Projects Saving a 54 Mercury Custom 2 Door Sedan Build Thread

Thanks brEad, Post should be coming more often now.

I hope we are done painting the car. Don seems to be painting nuts and bolts everyday now as a lot of parts are going back on the car.

I took on the inner fender seal and anti rattle strips project this week.

Don was able to buy a couple of kits from Dennis Carpenter for this. They mus have used one heck of a stapler to attach these strips at the factory. I used 1/8th inch aluminum rivets with stainless washers to attach the seals.

These seals required 3/16th rivets.


These attach at he firewall end of the inner fender.

The inner fenders are now ready for installation. Hopefully next week.

Don has been busy installing the engine bay stuff. Of course each time he wants to attach something it seems like it needs a new bolt. Each new bolt means the new detail painting.

The lighter blue color was the original choice for the body color but Don changed his mind after painting the engine. He decided to leave the engine the lighter color for an accent. If you are noticing the lack of chrome or polished aluminum , it because of Don's dislike of polishing chrome and aluminum on his 37 Chevy. Hopefully the engine will appear neat,clean and almost factory stock to those that will get a rare glimpse under the hood.

Don also had a new drive shaft built this week and it is installed. (fits good too!)

 

Just a heads up, this style rear bar can bend the axle housing if you engage in any 'spirited' driving. Ford installed their factory rear bars on the leaf spring cars to the body, with the links going down the shock/axle plate. Not all Ford housings are created equal, some use thinner metal than other. The coil rear spring cars used a heavier-duty housing, if using this type bar you should use one of those or a truck housing.

The reason I know is because this happened to me. I installed a Addco rear bar like yours on a OT Mercury (with leafs) I used to own and started having axle bearing failures within 5K miles. The initial failures started at about 5K, subsequent failures grew to be less. The axle housing had been narrowed slightly and straightened by Art Morrison, so I took it back to him. He confirmed it was bent (but wasn't sure why), re-straightened it, we both verified it was straight, I reinstalled it. More failures, pulled it again and it was definitely bent. Fixed the housing, removed the bar, no more bearing failures...

 

You know the saying “everything is in the details “; you and Don are demonstrating that. I have always thought that the most complex cars were built after the war and through the ‘50s. You guys are doing a great job


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Thanks for the insight Crazy Steve. I will pass this info on to Don. I am sure he will not be happy to hear it after the efforts he had to go through to buy that rear sway bar.

 

Yeah, I'm sure he won't be happy either, but fixing it now will easier (and cheaper) than finding out it's an issue. I had at least 10 bearing failures, ruined a couple of axles, had to pay for tows a few times, plus the hassle of pulling the housing... Not mention the heat I took from the wife who was usually driving it when it broke... LOL.

 

We have been making some progress in between Don's fishing,camping my shop remodel.



I was surprised that this gasket was available for the fresh air system.

We noticed the Mercury did not have a panel here so Don made some up. We hope this will keep mud from piling up on the bottom of the fender.

These body bolt covers were also available.

We are getting some AC plumbing done.

 

The fresh air intake screen had a hole in it big enough for a bee to get through. I tried to stitch the hole shut with some wire but I did not like the results. So I decided to make a new one using a technique I had seen here on the HAMB.

I made a paper pattern the size of the opening in the front bulkhead (or radiator support) and cut some 1/2" plywood siding for a form.

I marked and cut the hole in plywood.



I had some steel mesh screen laying around.

I placed the steel mesh in between the plywood I used some wood screws to clamp the screen between the plywood forms.

My first attempt failed because I clamped the screen too tight and the wire mesh split.

So I cut another piece of screen and this time I did not tighten the screws so tight. This allowed the screen to stretch and deform without splitting.

Note that the wire mesh is also cut so that the screen is inside the perimeter of the clamping screws.

I used two sizes of plastic hammer to stretch the screen.

It's hard to see but the screen eventually stretched to the desired contour was painted black and is installed in a place that no one will be able to see it. It was a fun project. I can imagine it would be more difficult trying to stretch a piece steel into the same shape with this method but I still would like to give it a try.

 

Good job, Sam. I was thinking, while I was reading your post, that the screen could probably have been flat, but there is something about making it correct that is very satisfying.

 

You are right Joel I could have made it flat (and it did cross my mind) but what fun is that?

 

So today I was able to finish the fabrication of the modified oil bath air filter.

We had to stack two filters. An aluminum plate was cut and placed on top of the filters for a good seal. A piece of 1/8" black gasket was cut and placed on to of the aluminum plate for an ant rattle ' spacer device.

I think it looks good on the ( no chrome, no polished aluminum) engine.

 

Just read through the whole thread, impressive work!

 

I like your air cleaner 39 guy. I did something similar on the F4 I restored. Like you, I gutted the oil bath air filter, cut the bottom off and welded the bottom of a 4 barrel air cleaner to it and then used a K&N filter inside it.

