1950 Mercury custom build
- Thread starter K13
- Start date
Very inspirational. Thanks for sharing.
Had to go searching for this…you've done a ton of work on this… not to be a smart ass but do you have a time line to finish it?
You still working on this?
Updates?
Sorry for the lack of updates Johnny 
. I got side tracked with some other projects, had to start travelling for work again (no more getting to sit at home due to covid ) and had to replace the rear seal on my truck which was a bit of a nightmare that took up my garage for the majority of the summer.
I am back doing a little on it. Decided I would look at welding in the taillight pods I had made but as is the case with everything on this POS once I removed the paint and half inch of filler I fould a bunch of holes on the panel below the trunk so more rust repair needs to be done first.
This is the mess I was dealing with:
So I made a flexible shape pattern.
And hammered and wheeled a new patch panel. It is bigger than I need as I wasn't really thinking that the taillight pod would cover a bunch of it when I was making it. Oh well It was a good exercise to get me back into the feel of it again. Most of the side that wraps around the side is not needed. I need to metal finish this panel a little and then weld it and the taillight pod in.
. I got side tracked with some other projects, had to start travelling for work again (no more getting to sit at home due to covid ) and had to replace the rear seal on my truck which was a bit of a nightmare that took up my garage for the majority of the summer.I am back doing a little on it. Decided I would look at welding in the taillight pods I had made but as is the case with everything on this POS once I removed the paint and half inch of filler I fould a bunch of holes on the panel below the trunk so more rust repair needs to be done first.
This is the mess I was dealing with:
So I made a flexible shape pattern.
And hammered and wheeled a new patch panel. It is bigger than I need as I wasn't really thinking that the taillight pod would cover a bunch of it when I was making it. Oh well It was a good exercise to get me back into the feel of it again. Most of the side that wraps around the side is not needed. I need to metal finish this panel a little and then weld it and the taillight pod in.
Excellent…carry on..
I just sat down and went over your entire post..took me 2 coffees …you’ve done a ton of amazing work..one of my favourite builds…thanks for sharing..eh.
Thanks for the kind words. Progress will be slow as I don't have a lot of time to work on it right now but I will try and plug along.
So I cut out the bad section in the back and surprise, surprise there is a bunch of rot behind it. From the factory this looks like it was 4 panels that all came together in this area so there are a bunch of seams. I am not going to replicate how it was done at the factory as it looks like it was pretty crude and then probably leaded over.
I cut away a section and you can see the floor is pretty rotted. I think I will fix the outside and then tackle the floor from the inside. It was originally seamed in with the rear pan and the panel that runs below the trunk. Not sure how I will do it yet.
Here is where the rear pan met the quarter. It has a nasty step in it that I I might as well fix while I am cutting away. Kind of hard to see in this picture but it's about a 1/2" dip. You can see the remains of about a ton of filler I had to remove.
I cut it out and made a replacement piece to go in the hole.
YOu can kind of see how deep the drop was from the side.
I worked a ton at getting the other piece fit in as well but didn't get it finished that will be next and the taillight pod.
So I cut out the bad section in the back and surprise, surprise there is a bunch of rot behind it. From the factory this looks like it was 4 panels that all came together in this area so there are a bunch of seams. I am not going to replicate how it was done at the factory as it looks like it was pretty crude and then probably leaded over.
I cut away a section and you can see the floor is pretty rotted. I think I will fix the outside and then tackle the floor from the inside. It was originally seamed in with the rear pan and the panel that runs below the trunk. Not sure how I will do it yet.
Here is where the rear pan met the quarter. It has a nasty step in it that I I might as well fix while I am cutting away. Kind of hard to see in this picture but it's about a 1/2" dip. You can see the remains of about a ton of filler I had to remove.
I cut it out and made a replacement piece to go in the hole.
YOu can kind of see how deep the drop was from the side.
I worked a ton at getting the other piece fit in as well but didn't get it finished that will be next and the taillight pod.
Got some more done today. Final fit the filler piece and started attaching the taillight pods. The fender sunk a little at the top when I welded the pod on so I will need to pull it back out as there is no access from the back. Overall I am pleased with how they are turning out.
Looks like it could have come from the factory like that…excellent..carry on..
Lookin most excellent..carry on..
Custom touches and fixin it right, takes time and patience. Thanks for sharing, tidbits will help me, reference.
This is the part I really like about your build…you have a definite definition where the back window section meets the trunk area. Most guys just fill it in with one piece and make it look like a fastback.Yours is way harder to achieve but the finished results are 10 times better….carry on..
So next I decided to tackle a latch for the door. Having no real idea what anything is on this car I decided the easiest thing to do would be to install some bear claw latches rather than try and find factory latches and then mess with trying to mate them up to whatever is going on as far as door post are concerned. I was a little lax in taking pictures as I was trying to get things to work and look half decent and pictures just slipped my mind but here is a rough idea of what I ended up doing. The bear claw kit came from Rocky Mountain Hinge Company and seems to be very good quality.
I decided to put the latch part in the door to make it easier to put a safety pull on it to access from the outside if the battery fails as it will have shaved door handles.
And then the pin goes in the door. Doing it this way made for a lot of trial and error and remaking parts to get it lined up as there is no backside access to the latch mechanism to mark for the pin. Obviously this is just tacked in at the moment.
I decided to put the latch part in the door to make it easier to put a safety pull on it to access from the outside if the battery fails as it will have shaved door handles.
And then the pin goes in the door. Doing it this way made for a lot of trial and error and remaking parts to get it lined up as there is no backside access to the latch mechanism to mark for the pin. Obviously this is just tacked in at the moment.
Well the next thing I am working on is where the rear quarter panel meets the door. The panel dips in right at the B pillar so I need to fix that. I cut out a piece fabbed up a patch panel and welded it in. I fixed the slight jog in the door as well. The door gap is even although it looks wonky in the pictures. I think its just the fact I hadn't sanded everything evenly so some areas are reflecting the light more than others. Still have to do the bottom half.
The details! I really like the rounded door tops too.
Loving it..carry on..