Did you have to shorten the rear cross member when you flattened it? If so, where? The merc is looking great.
The trunk floor was pretty rusty in Nathans merc so we decided to weld in new metal and added an access panel to the rearend.
I'm still really struggling to believe that this car belongs to me, especially when I see it evolving into such an incredible looking custom. lucky man?...too freakin right
I can't believe its your Merc either Nath!..yes,...yes you are a very lucky man! In this case though, its not about luck, but all about the excellent choice of entrusting your Merc to Kevan. Truly inspiring work, car looks amazing!
the chops are nothing short of amazing but, i have a really dumb observation.....how does one make the glass for the new chop? can a glass/windsheild shop do it? do they cut down the originals or custom fab? only works with flat glass? can a curved windsheild be made? I love the chopped look and always wondered about the glass. 32 coupes look easy beacuse of the flat glass, but what about a 57 shoebox with that giant curved windsheild?
39-40 Mercs have all flat glass so it's very easy to cut down the originals or just have new glass made. Curved glass can be cut but it takes a real professional.
Kevan, are you making the trunk floors from scratch on both of these mercs? They both look a little different. The one in Hodges looks all hand fabbed. The one in Nathans merc looks like it may have been a stock replacement panel???
Hi Paul, yes the one in Jason's Merc is hand fabbed. On Nathans I bought a replacement floor section for a 49 Merc. It was a good deal so I picked it up and used it.
Are you using a special torch for your finish welding, henrob or something? Looks like you're doing a really good job of controlling the heat.
I was wondering the same thing about the heat. Normally with that much torch welding, a lot heat distortion would be expected. But from the pics, that doesn't seem to be the case. Great work, by the way. Love this thread.
Oh, there must be skill and workmanship involved. That's why it doesn't look too familiar to me, I'm used to looking at my own crappy handiwork
Amazing results, thanks for the thread! I'm just learning to gas weld, I've been doing ss exhaust pipes which is pretty forgiving. Do you stitch the welds together and then fill in the gaps afterwards? How long of a bead can you do without causing to much movement? Do you have to hammer dollied most of bead to keep it straight? Thanks
those chops are both really nice and very well thought out i just finished chopping a 39 chevy 4 door for a friend it turned out nice i just took my time 5 days total i wouldn't have been able to pull it off if it wasn't for guys like you posting the right how-to on here j
wow i would not dare to cut into nice cars like that. but the workmanship and overal result look damn nice.
Sorry I haven't posted for a long time. A lot has been done to both cars over the last few months but the custom work on Nathans is nearly finished. The chop is finished but the stainless windows still need some work. We chose to go with a strait B pillar hardtop style using the original stainless and Im really digging it! We also recessed the license plate and installed 41 Studebaker taillights. Next step is to blow it apart and get it ready for paint. Here's some pics from The Poor Boys Midnight Mass car show. We got invited to display the car in the Builders room and everyone really liked it.
The Jalopy Journal
