My 51 Merc build

This is where the hard work begins, managed to talk my mate whos good with metal to help do some work on the merc, he started with the rear screen, heres the result

 

In the meam time managed to pick this up on ebay for a good deal

,

 

Nice progress!

 

Cool car. I'm also of the camp to keep 51 rear windows as a rule, but I'll agree with you, the amount of the chop you have there really made it dig in. That new window flows nicely.

 

To be honest it was just the corners i had an issue with, its hard to show in pictures but it looked like the screen wasn't wide enough for the body.

 

Looking great!

 

very nice

 

Yeah, I can really see what you mean. Looks a lot more finished off as it is now.

 

Heres a quick pic of the changes, sorry about the rubbish pic, we placed the rear screen in place just to check its all true and square. We also moved the screen down the body to shorten the sail panel.



Here it was before.

 

Yup, the 51 window was pulled waaaaay to far forward for it's own good. To get them to look right, they really just need to be laid down right where they are so they are not pulled up into a wider part of the body. With a chop as deep as yours, even just laying it down would have had the corners way to far down into the belt line. The 49 window looks much better given what you had to work with. I'm glad you set it further back, too, to balance out the sail panel.

 

I like heavy chops and agree with you on the back window, looks much better.

 

You have a good eye, keep it up. Keep doin what ya like.

 

looks great, and the 49 back windows will help a big chop, being completely flat from top to bottom..

 

After we changed the rear screen out it really highlighted the shape of the rear quarter lights,
this is how they were before



so i got my mate to shape them,

 

Cool, that was the one wart on that car.

 

Also thought id stick some gutters back on the car

 

I like that the door handles were retained. Your changes are really working too. Great lookin' Mercury.

 

To be honest im losing the handles, for a start there not lockable and i dont want to draw attention to the upper part of the car, ive picked up some side trim thats hopefully gonna balance out the chop a bit.

 

I think it looks much better. Looks like you plan on reworking the quarter windows also.

 

The trim under the windows will do wonders for the look too. Just checked back and saw that you did rework the quarters. Looks great. I prefer rain gutters also. It's a preference call. Some like then better without.
What are your plans for the grill?

 

Ive just got a 53 desoto grill to go with the pan ive bought, i ended up buying a aluminium recast one. Its going to need some work to get in good shape, but buying one off photos just seems to risky. ive seen so many for sale that are just rotten out.

 

Oh buy the way the trim ive bought is the one that runs down the middle of the door, ive hoping its going to level out the amount of the chop and hopefully help split the height of the body in two

 

Looks much nicer and eliminating the door handles will clean it up nice. Looks like your car will be in the HAMB Top 5 for best redo of an older car...

 

Looks great!

 

Love the new backlight! I remember finding a thread on ,I think a UK site and diggin the car back then, now I get to see its re birth!!

 

Gutters as well - this gets better and better. Vast improvement so far.

 

Amazing transformation!!!!!!!

 

Hi guys

well seeings the body has been away for so long now i passed the engine over to a buddy of mine who gave it a quick freshen up and a coat of paint

 

Also my buddys been working on the floor getting ready for the notch and 4 bar setup

 

Got the body off today, getting ready to notch the chassis and get the airbags on.