Projects Does this dress make my butt look big?

I needed another week. The weekend just flew by and missed talking to a lot of people.

 

You may recall Mickey's Merc once had long, tunneled headlights off a very off topic foreign sporty car....these headlights are the repair back into the land of what Merc headlights should look like.

 

This is what it looked like when I bought it......

 

Why would you change that?

 

Lol! I should have waited for it to come back in style.

 

since ya asked. I like rain gutters. Straighten em out. The radius at the rear of the qtr glass. Tighten that up.
the skirt. I guess try to get it to flow with the style line above it.
The front fender was previously mentioned so I placed a ? on it. Then I seen the before pic.
Never mind. Ya did good.
I’ve always liked the belt line trim on the merc
Some brightwork around the side glass areas maybe.

but I drive a school bus.
And we all know what opinions are worth.

 

Looks like somebody ran over Batman, or Darth Vader. Where did the lower valance come from?

 

Those wheels.
Someone actually used those wheels.

 

Lol! It was ugly… The title said Merc and I knew it was there somewhere. Very happy where it is today. Could have been a lot worse.

 

I’m proud to say it was scratch built. When it was cut off I did t keep it. Kinda wish I had.. lol!

The guy thought it was high tech. It was built in the late 80s….

 

I remember those wheels.
Dang we used to give guys heck for those.

 

The headlight/front fender area makes me think of a 55/6 Pontiac with the little lite above the headlights scraped off.

Maybe put them back. Or a liitle scoop there.

 

I'm in the side chrome camp. Just about every 49 - 51 Merc needs some type of side chrome.

Mick

 

Glad to hear you are losing the dummy spots.

 

I switched out the wheels the first week. I quickly found out it wasn’t just the wheels that was the problem.

 

I don't understand. If you don't want it to look like every other merc, why start with a merc?

 

I hafta say the rear treatment with the split caddy? Bumper and incorporated tail lights has gotta be one of my favorite custom Merc hind-ends…

And she’s come a long way! Just a little fine tuning.

I’ve never owned a Kustom, and neither did my dad in all the cars he had, but I kinda want one now!

 

Maybe some tail fins like the Bat ? Just ignore me lol

 

Alright, everybody else piled on so I'll throw in my .02 worth...

The rain gutters. I do prefer gutters for both practical and stylistic reasons. But they should 'follow' the roof line, as is it looks awkward even if the kinks were gone. But if you did that, the quarter window would look too short and now you're talking some real work. Instead of all that, how about cutting the gutter right at the back of the door opening, and following the short curve on the rounded opening with the gutter to just where it turns straight and stopping there. Shave the rest off. Much easier fix, you still have a gutter over the door window to stay dry (I'm assuming the quarter windows are fixed), and the 'conflict' with the roofline/window is gone.

The headlights do look a bit droopy, maybe some same-year Lincoln units would do the trick if you can find some.

As usual, if you or your team are caught I'll disavow all knowledge....

 

Nice custom Mercury. If all of the distractions are taken out of the photo, the Mercury does look a little low and chubby on the rear. It looks like there are 5 teenagers sneaking into the drive-in theater in the trunk. Or, several large bags of decorative river rocks making the back lower than the front. The full skirts adds to the whole “large rear” end scenario.


Hello,

I was messing around with a Mercury two door and on my drawing board, it looked better with a slight chop, over the stock height. Then as I added skirts similar to yours, it took on the proportions of a heavy rear end in the overall stance. So, the added touch was to make a slight curved opening at the bottom of the skirt to showcase the tires and rims. The larger skirt just adds to the overall look.
old Friday Art
So, even if the original opening was curved and the wider skirt was added, there still is room for a modification to the skirts to show a little more tire/wheels and still utilize the skirt. The lowered rear, the larger skirt, and dark color still make it feel heavy and thick. I did the same style of larger skirt in the original drawing, but I had to change it to show a little more underneath.

Now the physical presence of the large wide car still is a Mercury hardtop style lowered as to choice and looks cool in a different way. It also give clearance to the tail dragging aspect of a lowered custom car.

Jnaki

I even tried to make the front end a little lower, but the overall level stance was the best choice, only if I added the modification to the rear skirts. When it had the solid ones, it too, looked like a big b….
YRMV
"Does this dress make my butt look big?" Wow, what a loaded question scenario!!! Yikes!

 

That is why they had to go, This was a terrible trend that lasted way too long.

Interesting idea

Lol! I can get my hands on some Stude fins. Ignore ya? No way, this is he fun part of building a kustom.

Thank you everyone for the feedback, this was the reason for the post. Some of the ideas are right but just cant go that far backwards to fix some of the issues. Dave and I had a good time discussing it this weekend. Wanted to share the fun.

 

I like @ken bogren's suggestion of maybe a 55/56 Pontiac scoop above the headlights...interesting idea that would fit the build time/theme of the car and is maybe worth exploring.

I also agree with @Crazy Steve's points about the rain gutter and rear window...along with what we talked about with the thickness of the c-pillar. A good compromise between digging way into it and leaving the window as it is might be to "just" open the 1/4 window back up to the framework that is still in there but covered over at the back end of the window for a little more length and then finish evening out the drip rail to the "french curve" line to match.

 

Great observations! Also the radius at the top front and top back of the skirts is too small, looks too squared off…would look better with a larger radius. To correct the headlight drop off, maybe add some small scoops above the headlights like some customs had in the “little magazines”.
Maybe work a scoop into the front of the skirts, if a scoop is added above the headlights!

 

Something similar to this ?

 

That's kool

 

1957 Mercury Turnpike Cruiser - Start here and dial it back until it looks right .


1958 Mercury Turnpike Cruiser - A little cleaner - Maybe some more dial back...


And why are we trying to change this fender? It flows smoothly (smooth as in Custom, vs random air scoops as in Kustom) and blends well into the door character line.

Russ

p.s Maybe the Dare-to-be-different argument applies here? Is changing the headlight/fender profile a step toward conformity (i.e. looking like all the other Mercury Kustoms)?

 

I would leave the front fenders alone, and concentrate on opening up the quarter window like Dave said, maybe adding some side trim, either straight like a stock Merc, or some curved Buick trim

 

Thanks Russ for the suggestions. You got me thinking, always wanted canted headlights but I have two friends building Mercs with the headlight treatment. So I decided not to do it. '57 Mercury Headlights? Ya got me thinking out of the box.

Opening the quarter windows may be do able, it would help with the profile. Just going to have to check it out...

 

"I'm in the side chrome camp. Just about every 49 - 51 Merc needs some type of side chrome."

. . . and a lot of the trim often fights the built-in body side dip.