Projects 1949 Mercury 2-door

So I've been meaning to start a build tread for awhile now; so seeing as the metal work is finally coming to an end ill start from the start. My father has a restoration shop where we do anything a customer wants (except paint/interior not because we cant but because we dont want to...) so thankfully I've been able to pick up quite a few skills as-well as having the ability to work in the shop and use all his tools basically made this project even possible.
We worked on a pair of Merc's for a family friend a few years prior a 51 2-door and 4 door
, and both ended up turning out really nice and i really liked the look of them. So a couple years passed and after i finished restoring a 79 cj-5 for myself (which i sold to pay for some of this projects needs) i wanted another project. So i started thinking of those Mercury's we worked on previously and though i should get one as-well to work on; it could be a really cool project , thus the search started.
I spend a few months looking online and locally , went to look at some very expensive basket cases . Eventually on HAMB saw someone offering a 49 2-door sedan for sale it said it had rust and the body was a little beat up ( both of which alittle understatement ) but was honest about the condition but it also came with a second complete 51 front end in very good condition to replace the messed up 49's. The price was right so started the long drive out from Georgia to Missouri (yes i drove to Missouri for this...) got there paid for the car and brought it home.

I don't have photos of the front end but it was really nice and i basically tore it apart the second i got the car off the trailer alittle cracked in the inner fenders nothing bad and 1 patch on the driver side lower that's all.

From what i can guess it was originally in a barn with hay bails before being moved (found alot of hay in the car) and they probably pushed the hail bails in for space because it had wierd compression type damage all along the front all the way to about the middle of the doors like someone just squeezed everything.

 

Awesome. I can't help buying cars like that it's like they call me haha

 

So before even unloading it i cut the front fenders off because they were beyond repair and it was the fastest way to get them off making sure not to damage any of the grill surround of splash pan what was left over as-well as anything i might actually need.

After getting it inside time to tear it apart , the car had basically a complete interior with all the trim , handles etc etc , the seats while nasty looking , but after the padding was off actually have nice springs the back seats still has all the factory black paint so cast really complain and the dash wasn't all beat up.

Also before we mounted it onto the frame fixture wanted to set it down to what I thought I'd like the actual ride height to be when finished , because I knew I was changing the original suspension having measurements of what my "goal" is helps because i can build the suspension on the frame jig to be exactly that. So setting it on some blocks i think the frame finally ended up with 4.5" front and 5.5" rear was were the body looked low but would also make it so it could get over speed bumps.

 

Nice score! Looks like a pretty solid and complete start. Huge plus that the interior, seats, etc. are present. What are your build plans?

 

So I'm hoping for a tradition mild custom, something that wouldn't look out of place if you took a B&W photo and said oh this was made in the early 50's and wouldn't look out of place at all. So far its decked / nosed / frenched / shaved /flush fender skirts / louvered hood , a very nice (and expensive) flathead , 3 on the tree with 9 inch ford rear end and 4 wheel disc brakes. I want something clean and correct its not about going fast but going in style. I'm still up in the air on chopping it or not that will be literally the last thing I do before I start the bodywork for paint , need to get it basically together and on the ground at ride height to see if it ...looks right.

 

I really like Merc projects. I have one also that is under it's 3 rebuild since I bought it. That was back in 1964. I have also done Kustom building all my life much like your Dad. I've always said the best Stock car is a good place to start. Many many of my Customers projects started right where you are.
You say changing and building suspension. That's something I'm very familiar with both Street car and Race form. I also do NOT subscribe to Mustang/Pinto unit will work just fine on All chassis if you just adjust it to your need. Sure hope your Not going that direction. I've lost track of how many frame graphs I've done over the years but can tell you on my Personal 50 Merc the 70 Nova unit was and still is a very good choice both fit and drive ability. I also run the stock front bumper, did not need to modify the Core support and the Merc rad. bolts right back in. That keeps air flow as it should be with no heating issues. No need for an electric fan. There's another Pet peeve of mine. I still feel running Electric fans is a result of poor planing. I always refused to use them when building a project such as yours. Good luck with your project and I'll be watching.
The Wizzard

