Hello, I am in the planning stage with my Merc Coupe project. Before I hit a brick wall and create a lot of headaches I want to get the best advice /info possible on dropping the merc to a practicle ( low as possible) driver height .. The running gear will be basically stock with stock transverse spring front and rear stock rear axle, Nostalgia sid dropped front axle. It will be running a 1950 mercury flathead and 39 box. I will be following the tried and tested method of dropping the rear by pie cutting the rear cross member and flattening it out, but my concerns stem from there.. Will a heavy drop in that manner cause the torque tube to run at an angle? Ive read that this can cause pinion wear in the banjo style rear ends? Is is a good idea to raise the engine and trans to compensate for the rear end drop and level out the torque tube ...? I appreciate that each mod will have a knock on effect and the trans tunnel etc may have to be altered as would the clutch lincage and other bits n bobs ... Just trying to get as much info as possible before I begin. I always wanted to run a trad style Kustom with retro running gear. Most of the cars I have done previously had the usual M2 and 8 / 9 inch rear on parallel leafs with lowering blocks.. But I am trying to keep this one as it should be Unfortunately as simple as it looks, I dont have much knowledge of dropping cars that run torque tube drive. Any pictures, info of trad style Kustom chassis mods would be greatly appreciated.. many thanks
Hi Ian, have a look here, should help some. http://www.customcarchronicle.com/forums/topic/1941-mercury-my-barris-style-journey-begins/page/3/
Hi Ian...no real advice...good luck,can't imagine the trouble you would have trying to get that car done in Scotland...hard enough here in the states
pics are on the post under project categories... there aint much to see but here it is on the trailer as bought
Hi Ian......this will be interesting.....I think you should post pics of your previous builds to show what you do....Bob in Glasgow
Cheers Bob.. Its been a while since Ive done anything modified last biggy was BWs 33 3 window as bad as it was it had a lot of remains that you could unpic for clues, The good thing with this car is its never had any patch welding of any sort, so its a good base. The bad thing is a lot of the evidence of the old shape etc is missing, If I can skip the working it out process and get right into the repairs things should go well.. some random examples of previous stuff attached mostly resto stuff of cars Ive had in my shed over the past couple of years . the work is no problem just sometimes getting the enthusiasm is the biggest hurdle There are other examples but its away off thread already, Only posted these as examples of the stuff I have done and that the Merc should be no real issue, if I knew what the missing parts should look like ..
Another thing to keep in mind with lowering , especially if the front is lower than the rear is rear axel oil running down the torque tube and overfilling the trans. You will need one of the "dam systems" or a TT seal. Available here from vendors.
Sea bright hot rods system Bruce's rod shop spring Texas right here on the HAMB. Vern Tardels dam system. I am sure there are more variations and some well done home systems. I used a sea bright seal , but had issues getting the seal concentric with the pinion and it leaking. I eventually made a dummy seal,of aluminium with a few thou. Clearance between seal outer housing and piñon so all was centred perfect before the TT bolts were tightened . Worked perfect.
Thanks for that.. good info.. other than the oil issue, is there any other issues associated with running the TT at a more severe angle... how do folk solve the angle issues?
Ive been held up finishing off a few other jobs but the Merc is in the shed at last. Made up the sections to replace the floor pan and currently waiting on a few sections of the original pan to come back from the blaster before I begin to build the floor.
with the floor sections made up and a wee bit space in the garage, I dragged the chassis up for a bit of work. the engine and running gear were pulled from a hot rodded 35 that was destined for a 350, M2, 9 inch conversion...
the mec chassis is 4 inches longer than the 35 / 40 chassis so the Torque tube needed a little stretch.. I used the rear section of a spare 34 tube and the front section of the 40. turns but the 35 is a lighter wall tube and a slightly larger outer diam very slight.. but at least 3mm thinner wall than the late tube Will be fine for this application, plan is to machine up a stepped insert to ensure proper alignment.
Inner drive shaft was pretty badly rusted, I had a couple of spares so the spline section from the original will be used to create an extension piece from two joining sleeves.. the idea being to use a section of the spline shaft between the join to take the strain off the welded joint ..
made up a simple exhaust from tubing left over from a buddies set up.. just enough bends to get by. Still need to work out ta mounting method and get some reducers for the smithys but there on the shopping list. The exhaust will be side exit
then with a degree of impatience and time on my hands waiting for the floor parts from the blaster, I decided to drop the rear end . took the straightforward option here and pie cut the rear spring crossmember laying it pretty flat, One thing I didn't count on was as the crossmember is dropped it pulls the rear spring and axle back with it buy about 3/4 inch .. ( that's not a reference measurement ) so drilled out the rivets and moved the crossmember forward to line everything up without stressing anything.. reverse eye spring, removal of 2 inch block inside the crossmember and the crossmember drop works out at around a chassis drop of around 10 inches, rear suspension travel of 4 inches ( minus bump stops) . The lowest part of the frame is still 8 inches from the ground..
hope to crack on with the floor assembly if the blaster gets the bits I dropped off cleaned up..then drop on the body and make some repairs ..
this is the easy stuff, it's an uphill struggle from now lol, Its great not having other folks stuff in the garage, it's far too much responsibility, it's more fun working on your own junk.and more profitable too.
made a start on the floor, managed the chassis cover, axle hump and under seat, hope to move on with the rest of the floor and have it done so I can get the body set up and crack on with the chop and body repairs..
Just for reference, I did a c- notch like this to make sure I had suspension travel. I know I'm using parallel leaves etc., but travel is travel.
Your ride height is probably a lot lower than mine. I would ideally like to go lower but with the flat crossmember I still have around 4 inches of travel which I think is going to be OK. I might loss an inch when the body is on and it has a tank of gas. I was trying to keep it as it might have been done in the day and not spend too much time or money on it .. budget to get it done is not a lot , but I have a lot of stuff in the shed that has been collected over time which I hope to be able to use to keep the additional build cost as low as possible. Parallel leaf set up will provide a nice ride..
floor more or less complete. I want to drop the body over what I have here and work out the sub rails and A /B post mounts Also changed the trunk area, made it more sunken and plan to build a gas tank to fit or use a VW Camper tank which is a decent fit .. .
Hi Ken, going to make a start on the doors as they are the only source of reference I really have.. If the door fits the hole were good ... so if I repair the floppy doors and locate the A post on its chassis mount, I should be able to work back from there.. I'm not planning to make this any kind of show car, but It would be a shame not to tackle the repairs in the proper fashion. The plan with this one is to make good clean repairs, planish and prime and that's it basically so it looks like a pile of junk from a distance ( don't all rush to agree ) but when its looked at properly, those that know will give a little smile and a nod of approval.. Its always going to be a work in progress, but with one eye on a buyer when its running and driving.. Im running low on funds, to many projects lol..
door repairs ... made up a profile gauge from some scrap, inner lower door frames were being a pain, despite looking simple they are actually quite tricky so saved time and done them in 2 bits with an overlap which on reflection should actually be a bonus as it will be a little stronger .. lower section of skin was wheeled up, the flow on the skin is pretty uniform and wheeling was a breeze . tacked the repair section in place before full weld.. all oxy acet. looks like a lot of distortion but its uniform the entire length and will only take a short time to planishe the weld and smooth out the repair .. hope to have both doors done by the weekend ..
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