 

Filter looks like it belongs there.

 

Thank you farmer12!

Great looking air cleaner Highvolt5.0! I have been considering the addition of some decals which look great on yours. So far I think it will stay decalless though.

That is kind of what we think loudbang. I just looked up this picture of a stock filter for 1954. Looks like it was a bigger unit. It would probably not have worked as well as this one does with the 351 Windsor.

 

The temporary paint booth that was up for 14 months came down this week so we could move the Merc to the painters shop.





It only took a couple of hours to tear down the booth that it took us a week to build a year ago. It took me a few more hours to sort through all of the parts and put them away for future use. We threw out all of the plastic sheeting. There was too much overspray on it and Don had started out testing his spay patterns directly on the plastic. This is not a recommended practice as the paint eventually starts peeling off making the booth less than clean.

We loaded it up on the trailer for the 20 minute drive. Weather was perfect all week. It averaged 65 to 70 all week.








I am not sure if Mike the painter is crying here our praying for a successful paint job.

This is Mike the painters booth.Mi

Mike had already painted the garnish moldings and dash.

Don hauled these parts home. Mike and Don expect the paint job to take two weeks.

 

Big day in the progress of this fine rebuild

 

Well done Sam. Is this the same painter that you used for the 40 coupe? Taking the booth down is a big milestone; you have to be happy.

 

Just got mine back from paint, so I appreciate what it takes to get this far. And I appreciate how much work remains when you get her home for reassembly. Good job, and I appreciate your time to keep posting. Love the details. Love your cars. Keep up the good work.


Walt
Outsiders CC

 

Thanks Loudbang! I appreciate your comments!

Yes Joel we used Mike the short armed painter again. Yes we were both very happy to have the booth come down.

Thank you Walt! We still have a long way to go and I will keep posting as we go.

We brought the painted car home this week.



Mike the painter is happy to have another project out of his shop.

Ready to hit the road.


After a 20 minute drive across town we are ready to off load the Merc.


Home and ready for some clean up and some cut and buff work. They did a pretty good job of keeping the overspray out of that brand new engine bay.

More posts soon. We are getting to the fun stuff now.

 

When the car went to the painters shop they had some trouble with the hood falling on the enthusiastic crew. As you may well know 54 Mercury hoods are not light! So Mike the painter whipped up this nice prop rod out of stainless steel. Looks and acts like it was always supposed to be
there.

 

This week we cut and bufed the top and have cut most of the car from trunk to to the front of the doors.We use 1500 grit for cutting the orange peel and then sand it with 2000 before buffing with Norton Liquid Ice.

 

It looks great, Sam. Is that Liquid Ice a compound or more of a polish? I'm just curious; I have not seen it before.

 

We use this Norton Liquid Ice Extra Cut along with the three pad system. I am sure there are a lot of products and methods to use for cutting and buffing but this system was recommended by our paint supplier and seems to do a good job so far. We will follow up with a product called Mirror Glaze by Meguiars when we have completed this initial step with the liquid Ice.

https://www.nortonabrasives.com/sit...val-LiquidIceLine-NortonAA-7895.pdf?t=1739520

 

Thanks for the info,Sam. I ‘m always looking for something a little better or faster.


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Looks GREAT.

 

Cut and Buff progress.

 

Well we have been working steadily on the project since the last report and I am overdue for an update.

We finished the cut and buff but found some spots that needed a little more paint so we took it back to the painter for some touch up. When we loaded it up for the trip I couldn't pass up a few outside shots of the car.

She came out pretty straight.

So when the car came back form the painter Don did some more cut and buff while I started the rehab of the miscellaneous parts and pieces that we had taken off of the car a few years ago.


This aluminum frame is made locally by a talented machinist. We thought the square edges looked too billet and the brushed finish was too dull. So I spent some time with files, sandpaper and a buffer to fix that.


I screwed the frame to this 2x6 for the metal work and polishing.

The 54 plate is longer than a standard plate requiring the use of a custom license frame.

The first bling goes on the car.

Came out okay.

A few days later we took the trunk lid off of the car and installed the trunk seal.

Cross section of the seal.

This seal went on real easy. I held the seal away from the trunk while Don applied the weather strip adhesive which made a sometimes messy job pretty tidy. a small brush was used to spread the adhesive smoothly over the surfaces.
The latch mechanism and trunk lock were then installed.

The trunk latch catch was installed.

A few adjustments later and the trunk lid is on and aligned well. The new taillights look pretty good. I cleaned up the old aftermarket license plate light and installed that too. Don said the original license plate light was available but it costs $50.00 so we decided to use this one since our labor is free.

 

Looking really good

 

It's been a long journey to this point but this one will be BETTER than a new one ever was.

 

I think you nailed the finish on the liscense plate frame. You're making good progress on assembly. It's going to look great.