Projects My 1951 Mercury Restoration

Looks like it's coming along really nice! How soon til you put the paint on it?

 

Looks Nice John!! You're doin the right thing here.

 

Paul is saying it should be done in 3-4 weeks, I'm believing it now. I better clear out it's spot in the garage.

 

O.K.!!!!!

 

Now I'm confused. Please tell me you're not going to use bubble skirts...ever!!!!

Bad Bob really is on the money with this.

 

Those aren't just your run of the mill bubble skirts, those are needle noce bubble skirts. The cats ass of bubble skirts. My wuestion is do they come with that NOS bottle????

I say go for it.

 

Well, the needle nose may look like ass, but you can tell people they are rare!

 

No...dont tell me you are putting those bubble skirts on

 

Have not bought them (yet).

By the way, thanks to Kevin for the grille, and Jeff for relaying it to me. It looks great, now I gotta find out how folks typically narrow them.

 

If you look through the Sacramento coverage, there were several Mercs with 54 Desoto grilles, similar to your 55. There were both narrowed and full length versions. Me, I prefer the full length look, with the ends trimmed to fit the ends of the grille shell. Conversely, you could cut the ends of your shell and mold them around the full length grille untrimmed.....but at this point you probably aren't inclined to cut up your shell and create more body work.

 

OK, I was wrong. Went out to the shop this morning and counted the teeth on my 54 Desoto grille and they originally had 9 teeth. Counted the teeth on some of the Mercs from Sacramento and 7 teeth is what the long ones were. I thought when I looked at them at the show that was the original length, when instead they were really narrowed 2 teeth.

That being said, my 54 grille is actually split at the center. I would assume the 55 is the same. Should be pretty easy to cut the right amount from the center and redrill whatever holes are there for the center tooth and bracket and just bolt it back together. The center tooth covers the seam, so you should be good to go.

I took several pictures at the Sacramento show of the ends of a few of the Desoto grilles for the details on how they fit them to the ends of the grille shell. Even though most of them were 54 grilles, that should still give you some ideas for how to fit the 55 grille. I can post them up or pm them to you if you'd like....I'd do it now, but I don't have the time at the moment to resize them and get them up.

 

Glad you like it. I had that grille before I had my Merc, so that has to be almost 10 years now...put it to good use!

 

Here's a pic of my 55 Desoto Grill.It was split in the middle and 2 teeth were taken out.

 

Shortened, but Geez, that looks familiar...

 

I'm planning to remove the bigger vertical parts, and have all the teeth look the same. I plan to mount it as a floating grille. So I will remove the bigger teeth/supports.

50MercFrank or somebody has a good looking '55 Desoto grille setup, I'll have to look for pics of his car.

 

hahahaha....exactly.

PROSTOCKJOHN, your Merc is coming along great. But please, don't run bubbleskirts...they are so "east coast" and "gook wagon". How about flush-mount '51 skirts, or '49-'50 skirts with the bottoms filled in- just like Sam Barris, Wally Welch, and Bettancourt Mercs had...

 

I'm just going to run what I have unless someone has some better looking '51 skirts for sale. Do '50 skirts fit my '51, because I have a set of those too.

 

I ordered some skirts from Gene Winfield, the skirts are extended another two inches on the bottom, and don't have that slight cutout the stock style ones have. His still have the lip but I'm gonna see how they are, and if we use them we might cut the lip off but not sure yet. I want the back of the car to look like it's floating.

Based on eyeballing the '55 Desoto grille, looks like we'd be take out some of the width, and then would need to have someone fab up a bar that the grille can then be bolted to.

 

I can't wait to see the skirts. I need a set for my 50 Merc

 

Me either. I heard he's slow, so I'll start calling him and that Mexican guy that answers the phone when he's not there.

 

Meh. Paint jail. Final sanding and primer soon is what I've been told. Insurance jobs are pushing me to the back.

Haven't seen the Winfield skirts yet, must be delivered by the Pony Express.

 

Gald you passed on the bubble skirts. The suspense is killing me I want to see this car in paint!! Not sure how you are being so patient

 

PM me your addy again when you can.

I'm not really patient, I just seem like I am.

 

I was just wondering how your progress was coming along.

 

A little bit of progress, 2nd final coat of primer soon he says.

Winfield skirts showed up yesterday. I'll take pics. Thanks Dewey for gettin' on that.

 

Any updates, John?

 

I'm waiting for my guy to shoot a 2nd coat of primer. So only a little progress since last time. I will be calling him every couple of days now until he gets it done since I would like to be driving (and finishing) the car right now.

 

He might kill you after the 3rd or 4th call...

 

Better than me showing up there once a week.

At this rate I won't have the grille done and I'll sort out the tires and ride height when I have the car back.

 

Yeah, as a former body/paint guy...he knows you're anxious. Don't over-pester him...