 

Just read your last post. Your right on target for me. That was much the recipe for my 51 Vicky. Just clean looking but full of surprises fun to drive and simple. Make your Merc run and drive. Profile on the ground will tell you if or how much to Chop it. To much makes a Cartoon profile, just right from 20 feet away is an art.
The Wizzard

 

So after getting and determining the fixture height , mounted it on the plate welding it down so that i could start fixing the structural rust before going to sandblaster.
It had a lot of rust in all the normal locations rockers,inner fenders , trunk front floors basically anywhere that could rust was , everywhere except where the rear seat was... that was perfect ..really wierd.
S

 

So the most important bit of rust to fix initially was the fact that both the inner and exterior rockers were basically gone front to rear as-well as some of the metal above. So in order to put the body onto a rotisserie i needed the middle of the car not to fold in half.

So after measuring what was remaining of the inner/outer rocker so i got some tubing , ended up about 5" x 2" x 1/8inch wall was about the closest thing i could actually get to the original , cut and fitted to match the original shape as best i could ( only do one side at a time so you can still get measurements from the other-side )

Then the rear inner fenders , and floor , thankfully one of the beads on the bead roller was kind of close to the stock ones so they matched up rather well. basically everything up to floor level had rust so needed to be replaced to be structurally sound.

 

Your metalwork all looks top notch so far, looking forward to seeing more of this build.

 

Thanks for the detail in your build thread. The top looks oddly tall, doesn't it?

 

Nice work. Very creative on the rocker replacement. That had to have made the other new panels a dream to reattach. I've chopped a whole load of cars from A's to early 50's but never a '49/50 Merc. I could have but always considered the proportions to already be perfect. Nosed, decked, box skirts, done.

 

It's better than new now! With those 2x5x.125 rails does not matter if you clear a speed bump, they'll stop any further damage.

 

Looks like a great car to start with. I had a 49 coupe in 1999 and if it was this good i would have kept it.
Subscribed !

Hennie

 

The top looks odd probably from the angle it was taken at but personally i feel like the top ,right above where the rear seat is always really... bulbous. And yes attaching panels was rather easy with a solid base.
So the driver side was basically the same as the passenger side, alittle more rust in the rear but it all worked out fine.

Also around this time id been searching online for a couple months for a 1953 desoto 11 tooth grill and the splash pan and unless i wanted to pay a kings ransom, it just wasn't going to happen. Thankfully thou i happened to find a 1953 Desoto Firedome on craigslist for ... honestly bargain price in Kentucky, it had just been listed a couple hours earlier , so called said "ill take it , be there tomorrow afternoon with cash". So drove up to Kentucky and picked it up, took the grill , bumpers , splash pan and the mounts for the grill . Ended up scraping the car but dont feel bad i took all the trim, alot of the interior (dash/steering wheel/ interior/ trim/ etc) and then filled it up with old scrap from around the shop. Even thou it does look good in the photos , it was a super rusty POS i actually stepped through the front floors twice whist removing some of the dash and the rear seat area and trunk were literally gone, it was only a straight 6 that was locked up just as much as 3 of the 4 wheels. The interior stainless trim actually ended up going to a friend who was doing the interior of his 34 Vicky and they were added and they look different but honestly pretty neat. Shockingly buying the car and driving from Georgia to Kentucky and back , even after fuel costs; it actually cost me nothing to get the grill and splash pan after taking the body to scrap and selling a few odds and ends from it.

So as you can see in the photos i'm going to be running a 11 tooth Desoto grill with a 1951 front bumper , and I plan on massaging and shortening the front dag-mars to better accent the grills teeth. Also you can see the start of the flathead that's going into the Merc. We had 2 1950 8ba's one we actually got running on the ground and had 50 lb's of oil pressure and ran fine the other was missing some of the oil system and didn't have a carb so we tore it apart to get magnaflux's and cleaned and thankfully it was good no cracks so that ended up being the one we build.

