Customs 1951 Merc kustom work by King Kustoms

Been working on this '51 Merc kustom for Lee from San Diego off and on for the past year, so I thought I would chime in with a few pics. Eventual plans are a chop and more kustom tricks...

First job was to dial in the front of the car with a '53 DeSoto grill, frenched head lights, rounded '51 mouth, rounded hood corners, and everything molded together.

 

Lee wanted to retain the look of the '51 grill shell to help bury the DeSoto teeth, but wanted it to look like a '49/'50 mouth as well, so we rounded it on the ends and blended it into the fenders and removed the weird stock '51 shapes.

 

looking good! how much does he plan on taking out of the roof? i remember he was having issues with the trans, did he ever get that all squared away?

 

Shaved the gas door, relocated the filler neck, and moved on to frenching in '54 Merc tail lights...

 

Tail lights are done...I'm now rounding the trunk corners and I'll post pics soon.

 

Hey Matt! how are you?

Yeah, Lee had the trans rebuilt and everything is back together...

Rob

 

Great work Rob... Looks really good.

 

This looks real nice! I'm looking forward to see more of the project.

 

Excellent work as always! Did you widen the lenses or are they stock dimensions? I tried with a friend to put them in his 51, he wanted to widen them to contour the quarter, and all we ended up with was a set of broken '54 Mercury lenses.

 

Nice work man

 

Work looks real good Rob, keep it up. Hey, do you ever keep in contact with any of the guys from The Mishifts?

 

Nice touches guys, very nice looking body work. I like where this is headed, I am hoping the top is "not" chopped, today it makes them stand out from all the lowered lid cars. Cool post, thanx. ~Sololobo~

 

Nice work.....

 

I agree with Sololobo, chopping a Merc these days just makes it look like all those 'glass copies out there. Every jerkwater body shop in the country around here has one of those out front!

 

Now THAT is competent body work! WOW!

 

Very nice!

 

Looks great man!! Very clean work as usual!!

 

Very nice. I like the way you removed the goofy "ridge" on the upper grille cavity. Keep posting pix.

 

Sorry guys but the chop is coming. Not to extreme though, 3 1/2 front 4 1/2 back. Shave roof rails, slant b-pillars, and extend quarter windows. Adding 552's during chop process as well!

 

Good!

 

Perfect recipe.

 

ultimate....

 

awesome rob! super nice work!!!!!

 

Lokks great keep the updates coming!! Can't have too many threads about customs.

 

Nice metalwork I really love the way you "cleaned up" the 51 frontend looking forward to the updates.

 

I vote to keep the rain gutters (roof rails). What's a 552?

 

"what's a 552"... says enough... shave the rain gutters!

 

Glass copies? Out where?

 

Nice work keep it up

 

wow! thanks for the compliments guys!

Just as Lee said- chop for sure, shaved driprails, and Appletons

More pics soon!
Rob