A trip to Bob's would be a fun day getting to walk up and down the aisles looking for inspiration. I haven't made it out there yet, but one of these days hopefully soon. Enjoy that reunion! Congrats!!
I go by Owen's Salvage every time I go up to western KS on US 83. It goes right through Wellington. I've never had a chance to stop though. I'd have to find a motel somewhere if I did. My wife might not go for it though. I've always lucked out and found cars that had decent usable frames but the bodies always have the usual cancer in the floors & rockers.
It's hard to believe its been August since I've updated but I haven't had a lot of time to work on the Merc. so progress has been slow! As I said earlier the trunk latch cross piece was rotted out and had to be replaced. My brake is only 36 inches so I had to form the cross piece in 2 sections, weld back together and then shrink to fit. Really appreciate the shrinker/stretchers! Welded it in and trimmed it up. Rear is finished but waiting for decisions on what to do for taillights. I was able to get a set of 49 Buick taillights that will fit nicely starting just above the break of the fender and I also picked up a set of 1 inch wide by 9 inch long LED trailer lights that I could French in and mount vertically, really having a hard time deciding what to do! In the meantime I've started on the floors and hope to have those finished in the next 2 weeks, then it will be time to decide how to finish. I've decided not to make a station wagon and am leaning toward a 3 1/2 inch chop with the vertical tail lights. I'm not into wild customs but do want something "different" so if I can't get a good idea soon I may just sell it. Thanks for looking and I always enjoy the comments. Hope you have a great week-end.
Please no trailer lights ...ever ! Baby Lincoln tail lights are the same as a Canadian Monarch, bolt right in if you could find a decent set. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I think the '49 Buick tail lights would look great and I agree with koolkemp that the trailer lights should not be considered. Those Monarch lights are great but I've been looking for over a year and never saw a single one for sale. I like what you've done so far, the repair work looks good. I hope you see it through to the end.
I had a couple of pairs years ago and sold them cause I didn't have a car ! Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Thanks for the comments regarding the taillights, I'm trying to find a "flat" surface taillight that blends into the fender- something like the 49 buick or vertical "frenched" taillights or even the original 51 merc taillights which Mick had suggested lowering on the fender. I'm going to keep checking swap meets etc. to see if I can find the "perfect but never been done before" lights. For the humorists, this morning at breakfast with my 7 year old grandsons I had mentioned I might sell the Merc. to which one of them replied "No Way, that is my car!". At the rate I'm making progress it might be finished by time he is 16!
I vote for the '49 Buicks over the trailer lights. The Buicks would look good flipped vertical rather than the horizontal that they were in the Buick. This pick is from someone thinking about it for a 51/52 Chevy, but the look would be similar...
Hey Dr. Dave, you really are a GREAT salesperson! Thanks to your earlier help I agree that the 49 Buick taillight looks good and am leaning more that way but will still keep looking around until I get the floors finished. Hope you are doing well, any chance you are coming to Good Guys next month. Hope to have my truck back on the road by then, some idiot left a fairly large piece of sheetmetal on the road and as I was passing an oil rig driver he caught it and flipped it up hitting my rear fender. Fortunately I wasn't 30 feet behind him or ZZZZZT.! Poor driver felt like he should have done something to avoid it but his only real choice was to run me over so I feel lucky! How is your Merc. ?
LOL. I dunno about salesperson, but I always have an idea....good or bad. LOL. Close call on that metal. At least it only hit the truck, not you. Had a friend in college that got one through the windshield off a scrap truck. Never saw it coming...12 lb plate of steel right between the eyes. The docs told her she was fortunate it hit her right there cuz the bone is thickest in the head right there behind the nose....any higher or lower woulda been the end. Merc is still putzing along. Held up at the moment with a leaking steering box. Haven't had time to get out there and fix it, so it sits. Real bummer is the Chevy is out getting some paint touched up so nothing fun around here for Dave to be driving these days. Waaaahhh! LOL
Weather has been great lately so getting a little more done, I've gotten rid of most of the rust and replaced the lower third of the car. I'm really looking forward to the rest of the project and hope I never buy a rust bucket again! Started cutting out floorboards and beading them, using 18 gauge cold rolled.! First board in! Ready for seats! Primed and on to next project! This grill came with the car and while I don't know what it is from I really like it. The ends were butchered so I may make a floating grill out of it but I'm also looking at "flattening the hood and bar to match the V shape of the grill. In addition I plan to pancake the hood to give a better profile- should be fun! Still haven't decided on tail lights, planning to chop it 3 inches and sectioning the roof to take out the "hump". Lots to do but this work I enjoy! Thanks for looking and hope your projects are going well.