 

So after getting the center nice and strong it was time to actually get both the chassis and body sandblasted and in primer so 1) start working on the chassis and 2) find all the rest of the rust other than the obvious parts that will need to be repaired.

Before taking the body to the sandblasters i cut the trunk floor out basically where i knew 100% i was replacing so that they had better access and so they didn't sandblast something that wasn't even going to be used.

 

The frame now finally clean and primed is ready for its new suspension ...well new ish in a way.

So re-welded the frame back to the original mounts used before so that ensures we have a nice level surface to measure from and makes it easy to square everything up and set it up at ride height.
Starting in the back using an old 9" ford rear housing with a ladder-bar rear end set up and new Currie axles with just a generic diskbrake / handbrake setup. There was no need thankfully to notch the frame, by setting up the rear end such that after the 2" bump and the 1/2" bump rubber it would then hit the frame... if I do something that compresses the rear 2.5 inch... I think I've messed up alot more than just the rear end.

So to set up the front end i needed to install the block to make sure the steering would clear everything , well i needed a transmission because when i bought the car it didn't come with any of the drivetrain. We had a couple transmissions/bell housing from the 8ba's and originally though nothing about it ..well those have a different clutch mechanism and bell-housing so after finding both we could start on the front end.

For the front suspension we used the original suspension as the base and converted them to a more modern ball joint front suspension. Used 2 inch drop spindles (for GM A/F/X) and the associative disk brake kit. So seeing as this is going to be manual steering and not power steering getting the steering geometry perfect is import. For this we went with about 1/2 degree camber 4 degrees caster and .050" tow in. When setting up the bump we noticed if you used the stock steering you ended up with excessive tow in with 2" bump up/down. To fix that we added a tab below were the original steering arms mounted and in effect lowered the pivot point by 1" this resulted in only about .005" bump steer. Also one neat thing we found adjustable spring spacers, so after mounting it and making an adapter to fit the springs ill be able to adjust the front suspension later on when we set the corner weights after its all done. The sway bar i think is an s10 rear sway-bar... not sure it was something in the barn that is being re-purposed for this and just happened to be the right shape.

 

So now that the chassis was set up now to get the body back so I can start doing more rust repair.
The trunk was severally lacking in the metal department after it was sandblasted, so i had to start by getting the outside started first and working my way inward , not pictured, for the main part of the trunk floor i made what we call top-hats basically metal folded up 1"x 1"x 3" x 1" x 1" then rosette welded , 2 of these coupled with beading the floor make it so you can stand on the floor and it wont move a bit.
For the trunk lid i wanted a clean look ; but knowing i was going to be putting the battery in the trunk i for sure didn't want an electronic popper so needed a manual way to open the trunk. So i did something i hadn't seen before (but probably not the first to think up), using a simple vintage beetle trunk latch i remade the latch mechanism using that and as the pull cable I used a throttle cable we had laying around from something we never used so that way i have manual way to open the trunk front under the rear bumper area; simple, out of the way, and works great.
One thing that should be noted the stock spring in the upper hood latch mechanism, the spring is very stiff honestly excessively stiff and was actually forcing the trunk-lid up and giving me really bad gaps , simply replacing it with a new lighter spring helped get my gaps right.

 

Excellent workmanship! Very impressive attention to detail, fit and finish. I especially like the rectangular tube rocker replacement structure. Also, the attention you paid to getting the front end geometry correct. Looking forward to seeing more photos as the work progresses.

Ray

 

Lookin' good.... Who makes the adjustable spring pads? Those look handy as hell....

