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Projects The Heirloom Merc

Discussion in 'Traditional Customs' started by cactus1, Jul 6, 2015.

  1. When I was in elementary school, around 4th or 5th grade, my parents bought a 1950 Mercury sedan. My dad was a butcher (meat cutter) all his life and he and my mother worked hard for everything they had. I have fond memories of being picked up from school in the Merc when my dad had a day off during the week! We had many antique cars throughout the years but the merc was the one that stuck around.

    When I was around 10 or 11 years old a friend of my dad's offered to repaint the Mercury and at the time they decided to make it a "mild custom." They "nosed" and "decked" it and I remember dad being very proud of the fact that his pal used lead for the bodywork rather than plastic fillers. His pal was and older gentleman and did things the way they did in the 50's when he first started customizing cars.

    The old Merc spent most of its time in the garage over the years and was only taken out a few times a year for the occasional jaunt around the neighborhood. My parents essentially "gave" the car to me for my high school graduation (1991) but it remained in their garage as I went to college, met my wife, bought our first house, etcetera...

    Well, dad passed away in 2006 and while my mom is still going strong we have recently collectively decided to downsize her living arrangements and selling the house so the Merc has finally made it out of its resting place of the last at least 20 years ( if memory serves me correctly?) My wife and I bought a place out in the country a couple of years ago with room for the Mercury (and of course all the other vehicles we've acquired over the last 19 years together!)

    So, I'm starting this thread to chronicle the journey back to the road for the old Mercury that I am referring to as The Heirloom Merc. I will do my best to keep things up to date with the progress.

    Here are a few pics the day we dragged her out...[​IMG] [​IMG]

    And after a quick rinse at its new home...[​IMG]

    I should mention at this point (back in late April of this year) the car has not run in 25 years and I have no idea where the keys are :oops:. In preparation for the move I finally got our garage cleaned out and stuff moved down to the shop building. So we pushed her into one of the bays and I've been picking at it here and there. Anyway, there's more to come as time will allow! Thanks for looking.
     
  2. I like this story.
    You are getting quite a stable full
     
  3. Outback
    Joined: Mar 4, 2005
    Posts: 2,381

    Outback
    Member
    from NE Vic

    Will follow along & am looking forward to watching it get back on the road! Have you plans to keep it as is?
     
  4. slddnmatt
    Joined: Mar 30, 2006
    Posts: 3,685

    slddnmatt
    Member

    Merc looks great
     

  5. vwdave30
    Joined: Nov 21, 2009
    Posts: 457

    vwdave30
    Member

  6. eric54chevy
    Joined: Jun 3, 2009
    Posts: 988

    eric54chevy
    Member
    from TEXAS!

    Great story and nice looking Merc
     
  7. Dude. You and your family rule ! Very keen on your Mercury, 4 doors, unchopped and all. Hope your smile stays bigger from here on out. Quite the heirloom piece ... yes.
     
  8. Cool story, i'll be watching this one.

    -Chris
     
  9. HOLLYWOOD GRAHAM
    Joined: Apr 11, 2007
    Posts: 1,437

    HOLLYWOOD GRAHAM
    Member
    from Ojai,Ca

    Glad Pop and Mom and you too had the foresight to keep the Merc., Congratulations...
     
  10. Excellent!! Wish I had my dad's Merc, but it's long gone and had to get my own.
     
  11. Love the car, lucky you and family. I'm watching.
     
  12. Drive'em
    Joined: Jan 7, 2013
    Posts: 274

    Drive'em
    Member

    Wow cool history on that Merc. Get it running and enjoy it with your family. Oh don't change a thing either.
     
  13. Well keys are easy enough and even if they weren't who else can brag about having a car that they have had pretty much all their life.

    Nice old car and better story. As the life of a car goes it could not have had a better life or been with better people.
     
    40fordtudor likes this.
  14. T&A Flathead
    Joined: Apr 28, 2007
    Posts: 1,985

    T&A Flathead
    Member

    This is going to be cool. Love it.
     
  15. Thanks for all the nice comments! I feel very fortunate to have the car and now have a place to keep it parked close by. My wife and I bought a small 5 acre farm(ette) about 2-1/2 years ago with a nice detached garage and a block dairy barn that I have converted to my workshop. Everything happens for a reason I guess!
    image.jpg

    Here's the barn/shop. image.jpg


    So, the plan at this point is to get it running/ driving reliably (original Merc flathead and Overdrive trans) and then probably just some lowering, tires etc. I really like the Bill Busch Merc that I found on the Kustomrama website. I'd like to find out more about it but it is definitely the look I'm after. It appears to be a Barris built car.

    image.jpg image.jpg

    Oh, and I found the keys...
     
  16. So, after I located the keys and bought a new 6 volt battery I pulled the plugs and put a squirt of oil down each cylinder and besides to give her a bump hoping she wasn't stuck and to my surprise she turned over!

