1951 Mercury We're Working On.... Side trim Trial Fitting & Installation

When designing this build, I thought to look for a different side trim than has normally been utilized. I grabbed a copy of an old American Car Spotters guide and started searching through the pages for something that might be suitable. I found a couple of possibilities in the Chrysler section, but thought being as I had settled upon a 312 for power, I'd be better off looking to Ford products for trim as well. I happened to come across pictures of a 1955 Lincoln Capri. Dimensionally the trim pieces looked to be an almost perfect fit, and they certainly were different from other Mercuries of the past. When trial fitting the doors, we found they were too short. So I ordered up another pair of quarter panel trim and we modified them to work on the doors. Overall I am very happy with the results. Once again Keith had done a fantastic job fabricating the pieces.

Here's the links to the other threads on this build for those of you who are just joining us now;

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=345525 Part I

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=362784 Part II

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=367347 Part III

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=383188 Part IV

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=383227 Part V

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=428939 Part VI



Front passenger side fender trim modified and installed.



Passenger side door trim fabricated and installed.



Passenger side quarter panel trim modified and installed.



Driver side front fender trim modified and installed.



Driver side view of the fabricated and installed side trim.



Another view.



Closeup of the installed driver side trim.





Passenger side view of the completed and installed side trim.



Closeup of the modified and installed passenger side trim.





One of the body modifications we had to make was to reshape the fender skirts. Originally the top edge of the skirt followed the slope of the fadeaway. However, once the side trim was installed, the top edge sloped away from the trim at the rear. I had Keith reshape the quarter panel and fender skirt to follow the bottom edge of the side trim. If you look closely at the previous pictures you will see how the skirt looked in relation to the trim before modification.

 

as I was looking at the pics I thought "now the skirt doesn't look right".

guess you fixed that.

 

Yeah, it bothered me after I first saw it. Had to have Keith correct it.

 

Oh god, I'm in love.

 

Looking beautiful! Although subtle, reshaping the wheel opening and skirt made a world of difference! This Merc is gonna be amazing!!!

 

The side trim looks very close in design to the 55 Ford s/s that
I used on my 49 Merc.

 

Really enjoyed looking at all of the pictures on the previous posts. That is a beautiful car. I'm working on a 51 convertible that I want to do fadeaways on. Do you have any build-up pictures that show the fadeaways before the lead paddling?

 

RW
I don't, but I'm sure Keith has. Between the two of us there have probably been close to 2000 photos taken of this build. I'll ask him and get back to you.

 

Good call on reshaping the fender skirts - the first few pictures I really noticed the difference. It probably wouldn't have shown that much once the car is in paint, but now is the time to make it right.

 

Looks great! Very clean build. Im looking forward to seeing the progress. Hey Two Chops, I love that you kept the B pillars straight on your 49.

 

Thanks everyone for the compliments