I'm building my 51' Mercury and acquired a nice set of Pontiac Safari Side Trim. Upon mock fit up, I found that the trim fits neatly into the drop in the door but bulges out at the top by approximately 3/4" on the front facing side and about 1/2" on the rear side. I have seen this trim on many 49-51 Mercs and most are mounted flush with the door side. I was wondering if anyone has done this modification and if they can share any tips before I cut it up to fit. The picture below shows an example of what I am trying to do. Thanks in advance
I am trying to give back to the HAMB again by showing what I am learning while building my car. I decided today to just go for it and try to fit the trim I have on my car and below are pictures of the challenge and how I have made it work. The pictures are of the Driver Side trim which I was successful in modifying and of the Passenger Side trim which I have not completed yet, but it will be easy after doing the Driver Side (its always easier to do the second part you are working on, right?) First, the problem. This is the passenger side piece and you can see where it originally attached to the Pontiac at the top where there is a small flange with two holes in it to screw to the body. (One hole is covered up by the tape holding the piece in place. Next, a side view of the passenger piece: Here you can see the huge gap on the front side between the door and the piece. Next, The Passenger side piece from the rear side: Another big gap. So, we have two choices here in my opinion: 1. Attempt to cut and shape the trim to fit the Mercury body OR 2. Do some fancy sheet metal work on the door to fill in the gaps and make nice transitions. I decided to take option 1 and go for it by cutting and trimming the piece so it fits flush correctly on the door. I accomplished this on the Driver side by: 1. Cut off the mounting flange 2. Using a flap wheel, begin to trim back the piece until I got it to fit flush in order to also use the Beltline Trim I have for the car too. 3. It took about 30 minutes to trim it back slowly so as to make it fit how I like it. I have made it close so when the bodywork starts it will fit flush like it was made for this car-Like the Red one in the first post. Next are pictures of the fit on the Driver Side: If you look carefully, you can see that the flange at the top of the piece is gone and I have removed small amounts of material so the piece fits cleanly up against the door. Next, another view of the Driver Side trim-This is the back side of the piece. Next, The Front Side of the piece-Notice how close I got it to the door shape. now, that is more like it! I just need to either make or find the proper mounting clips for the back side of the trim to be able to mount it to the door securely. These clips should be available online once I figure out the proper size etc. Last, Both pieces of trim, the Driver Side modified and the Passenger Side to be done soon: Thanks again to the HAMBers out there who have helped me through this project on other challenges. I hope this will help someone else in their challenges.
Looks good. I hope you'll keep us up on the rest of the build. Here is Mandy Holder's Merc from the past, for a little inspiration.
Agree with 'Mo. It looks good. I have made trim clips before with plastic washers from the local hardware store. Easy to trim and they work great in areas that you can reach to put a bolt and nut on. Torchie
To mount that trim on my Olds, I welded 10-32 machine screws to pieces of steel, and pop riveted then to where the stock clips went.
Hi Mo, it is so interesting that you bring up Mandy's car. I bought my basket case Merc a couple of years ago, heard about and joined the HAMB to learn about what at least the basics should be when trying to create a period correct 49-51 Merc that may have been seen or competed in shows in the mid 50's. Mandy's car has been my inspiration from the first time I saw it-it just spoke to me. I began the journey of learning what parts he and the barris' used and how they accomplished such an awesome (in my opinion) example of this era car. It has taken me about 2 years to find the parts and many have been found here on the HAMB. Thanks for the pic here, I have every article and book related to these cars that I can find and still study a lot after I do each modification. The journey continues and I am in the process of building removable full length rear fender skirts styled very similar to guess who's car? Mandy's of course. More to come on those as I build them.
Same here, especially when I put them up to the car the first time! They did this mod as far back as the mid 50's ( Mandy's Car) and because they did not have the cool tools we have today, it must have taken some thought and real fab skills to pull it off. The Barris's, Gene Winfield and the Alaya Brothers really had it going on!
Hey Desotot, This trim is off a 1955 Pontiac Safari Station Wagon-2 Door Model. The front pieces fir the Merc Door great except for the trimming I did. I find the quote above about filling them in with lead and bending them, that would be tough as these are Stainless but it may have been what they did back in the day. I wanted my front pieces to "fade" into the top of the door so that it why I chose to trim them down. Also, take a look at Sam Schoenberg's "Angel Baby" Mercury-It has the doors "built up" to accept these pieces without modifying the trim and is done fantastic in my opinion. See pic from Riksters site below. The rear "Spears" are super long because they came from the 2 door station wagon. Hope this helps
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