No chop, glass is perfect, doors open and close like new, handles with like new, all seals are still soft and interior is all complete so I dont want to start over with all of that and a chop. - If I ever sell the car and the next guy wants to go that route, its all there for them to go at it. Might shave the doors but undecided, tails are getting changed. Picked up a set of dummy spots today. Might run them, might not. Also picked up a set of 59 lancer caps to try out. Looking for WWW now. Intentions were to paint it but season is over for paint ability, its cold out here! Skirts would complete the look but they have to be 1951 skirts, no bubble/cruiser skirts. So many options and so many decisions, there is a budget and during this build I pretty much killed it to get the car done to the point you now see it at so I could drive it this year and it might hold alot of this up.
From my figuring, either the grill opening has to get bigger or the grille needs to get smaller. You will not need anymore teeth for the desoto if it is narrowed two teeth to fit in the mercury opening. Neal
Good work in short time! Jerry Titus (president of KKOA) had a merc way back when with a full 55 Desoto grille in it. Rather than trim the back of the turn signal sections on the grille like some folks do, he cut into the fenders and sank the grille into them....I always thought that looked kind of cool....
I saw it at the Iron Invasion... I was surprised to see how far you had gotten, all back together and driving... Looks good, nice job. Posted from the TJJ App for iPhone & iPad
I saw Joe's Merc in person last weekend, it's super clean, I mean really clean. I was comparing stuff on his car and mine and it's crazy how straight it is. I do hope he ditches the bumper guards, I think those gone + WWW's and the car will look really sick.
Good work! That looked like a real solid starting platform, and even though I love them chopped I'm glad to hear you're keeping it stock since its so nice and solid.
Solid start! It's my dream car, I hope to be able to afford one someday... Posted from the TJJ App for iPhone & iPad
Car looks great. Can you tell me what motor mount kit you used or did you fab them yourself? they look to come off the stock flathead mounts, right? thanks.
This was done originally done in Boyd Coddington's shop in the LA rea. Now it is in northern california. It had a Chev LT-1 and a 700R-4. Now it has a Ford 351 with a C-6 and it runs great. the GM stuff was not really sticking with the Ford concept nor history. Normbc9
. I thought that radiator looked familiar, I have a 1974 Dodge van radiator 360 in my Merc. Looks just like it. I figured the van and truck radiators are similar. Looks like the pickup radiator is a better choice than the van. I could not run the transmission cooler in my van radiator. The coolant lines pointed right into the frame crossmember. I had to run an accessory tranny cooler unit behind the grill. Nice job!
I bought the same radiator for my car, going in soon. Sadly Joe sold this Mercury but he's got a cool '49 Fleetline custom now.