 

Very nice work. Especially the racer's approach to the front suspension - which leads me to this question - is your dad ECTA/Bonneville racer "Rabbit"?

vic

 

Steve, i found them at speedway motor's search "adjustable spring spacer" took a chance because they looked like something that could be really neat if they were what i thought and lucky me they were.
on thing the photos don't show is the fact i drilled and tapped the "top" as-well as the plate they mounted on and used countersunk bolts to attach the plates together so i have maximum adjustment.
Krusty, yep Rabbit is my father; i've been around this stuff since i was a kid and working with him since after college so alot's rubbed off.

 

So next up I got some rockers ( i think sherman? it was awhile ago so maybe) and they fit really nicely which was really nice considering i wasn't sure if my inner rocker beam would work. I needed to put the doors on first so I could get the gaps for the rear quarters , and also the gaps for the new rockers. The door hinges has some serious wobble and a couple needed to be heated up and bent back in shape. If you need to set your doors having hinges with no play is a must. So after taking the doors off/on many times and making various thickness shims I got the door gaps at the upper rear quarters just right.
I don't have many photos for whatever reason when I did the rockers , rear quarters . The rear quarters where really rusty so at first i wanted to just get a pre-made patch panel and be done... sadly the panel was in no way the right shape so ended up just having to do it myself. For the inner splash guard inside the rear quarters mine where just rusted away to nothing. So I remade them using aluminum then put the quarter panel back on , mark the high spots take everything off trim , rinse repeat till i got the shape and just enough gap to fit some welting .

 

So being able to move the car around was a big step, I generally work on it whenever I'm not working on someone else's because fixing someone else's rust at work then doing the same after work... is not very fun . So one thing i worked on next was the engine.
It started life as a 1950 ford 8ba out of a sedan , but it has long since changed from such humble origins.
I knew the second i bought the car i was going to put a flathead in it , and i knew basically the recipe for what i wanted.
So first got the block cleaned and magnaflux'd and thankfully no cracks (lucky me) , ordered a new rotating assembly for 3-5/16" bore 4-1/8" stroke. Initially bored correct size but due to some porosity from when it was originally cast , 2 of the cylinders for safety ended up getting sleeves put in .
After getting everything together i got a PPG high heat primer (that shocking white paint) that was supposedly good for engine's as a base you could then paint with regular paints over and it wouldn't peel off. The color choice as a kind of light gold i think accents the natural aluminum finish and should ultimately complement my body colour , and interior.
After getting everything assembled made an engine run stand for it so we could test run it, make sure everything works perfectly and make sure no leaks ( which sadly there were 2 which will be addressed soon ; one... the seal around the dip stick where it riveted on , and the second the front oil seal , only after everything was together did i find out they made a one piece front seal )

One thing that should be noted id love to say i "know" what parts i need for this car... well radiators is one category i think i finally have under control... not because i was any good but because after buying enought "correct" radiators i finally ended up with the one i actually needed , trial and error and whatnot. 1 rst a 1950 ford... because that was the engine its a flathead it'll fit right... wrong , after getting it cleaned and pressure tested i go to put it in and low and behold it doesn't fit, so that actually ends up being the test stand radiator. 2nd a 1949 mercury radiator , it fits but it just doesn't seem right as there is a large gap infront of the top tank, well remember when i said i used a 1951 mercury front end because it was in almost perfect shape... well i didn't remember either and they change the top tank location some time between 49 and 51.. so finally a nice 1951 mercury radiator that fits and looks right...

 

loving this build.and that flattie looks sweet

crack on bud

 

The rear splash pan was unfortunately irreparably bent and rusted so it was just easier to remake , and having a pullmax to do the shaping makes for quick work.
The 51 hood was a remnant from our family friend he got a hood and trunk louver'd but could never get the hood to fit nicely so he didn't use it so I bought it as-well as a few other parts. After getting the hood to fit the back towards the doors , i had to even up the hood against the cowl for 2 reasons , one the hood would hit the cowl when opening and that is obviously not ideal and second was it wasn't a uniform gap. This required grinding down the edge then re-welding the edge , then cleaning it up and checking to see if it had the correct gap and opened and closed then repeat till correct.
I thought of how I was going to put the 1953 Desoto's splash pan onto the stock mercury splash pan many different ways ; ultimately the easiest was what I went with. Because my car had a very bad splash pan (rust /bent) it was easier to actually use the Desoto's pan as the main structure and fit the bits of the mercury's i needed to use. The Desoto's pan has a bar that run underneath the upper portion to stiffen the pan and teeth , but nothing under the front so i mad one using L barstock that way its nice and strong then using that as a good base added the corners for the 49.
Using the 51 front bumper I lowered it .5" and moved it back 2" so that it sits closer to the teeth so that when you look at the front from the side you don't see any gap or anything , it looks correct.

