A deal was made and this landed in my driveway on Dec 20th. Brief history; A really nice guy up in Fort Lauderdale had the car. He inherited it from his deceased uncle who was a professional welder and weekend racer. This was a project he was unable to finish. It took many years for his Aunt to come to terms with getting rid of it. So, I have to give a big thanks to Billy for trusting me to take good care of a big his piece of his familie's history. __________________________________________________________________________________________________ Ok, a few pics of how it showed up. This tells me a few things about Uncle Glenn. ... and the goodies in the trunk. Ok, I did throw the air cleaner on here in lieu of the rag that was stuffed in the carb. That's an Olds 455 and a 400 trans. The motor turns but is non running. This is not my ideal choice of powerplant but if I can get it fired up it will suffice. __________________________________________________________________________________________________ So, let's begin. This is gonna seem a little backwards but I have to do the cosmetic stuff first. This car is gonna be in front of my house for a while and I don't want the neighbors to complain, so the beautification comes first. Cleaned out. Yeah them floors look awful, strangely the frame is perfect, still has shiny factory paint. __________________________________________________________________________________________________ Two flat tires, so they get the business first. Them wheels look ookie! Sanded down. Redneck blast cabinet. Blasted. While the wheels are getting new shoes,,, 4" drop in the rear. Tires are ready just as I lowered the front end. Oh Yeah, I found the "lost" key in a box in the trunk. __________________________________________________________________________________________________ Pulled the hood and front clip, worked the hood first cause its raining outside. All patched up. A coat of "All-Metal" Primer
Got started on the front clip. It just had a bunch of problems like this... and look what the UPS man dropped off at quitting time today.... __________________________________________________________________________________________________ So, I shot some paint today... Prepped. Squirt. Flip 'Er over and squirt her again. meanwhile, to finish off the paint I mixed up, BANG! __________________________________________________________________________________________________ Clean up. Hoods back on. ____________________________________________________________________________________ Drunken fun. ____________________________________________________________________________________ So, Time to dig into these floors. Everything is marked... Lots of cutting... Got to try out this old Bead roller (Thanks Sergio). All my patch panels are cut... Then I revisited my old nemesis.
Made a pretty cool spare tire well.. Even put in a little trap door for access to the fuel tank sending unit... I'm gonna try and salvage this old tank. The top is shot, but the bottom is great. Rebuilt the carb and got the distributor back on, need to hook up some fuel and a battery. In due time. rebuilding this piece is gonna be a hoot.... Floors and trunk are done. Not pretty but they should last another 65 years. Plus, Made some block off plates for the emissions shit on the motor. An old stop sign gave its life for the cause. I gave up an hour of mine polishing. Also made this block off plate for this ridiculous exhaust manifold (If anyone can explain this manifold to me I'm all ears) Back to that fuel tank. I forgot to take pics of stripping the insides etc. so heres a pic inside before I seal it up. Paint and red coat. 40 minutes out of my life at the polisher. All assembled. And Installed. And 50 feet of aluminum fuel line. So, Here's Alex firing her up for the first time. (Click pic to watch video) Meanwhile I'll be back here straightening her ass out. Sorry, forgot pics of rebuilding this but it is STOUT!
I got lucky, someone already cut down almost all of the window garnishes. So, some quick bodyworks and paint is in order. The windshield garnish is the only pieces they didn't cut down, which is weird cause it took like 10 minutes. I got even luckier cause I married a winner. Look at that mudslinger! _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Getting' down to business. Ground, Cut and dimpled. Welded up. Ground down. All METAL, all the time! Primer Mud _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ And G has wrapped up the dash and is now helping me outside _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Expecting rain all week so that trunk has been on my "indoor activity" list for a while. So, heres the mess we are working with.... Cutting out the crud.... Look who's learning how to shoot paint...
Brakes... Look what Lockheed was up to after the war.... _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Sealer..... _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ On to the other side.... Typical rocker. Now we see why. Cut out the rot and marked the apex of the contour. And got my contour established. Flattened out my original. Marked my pattern (dotted line indicates apex of contour). There we go. Home made break. Made it outta' an old bed frame and some door hinges. Patch complete.
Nice project and nice work . When I see what some of you guys do in the space you have with what tools you have . It makes me think that when I bitch about the lack of space in my 4000 sq ft fully equipped [ including spray booth] shop up on the hill behind my house on my 20 acre farmette that I am some kind of whimp !!!! lol And the profile on the roof is great , a hard feat to accomplish with the big rear window. The guy who did it had a great eye. Larry
Really enjoyin' this thread. Of the 49-51 Mercs, you are re-doing my favorite. Can't wait to see the finished product.
Good work so far. And I agree that whoever cut the top did a good job keeping the shape of the rear window consistant with the slope of the roof, which is tough on a '51. Looking forward to seeing more.
Lookin good!, You done yet? ..........oh, and about that exhaust manifold that outlet in the middle is for the crossover pipe to the other side.....you did the rite thing to block it off if you are gonna run dual exhaust.
You are a better man than me. Great job and thanks for saving another one.....I'm certain the family is glad it landed in the right hands.
The Merc is shaping up great! What a great find. For all the work she pitched in, you owe the Wife a nice dinner and a gift card to go shopping with. Does she do upholstery?
You guys are doing a great job. What was the time frame for this project? It seems like I've been working on mine forever, and I'm still on the floors!
With all the work the wife is doing she must want it really bad!!!!!!!!!!................. THE CAR YOU PERVERTS ! THE CAR! I remember when the wife would help in the shop . Now she tells everybody that letting me build it was best thing she could have done. She knows where I am at and I am not bothering her!!! LoL Enjoy the help while it last
great looking custom, it is good to see someone who is all action and moves ahead with the project. Keep up the good work.
Ugly! This is what we do with ugly. and, the help.... _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Got this all wrapped up. God help anything that rear-ends this.
Great job ! Always admire these skills and the dedication to take on a project of this size, cars going to Kool ! Enjoy !
Got some paint shot. Sealer to be specific, at least its all one color. Trunk and skirts... And the car... My pulley wasn't lining up correctly. Luckily I had an extra one to cut up. Alignment achieved. Got everything I need to fab up a brake system...
The Jalopy Journal
