Man what a build thread. Bravo Pacorro! Read all the thread from beginning to end and enjoyed it greatly. It is so Good to see that Hot Rodding and Customizing both are alive and well in Mexico. Great job! Keep us in the loop can't wait to see how it turns out...
I'm really enjoying your story, Pacorro! Looking forward to the next capitulo. Back in 1981, when I drove with my fellow danzantes aztecas to Mexico City, we stayed in the Tacuba district where I saw a '51 Mercury coupe parked in the neighborhood. It was black, very dull and faded but complete and still in running condition; one of my friends told me it belonged to his neighbor and might be for sale, but I was a broke-ass kid at the time. Wonder where it is now?
Pacorro, you are doing a beautiful job on your Merc! I have a friend in Brazil and like yourself, he must build his car as we did here in the 1950s and 1960s, making all our own parts when they could not be found. Que duro! But it was more rewarding doing it all with our own hands. My hobby is carburettors and building one off intake systems. You have a very good design there, each carb feeding 4 cylinders, the mixing chambers (plenums) below each kept small and just a small balance tube connecting the 2. You are going to love the way it performs! Just remember to set your ignition timing ahead (try 12 degrees initial) and run straight carburettor linkage (not progressive). You will be very happy with it, I am sure. Saludos cordiales, Harry
Hombre thank you for enjoying as I do, and as you say: in Mexico there is not such a large amount of customized work, but without a doubt there is. I will tell you that finding spare parts for these cars is "a pain in the ass" and that complicates everything. The effort that the boys make is very big here
Chrisbcritter, what good news that you enjoy as much as I do the 10-year work that I publish in a thread here at HAMB. And in relation to the merc's in Mexico I can tell you so that you have it in perspective that I have seen and felt only three mercury's coupe in my life. Fourdors three more. Everyone has gone abroad where they are much more coveted. As they don't look here, they don't want to
enigma57 that good that you like handwork, maybe I could buy an Edelbrok, Offenhauser, Evans, Weiand, Edmunds or some other for more or less $ 300 plus shipping, but my friend Gil who is over 40 years old Of experience in mechanics, he offered to do it himself, and who am I to take away his desire to leave his grain of sand in this project? And your advice will be very useful, I'm sure. Thank you very much for sharing
Another important moment is deciding the right tires. Here at HAMB there are many very interesting threads and I have learned a lot from you who have a lot of experience and knowledge, but ...... In Mexico the right tires have to be imported and worth more than double! Serious problem to solve Another important moment is the hube caps. Who doesn't like the Cady hat or the Cady 53 '? The low budget fades quickly and these are rare to find and very expensive. I found a mercury 54 'game that seemed appropriate. Tell me your opinion guys
Pacorro, the '54 Merc hubcaps would look 'right' on your car. And with the Mercury emblem in center, even more so. The Merc hubcaps are more rare than the Cadillac hubcaps and others so often seen on these cars. I would choose them ahead of the ones so many others have used. The tires really depend on what 'look' you want. If the car will be a cruiser with custom touches circa 1950s, you may want the wide whitewall tires. But if you are making the car to honour those that competed in the 1950 and 1951 Carrera Panamericana race, then you would want blackwall tires. Best regards, Harry P.S. >>> Please, no outside sun visor! I am old enough to remember these cars in the 1950s. Very few had those and if they were customized or hotrodded, outside sun visors were the first thing to go away. I have no idea why so many of these cars now of days have outside visors added to them. It wasn't that way in the 1950s. One thing that I have not seen since the 1950s is a 'smoked dash'. In those days, it was very popular to paint the dashboard and inside window frames white and to have a white steering wheel. When I was a kid about 10 or 11 years old, I would hang out at the local body shop after school and after a while, they saw that I was good with my hands and would let me tape and mask cars that were to be painted. One day, I watched a guy make a 'smoked dash'. It came out beautifully. He painted the dash in a thick coat of white enamel paint. Then whilst the paint was still wet, he took an oxy/acetelene torch and lit it. But he did not adjust it to cut or weld...... He adjusted it on low pressure and with the oxygen too low, so that it made black carbon smoke in the form of little whorls (espirales) in the air. He did this a few inches from the dash and allowed the black carbon whorls to float down onto the wet paint. Maybe 6 inches between them, some overlapping. And when he was done, he let the the paint dry that way. Each whorl was different. None of them alike. But he was an artist and when he was done, it was beautiful to see. I have never seen anyone else do a dashboard that way. Very unique! HB
