Just looking for everyones opinion. What would be the best frame to throw under a 51 four door Merc. Right now it's got a mid 80's olds frame which is too wide in the middle..... When I replace the inner rockers it will no longer fit on my frame. I was thinking about keeping the crossmember and just building the rear of the frame from firewall back with 2x4 tubing..... What do y'all think?
You can buy good solid original Mercury frames pretty cheap, if you shop around you could probably buy one in the $200-$300 range. It'll fit perfectly and if you insist on upgrading the suspension there are kits available to fit it, MII in the front and 4 links for the rear. I don't think any late model frames are going to fit very well without a ton of floor modifications.
Are you opposed to going with a stock frame, and clipping it? I think there is a guy on the HAMB selling a frame. There isnt a difference between the 2 doors and 4 doors frame, if I'm not mistaken. If you are going to clip it, go with Camaro front clip They looks awesome, and work best from popular opinion.. Here is mine. I'm a four door Merc as well..
I just built a 51 mercury 4 door into 2 door find a frame for your project. It will make for a better look and keep the work load down.
if the track is good since the GM frame is wider in the middle than in the front and rear sections, just weld in tubing from the front to back sections and then cut out the outer original frame and close the ends .
I think Mercury Charlie can make you a frame for that. He does some nice work on his frames. He gave me a tour of his shop about a month ago.
[QUOTE = HRod 50; 5944553] Bir hisse senedi çerçeve ile devam aksine, onu kırpma? Ben bir çerçeve satan HAMB bir adam olduğunu düşünüyorum. Yanılmıyorsam eğer, 2 kapı ve 4 kapı çerçevesi arasında bir fark var değil mi. Eğer klibi gidiyor iseniz, Onlar harika görünüyor Camaro ön klibi ile gitmek ve halkın görüş iyi iş .. Burada benim. Ben de dört kapı Merc ediyorum .. [/ QUOTE] good
I went through all the work (allll the work) to strip down a '79 Olds 98 to put the floors/frame under my '51 coupe, and after all that I changed my mind. I have seen a ton of them and they look too wide. That and from what I can gather (after burning through countless cutoff wheels and sawzall blades) is that the original frame is an approx 60k mile original. I know I am far but I have a few frames here, a roller or two, and a bare frame.
We have an extra frame too. When guys do that Olds frame swap, they usually start with a rusty POS Merc that needs floors and everything else, and just take the top off like a 1/25th model car kit body, and mount that on the Olds which has been cut down to a floorpan with it's inner rockers attached. It should be narrow enough to fit, and they usually channel them down in the process, I've never heard of anyone with turning clearance issues with this swap but who knows. They're not the fad they used to be and maybe that's why. But those frames are relatively simple, you could take some box tube and make new side rails to connect the rear suspension to the front cowl box area (or even right ahead of that) and just cut off the original outer rails. I've seen it done with a G-body frame to make it narrow enough to put a 30s body over it. As long as you tie both frame ends down to something so they can't move while you cut the middle out it should be fairly straightforward.
I'll comment as my friend and I have been working on a Merc lately. Go with an original frame! Jamco makes all kids of brackets and stuff to get a Merc down low, and steer better. It is all thought out for you... so just follow instructions. Car will go low with their airbag kit without notching the frame. I'm not a fan of real low cars, body on ground stuff. The Jamco kits will get you pretty low, but we made our rear with a 4 bar set up out of adjustable links and heavy duty heim joints out of the speedway catolog so we could get the car lower and propely locate the rear end. Measure what you need... and order the adjustable links by size. If you wanna get radical.... there was a thread here where a guy built his own frame, as he went real low.
This is also a 4 door. The guys at Jamco somtimes are hard to get a hold of, but good guys that have made all this work easier. Try and get a stock frame, and order your stuff from them.
It can be done but i donot recomend it. To do it correctly it will be alot of work and cost you more money than you think. Here is a example of one someone did that way. It has a Camaro clip under the tarp. The main rails where made out of 2 x 4 box tubing and it still had to much flex to it without a x member for added strength. If it was mine i would find a stock Mercury frame and graph your Olds front suspension to it and also the rear end. If done properly it will drive very good and should cost you very little as you have most of the parts alread and a stock merc frame can be gotten fairly cheap. If my memory is correct your Olds front track width is 62" about 3/4" wider that a camaro so thats a little wide but with the correct neg offset weels you should have no tire to fender issues even if its bagged.
Thanks everyone for all your input. It seems the general consensus would be to get a Merc frame.....I like the look of the original frame anyways so if anyone runs across one in northeast Texas or southern Oklahoma that I could buy for a song, that would be great. This is why I love the HAMB....y'all set me on the straight and narrow.
The Jalopy Journal