 

MK 1 fender skirts.
So i had a beautiful set of 49/50 fender skirts and it honestly seemed like a shame to cut them up to make something i honestly wasn't sure i was A) going to like and B) would actually look good. So looking at the shape it wasn't that crazy like a 51 Merc skirt so i decided to just make a set and see what worked.

For the perimeter i needed to make a frame i could then weld the skin to. So using 1/4" round tube started hand bending/rolling made them so they had maybe a 1/16th of an inch gap and were flush ( the first side i just used tap and some hand eye work and the passenger side i just welded some metal to act as a stop and that sped up the process significantly)
After rolling the and shaping the skins i tacked the inside first, then ground the outside down to fit perfectly the shape of the frame; then slowly welding so they don't twist or move around.

To actually mount them i kind of stole the idea from a 1954 Oldsmobile we worked on just prior to me making these so the idea was still fresh. They used 3 dowel like pieces of metal to guide it in and keep it in the same position and was then bolted together at the bottom. So i first drilled the holes in the fender lip, then using some rounded off 1/4" tacked it all together when the skirt was in the correct spot in the hole.

The skirts worked nicely once done, i thought they looked nice and gave it a nice smooooooth long look along the rear quarters... later i would discover a problem and that would result in my current MK2 skirts which i like alot better but ultimately made basically the way.

 

like the simplicity shown on making the skirts. Did you roll the sheet metal or just tacked in place as you down the 1/4 round? Looks like I will be make me some next. I'm assuming you used the roller in the picture.

 

Started by rolling the shape in the vertical , then once it seemed to fit the front of the quarter and close to the rear Then I moved to the pull-max and put some crown in it and finished with the English wheel for some smaller tweaks. So it overhung the framework but fit the actual rear quarter. then once i was happy with the shape fitting i then started tacking it all together whial everything was actually clamped on the car.

 

Seeing as we are talking about fender skirts it needs to be noted the reason I actually don't end up using these skirts and go for my MK2 skirts. when I was doing these skirts I was using a set of wheels to move it around and took the brake disks off to get the proper backspacing that I wanted. Now the problem was if I put the brake disc's on the very rear of the skirts was probably only an 1/8" away from touching the tire simply because of the shape and design of the skirt. So I go to order my steel wheels i'm going to run the car with... only to find the backspace I want isn't something they commonly make , now sure I could special order some with said backspacing but that would likely be cost prohibitive. So I went with the closest backspacing I could get which was about 1/2" less than what I wanted.. aka what I would have if run the current wheels without the disc. So that means that unless I wanted to risk the wheels and skirts I would have to remake the skirts.
So that's what I did, now I always reallllly liked the 51 merc skirts(because honestly they just look amazing) but at the time I was originally looking at doing the skirts I couldn't get a set that wasn't sky high priced , but about a year after the first skirts were actually done I found a set of 51's on ebay that were priced great it had a little rust at the very top where the rubber seal was originally hence why they weren't asking much and it was perfect for what I needed because that area wasn't going to even be used. So doing basically the same as before only this time I just trimmed the skirts to be just the skin and tacked them directly to the car and built my frames with the skirts on the car. This was even easier then the other ways I did it. Then once the frames were done untack the skirts from the car , trim /weld /done. With these skirts I gained plenty of wheel clearance so i'm not worried about the wheels hitting the skirts.