Projects My 34 pick-up and the paint/bodywork by Miguel of the Lifters

Ya things have gotten alot better, we have a new mayor, he replace most the cops and things are pretty good now in T.J. rosarito and Ensenada.

 

GREAT PAGE! I may have finally found a page that I may like better than pornhub. A hard-chopped 33-34 5 window's always been my dream car.

 

Here are some pics Miguel wanted me to post.

 

Very nice! Keep the pictures coming.
I'll be interested on how it looks all together with the same color frame and chassis.

 

Boy that Merc sure looked better a few years ago when I saw it. Man mud city on that 1/4.. I can't believe those things even rust out in So Cal. So I gotta ask...I know folks go to TJ for "less expensive" interior work. Is it the same situation with paint and body? If a job cost 10,000 north of the border, what's the going rate down there? Is it half? Do you get your liquids north? Or do they have "good stuff" I.e big 3 paint lines there? I'm just a ignorant mid western boy and was wondering. Nice work by the way. I hope some of that "Kustom" work n the Merc gets reversed

 

We started on Aldo's merc, aldo wanted a quik paint job but I told him all the glass had to come out, these cars are extremly rust prone, I notice all the rubber was shot and the paint was bubbling on all the edges. Taking out all roof garnish was a nightmare, all the philip screws were rusted out, the guy that built the car never even replaced the head liner and just painted it white for the same reason. I think we got to it just in time, there was a pound of leaves trapped between the cowl and the front fenders and all the seams between body panels had rust . I'll post some more later.

 

Please keep up the pics on the merc. Seemed like a cool car at one point

 

I don't mean to be rude so if asking aobut prices is too personal, I understand. If not, can you give us an idea what this is likely to cost so I'll know if I can consider doing the same with my '55 big window truck?

Again, I hope I'm not over the line in asking.

 

There are a lot of body shops in Tijuana, a lot of them are bad but their are some good ones if you just need paint, the problem is their isn't many good metal men around anymore here or in the states, it's a lost art, so I would say if you just need finish work and paint you'lle be alright.
Prices; most good shops in the states charge 65 to 85dlls an hour for one guy working on your car, I charge that a day, all the other shops in Tijuana charge you by the job, you are going to pay 1500 to 3000dlls to paint a car that dos'ent need a lot of body work but you are going to end up with a amature restoration , unless you do the prep work and strip and disasemble the car your self. In short "you pay for what you get"
Paint itself is a lot cheaper in Mexico, I use Dupont products, they are made in brazil and them imported to Mexico, they are not water based and your are not paying for all the epa tax that is charged in the states.
Upholstery is a lot cheaper than the states, I would say it's a third of the price as in the states.
Another important factor is the value of your car, you don't want to spend 6000 to 10 grand on a car that is only worth 5000.
If any body has questions or needs help on where to go, send me a p.m. , and I'll be happy to help. Bottom line my sugestion is to do things right, otherwise you are hurting the value of your car and throwing your money away.

 

KANSAS, is alot cheaper also and I can use the good paint, sikkens and house of kolor, my shop rates are 45.00 an hour, and you dont have to go through all the crossing the border problems. I understand it is 1600 miles from cali, rather then a few hundred, but the road trip is awsom, I just did it last week taking a car to la to have fatlucky do his thing, my son was on spring break so it was a great time to have a father son road trip. So if any of you cali guys are wanting a nice paint job and only have 10 grand or so to spend, I could be your guy. I painted a car for anouther guy in cali for 8 grand and It did real well in all the mags and stuff. Only down fall is I will not be responsible for any bondo work not done by myself, so if the car goes to shit after I paint it, dont be bad mouthing me to everyone. I will guarentee my paint to stick and not blow off in chunks, and that is the policy of any shop nationwide...... so in short, Why don't the guys in cali start looking at the midwest for their needs insted of mexico, And we have this guy out here that you could get a tattoo from while your here, he is pretty good , mcphail is his name, some might have heard of him.

 

Cab is looking good! HRP

 

Got the headliner out and I guess micky mouse was living up there , I found a rat's ness upthere, I quess he crawled through were the dome light was, he also chewed up the back of the rear seat. the good news is that the roof is'nt too rusty and the rain gutters are fine, we did repair some rust on the pilar post and the two rear roof posts, got to it just in time, I'll post some more pictures later.

