Projects A Speedster Comes Out of the Weeds—Build Thread

Clark -- When I posted above, I had not read page 2 of this thread. Maybe someday I'll learn how to use this forum. I can now see that you are going to do justice to the rare parts you have encountered, and I applaud you for that. The Model A chassis seems like a great solution. Rock on!

 

This is simply a great project, I'm watching, what fun this will be, and with the history, wow!! Had this had a good Chevy frame, this would've been cool with a 53-54 Corvette Blue Flame look a like motor with the carbs and a 5 speed. You're heading in a good direction with the chassis and motor you've got now, smart choice.

 

ClarkH... just finished reading the thread... Great find, look forward to seeing the updates...I like the Model A frame route... Why mess with something that's so hacked up and waste your time... tuned into your build...

 

Yeah, this car fools a lot of people. I've gotten PMs asking about my avatar and what kind of hood was used.

No worries, I completely understand! When I discovered what the car was, I suddently realized I'd gone from hot-rodder to caretaker. It set me back a bit, to be honest. To move forward, I promised myself I wouldn't do anything that can't be undone.

 

Back to bodywork. With the cowl squared up it was time to move on to rust repair. Most of the damage was in the rear, due to condensation running down the curved back. You can see how the trunk extends below the body, a perfect spot for water to pool. The trunk floor was rotted out, as was the forward trunk wall, and the vertical perimeter of the tail section was Swiss cheese pretty much all of the way around. I cut away the rotten trunk floor and got started on the sides of the boat tail.

This was my first-ever attempt at patch panels, and I almost didn’t post this part because my welding is…well…not exceptional. You can find MUCH better examples on the HAMB—I know, because I studied them.

But one of the things I learned on this project is don’t be afraid to plunge in, so here goes. Maybe it will inspire some fellow amateurs. The basic process:

1) Roll a curve into a sheet of 18 gauge using my DIY English wheel (a stump and Maglite).


2) Clamp the curved sheet over the damaged area.


3) Cut the sheet and damaged area simultaneously so the patch is a perfect fit.



4) Clamp the patch in place and back with copper.



5) Weld slowly (from the inside if you can) with .023 wire—tack tack tack wait…tack tack tack, wait…



6) Smile when you see that nothing warped.


I patched the tail in a series of sections, I think it was 6 or 8 total—it depends on how you count, because when I was done and had the hang of it, I went back and redid the first two.

For the forward trunk wall, I had a sheet metal fabricator make me a replacement insert. It was basically just a rectangular pan—he did it for beer money.



The following picture may be hard to figure out: it's taken from the ground looking up, showing the forward trunk wall being tacked to the to the newly repaired vertical edge of the boat tail.



I held off on making the trunk floor because there was still lot of hammer and dolly work to do, and it was easier with no floor in the way. (Also, I hadn’t yet figured out how I was going to do it.)

 

What a cool car! Kind of wish the original frame could have been salvaged but understand the decision. Safety is more important if your going to drive the car. Too bad there wasn't any pictures of the car in it's day. That would be interesting to see. Congrats on saving it.

 

this is going to be a fun build!

 

A couple of my favorite types of threads on the HAMB are ones
where something is found after sitting for a long time, then resurected,
and threads where I can learn stuff like about Mercury bodies
This is amazing, I'm in!

 

This post is just for fun. Right about this time, my wife and I took a road trip to California. We stopped to visit friends in Sonora, which is in the heart of Gold Country from the California Gold Rush.

These friends aren’t car folk, but we got to talking about my project, and at some point one of them says, “Hey, we have some old tools in the basement that came with the house. We were going to give them to Goodwill, but maybe you want them?”

Well sure, I say, I’ll take a look—fully expecting to see a crescent wrench and a couple Chinese pliers. Instead, I found these:



Eureka! I’d hit the Proto Mother Load! And right when I was getting started on bodywork. I took it as a sign the Car Gods were smiling.

Our friends refused payment, of course. I bought them a bottle of wine.

 

WOW! Car Gods sure want this Mercury brought back from near death, what a great find. Bob

 

Very cool find, but I love the photo of the lopping shears. That about says it all as to the location of this thing.lol. Good luck on this project. And I love the toiletseat. Needs a magazine rack also back there.lol. YRUHOT

 

While working on patch panels, I was also filling holes. Lots and lots of holes. Over the years this car has had all kinds of different trim, lights, tonneau covers, windshields and other additions. I did an inventory one night and counted 456 holes—457 if you count the “toilet seat”—of which maybe 20% were original.



Very quickly, I got sick of spot-stripping the areas I was working in, and decided it was time to strip the car entirely. I went at it with Aircraft Stripper, followed by 3-M pads on an angle grinder set to low speed (easier on the wrists). Stubborn areas got the serious wire wheel treatment (painful).

