It looks to be, but I'm not seeing where you used it. You mentioned not being able to get behind the metal in places. I had really good success using a Harbor Freight stud gun for those areas. Their sliding hammer ****s though. I bought a really good one from Eastwood.

 

It is a harbor freight stud gun. But for whatever reason I can’t get the studs to stick to the metal. It gets the metal hot but the stud won’t stick enough to actually hit it with the slide hammer. Any thoughts?