to swap or not to swap

Need help I'm tryin to build my 51 merc as closely to what what would have been done to it in the late fifties early sixties I need ideas on engines.Should i build and bore the flathead or do a swap what was popular? lincolns,newer merc engines, Y blocks or Fe's? give me some Ideas. also to chop or not to chop. i like the chop but did that happen after the merc got popular or is that why the merc got popular. I always thought James Dean had something to do with it. LOL. This is the oldest car I have had and want to stay true to the reason it gained popularity. I know over the years they have been an empty canvas for expression but I want to capture what everybody first saw in them. For me I love the lines of the car. personaly,I thought the pharohs had the right Idea in American Grafitti. But is that car true to that time period? someone that was there tell me. Thanks.

 

I'll take a shot at this one. You have a true 50's classic hot rod, and in my opinion the best looking of those days (as well as these days). The full treatment was chopped-nosed-decked-shaved-skirted-primered and if you had the money, sectioned and channeled. Stick with the flathead. Bore it and put some nice dress up heads, nice easy loping cam, intake, strombergs, 12V conversion, and stereo. Headers with glass packs will give you that sweet flathead rumble. Rolled and pleated inside with chrome all around the windows. Try for the floating grille or the deSoto teeth up front. Above the back bumper with the 54 (53?) Olds one bar grille piece. French the lights front and back. Lowered all the way around. This is what I remember in the 50's and 60's as the ultimate hot rod. James Dean didn't start the merc thing, he used the mercury because it was the most popular. Good luck and get us some pictures. Man, I would love to have me a mercury. Please don't go and get all modern with it, doing the "standard" 350/350 thing. later, 31ACoupe

 

The chop jobs were popular right very from the beginning, and undoubtedly added to the popularity of the Mercury with rodders, however the reality was that the Mercury was just a popular car with the general public, even with those who had never laid eyes on a chopped version.
There is also the reality that only a very small percentage of them were actually chopped during the '50s, most rodders were satisfied with a simple dechroming and perhaps a grille swap, back then chopping a Mercury top was a labor intensive and expensive undertaking, requiring the very best of bodyworking skills, remember there were no plasma cutters or mig-welders, or even bondo.
Most guys rather than spending all that money just moved on up to a newer Mercury. The majority of the chopped Merc's now in existence were created in latter decades.
I'd say if you really want to stay true to the '50s, don't go overboard on the body mods, you can always cut 'er up latter, but it is hard to go back.
It was the Mercury flatty that gave the car its 'bad boy' reputation, as it was considered the hot set-up of its day, and was highly sought out by the Ford gang to power everything from T's on up.
But the "classic" swap for an early Mercury has to be the Caddy 331-365, guys pulled their Merc flatties and stuck 'em in A's and 40's and the Merc's got "upgraded" to Caddy power.

 

I also remember a few Olds (303 and 324) engines in some of the Merc's. But most of them were fairly stock.

 

Wasn't intending to limit the engine choices, I'd suppose that just about every make of OHV V-8 that was being made during '50s, someone somewhere stuck one into a Mercury, but the Caddy appears to have been the first choice, followed by the Olds, Chrysler, ...perhaps even a Packard, Rambler or Stude!
Remember the '56 2x4 374 Packard, and the '57 327 Rambler? Hot engines back in the day, I've seen all of these in the 'shoebox' Ford's.

 

late '50s, early '60s??? You woulda got laughed outta town if you still had a big ol merc.

 

Where I came from, mercs were pretty popular. Up the street from me was a 49/50 conv.yellow with a white top car, nosed decked 51 skirts, amd nice sounding duals. My car in 56 was a 50 conv,black, lowered, 54 pont grill , mallory, 2 carbs, duals . bad trans. the car was bought from behind a gas station, 125 bucks,and paid for with my gas station job.