Hey Everyone! I started messing with cars before I knew anything about them. Just kind of had a troubleshooting knack that I thought was normal and fixed my dads' Plymouth v-8 when the distributor shaft broke. Guess I got really lucky for the very first try, since I didn't miss a single gear tooth and the engine fired first try. I think I was maybe 14. Still got the knack, though, and working full time as a heavy equipment mechanic and then coming home and working on oldies is what I love. I do for a living what I love living to do. This seasons project is a 57 Mercury Monteray that I picked up and began cleaning up. The transmission was in pieces in the trunk. That was bad, only because the planetary gear got rusted and is now unuseable. In the 57 Mercomatic it was the first year for a fluid cooled transmission. The Fordomatic of 1956 was/is a finned torque convertor which air cools the transmission. Thise 57 Mercury came with cruise control, also and that gave Meromatic for that style a Speedometer gear that has its' own transducer and is larger in diameter than the Fordomatic of 56 so I found out the hard way after plenty of work and several hundred dollars. I now have to find a planetary and new bands so I can rebuild the original transmission. Don't get me wrong, I am not bitching. Maybe we could say it is just Venting! Enough about me, now continue the thread. Here is the only picture I have of the Mercury on digital, It is of the car in the shop on stands waiting to be put together right. Oh yeah, I forgot to say that the car has a documented 38,800 miles on it and has been stored for so long that the seat bottoms are hard and turn to dust. Might get lucky and find the original material somewhere but who knows? Thanks for letting me vent and look forward to your news and views. Mechaniac
Awesome on the upholstery. Planetary gear is what I meant. Thank You for the input. How is the weather? Snow in the Rockies for Christmas week.
I started early too. That is me leaning over the fender at 4 years old (1954) It was the right career for me and a great hobby too. Good luck on your search.This old Ford BTW was one of the 49s built with a floor shift. Don
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