Pretty sure that's a '54 Chevy car grille bar with an extra bar cut down to extend the ends and some extra teeth added, I have a near identical one on my shop wall. It would be easier to take the center tooth out of the grille, cut the bar to give it more of a V shape, then weld the bar back together, the center tooth will cover the weld if you're careful and you won't have to touch your hood or grille shell. That's what was done to mine. Glad to see this car still coming along!
Wow, you have quite a collection! Thanks for the info. on the grill. I'm planning or going to attempt to lower and flatten the hood to match the grill because I think it will look better, I'm not a fan of the big bullet hood. Where is Potter, I'm originally from the Sauk-Prairie area many years ago.
Potter is like 25 miles south of Green Bay. I think I've got an extra '51 grille shell too if you end up needing one for your hood/grille reshaping. I'm very curious to see what that would look like. I saw someone skin a '53/54 Chevy hood with a Mercury hood skin to add the V'd prow to the Chevy, I bet you could do the opposite to gain the flattened front hood profile you're after, just a thought.
That was Brian Bass on that chopped Fleetline he was working on. That change looked sooo cool and looked like it grew there. I'd agree with Squablow about peaking the grille instead, but if you like the flatter front, that would be a reason to go around the block the other way I guess. LOL Great job on the floors! Finally nearly to the fun stuff now. See you next week in Dewey?
You are up in some great country! Your suggestion is exactly what I am going to try and do, this week-end is the Pate swap meet so hope to find some good hood ideas there. Again thanks for the input.
You know I respect your opinions Dr. Dave but I'm going to try and smooth out the Merc. hood, existing one just doesn't look right to me. I feel if I do a good job you'll say that's a Merc but there is something different about it! We'll see how it goes. I am registered for Dewey and have a room but was late signing up so ended up at Candlewood Suites. Hope the weather is dry and looking forward to seeing you again. I don't think anyone else is coming this year so I'm planning to come up Thursday night.
Cool beans! See you there! Looks like I will be car-less, so I'll just have to hunt you down the old fashioned way. LOL
The Chevy is in St Louis getting some paint touch ups and 56 Olds headlights instead of the 55's that were on it. The Merc has been down with a leaking steering box and no time to fix it. Finally got it back on the road this week but have too big of a crowd coming with us to the show to fit in the Merc so we are in the van. Lol
The summer has been flying by and I havent gotten anywhere near as much done as I hoped to but at least I'm back on the Merc. As I said earlier I'm going to flatten the hood and may pancake the hood an inch or 2 depending on how it looks after taking the beak out. This is the stock look and I'm going to pull it back 3 !/2 inches and arch the hood to match the grill. The profile now looks like this and I'll pull the hood back to match. The splash pan has been trimmed to follow the new profile, this will be a template for a new splash pan. As I said earlier the grill ends were butchered so I've trimmed back the ends but don't know if I'll leave it like this or trim it close to the guard and then "float" the grill. I'm also not sure what I'm going to do about a bumber either, been thinking about rolling a pan and not doing a bumper- too many ideas and not enough action! So far I'm happy with how it looks but obviously have a long way to go! Thanks for looking.
Glad to see you are still chipping away! You have made way more progress than I have made on mine. Of course, it took me almost a year to build a new shower in our master bath, so I don't get anything done fast. LOL
You crack me up!! Really like the Pics of your Chev, any plans to go to the Bayou Roundup in Sept.? I'm registered and 2 of my boys are trying to get ready so looking forward to it. Stay cool!!
Wish I could make it down there, I would love to go that show. Not gonna happen this year though. My schedule has kind of blown up on me this year and my show attendance is down. LOL. We will be heading to Detroit in Feb for the Autorama, which will be over our 15th anniversary...which my wife is graciously willing to attend, so I'm working hard not to push my luck with too many shows....
Progress is slow, spent quite a bit of time planning how I wanted the hood line to look and at least have a plan: Cut hood Cut and reshaped hood latching bar Pulled hood pin bar from hood Reshaped latching bar and installed Started making patterns for finishing hood I still don't like the final shape of the hood (too high) so am planning to section or pancake the hood going from o inches at the windshield to 3 inches at the front fender. I think that will get a flatter smooth look that I'm trying to achieve. Thanks for looking .and I do hope to get more done with fall here!
Lotta work right there! I will agree with you that the flatter front of the hood could stand a little sectioning....or at least cut the top of the hood further back to start the curving down the front.
The Jalopy Journal
