Customs How are everyone's Mercury projects coming along?

John did you decide on a grille? I'm thinking about going with the stock grille with the center piece filled in, very traditional but not the flashiest.

 

Yeah I'm gonna cobble together a grille like the Sam Barris Merc. I bought a complete '51 Ford grille to use for parts. I'm selling my '55 Desoto grille and the grille that was in my car when I bought it....

old grille

 

Bought a new chassis for mine. Sold the flatty and the trans. Anybody wanting a '50 Merc rearend,PM me. Gonna take me about a year to get everything ready to swap the body over. NO MORE oilpan drama,LOL....As soon as I get some wheels and tires for the Hotrod,i'm parking the Merc.

 

Damn,,,, BAD BOBS BACK!!!

 

Are you keeping the ribbed bumpers? I can't believe someone thought painting that grille would look good.

 

The ribbed bumpers, dummy spots, and gay lake pipes were all removed and given away.

 

What frame are you doing BadBobII?

 

GOD,that car's ugly! Hope you're gonna change it,HAHAHA!

 

nice to hear from ya Bob !!! >>>>.

 

It's close Bad BobII... I have you to thank for showing me the way...

 

I'm excited to see the "AFTER" photos!!!!! Tell that painter to "GIDDY UP!!!"

 

john,

in responce to your question of the history...there was/is a guy in Franklin NC area that did most the metal work on my car. and being we have the same frame/floor board, same black window moldings, cars both came from same region, same build time(approx), same looking chop, and a list from both cars of things that should have never been done to a merc!?!? maybe the same builder. main difference is yours has the rain gutters where as mine doesnt. who knows....might be the same guy. ive never met him and dont know how to reach him. i could probably find out if you want me to. might very well have been the same dude?


also, after all of my questions to you about seats, i thought it only right to post the pics and info of the seats i went with. these are not the best pictures in the world, but you get the idea.

the seats, allthough not a bench, come as close as one could come with the floor board hump that i could find. everything else was buckets, like the T Bird ones i found... fell through. 66 didnt wrap the way the 64' did...no point. anyway, the seats are out of a 93 lincoln town car. the rears will need some bending to be installed correctly(easy). i have them just thrown in there for now. and the brackets on the front...front ones...perfect. rear needs to be narrowed by like 2" and lowered by like 1"(not needed, but i like em low)...then your done. the ones i found i gave $200.00 for everything. all power and in perfect shape!! seat belts inc. and WHITE(pimp) leather. only problem is the top of the seats(4) have the lincoln embelm. i plan on having the ford "V8" logo done on a patch and have sewn over it. anyway, probably not traditional enough for some...but i thought traditionally the idea is to get a car on the road for less then a million bucks and DRIVE?!? $200.00 plus $30.00 for patchs...traditionally....thats a bargain! FYI

thoughts??

Chris

 

Those seats would look good in my Lincoln.
I went with Imperial seats instead...

.

 

Looks nice Chris.

Chris I got my car from a guy in SC, so maybe the cars were done by the same guy. I'd be curious.

 

I'm having Caveat Emptor regrets...this shell I bought is looking to be in worse and worse shape the more I look at her...finally started crawling around, and while I expected bondo, I didnt expect as much as I suspect is in the roof alone...and the doors...lets just say I dont think the body was braced properly, either when the roof was chopped, or the B pillars were cutout during the 4 to 2 door conversion...
What really sucks is it'll be a few more months before I'm financially solvent again to start working on her so all I can do is stare at her sitting in the garage.

 

Honestly I think all these cars are rougher than expected except for Ace's car which looks pretty clean in his pics. You never know what shortcuts folks have taken in the last 40 years of the car's life.

 

no really- I'll have to get some pics of the "rough" spots... when looking at the pie cuts on the drivers side roof(top has already been chopped), you can see the dip- almost like its a dent the size of a basket ball - looks like about 1/4" to damned near 1/2" of bondo is there to fill and smooth it out. that I can deal with I guess - whats got me really down is the doors(converted from 4 to 2) the doors have been shaved, and only the passenger door has the latching mechanism welded in- and I cant get the mf'r to release and open(there is NO gap between the door and latching mechanism) - Ether sent me some B pillars, as mine were cut completely (along with the window frame of the doors) out. Hell, I'm out of my element at the moment - sometimes reading all the info here and trying to apply what I've learned leaves me sitting on my stool thinking WTF...
oh well, I'm far too stubborn to give up now or ever.

 

Post some pics of the car...

 

closeups of the pie cuts - not sure if the "dip" is visible in the pic

 

drivers side door

 

passenger side door(the one that wont open)
I'm betting most of you will say "oh its not that bad" but when I bought her, I wasnt thinking I'd have to go back and redo things - especially things I dont know how to do. oh well sink or swim time...

 

Well dont feel bad about not knowing how to do things cuz whoever did the work didnt either!!! With that being said, the HAMB is a great place to get the project on the right track. The B-pillers that I sent ya will help ya out a ton but we have to take a different aproach to how they lenthened the doors. You have to move the B-piller back and the rear portion of the door back and use the rear door as a filler,, Hard to explain. Pm me you # and I will try and ring you in the next few days. I can help you get on the right track. Not the only way to do it, easiest is to find a set of two door doors and b-piller. not an easy task.

 

I know it's demotivating to get a car and think you'll make good progress, only to feel like you are going to take 5 steps back. It's even worse when the work needed is something you don't know how to do.

I can appreciate that a fully customized Merc, painted, with a great interior is worth a lot of money. If you can get into a car somewhat cheap all the power too you. If you have to weld or have someone else do $500-1000 worth of work for you then do it. Once you do it you can move forward.

With my car, we found bondo'd up old dents, and some rust. I know the car underneath is worth keeping until I die.

Persevere!

Should I start yelling at my body guy? I think so.

 

I look at mine and think things are bad then I remember what SLED has to do to his merc and think how lucky I am..

 

That being said, about the Mexican Merc 50 project I am doing for Sled,
I would say I had to do alot of serious soul searching also many a time about previous repairs and the overall extent of mother nature damage.
But like all brothers here on the HAMB, just take a small breather and come back to the problem area a day or so later with a fresher outlook and approach.
But keep up the break work and you will be over the hardest issues soon.
oz40

 

Tomste,I would like to see pics too.Thank you.

 

thanks, I really appreciate the help.

 

hope i dont get in trouble with mods...but if any of you merc guys are interested, im selling the side trim off my 53' buick super 2dr ht...please pm me.

 

That is cool that you are getting B pillars from
another HAMBer. Looks to me like you might
as well start cutting into that door to relieve
the pressure. That way you can get it open.

I don't see much point in forcing it open.
It needs to be cut and reshaped anyway for
it to even close with some type of gap.

How's your supply of cutting discs and welding
wire?

The shape of the roof chop appears to be pretty
nice from what the pics show.