I grew up in the Northeast and learned early on that seeing isn't believing! I've p***ed on a lot of cars that looked great from 20 feet but weren't much more than rusty shells, mere shadows of their former selves when viewed up close. Beware this one unless you're willing to deal with a serious rust bucket!
Agree. Looks pretty crispy. Love that vintage of Merc, though. If it was closer, I'd be buying it for the right price. But, I'm stupid like that. No such thing as a bad Ford, Merc or Lincoln.
sadly I can see that roof being the "tip of the iceberg" for rust issues too . Shame , would've made a cool old cruiser .
Yeah, but somebody here on the HAMB is parting a '54 Skyliner with a good roof and there is/was also a same type roof on EBite. Can you say mild custom Sun Valley?
Could always just lose the roof altogether. I worry about what the inner rockers , lower inner 1/4's etc are like though. I know with wifeys ranchwagon it didn't look too bad from the outside.... different story when we stripped and blasted though. Almost appeared that it had rotted from the inside out . Oh well , nothing like a challenge eh!
yeah my car looked good got lots of complements, decided to take it down and its a rot box, if its just the roof then its not too bad, get another roof and chop it
I say that car will need inner / outer rockers, inner / outer quarter panels, tail panel, trunk floor, floor pans, body mounts, lower front fenders, roof work as we've all seen, three French hens, two turtle doves and a parts car in a pear tree. But, it is a Merc hardtop............
As streetdreams implies, that car IS a parts car...unless you're both talented and persistent. Oh, and a couple of other things as well...
Yup, and as I know all too well, those 'purty cars' are like an iceberg - only a small portion of them is visible on the surface. . . To paraphrase on old Air Force saying: "... Lots of parts, flying in close formation..."
Yup, that's a northeast car and probably rotten. But.. it is a Mercury Hardtop.. ad aslo said it has a 239, shouldn't it have a 256? The floors don't seem like a huge deal, but that roof is gonna be fun to fix.
That roof would take someone with good metal working skills to fix it,He has lowered the price and would probably come down even more knowing that is an issue and is probably why He is trying to turn it rather than fix it.Shop labor to repair it would get ugly.
Would make a great parts car for a solid but stripped shell of the same year. I'd bet the frame is rust-damaged as well. The road salt does horrible things to frames as well as the sheet metal. I can also attest that getting that puppy apart is going to try the new owner's soul as well. Every fastener will be rust-frozen in place and will probably require cutting or drilling to remove. I rebuilt old cars as a yout' in the Northeast and remember it well...
quote : streetdreams I say that car will need inner / outer rockers, inner / outer quarter panels, tail panel, trunk floor, floor pans, body mounts, lower front fenders, roof work as we've all seen, three French hens, two turtle doves and a parts car in a pear tree. But, it is a Merc hardtop............ Streetdreams , you sound like you had a front row seat in my shop while I was rebuilding my darling's wagon !
4T6, There in spirit. They are a lot of work, but worth it when done. If I can get Raceron to post some pics of his '56 during it's rebirth, you'll see what I mean. We skipped the trunk floor and roof on his..........
Oh the pain. . . Summer 1968: April 2008: Later '08, '09: Picture taken, April 2012:
Ahhh Ron , yes yours reads much like Michelle's has so far . Gl***top Wagon ? no , just some previous owner had put a m***ive section of Plexigl*** in it - so I guess you could say it was a "wanna be" Gl***top wagon ! I will be fitting a complete roof skin ( from the stock drip rail up ) from a later ford wagon to it . Next mission .
Ron and Danny are my heroes! Amazing work... I followed the Ranch Wagon thread but that's a damn impressive save Ron!
Thanks but I only paid the bills, I'm not a mechanic by any stretch! John (streetdreams) did the work, only the interior upholstery was done elsewhere.
X2,some folks would give up and send a piece of history to the crusher this is a good example of "Hard work Pays off!"
That car is woof. the top opens up a lot of possibilities. A folding top ***embly would make it a car. The downside is, you'd have to build the bottom six inches back up to snuff before tackling that. Then there are the special bits like the air deflectors. The front crossmember is probably toast. For 2k it'd be a fair price around these parts, but it is a BIGTIME project.
The subject Merc is now on EBay hovering around $500 with a reserve. Thanks for the compliment, 4t6, Very proud of the work my shop did on Ron's '56. -- " There's no such thing as a bad Ford, Merc or Lincoln.... "
The other option is like Foose did at SEMA is cut the top off and make a roadster out of it.Here is an example for sale on my local craigslist: http://phoenix.craigslist.org/nph/cto/2891776192.html
My thought is to put a breezeway roof with a lttle bit of a chop on a Merc like that and do a little period customizing to it since most of the metal will be replaced anyhow.
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