Projects The Mexicali Merc, another 40 Custom in the works

Yeah,im afraid so ...since the Merc has been moved stright off to the States i could'nt get an insurance guy in time...well,im already over that and focusing on getting some parts that Kev needs to keep going...patching fenders and body at this stage....Kev,any new pics to post??We're curious...

 

Sorry for the lack postings on this thread. Between all the car shows, my work, and trying to buy a 39 ford I've been a little preoccupied. But I have managed to get a few things started and some of the patches done. Hopefully work on this car will get a little faster now that I have some stuff behind me. The lower quarter patches are basically done, I just need to finish welding them. Now Im trying to finish the rusty quarter trim section and trunk lid.

It was pretty rusty under the back of the trim so I had to remove and replace a section


a new piece tacked in and ready to weld


The rear trunk lid was just wasted along the bottom so the right thing to do was just cut it all out and start fresh.

of course it was rusty on the inside too so that will need to be cut out and patched.

Wheeled up a new patch. These trunks have more shape along the bottom than you would think.



after everything was fitting good and tacked I cut out the inside so I could gas weld and hammer the patch into shape

It looks a little nasty but this will clean up and file out nice


Thats about it for now but I should have more done after the weekend.

 

The rear fenders are pretty bad so I dont think we will use them.

 

Nice to see some more cutting Kev...already found for some good rear fenders for ya...keep it up bro

 

Also working on the grill plan...a very hard to find part but as told you we can get around this issue ..anymore pics?

 

A little more progress.

Welding up the quarter trim patch. AKA, Shameless self promotion shot


This patch was a bastard!


Still need some more hammer and dolly work but I'll get back to it later


Also got the bottom quarter patches welded. Again they still need some fine tuning but at least they're solid

 

Nice work with the gas. Real old school methods that work well.

 

Ahhh, not bad at all,makes my smile... a longtime dream slowly coming true bro....
did you called the fenders guy today??

 

No, I was busy working on your car bud! I'll call him tomorrow.

 

Very nice work!

 

This is awesome! This body style of Merc and the 46-48 Fords look ungainly as hell stock but look so gorgeous as kustoms. Thanks for making another one beautiful.

 

wow almost miss this thread, great stuff keep it coming!

 

The art of GAS WELDING...the best way to weld...keep up the good work!

 

Nice work,keep it up!

 

The dog should have stayed,for a half bag of cheep food, he would have gaurded the seven(alledged occupants) and (cargo)...as well as keeping hands off the metal.

What year Mercury(40 only?)have that roof.

 

Cool I cant wait to see where this tread goes. I really like the lines of that green Merc, flows soooo nice!

Brent

 

Yeah your right, the dog would have protected his home for sure! 39 and 40 mercs have the same roof.

 

nice work, Kevan, and that pic of you gas welding is bad ass!

 

Agreed!


Kevan, how much warping do you get gas welding sheet metal? More/less then a MIG?

 

Nice job

 

Looks like Kev is moving forward with all the patchin...we're tryin to get some good rear fenders and moving on the grill issue...these are hard to get but we try the casting way this one,lets see how it goes...

 

Aint the world a small place now looking at the posts owner in Mexico work done in Norcal supporters in Norway Finland Sweden New Zealand and England not only that but many know or have dealt with the principal players here

 

I have been following this thread and the work that Kevan is doing to repair and chop the Merc is very nice! Keep up the good work and I look forward to seeing it at each stage of the project!

 

Thanks guys, I appreciate all the feedback!

So I decided start patching the trunk floor. It looked ok from the top but underneath you can see where they just patched over the rust. After cutting out the cancer I decided it was time to go ahead and lower the back while the crossmember was exposed.



One of the best and most affordable methods is to pie slice and flatten out the crossmember. I haven't done this for a while so I started out with half inch pie slices to see where it would end up. it only dropped less than 2 inches so I got the torch out and started cutting until I got the optimal height.

The first thing to remove was the factory Mercury spacer. I think this piece is Mercury only and is a 2 1/4 inch spacer riveted to the inside of the crossmember. This thing was a bitch to remove! after all the rivets were out it was still stuck. Normally I would get the torch and just cut it out but some sick bastard filled it with grease for no apparent reason. So I got out the sawzall and after a cut through the middle it finally came out.



Now with everything out of the way I started the cutting. First I needed to figure out how low it should be. Reno said he wanted the car low but not as low as mine because of the bad roads in Mexico. So I decided 8 inches was the right amount. Nice and low but you'll still see a little of the wheel when the skirts are on. After removing the factory spacer we lost 2 1/4 inches so now this crossmember needed to be dropped 5 3/4 inches to meet our goal. I started with small cuts to to get things moving but soon realized it would take a whole lot more cutting to get this flattened out.





more coming soon.

 

awesome score!

 

After much torching I finally got the crossmember nearly flat! Now the car is exactly 8 inches lower without messing with the springs or shackles.




It's a taildragger! No turning back now Reno!

 

Yessssssssss

 

Hey....... thats low and cool
Nice to see this thread is moving

 

Great work, looking good!

 

Nice work on the rear crossmember!