    The gas in the tank had long ago turned to varnish and the lines were all plugged so I pulled everything apart and blew some compressed air through them and finally got them cleared out. I also pulled the carb apart and cleaned it up as it was all gummed up as well.

    image.jpg

    These things sure are funky!
    image.jpg
    So with the fuel finally flowing I tried to start it again and...nothing. I spent the next few weeks chasing electrical gremlins. Since I don't really know what I'm doing I normally would just replace everything from the get go like points , cap, condenser, coil, wires. For some reason I decided to try to work with what was there? That was a frustrating decision and I had to walk away a few times scratching my head.

    image.jpg
     
    Last edited: Jul 9, 2015
  17. FortMoe
    Joined: Jun 2, 2015
    Posts: 40

    FortMoe
    Member

    Love it! It looks great. Can't wait to here more about it.
     
    cactus1 likes this.
  18. So this is fun. The car sat on these brand new (now 30 years old) radials. They were all flat and pumped right up when we pulled the car out of the garage. Well a couple of weeks after having it home I went out in the garage to find this...kablooey! image.jpg I'm glad I wasn't out there when it popped because I would have pooped my pantaloons!
     
  19. orangeamcs
    Joined: Jun 23, 2007
    Posts: 609

    orangeamcs
    Member

    Maybe it's the cars way of saying I don't need no stinkin' radials
     
    RoddyB34 and 54hotrodder like this.
  20. Outback
    Joined: Mar 4, 2005
    Posts: 2,381

    Outback
    Member
    from NE Vic

    Good to see some progress, any idea what CFM the original carb is?
     
  21. hotrodrhp
    Joined: Sep 19, 2008
    Posts: 446

    hotrodrhp
    Member
    from Wisconsin

    It seems many of our children and grandchildren have lost contact with their family history or quite frankly have no foundation or memory of where they came from. Great story so keep it the way you remember it and you will treasure it forever. Your dad is smiling down on you and it sounds like he has instilled great values. Good luck with the rebuild.
     
    Model T1 and cactus1 like this.
  22. Hot Rods Ta Hell
    Joined: Apr 20, 2008
    Posts: 4,670

    Hot Rods Ta Hell
    Member

    Congrat on getting the Merc to your place and that dairy barn/shop is awesome! The mild Custom routine will be perfect for the car and keeps Dad's ideals in the plan. Kustomrama and Rickster's site is a great spot to see pics of classic Custom Mercs for ideas.
     
    cactus1 likes this.
  23. I'm on it like white on rice (as the old man used to say!)

    image.jpg image.jpg

    I also got a set of these for the front...

    image.jpg


    Sombreros are my favorite caps on a custom (cliché as it may be!)
     
  24. I'm not sure at what CFM the old Teapot was rated? I did a quick google search but didn't see anything right off the bat. Aren't these the carbs that are sometimes referred to as the "towering infernos?"
     
  25. The tea pot or towering inferno carbs were used on 52-mid fifties fords and mercs. That is a back draft carb. It was also used on some international truck engines. You can use a Rochester 2g carb from a 283 on that intake as well. It mounts backwards and everything will hook right up. It must be a small base carb and you will need to open the bores in the intake slightly like with a die grinder. I will be running one on my Canadian merc aluminum intake on my 49 8cm in my 46 ford. If you have any questions, please feel free to PM me directly.
    Matt
     
    Model T1 and jakespeed63 like this.
  26. brady1929
    Joined: Sep 30, 2006
    Posts: 9,253

    brady1929
    Member

    Sweet merc
     
    cactus1 likes this.
  27. That's good to know! I was actually wondering about that bolt pattern. It looked awfully close and I'm much more familiar (relatively) with the 2Gs from working on my pickup.

    Is there any advantage with the 2G over the stock carb?
     
  28. great story, will be following this one for sure...great choice on tires ! Lost my dad in 2013, he had a XK150 Jag convertible, and 1957 Chevy short box Stepside 1/2 ton when I was young. Both cars had great memories of driving to and from the Air Base here... Good luck with the Merc !
     
    cactus1 likes this.
  29. Great story, great car! I'm south of K.C. Look forward to seeing you around in that Merc someday soon.
     
    cactus1 likes this.
  30. 39 Deluxe
    Joined: Nov 9, 2014
    Posts: 68

    39 Deluxe
    Member

    Excellent car. Nice to see another Merc being worked on. I have my dad's 52 but it is in far worse shape than yours. But its a runner and thats the main thing for now. Mine has the true "teapot"" carb and I have heard that while the Rochester 2GC will fit the engine, it will not allow the loadamatic distributor to work as it was designed to. So I am sticking with original equipment. Merc wheel disc.png
     
    Model T1 and cactus1 like this.

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