Projects The Mexicali Merc, another 40 Custom in the works

Does it still have the flathead?

 

Kevan..that merc could never find a better place...
please remember to post pictures. thanks!
-palle

 

Can't wait to pics of it getting chopped !!

 

Very cool. Ill be watcing this one !

 

Cool story so far. Is it going to get painted something like Mexicali Maroon?

 

Great story and pics. Nice that you are helping your freind out. That car is going to be bitchen. This one belongs to my freind Rob. Really cool car.

 

Man Reno is a very patient and forgiving dude... i would have lost my freaking mind, probably ended up in jail!
But its in great hands...subscribed!

 

Rad, shame about the abuse the shipper did but it's in good hands now, all the best.

 

What a great find....Can't wait to see what you do with it.

 

This going to be great. You weren't kidding such a huge difference between a stock and custom Merc

 

Its in good hands,can't wait to see the progress.

 

So thats the Merc you were telling me about! Man I will have to make a trip up to your house and bring some cervezas. "When I decide to drink in the mountains, I prefer Dos XX....stay thirsty my friend".

 

Looking forward to seeing this one come together Kevan!

 

cool shot of the two roof lines!!!! will enjoy this build!!!!!!!

 

You should just call it "El Guapo"... one more timeless Merc!

 

gonna be nice, Kevan!

 

Ha ha!

 

Where to start here??
I still cant really believe that my Merc is up there with Kev...this was an adventure started pretty recently from scratch really and suddenly i just realized there will be no better understandable guy to work on such car ,especially on the traditional meaning of things...
Mind you fellas ,i had this car in storage for 7 years aprox thinking to on customizing it but im very peaky on who can do the job..in Mexico there is nodody that i can trust enuff on the way i want the work done and finally when Kev said yes,i could'nt believe that i was again doing something special for me...life goes fast and not many times in life you can please yourself on such special cars the way you want em...so,im really happy on how we started this cool adventure and im still fighting with the shippers about a refund on the damage..but i was more looking on the overall picture,the car ready to be crossed in Kev hands finally after a lot of logistics....still bothering after many years of takin care of the car and the first trucker idiot will damage it for to make some extra bucks!!!
Anyway,to me is a dream slowly coming true and i dont know nobody else worldwide that will have 2 of these customs soon side by side!!!!!
Ah,and a HUGE thanks to Magoozi,Miguel from the Lifters in TJ..he has been an invualuable help to coordinate the Tijuana mission...Miguel,thanks a LOT bro ..cant thank you enuff!!!
have fun Kev....you'll be busy for a while i guess....

 

Awesome!!!!Good job Kevan so far and this should turn out to be a timeless 40's Custom.

Ken

 

"El Guapo"...

 

Looking forward to seeing this one. It's amazing how ugly those cars are in stock form and how good they look with a proper chop.

 

About time you got the Merc moving sled.
I remember a few years ago when you were thinking of selling it.
Glad you never.

Now get back to the other Merc and you'll have an awesome stable.

 

I'm still here "El Guapo"...

 

crazy story.
Did you guys have the paperwork/title for the car when going across the border?
There's a couple basketcases I know over there and was wondering how tough it was to get across.

I was thinking the same thing,
especially in that side by side shot.
Looks like it went to the perfect caretaker!
TP

 

Wow Grate "Thread " man that must have been a crazy trip to pick up car sorry about damage : - ( can't waite to see progress on build .

 

Great story so far. I look forward to seeing the progress on this.

 

Zibo
Magoozi and Kevan dropped me in a friend's restaurant spendin some time with some local friends in Tijuana and crossed togheter just in case...as far i see on the Kev's pics the US customs did NOT even bothered him and the car on the trailer...as Kev says on the thread he could have been loaded with anything and nobody stopped him ,so way cool....he crossed with the legal mexican papers of the Merc with him ...so,easy as drinkin a coffe.
Of course if you consider to import officially a car into the States you have to follow an import process thru customs...since my car will be back in Mexico when done i just drive thru when finished,no matter how long it takes...easy deal!!

Ah,almost forgot...i will be never tired to say that Kev is THE perfect caretaker worldwide..i cant think of anyone else on such stuff since he has already his masterpiece rolling...

 

Mate,yeah...i never been keen on lettin this one go honestly talkin...cause i knew i could'nt get a better one in Mexico and still think the same...after years of scarfing here all over i found so far 5 or 6 39/40 Merc coupes and mine is the best one by far...so,im more than happy to say its a keeper ...how many chances in life do you have to build such radical thing???Not many i guess ..and few are the lucky ones..

Yeah,im thinkin to restart the 50 kustom soon too...time flies too fast!!!

 

So I've been digging around under the paint and I keep finding bad stuff, so we've decided to send the car off to the sandblaster. I was really hoping to finally do some custom work on a car without having to restore it first, but I guess that's just not in the cards for me!

Started to fix the front fender and found a ridiculous amount of bondo.


I saw some little bubbles in the paint on the passenger door so I decided to investigate. Oh no!!!


Well I got the headlight area pretty much fixed but before I do anything else it will need to be blasted. Hopefully next week if the weather clears up

 

Here a few more pictures of the car. Yes it has a flathead! And looks to be pretty clean, so Im sure it will run with a little work. Plans are to keep all the stock running gear but add some aluminum heads and a 2 deuce manifold to the engine.

Looks to be the stock 40 engine but rebuilt at one time.


a few interior shots. The floors have been patched but look ok.


Cool old Naugahyde vinyl!


His stock grill is pretty beat up so we'll need to hunt for a better one.


Got the trunk and hood off.




Thats about it for now. As soon as we have a few days break from the bad weather it's off to the sandblaster! Then we'll see what kind of nightmare I got myself into! haha

Thanks for all the positive comments!!