 

Tono our metal guy had a really hard time heat shrinking the back panel of the cab and roof , the drivers door was a mess, aparently the door had flung open and had ripped the lower front door jam. Another problem he faced was warpage, guys, when welding patch panels on large areas , take your time and weld a small section at a time to avoid warpage. Tono had to cut some of the welds to relive the stress , heat shrink and them reweld again. large areas are always hard to weld because they tend to oil can even when you heat shrink. In both cases , it was not an easy job for Ian or Tono. Another item that eats up a lot of time is getting the bead lines straight, 34 trucks have that extra bead in the back of the cab that makes it tougher yet.

 

Nice!!!!!

 

Not to bag on the guy that built the car, but I guess he figuered the owner of the merc would never leave town, The first problem was they welded the skirts on the quater panels, they figuered the owner would never have to change a tire, so we carefully cut out the welds and all the bondo they had sweared on.Next we jack up the car and still could'ent get the rear wheels off, we then unbolted the bags and shocks and still could'ent get the wheels off. Next we unbolted the triangulated rear sway bars and were finaly able to get the rear end low enough to remove the rear tires, "imagine if you were stuck on the freeway!" the problem is the guy used the wide 8 inch rear end instead of a narrow early mustang one
The right rear air line has leaks and wirring and air lines are just held on with tie straps instead of clamps. With all the fly by night air bag places that have opened in the last ten years, it's a wonder how they stay in business. I am going to try some wheels with a differ'ent offset, but if the problem persist's , we are going to have to change out the rear end , it took us a half a day and a lot of jack stands to remove the rear wheels, imagine if you were on a road in the middle of the night in the desert. Half the fun of owning an old car is being able to drive it.

 

Wow, you guys are getting into it! Thanks so much Miguel! Can't wait to see the progress. I hope we can save that rearend. I pulled it off and had it completely rebuilt 2 months ago. Isn't it a pain in the ass pulling that 3 link apart?? Hahaha

 

I wondered about them skirts???? Nice going on fixing that for tire changing. I got to see that truck & frame put together I'm a little lost on all that tubing. Looking good though!

 

I'll get my friend grease machine to post some more pictures soon. Finally got the dash out and all the wirring, 52 to 54 mercs have one of the pretiest dashes around but should be disasembled for painting, otherwise they look like shit. One drawback aboat the merc dash is the location of the fues panel, it's packed inside the consol around the dash and only has two 20 amp fueses.Over the years I have seen many of these mercs with interior fires, imagine blowing a fuse or having a short, it takes two days just to get to it. Later on, I am going to install a good fuse panel and locate it for easy acsess, also , the wirring had been patched and routed wrong. Wirring should always be kept simple and each item should have it's own harness, that way if you ever need to trouble shoot , you can figure out the problem. wirring was a mess, it looked like a big plate of spagetti and they used the same color wire for many items, I'll be able to save a lot of it, but it needs to be reorganized.

 

After an epic 6 week trip in Asia with Ian and a few other friends, I've returned eager to get back to TJ and take a look at the progress on my Merc...

Wow is all I can say. Miguel is really getting after it and doing an absolutely fantastic job! What started as a simple paint job turned into an almost entire frame off rebuild. Whoever built the car before just did a cracker jack job. Loads of bondo, rust and fiberglass was what car was made of. But this wont be the case anymore. After pulling off the front clip, we decided there were enough issues with the car that it wouldn't be terribly more work to pull the body off the frame and basically start over from scratch. While this wasn't in the original plan or budget, I think its the right call. That and Miguel has been more than understanding of the budget and has slowed the work down to make it the project affordable to me. Very cool!

Below are a few photos of all the progress as of a few days ago...

 

I asked Aldo to post some pictures of his and Ian's trip to asia, for to me , it's part of the story and looking at differ'ent cultures and food will make the thread more interesting, Asia has a booming economy, I know they have a custom bike scene and clubs, but I wondered if hot rods and customs have caught on, I 've seen pictures of a lowrider club but if any hot rods or customs have made it out there, please post some pictures.

 

Just went down to TJ a few days ago to check the progress of the Merc. While its still in pieces, there's a lot of progress going on. Miguel has ripped out the floors. It seems whoever built the car used street signs for floor pans. Gotta give the guy some credit for originality. Wow. I was lucky enough that Miguel happened to have a solid floor pan and trunk from a 54 Merc that he offered to me. SWEET! Additionally, almost ALL of my stainless has been polished and all engine bay pieces painted black. His guys do amazing work! And for the price, you just can't beat it. I believe he will be pulling the body from the frame this week to start clean the frame up. Im so stoked and can't wait to get the final product!