There turned out to be five heavy layers of hand-brushed paint on the car—green, blue, yellow, white and burgundy. It was a pain to get it all off, but I’m sure the multiple layers of paint helped keep it from rusting away in those bushes.

When the stripping was done I rolled it out into my gravel side-yard and washed it down with Metal Prep (phosphoric acid).





As you can see, it really looks different in bare metal!

 

Great project!
Thanks for sharing the background as well as the build to date. I'm sure you will do your rare find proud so listen to the wife and make it a rare and unique funmobile.
Keep workin'
Al

 

Good job stripping, I like to get the worst jobs done first, a great find and gonna be a lot of fun when finished.

 

That certainly was a heck of a score of hammers and dollies !


The car is certainly looking better all stripped and squared up .

 

Nice find on the car and the tools. I'll be watching as well. I found it interesting as well that it had a Plymouth six in it at one point. That's the motor (228 version with the truck 4 speed) I've stock piled for my own (hopefully some day) speedster project. If you are using regular MIG wire, talk to your LWS about Easy-Grind versions. It's a little pricier, but will make your finish work go sooo much easier.

 

It's looking so much better already.

 

I love working with wooden handles on body hammers, they seem to have a better balance and you can deliver more accurate blows with them. You must have a pretty positive karma account, nice things happen to good people.

 

Proto's are a decent brand, and those look old enough to be really good steel... those should last a long time. Most guys wait until they crack a handle to try to "fix" it by wrapping it with tape (which really doesn't work by the way...). I take the opposite approach and wrap all my handles at the top before I start using them. That "usually" prevents the cracked handle in the first place.

 

The stuff that has been popping up lately is just incredible.....but I think your find is going to be hard to beat.

 

I was gonna say. someone needs to wrap those handles before they crack!

 

Thank you for posting, I'll fallow along and enjoy .

 

Great stuff.

 

Yeah, I agonized about that frame, becuase it was pretty cool looking. But I really want to stress, I'm pretty sure it was not the orginal frame. It was the frame used by the kid who did the build in the early 1950s, and appeared to be larger than what I've seen under Chevy Mercurys in pictures. If it had been the original frame, I would have hung on to it--not to use, but just to save. And timwhit, you're right, it saved a ton of work and time. When I was a kid I watched my dad spend four years making a Model A chassis perfect, only to burn out and have life catch up to him before he could finish. He sold the project before he got to the fun part. I learned something from that.

I really appreciate your comments Bob, because I know how much you love these cars.

I love that picture with the shears as well. It takes me back to the day we hacked it out. The whole operation took about 6 hours.

My wife is delighted with your comment.

Yes, it was awful, but worth it. Several people told me to just send it out for blasting, but I was worried the old body might be too frail. And I've heard horror stories about warping.

Thank you for that recommendation! I am definitely going to look for that.

Thanks for the tip guys, I never heard of that. Am I correct in assuming I should use friction tape? I have rolls of the stuff in my hockey bag, for taping sticks. Sounds like the same principle.

 

Friction tape or electrical tape will work just fine. What a great project you have! Gary

 

Keep the updates coming

 

Tools are awesome and not used very much the green paint is still on the handles and not worn or burned marks from laying a hot gas welding rod down on them when nor paying attention.

 

WOW, WOW , WOW!
I love this car. Your setup and ideas with the port-a-power were perfect garage knowledge. This thread has re-sparked my interest in speedsters.
keep up the good work.

 

The floor was next. Apparently these old Mercurys did not have a separate subfloor like, say, a Model A—I say “apparently” because at this point in the build I’d yet to actually see another of these cars in person, so I was speculating. (Turned out I was right, however.) The floor was integral, gas welded to the body. At some point the floor of this car had been removed with a cutting torch. Fortunately, they left about two inches of original floor around the perimeter, and it was still solid, although pretty rough looking.

I debated creating a subfloor, but it seemed complicated and unnecessary. After noodled on it for a while, I had the sheet metal fabricator brake some cross member rails for me to Model A subfloor dimensions. My idea was to create a floor that would marry to the Model A chassis, and could be affixed to the existing floor in a way that was solid, but also easily removable if I ever wanted to reproduce the car’s original floor configuration. I’m OK with the results, but it’s something I might redo someday.

Sorry these pictures are kind of poor. Interesting side note: in the shot of the tail section, you can see the reinforcement for the spare tire mount. Also, I don't know why the inside looks so rusty in the second image. There's still some treated rust residue there, but it's not that bad. Maybe the overspray from the weldable primer affected the lighting.

 

I can't wait for the next installment, thanks for sharing.