Hi, Pacorro and hammer-time! Thanks for asking. I have no photos of the dashboard. I watched the painter do this when I was 11 years old, hanging out at the body shop. I am 71 now and that was 60 years ago (1959). The description in my post above is the best that I can relate to you of what I saw and how he did it. The oxy-acetylene torch had a regular cutting head. He lit the torch and kept the pressure low. Only enough oxygen to keep the acetylene burning like a pilot light on a stove. And too much acetylene purposely...... Resulting in the black smoke swirls (unburned hydocarbons). Essentially, the swirls of black carbon smoke from the torch floated down onto the wet white enamel paint and left their swirling cloudlike images in the paint on the dash. I searched just now for an image that would show the pattern of the swirling black smoke that was left in the wet white paint. I found this photo just now. Imagine similar smoke patterns, only black on a white background...... No two swirls exactly the same. The black carbon smoke swirls floated down onto the dash so that they were superimposed and interlinked across the surface of the dash to form a mural of sorts. As I watched, he would slowly move the torch back and forth in gentle, sweeping arcs and figure eights. This was the only dash I have seen done like this. It was on a 1950 Ford coupe and it was beautiful. The enamel paint and smoke swirls were allowed to air dry several days following the application of the paint. If you want to try this, you could paint some metal or other flat surface white and practice laying down the black smoke swirls inside a shop with no breeze blowing before trying it on a dash. The process could also be done with very light robins egg blue or other light tint to the dash paint, but white would give you the best contrast, I think. I also remember that on this car, he used this technique only on the dashboard. The inner windshield frame was painted white and the side window frames (garnish moldings) were sent to the chrome shop. Hope this gives you some ideas, Harry
Enigma57, Thanks for your input. I will have to do some experimenting. Pacorro, I really like your custom intake...can we see a picture of it on the engine?
Harry you are an encyclopedia and what a pity that there is no evidence of that work, it seems like ghost flames don't you think? Good thing you enjoy my restoration project
Would you like to hear it roar? https://vimeo.com/user101130388/review/351472234/1e55316a55 https://vimeo.com/user101130388/review/351472374/164db6bacf https://vimeo.com/user101130388/review/351472435/e0044bc536 https://vimeo.com/user101130388/review/351472464/ceb36006f6 That machine sounds like a concert¡¡
Very impressive engine and intake, Pacorro! I was unable to listen to the engine, though. When I click on the links (I tried them all), Vimeo sends to me this message...... "Sorry, we couldn’t find that page Make sure you’ve typed the URL correctly, or try searching Vimeo. You could also watch one of the videos below instead." Do you have another link? I would love to hear your engine with your dual carburettors. Thoughts...... Beautiful job on the engine and intake! Very well thought out design and high quality workmanship throughout. I am sure you are very happy with her! Fuel pressure...... Your carburettors look to be the Holley 94? Holley 94 and Stromberg 97 are similar to Weber carburettors in that they need between 3.0 and 3.5 PSI fuel pressure. New needle valves will often hold 4.5 PSI until they are older and will begin leaking by later. The Ford flathead mechanical fuel pumps would typically make between 4 and 5 PSI. The old way of adjusting fuel pressure on those engines involved stacking several gaskets under the mechanical fuel pump to act as a spacer. In this way, fuel pressure could be adjusted to 3.5 PSI. An adjustable fuel pressure regulator can also be used for this. A caution...... Correct adjustment of the float level in fuel bowl is very important. I am not sure what formulation of gasoline you have in Mexico at present. Except for when our ship anchored off the coast of Mexico and we went ashore by boat at Mazatlan and Acapulco in the 1970's...... My last visit whilst driving was in Feb. of 1968. My wife and I were married in a small town about 75 miles South of Laredo. I was home from military service but even so, we were not old enough to marry here without parents signing for us. I was 20 and my wife was 17. So we drove down to Mexico and were married there in a place called Vallecillo in Nuevo Leon. It was a very small town in those days. Here in Texas near the large cities, we are forced to use ethanol and the gasoline now of days is a lighter, more volatile formulation