Bear in mind folks this is a rough old dog, its not getting any cash spent on it, well not much ...every piece of steel has been an offcut, some of the steel has been a touch tarnished with the rusty stick, but cleaned up OK . If 39/40 mercurys were not so rare as they are in the UK, maybe 5 or 6 at most ? and this one being the only one in Scotland, I really might have been better walking away... but a rough car is ripe for cutting up and a challenge just to save it from the crusher ... This was, believe it or not, a car that come from Kevan Sledge.. He rightly sent it to blighty where it was destined to become one with the soil... lol..
When you build a floor from scratch do you just lay it directly on top of the frame rails or do you add the factory style pads or add them later?
Im not speaking for everyone here , but for me I lay it ontop of the rails, especially on this one since its not meant to look factory its just a new floor to support the body.. so I don't think its that critical . When the body is finally mounted and bolted to the frame I will add some rubber under the mounts and that will stop rubbing and squeeking and will also help when gapping as the rubber will give a bit and pull the body a little during the tightening down process, so using Nylocks you can tweak a gap by nipping or loosening a body mount bolt ...and adding or taking away rubber strips. But again, having said that, given the condition of this body, Im not after perfect gaps, If it turns out that way then that would be a bonus, but just to save the poor old thing is the order of the day I would say though, that this ch***is has a fairly flat profile, If the ch***is had a dipp between the outer rails, and the centre crossmember was dipped, I would consider using something to lay into the dip so the entire surface area was more or less flat and supporting the floor ... This old girl had the remains of a floor so I would always take the best advantage of that. and salvage as much of the remains as possible and unpick any joins to break it down into manageable sections. I then lay the best sections with the most amount of detail to one side and will take patterns from those. There is usually just enough evidence of an edge in some places to give a rough idea of the outline ... Then when you really begin to struggle with how a part should fit in, take time out and search the NET, I've had a fair old amount of clues from other folks posts, saves a lot of head scratching.. That's why I post really, not to worried about the end results, just keen to help other folk so pics of the good and bad are always useful reference. Oh and don't throw out the rusty bits until your happy with the new stuff, I go back and forth checking out the rusty pieces quite often before they get s****ped..
Looks like you're progressing along very well. The side exit exhaust is a nice touch. May I suggest giving the body the Westergard treatment (I.e LaSalle grille, rear fender skirts,etc...) Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
cheers James.. are you up for challenge to 3 window this ****er .... I have a plan to extend the rear deck, shorten the roof, and build in a larger radius around the back where the lower edge of the roof meets the deck panel above the trunk lid... I think that would loose the illusion of a hard edge down the rear roof section that's always fairly apparent on chopped mercurys.. especially from the front to rear 3/4 view....
There must be a secret ingredient in the matranga merc... its still the best example out there, many have tried but only a few have pulled it off.. they must have the original recipe..
I think a few more of the people that take on this kind of project need to have this quote tattooed someplace where they'll see it frequently. I don't see how this can't come out better than expected.
Your a star James.. as you see the rework you did on the front is my avatar and inspiration.. If you can pull off something for the roof I would be really grateful... You will get the design credits The ida merc went a bit to far in the end , beautiful workmanship and definitely a custom but more akin to the creation of design houses and prestigious coachworks of the era... were looking at no funds and a built in a garden shed type build lol.. Something different for sure , the roof doesn't have to flow into the rear deck with the rear window laying almost flat, it could easy be more upright but shorter with a longer/ deeper panel between the trunk and roof.. I cant draw a stick man , I can imagine what i'm after but creating that from mid air is a challenge.. If I can get something to work with, a good visual, I have a plan to lay hands on some polyurethane low density expanded foam blocks to fill the void from the B pillars back to the deck panel and carve it out to the shape I think looks good, then make the panels from there ..
spent a bit of time planishing out the door skin repair.. still needs a wee bit of work but its in the ball park..
attached a few of my favourites... the ida merc is there, mid build where, for my personal taste, they should have gave it the nod as done ... Roof line looks pretty good from the angle of the picture .. The green merc is just gorgeous the red one, I really like the more upright style roof line and the defined line where it joins the rear deck. the bare metal car, same as above ... and the convertible ... perfect as it is but if I could get close to that shape in steel I would be a happy chappy... to my eye the deeper rear deck above the decklid just enhances the shape of the rear end ..
I really love the convert and if you can copie that shape over to metall ( and I think you can considering other jobs you´ve done ) it would be great. And maybe for rear window you could graft in a shopped 35-36 window to mimic the mailslot on the cab. It´s a tuff call to convert to 3window because the sailpanel often gets to big. I think by move the rear forward and extend the cat walk you´ll get better balance and proportions.
Hi Kenneth, its the sail panel that I have the visual battle with, I keep calling it the rear roof quarter!! Because it has such a lot going on it can look like a straight line from certain angles...The rear deck ( cat walk ? ) definitely benefits from being extended. If you look close at the Ida " in progress" pic, there is a highlight on the lower edge of the sail panel that is almost telling them to extend the deck panel to that point and curve the roof around the back of the car from there...
Great job so far! Just thinking out loud.If i was to ever even consider converting one to a 3 window i,d consider lengthening the doors,to give the side profile of gl*** and roof a chance of better longer flow? Johnny
Johnny, I wouldn't disagree with you .. It would be best to make the doors just a little longer, maybe I should have done that before I made the lower skin, the door still needs a little help so who knows !!! I have a lot of repairs to contend with and really wouldn't be a big issue to move the B post back at this stage ... There all worth thinking about, but I always hark back to my original build plan for it not to get to out of control .. I read somewhere that all 39 /40 mercurys were originally designed as convertibles, but due to some economic restrictions at the time, maybe WW2, only a few made it to become convertibles while the rest had the add on roof . I describe it as add on because it really looks that way, its a proper afterthought when you look close at how it was done . If you look at it like that, you could say the doors and rear quarter are the correct proportion, its the goofy roof that causes the problems..
Mmm, I'd like to see do***entation about that, and it surely does not include sedans as well? And the U.S. did not get into the war until late 1941 in any case, but which time the 42 models were already hitting the market. Edit: Sorry to sidetrack.
better not say all, delete that and insert coupes .. they surely couldn't have designed it to look so ugly , something must have happened somewhere along the line ...
James D ,that looks pretty amazing.Maybe i am getting the wrong direction,but that would make an incredible removeable hardtop too.Redoxide just for our own curiosity and not to influence/confuse you but could we get james d to do a lengthened door rendering?perhaps three to four inches.then make the window shape more half teardropped or aerofoil like towards the rear.Like the green one and matranga merc Johnny
Again, just for comparison... Too much catwalk...? Way too much catwalk...? ...too much... well...you might have a point with this one... If Redoxide wanted a 40 Merc like every other chopped one, i´m sure he´d build it. There´s more than one way to skin a cat.
The Jalopy Journal
