Projects My 1951 Mercury Restoration Part II

Anyone know where I can buy the screws/bolts for all the interior garnish moldings? Mike B was that screw kit that you talked about having all of those? Should I be getting button head stainless ones or ?

John,
Get what , I think they call, truss head screws. You can get stainless, I used black because my moldings are black.

They have a small washer affixed to them. That way when you screw them down, the screw heads don't chip the paint at the indent when seating them.

 

Sup buddy, hope you are feeling good.

I'm planning to paint mine the same color as the body, so I was thinking stainless would be the way to go?

 

These do not have the washers on them. I've screwed them in tight so far without any issue's........

 

Thanks Mike. I'm all calm now that I decided to send the windows to Matt to get redone haha.

 

I cleaned up and organized my pics:

http://s638.photobucket.com/albums/uu101/ProStockJohn/1951 Mercury Project Mercula/

 

Sure we had a little snow the other day, but I realized that they didn't salt the roads. So when I went out early this morning to run some errands, I took the Merc. Nobody was out so I didn't have to work about parking...

Hit 80mph a few times screwing around on the highway, and then took some pics over on Peterson using the black and white setting on my phone...

And yes it's a bit cold to not have my door windows done, I need to pull the wing windows and send them out so I can finish everything. And THEN the grille!!!!!!!

I really like the roof height of the chop in this pic:

 

That old girl has come a long way under your care John and she really looks good. That's a great pair of photos with nothing in the background or foreground to let a person know exactly when they were taken.


It could even look like someone used the old box Brownie to take the photo.

 

Thanks I have a couple of locations with really neutral backgrounds and I plan to take a bunch of black and white pics when I get the exterior finally done. I like that effect you did there.

 

I sure like the way your car is turning out!

 

Thanks, these cars are an awesome hobby.

Man I gotta get the grille done, car would look awesome with it in... I love being able to manipulate pics, so f'g cool!!!!

 

John, Take a few photos with the Merc parked on fresh snow - like a golf course or open field. The white snow "surrounding" the dark Merc would look great in B&W.

 

Tell you what, I'm down for that, let me get the grille in and then I'll do a shot like the Sam Barris Merc Motor Trend cover.

 

John you friggin rockstar, on all kinds of forums.

http://tow411.yuku.com/topic/99563

 

LOL dork, that's my buddy Lloyd I've been using him for 15 years.

 

It was a ridiculous 50F today, so I left work early and went for what surely has to be my last cruise of the winter...right? I rolled from my house at Addison and Western to my buddy Paul's shop Bridgeview Car Care down at 89th and Harlem who painted the car. He was pretty psyched to see how the car has progressed. Then I headed home as my wife has gotten whatever bug I had...

 

Roads got salted, Merc is parked until a big heavy rain. Matt you have a package coming...



Anyone know if I should just call these regular steel wheels? I was talking to wheelkid and I guess there are different kinds:

 

What a great thread! I'm starting on my 51' 4 door this weekend and will be going through all that you have. I'll start up a project thread next week so everyone can follow. I WILL be asking a lot of questions because I have a passion but very little knowledge. So I hope I don't piss anyone off with a dumb ass question, lol. First question, were did you get that squirrel chrome trim? Looks great, and thanks to all in advance.

 

slddnmatt has a trim shop guy who can sell the trim.

Update... Yay! I got another '51 Ford grille center bar, thanks Dave! I need to get this bad guy cut in half.

 

Holy shit man i just went through your threads and this is a bad ass ride. Not a single thing i would change or would have done different. Not sure if your up for the hike but there is an abandoned drive-in movie theatre in Joliet thats pretty cool for shooting B&W pics. I got 1 shot of it in my album. Black cars really stand out there.

 

Vent windows... Have to completely start over. Ugh.

It was a given that I'd have to do a new set of just the wing windows, but Matt confirmed something that I suspected but had not measured... The vertical stainless bars are crooked, they slant forward... Enough to not work.

So the wing windows don't fit, the vertical stainless is crooked, the glass doesn't fit, and one side is taller than the other.

So I am unable to give a positive reference for a shop local to me, as I'm eating some real $ here and that's not cool at all. If y'all looked at these assemblies you can tell that they are pretty horrible, but I was hoping just to get by and hope that folks at shows wouldn't be focusing on how poorly done they were. The driver's side wing window is simply not an arch. The passenger side is too long on top, and droops down at the end...

I think what I will do with the defective assemblies is bring them back to the local place and ask for a solution, maybe they throw me some nice hubcaps or something because I'm unhappy about that deal. I don't like to be real negative about stuff but this bothers me, especially the fact that the uprights are f'g crooked. BAH.

Off to call around for another set of wing windows. I suspect I'll have a few beers tonight.

 

That sucks John!! Sorry to hear that. Good luck with the search.

 

I'm sure I can find a set but now I have to put the grille on hold until I get these redone.

 

No one said these projects were easy did they. Enjoy the beers!!

 

John, you still looking for a dash? PM me if you are.

 

Yeah dunno on the dash yet. I want to completely finish my exterior before I turn to the interior.

 

What a great looking Mercury! I do love to build the inline sixes but am very partial to the 40-41 and 49-52 Mercury cars. They are rock solid and make an eye pleasing appearance to me. Your work is very good. Now you have a true "One of a Kind" too!
Normbc9

 

Not likely that I would put an inline six in my car as the car would be a total turd with a 100 hp engine. I don't see how folks can drive one of these cars on the highway with a 110 hp flathead.

 

Had to pull the old gal out so I could clean the garage a bit... hello winter.

 

Any updates on the grille?

 

Actually my first priority is getting my door glass back on track. I bought a set of new wing windows via Papke to be sent to Matt Townsend, since the ones I had locally done here in Chicago didn't fit and had multiple other issues.

I have all the parts for the grille but I need to swing the car by a buddy in the 'burbs for a fitment. Good news I bought another center bar which should reduce the amount of fab work needed.