 

The previous guy who work on the car had tack welded some pieces of a street sign on top of the old rusty floor and hid the sins with fiberglass and bondo, the body support braces were rusted out too making the body sag and another reason the car did'nt have proper door alignment and aldo could'ent install the door scuff plates because the tops of the rockers were full of fiberglass, twenty years ago I had a 54 vicky I parted out and I saved the floors because they were in really good shape, I had forgoten I still had them and tripp on them last month when I went to sell a 40 ply coupe at my storage yard , talk aboat luck and destiny, you can buy repo floors but they come in small sections and don't have the body support braces . We will be changing out the floor before we pull the body off the frame.

 

Just wanted to follow up on Miguel's finished job. He actually finished a few months back but I was out of the country and WOW! I couldn't be happier! I tried to get good pictures, but it's a kandy with a micro-flake that really sparkles in the sun, and my camera phone just won't pick it up. Miguel did a great job though. As straight as a mirror and he made all the door gaps and what-not line up perfectly before shooting it. THANKS MIGUEL!

 

The truck looks great Ian, can't wait to see it assembled, I really dig the front chrome frame rails you made.

 

magoozi I pm'd you about info about fixing my truck.

 

Making progress on Aldo's floors, will post some pictures when aldo comes down for a visit again

 

Unfortunately I haven't been able to make it down to Mexico in a while to check the progress on my Mercury, but I know Miguel has been super busy! He just sent me these photos of the latest progress. It seems this car was an absolute pile. Miguel is essentially rebuilding EVERYTHING except the roof. Shitty. But the car is getting done right and will be a one of a kind when finished...

 

nice truck!

 

It's hard to be the bad guy and tell your custemer and friend his car was a mess. 52 to 54 mercs are extremly rust prone, thats why alot of them did'nt survive, add to that somebodys poor work and you got yourself a nightmare, but I am happy to say the worst is over, We had to replace the complete floor and all the struture support boxes that go between the frame and the floor, nobody makes these so they had to be repaired or made from scratch, as well as the complete left rocker and left rear inner rocker on the rear quater panel. The reason allen coudent close his doors was because there was nothing holding up the body and was making it sag, another problem we had was that all the patch panels on the doors , quater panels and fenders had been overlayed , braized on , and then beat down and bondo over, everthing had a coat of bondo that was an inch to two inches thick. The deck lid would'ent close properly because it was warped and the left quarter panel was sucked in an inch. There was huge cracks between the trunk surround and the quater panels and the section below the decklid was pushed in a inch which also afected the trunk aligment. The left front fender had been made from two fenders but we were able to straigten it out and the hood had a bow in the center that was afecting the gaps between the hood and fenders and would'ent let allen close his hood properly. The front inner fenders were extremly rusty and had to have a lot of repairs done on them. We still need to heat shrink the lower quaters and repair the right lower quater and change out the rusted trunk floor but for the most part , the worst is over.

 

Just went down to TJ last night for the first time in a LONG time. SO MUCH PROGRESS. I'm starting to get really excited. The gold CANDY Miguel went with is amazing. WAY BETTER THAN I COULD HAVE HOPED FOR. Almost all cancer has been cut out and replaced. Rear quarters are almost done. Floor pan is looking GOOD! All structure boxes were made from scratch but Miguels awesome metal workers. Miguel found some cool 54 Chevy tail lights he's going to be Frenching in in the next couple weeks. The motor turned out UNREAL. Polished water pump, all new gaskets, new polished valve covers, polished edelbrock intake. Epoxied the roof. All gaps between doors and hood are perfect. Everything lines up just as it should.

Miguel showed me where the C4 transmission has a bunch of leaks. He's gonna be taking that to a friend to have it freshened up. With a little luck, Miguel will be pulling the body off the frame in the next couple weeks. He's gonna have to rebuild my upper link on the rear end. I believe he is also going to blow apart my front suspension and see if anything needs to get done there as well.

Lots of fun stuff going on! Super excited to see it all come together.

Ahhhh, and if you're wondering. The pretty burgundy Ford Business Coupe is Miguels. WOW