than in the old days. So typically, we must lower float level between 1mm and 2mm and with ethanol and increase jet size by 5 steps (say from 40 to 45 for instance). The old way of setting float level on the flathead motors involved pulling the top cover off the carburettor and adjusting float level with carburettor on the engine. As you may imagine, with dual carburettors and your front carburettor so close to the generator, all it would take is one spark from the generator to ignite fuel or fuel vapours. So I would recommend setting float level with carburettors off the car. Or at least with engine cold and not running. Much safer that way. Not having the specifications of your engine, but noting that you have a large, heavy car and an automatic transmission, I will assume that the engine was left mostly stock internally with possibly a modest increase in compression ratio and corresponding mild camshaft upgrade. That being the case, with dual 94 carbs you might consider size 50 jets and 4.5 power valves as your starting point. I believe the modern Holley power valves will fit the 94 carbs, but they have a wider sealing surface where they screw in and the seating/sealing surface must be modified a bit. Charlie Price at Vintage Speed used to have these available for the Holley 94 as well as jets if you need them. If he hasn't retired yet, you can contact him here..... http://vintagespeed.com/ I always used Strombergs in multiple carburettor setups on these engines because they had a mechanical enrichening device instead of a vacuum actuated power valve and it was much easier to tune them (when you run multiple carbs on a plenum style manifold, manifold vacuum and carb 'signal' are usually less and that affects the power valves unless you measure manifold vacuum and change them for valves that work with lower vacuum level). The unknown factor with your intake is that the excellent design should minimize carb 'signal' loss, so you may have much better carb 'signal' than other manifolds having a larger, common plenum fed by both carburettors. A definite advantage for you. One suggestion...... The old oil filled ignition coils use the oil to cool the internal windings. It is safer to mount them with the top (where coil wire plugs in) upright. This prevents the oil from partially uncovering the windings, overheating and eventually ruining the coil. It doesn't always happen. Sometimes you can be lucky and they will work well for many years laying on their side. But its safer to mount them upright if you can. Hope this helps, Harry
Hammer-time and Pacorro, sorry I don't have photos of it. I was just a kid but I thought it was neat as all get out and have never forgotten what the painter did with that dashboard. I have never seen another like it. If you experiment, I am sure you can duplicate the process. The secret I think is in adjusting the torch to put out the black swirling smoke and then practice your technique to work it so that the swirls float down onto the wet paint below and leave the pattern you are looking for. Its a process of slowly moving the torch in arcs and figure 8's as I recall. Almost as if he was painting 6 inches above the wet paint below with an invisible brush. I was mesmerized. Best regards, Harry
Thanks for sharing your knowledge Harry and I don't know why you can't access the videos, I can see them from the link without difficulty, It will be necessary to have an account on Vimeo maybe I will try to upload them in another way, regards
Aha! That must be the reason I couldn't see it then. I'm an old guy, Pacarro. I don't have an account at Vimeo. I don't do facebook nor twitter. I don't own a 'smart phone' and never will. And yes...... I really do have the same rotary dial phone and land line I have had for many years. Reckon I've gotten along just fine without that stuff for 71 years, so no need to start now. Best regards, Harry
Harry and friends who follow this thread, I did tests with a whip and it seems to work. Please verify
The new links work very well, Pacorro! Thank you! Engine sounds strong. Solid and smooth running. A bit of standoff vapour or reversion from front carburettor, but that should resolve as piston rings and valves seat during run in period and carburettors are fine tuned. Double check ignition timing, as well. With dual carburettors on the type manifold you have there, your engine will need a bit more initial advance than if it had a single carburettor or if your dual carburettors were feeding a single, large plenum. Try 12 degrees advance and work from there. Be sure to limit total advance so you won't have too much when distributor reaches full advance, though. Congratulations are in order for all who have worked on this engine. Well done! Best regards, Harry
Felicidades Paco, esta quedando muy bonito tu auto, los motores Flathead me encantan y me gusto tu adaptación a la C4 y tu manifould, seguire al pendiente de tu restauracion.
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