Seen so many of my friends' builds... Time to finally start on mine! For as long as I can remember, Ive always wanted to own a Merc. Finally had a little money in my pocket and came across a good deal for a complete 1949 Tudor Mercury Coupe. I purchased the car 18 months ago from Oklahoma and had her transported to my house here in SoCal. With the good help of my friend Aaron, we stared out by disassembling the entire car. The plan is to divide the build up: Custom Chassis, Sheet Metal work, Hard Top Chop, Motor/Tranny, and Interior. A few weeks ago, the chassis was finished (minus Motor/Tranny Mounts and X Member).
Custom built chassis... Frame is 2x4 that merges into 2x3 around the back half... The custom frame mimics the shape of the stock frame other then the notch in the rear and the Z in the front... The front suspension consists of a Mustang II clip. The rear suspension is a Parallel 4 Link with the top links mounted on the outside of the frame for clearance issues with the rear seat. Also has a Competition Engineering Sway bar in the rear. All the suspension pivot points are built with heavy-duty DOM sleeves with polyurethane bushings and every bolthole for suspension and shocks is reinforced with weld washers. The frame rails will be the air tank for the airbags. It works out to be a 15-gallon tank. The pinch on the bottom of the rockers was cut off to allow this Merc to lay as low as possible without modifying the rockers.
Wow. Don't get to see many Merc projects with good solid floors like that. Great car to build. Please keep the pictures coming. John L
Looks like a solid car. Hard-top chop? Its funny how one of the most commonly chopped cars doesn't have a bad looking stock roof line...
So, what did you see on the update? You said you can't wait so you must have raced straight over there.
Yer one of the few that actually adhered to the 1st rule of a build "Buy the best starting point you can"! Looking forward to seeing it come together.
This Hot Rod shit is a sickness I swear, lol. Found a deal on-line I couldn't pass up. Drove over 500 miles today to Las Vegas and back, to pick up parts for my '49. Not too much to update, just gathering parts. Fabrication to start soon...
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