Projects >>>Chopped 1949 Mercury :cad/lasalle combo, period build circa 1954<<<

Ive needed to post a thread on my build for a long time, I just havnt sat down to do it.
Ive owned this car for a few years now and am finally getting to the point of going back together with it.

I found the car in the classifieds here on the hamb and traded a 26 T bucket (the hussy) for it.
heres what the car looked like when I went to pick it up.



I lucked out on the body of this car, there was very little major rust in the body. however JeffreyJames and I had a ton of work in pulling the surface rust off the body in preperation for the epoxy primer. with the primer on and the wiring buttoned up I was ready to drive.

this is how the car stayed for the first year or so. bombing around town, from car show to car show, cruise in to cruise in, countless trips back and forth to work....
yeah it was fun....yeah I enjoyed driving the car as it sat but the car was missing one thing.....

SOUL!!

The soul of this car had been thoughtlessly ripped out without reguard....
replaced with a souless, guttless, smog era monster....
a SOUL EATING MONSTER with an automatic!

 

Yes! The JerBear Merc! Go, cat....Go!

Can't wait to gander at it when I come down!

 

THIS is what a simple engine swap turned into.
i had gone round and round with what engine i wanted to put in my merc, but in the end the 331 cadillac and 3 speed lasalle was the combo of choice

LOTS MORE TO COME!



the engine was worked and built by my club brother shawn Mull....this little mofo will be plenty roudy!

once the engine and trans were mounted another club brother
hotdamn (delton) and myself proceded to do a notch in the rear of the frame. after the notch was done (sorry i lost the progress pics)
i moved the leaf springs to the inside of the frame rails to get the ride hight where i wanted it.

I used a 50 olds bell housing to mate my lasalle to the back of the cad mill so i could bolt on mid mounts




with the frame back from the blaster it was off to paint

working in the racing industry has many perks, having good bosses that let me use the paint booth is on of them





SOUL...

 

with the frame painted and the floors finished up the under side of the body was next on the list.
so hotdamn and I put a weekend into getting the floors preped for seam sealer, etch, and undercoating.






with all that work out of the way it was prime time to starting going back together.

again with the help from hotdamn and the guys in the club, body was united with frame once more.








more to come... CHOP CHOP

 

Umm 7,8,9

 

Never ceases to amaze me that I'm not the only one that decides that I'm gonna do this one thing and it turns into a total rebuild,,,

It's looking good. HRP

 

Sure would be nice to be able to make the pictures bigger.. But I've been keeping up with the Merc on Instagram.

It rules. Seriously.

 

thanks guys. im working on the pictures of the car...i'll get it worked out

 

It's about time you let everybody else in on what I've had the privilege to see go down. They don't know what they're missing, haha!

For everybody reading this who doesn't know him, this dude is a genius, although he'd never admit it. Wait til you see the CHOP!!! He's my hero. He taught me how to weld sheetmetal. And he's dreamy. I *heart* JeremyJames.

 

Yessir, those are some cool club brothers there, Jeremy! Y'all got it going on!

 

looking great !

 

Nice build up!

 

Jeremy is a ruler. Wait till you guys see the chop on this sucker!

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I can't see the pics too good but it's lookin good.

Crazy bout a mercury!

I sure do miss my old 51 coupe

 

I must also add, nice job on keeping the springs.

Mercs don't need air bags period

 

Merc Check.
331 Caddy Check.
Lasalle Check.
Magnifying Glass Priceless...

 

I took this pic of his car by accident. Actually, I picked the coolest background in the shop. One case where the background is cooler than the subject. This car will kill.

 

thanks man, I agree

 

haha i agree terd, it is about time!

but your the dreamy one

 

I learned it from watching you homie

 

Bitchin car man.

 

Awesome body off and underneath photos.... and the paint booth pics are cool too.

 

after the body was back on the frame it was time to take the car to a shop better outfitted to shape metal. it was time to head to moonlite metal.
damon is the man, one of my best friends and also my greatest mentor.
he offered up his time and his shop to help me with the chop.
much respect


with the help of guys in the club, shawn for the use of the trailer and skeeter for the use of the van, we were on our way to moonlite

 

thanks for lookin guys

more to come tomorrow!




^^^^ boobie approved^^^^

 

Nice ride

 

I've got tons of chop pics. I'll try to post them up after you do if they are different.

It's about time this was started. This will be an amazing custom when it's complete. Jerm does Killer work!!



BloodyKnuckles

 

Well I have a short brake at work so I'll throw a few more pictures up.

After hours of studying the art of the chop and looking at countless pictures I had a plan. Thanks to slddnmatt and oomack For pictures and inspiration.
Matt sent me a ton of pictures of how he does his chops and for that I am extremely grateful.

With a plan it was time to lay the chop out.


I opted for a fairly mild chop.
3" out of the front

First cuts













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This is where the fun really begins
With the top down roughly where I wanted it, it was time to reinstall the back glass.
I wanted to keep the stock mercury Beauty line under the back glass so with Damon's help this is what we came up with.
Remake the body panel and use flat dies in a bead roller to work an edge over on the new piece. This allowed the glass to lay in while keeping the body line in the stock location.








More to come!
Gotta go Back to work






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Man that car is beautiful! I want a merc someday and I love the cad mill in yours. Do you know what your gonna do for paint yet?


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so rad...