Projects Unfinished Business: A 1951 Mercury Build Thread

Very detailed and very nice

 

Finally got around to doing some bodywork.. with help from a guy at work who's skills far exceed mine in that area. The roof had a lot of high and low spots that we evened out pretty well, then hit the roof with more epoxy primer. Welded up the hood ornament holes, welded up quarter panel stainless trim holes, performed trunk surgery to fix the bent sheetmetal on the underside where the hinges attach.

 

Looking great, can't wait to see some color on there!

 

Flying into it! Nice work.

Andy
Auckland NZ.

 

What a great job on a great car .

 

Wow thats amazing work.... Got to love the attention to detail and the dedication it takes to restore such a beauty t that level.

You're an inspiration to all of us, thanks for posting!

 

Thanks for the great compliments... I'm looking forward to the bigger "custom" details coming soon... French the headlights, different taillights, custom interior, grille and bumper details. So far it's been a lot of restoration and fabrication, trying to incorporate small custom details.

 

looks good,sure love the engine color.

 

r.
Cool build. Hope the engine is working out. Might have a radiator for ya.
Guy

 

i think you have a merc flathead... i have the same water pumps on my 50 merc motor.Mercury flathead is the only one that has one water pump tha'ts about an inch longer sticking out.Let me know.

 

I like all the attention to detail on this build. Great job!!!!!

 

When I had the pan off, I did look at the crank. It has 1BA stamped into it, which should make it a Ford crank. I've never measured the stroke. I've read that it wouldn't be impossible to have a Merc crank stamped with 1BA, but it is unlikely that it's a Mercury crank. I believe this engine was rebuilt at some point, and I don't know any history of it.

 

Daaaaang, that looks nice. Keep it up

 

Wow! your Merc is clean and perfect! A great attention to detail you have...looks great!

 

your build looks great...i am not building anything for myself currently.but when I do get another car..it will be another '51 Merv.ur project is great inspiration to all...thanx.

 

Plenty of guys around here have inspired me, it's cool to hear I've inspired others.

If you're building your own Mercury, you have to see this thread:
1949 - 1951 Mercury Parts/ Reproduction Parts List
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=331564

See page 8, entry #149 for the Mercury manuals that are useful:
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=331564&page=8

 

Recently installed the fuel tank, with traditional dents, painted metallic silver imron to match under the floor. Also reassembled the sway bar and idler arm with drag link and tie rods, all painted metallic silver imron. I've also begin tearing apart the instrument panel. The fun part is deciding what custom touches to throw into the instrument panel...

 

The bottom side looks great! I'm about to do that instrument panel thing myself.

 

Here's a link to another thread I started about installing a wiring harness for a 12V system:

Wiring Harness for 12V system with Flathead & 12V Generator
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=726431

 

Recently got a bunch of parts back from the media blaster.... about 50 pcs or so. Threw a coat of epoxy primer on them. Tore my seats apart, to find a pretty cool little artifact. They vinyl seat covers that I took off revealed the original fabric underneath. The material from a sack of sugar was used to cover holes in the original fabric. The sack was dated 1965-66 so it wasn't a traditional sack, unfortunately.

 

This is looking awesome, I will be using this information on my build too and want to thank you for continuing to post!

 

You figure out what your going to do for gauges?

 

For gauges, I'll be cleaning up the factory instrument panel. I have a few ideas in mind for subtle changes, but I'm not there yet. I'm undecided what to do in the radio area. Considering just putting the radio face and buttons back in, but losing the guts. Might just go with an ipod for music, and lose the radio completely though.

 

...

 

the ipod idea sounds good to me.loving this build....keep it up

 

im glad i joined so i could read this, ill be watching. enjoy building this! im sure enjoying watching

 

Here are a few updated pictures... I recently got the steering box back in, and I've been focusing on rebuilding the dashboard. Steering column will be installed soon too. I hung the front sheet metal on to make sure everything still fit. The front right fender needs a little work, as does the splash apron under the grille.

 

Looking good. That dash is gonna be killer.

 

Thanks... I decided the interior need some color, so the dash, and probably the inside window frames will be painted orange. It's the same as the satin engine paint, but I'm putting gloss over it on the interior pieces. The seats, headliner, and carpet will all be black.

 

That's what I did. All I have is the radio face, knobs and buttons...basically the front of the radio. I have an ipod hooked up straight through the amp as per a post I found here on the HAMB. The set up has a separate volume control module, so I plan on hooking it up to the remaining volume shaft on the radio to hide it even more.