Projects A Speedster Comes Out of the Weeds—Build Thread

Yeah, sorry for the lack of posts while this was going on but I was flat-out obsessed with making this happen. I get into these single-minded phases. I told myself to just take pictures and deal with the thread later. And I agree on the wheel color--as soon as I saw it, I thought "Hey, those look pretty good together." So I may end up doing the KH wheels in the same color.

 

Congratulations, Clark, on your choice to put some color on the car, and even moreso for pulling it off! Friends like Steve are invaluable to those of us who want a nice car but don't have all the necessary skills to pull it off. As rare as those Mercurys are, it deserves to be done well, and I'm glad to see you're doing it justice.

BTW, I think volvo's suggestion of silver wheels would look great with the blue. I like red wheels, but the blue and silver would be a knockout.

 

You’re right LTTP, Steve’s the best. To paraphrase the Beatles, we all get by with a little help from our friends. Funny, about the time I was immersed bodywork, I spotted your T-V8 Build Thread where JD was doing All-Metal work on your T, and I remember thinking, “Damn, I could sure use a guy like that right about now.”

 

Yes, I was thinking about JD when I wrote about Steve.

(I still like the silver wheel idea.)

 

I need to think about the wheels. I see what you're both saying. But looking at the Bugatti wheels in post #213, they're kind of modified disk wheels with lots of surface area, whereas I'm going to run KH wires. I wonder whether silver paint on wires won't look like some attempt at faux chrome. Right now red looks good and is "safe"; silver could maybe look better, but might turn out cheesy. Anyway, I've got all winter to give it some thought. Maybe I'll throw it to the photoshop guys.

Another consideration is that I'm definitely going to add fenders and splash aprons. I'm thinking they'll be dark blue, to give it a two-tone look.

I'm loving all this feedback.

 

Black wires would look good too. Car is looking good, friends are the best.

 

I love this car! Really glad your making such great progress on it.

 

Congratulations ! Looks great!

 

Been following along from the start, making good progress, and the paint looks good.

 

Black wire wheels is my vote. with black walls and the stainless hub cap with chrome acorn nuts.

 

Clark you did a fantastic job of rescuing the Mercury Speedster. I have follow from the beginning and you never backed off. Excellent job and I am anxious to see it running

 

Looking good!!...Love the Blue!!

 

Great job, makes me want to get back on the International, but got to work to pay for the rear end job $2400

 

Color looks good.Black wires.HMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.Interesting.Black and Blue.Could be the color scheme should you displease MaMa..
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

 

Bright white wires would also stand out n look good, As would light cream. Both will contrast n compliment the blue. Especially w/dark blue fenders. Nice save.
Marcus...

 

Moving on to assembly.



It took a bit of fiddling to get the hood and radiator aligned. That included extending each of the four brackets on the radiator that support the shell by an inch.

 

Progress is looking great! Gary

 

I've seen this thing in person recently and pictures do not do it justice.

Sent from my SM-G900T using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Hey Matt, I’m glad you finally got to see the car in person and thanks for the kind words. I have a little more progress to report--nothing super-sexy, I'm afraid, but it's moving along.

First up, the deck lid, now installed.


I made the seal from scrap material out of a box of trim and rubber goods that fell my way. Amazing how stuff sometimes finds you right when you need it.



The handle is ’37 Hudson, in case anyone’s curious. Got it from Jarvis, our local Mercury guru, who re-keyed it (he’s a locksmith). Apparently I’m so happy about it that I can’t even hold the damn camera still to take a decent picture—sorry about that.



Just as a reminder, here again is the trunk I started with. Or lack thereof. It's come a long way.





More updates to come. But first, dinner calls. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.

 

great job , this is a very cool project

 

Sometimes it pays to hoard all the old "stuff" that comes your way.

 

You can say that again! Check out this little piece of history I got out of Jarvis's hoard, along with the Hudson handle.

It's a program from the old Aurora Stadium Speedway, 1950 season. I'm going to frame it. That track would have been just up the road from me. Now long gone, replaced by a strip mall. The ads are great, from a local perspective--The Dog House was a classic joint that hung on until the late '90s. Their nightly closing ritual was a hoot: “It’s time folks. Get the $#@!#! out of my bar. I wanna go home; they quit paying me.”

 

Next bit of progress: Radiator hoses! Yeah, I know what some are thinking, “Is this dude really going to devote an entire post to friggin’ radiator hoses?” But the darn things had me scratching my head for a long time. With the stock radiator moved forward and down, the lower outlet fed directly into the cross member, and the upper outlet routed the hose through the fan.

The lower hose issue was resolved by moving the outlet to the bottom of the tank and routing the hose up and around. Note the clever use of a copper plumbing elbow—nice of Mr. Ford to use a standard size. (Please forgive the ugly modern screw clamps—the search is on for traditional twist-type in the right size.)



The upper hose solution seems obvious now, but was something I totally failed to see until Burn Out Bob and others pointed it out: Change the inlet from 45 to 90 degrees.

But there was a glitch. Fan clearance was so tight that I had to cheat the inlet up as far as possible. Once installed, it turned out the hose clamp pressed against the hood. The hood still sat right and opened and closed fine, but you just know the stress would eventually crack the solder on the radiator. Minor surgery was called for.

Here’s the patient prepped for the operation. And yes, that is an ice hockey elbow pad supporting the hood.


Cut away just enough to clear the clamp. In this pic you can see the near side (facing up) is already done, the far side is still binding.



All clear now.


Just one of many indignities that hood has been put through since it rolled off the LaSalle showroom floor.

With the radiator so far forward, I expect there’s a fan shroud in my future. But I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.

 

I love this build thread but somebody please buy this man a camera for Christmas! Between your fuzzy pictures and my piss poor eyesight, it's just buzzes and clicks.


Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Anxious for a pic out doors.

 

Guilty as charged. I'm using an ancient and crappy phone for pics; it can't focus for close-ups, and frankly neither can I! Heck, my safety glasses are all 2x readers. Anyway, you'll get your wish soon--there's a new phone in my future.

I'll try to accommodate as soon as we get a break in the rain. This being Seattle, that means maybe April.
But seriously, it will be sooner than that. Stay tuned!

 

The gas tank and battery box are now installed. The gas tank I’ve shown before during mockup. The battery box is Ford Econoline—a tip-of-the-hat to my first high school vehicle.


The fuel system is now plumbed from tank to carb. Standard modern stuff, so not worth showing —Carter 6v pump and usual components, hard line from pump to engine bay. It would be cool to run a period Autopulse someday, but my immediate goal is just to get it running properly.

I will post one pic however:


That’s a ground wire running to the tank. I’m showing this primarily to satisfy my brother, aka Mr. Safety.

 

Fiat Lux!

No, that isn’t an OT reference to the new owners of the Chrysler Corp. It’s Latin for God’s purported first words, “Let there be light!” As in…

Headlights:



And matching taillights:



Of course with no bulbs installed, imagining the actual light here requires an, er, leap of faith.

(Man, with this fancy new phone the orange peel really shows in that last image. I'll be breaking out the buffer come spring.)

 

Looks great, keep it up! Gary

 

Just elevating from like command to commend you on a inspiring resurrection from the weeds Hamber Clark...