Projects Bought a Mercury on purpose

Roughed out and tacked

 

You guys are magicians with metal. I am in awe of your work.

 

Hammer
Trailer hitch ball
Hand shear
Shrinker/stretcher

 

Now the leading edge follows the door line.. well played old man

 

Ok. Rabit hole time. I was given a 49 merc parts car years ago. Had a 221/260 in it. Don’t think they finished it. Didn’t have a clutch set up. It had a odd shifter in it. A few weeks ago, a guy wanted the 5 bolt Ford bell so I sold him the engine and trans. I kept this universal shifter. Has an orange glitter handle.
I bought a couple gm OD trans. One had a floor shift. Homemade mount to clear the OD tail shaft.
Had this Hurst on it.

He controlled the solinoid with this switch. The shifter felt bad. Sloppy. Would hang up test shifting on the bench.
So I decided to try this cheapo old shifter.
It’s rusty from sitting for decades but hasn’t been used. Shifts great. The shifter body is clean with no wear.


If I used it (instead of the column) I’d trim the universal mount. The homemade mount from the other trans is a little rough around the edges but well thought out.
I used the side plate and arms from the original hurst set up. You can see the shift levers welded. I have a few side covers but not enough of these clamp on levers.
The guys mount works great
This shifter handle has a cool shape.

 

Rube Goldberg would have soiled himself...

 

You used to be able to go in any truck stop and they had a whole section of different shift knobs on the wall. Round, pistol grip like that, and skinny ones, in all different colors, solids, metal flakes, even clears. We used to buy one of each and swap them out regularly. I had a whole box of them somewhere around here, can’t find them now.
They also had cool matching extensions that slipped on toggle switches. When the truck makers got away from using toggle switches and tried to make the inside of a truck look like a car with fancy switches and moulded shift knobs, all those pieces mostly disappeared.

 

French class

 

Kinda wondered if that shift knob was a cal custom piece.

the truck one with a switch would be neat to use with the OD

 

Here's the stuff they are selling now, not much to my taste...
Shifter Accessories | United Pacific Industries (upauto.com)
There were probably several different manufactures, when Eaton came out with it's integrated shift knob and air switch, that pretty much killed them off.

 

Great stuff Anthony!

 

Whittled out a French tail light bucket

 

That is going to look good Anthony

 

I thought you were from Alabama? I didn’t know you were French.

Looks good.

 

Flush would be a better description

I do that a lot

 

We, we!

 

Fitting the taillight bucket

 

I like that ALOT!

 

Anthony I am really starting to like your crew cab Merc!

 

Little more tweeking and we’ll welder er up

 

I LIKE IT!

 

Slick!!!

 

A bunch of work just to use the original taillights.

sounds odd

 

I was at a cruise night yesterday, should have taken a picture but I didn't. This guy has a '51 Mercury and I'm looking at the tail lights. They were from a '62 Olds, mounted vertically. It was a "I could have had a V8" moment for me. It just looked so perfect.

 

I hope you are going to radius the bottom of the cut-out.

 

Some tape and grey spray paint.

 

It gets better with every post you make!