87 2007-03-04T19:43:35+00:00 2006-12-01T00:00:00+00:00 1950-01-01T00:00:00+00:00 This 1950 Ford Mercury Coupe was bought on ebay, from a guy just outside Detroit, in late November 2006. It has had a very mild custom done sometimes in the early 80's which including ripping out the old powerplant and installing a 351 Windsor engine, the door handles have been shaved as has the bonnet and boot. The car was shipped out to a friends place in California in March 2007 where we have started the restoration/custom work. The idea for the car is to do a very mild custom, similar to an early Barris custom. With maybe a maximum of 2" taken out of the roof (see blue tape in some of the photos), and painting it it's original dark metallic blue which will suit the car much more than the 80's yellow its in now. 15 789 true 4.0 0 2009-12-16T05:31:54+00:00 7 Not the most exciting photos of the car, but it is a little more progress. So here are few pics to show the inner rocker fabrication and re-shaping of the reproduction rockers to fit. More soon... 2009-12-16T05:31:17+00:00 455 2 2009-12-16T05:31:17+00:00 15 Not a lot to report this time, Martyn has done a little work but hopes to crack on with it now until the end of the year. I'm hoping to get back over in early December to see any progress...so I'll do photos then. 2009-10-21T22:04:04+01:00 449 2 2009-10-21T22:04:04+01:00 15 Over in Los Angeles for work and I managed to squeeze in a quick visit to the see Martyn and the car. He's managed to discover more rust lurking around the inner rear wheel arch. It seems it had been botched when the car was tarted up in the 80's. Here are a few photos of the most recent work. Next month Martyn plans to spend a few months on the car and to get all the rot cut out and new sills on the car. 2009-08-09T01:22:46+01:00 435 2 2009-08-09T01:26:56+01:00 15 Found some early photos of the car before it was shipped to Los Angeles. I think these were taken just after I bought the car and had it shipped to a friends garage (Richard & Liz - aka Rondo). 2009-06-03T00:20:17+01:00 422 2 2009-06-03T00:20:17+01:00 15 Had a flying visit to Los Angeles last week so dropped by to see the progress on the Mercury. The rear end is almost done and the trunk floor is fitted, Martyn has a little finishing off to do and he can then move on to the sills before we think about the chop! 2009-05-26T05:53:22+01:00 420 2 2009-05-26T05:53:22+01:00 15 Just a couple of new photos of the rear fenders Matyn is working on right now. Hopefully we are almost there and the rust is all gone from that part of the car. 2009-05-04T21:28:33+01:00 392 2 2009-05-04T21:28:33+01:00 15 A couple of new photos or the repair work on those inner fenders. Plus a photo showing the rot in the sills, hopefully this is the worst of the rust. 2009-04-22T08:17:06+01:00 387 2 2009-04-22T08:17:06+01:00 15 Since the last update Martyn has been cracking on with the trunk repairs. It's nice to see the body starting to become solid, until now you could lift the body off the frame with your bare hands. Now the trunk floor is bolted to the frame through rubber mounts, and the back half of the body feels a lot sturdier. A step in the right direction for sure! I've also included a couple of photos to show how the quarter windows will look after a 2" chop. I've also considered retaining your drip rail for that "almost factory" look I'm after. 2009-04-20T20:28:05+01:00 386 2 2009-04-20T20:28:05+01:00 15 Martyn has moved to a bigger workshop, so i thought I'd post a few photos (a little blurred) of the cars new home. The trunk work is almost done and he hope to have it finished soon...well as soon as he's settled in over there. 2009-04-11T23:45:26+01:00 384 2 2009-04-11T23:45:26+01:00 15 Bought some 2 door trim for the Mercury. It's missing a couple of bit's but I think it has the everything I need should I want to replace my missing trim. Also here are a few more photos of the trunk repair that Martyn is doing right now. 2009-03-23T07:43:51+00:00 372 2 2009-03-23T07:43:51+00:00 15 Well I know I said it was going into storage...but I changed my mind, found some cash and Martyn has started on the rear floor section. We are taking the best bit's from the 51 trunk floor and using them to replace the rot in my floor. These photos are just work in progress from the last two weeks, but it give you an idea of how it might look when finished. 2009-01-27T18:52:58+00:00 356 2 2009-03-10T06:10:22+00:00 15 The last post of 2008 and seeing the car again I now want to get it back on the road...but it has to go into storage for the winter (and wait until the $ exchange rate is better). So here are the last photos before it goes into storage, all packed up and ready to go. 2008-12-24T15:50:55+00:00 352 2 2008-12-24T15:50:55+00:00 15 I'm back in Los Angeles for a work and I'm going to take the time to find some storage for the car as the project is going on hold at the moment...well until I can save some money to carry on with the next stage of work that is needed for the car. So a quick look through Craigslist this week should help me find some storage space in the San Fernando valley. Hopefully we can get back on it again in the spring. I'll take some photos before it all gets stored away. 2008-12-16T13:44:48+00:00 349 2 2008-12-24T15:43:09+00:00 15 So this time rather than buying more parts from ebay, I thought I'd sell something like my fender skirts. They are 1951 skirts but I want to use the correct year skirts for my car, so it was time to sell them. I put them on a 5 day auction for $80, no reserve...5 days later they sold for $366.88. This will now be ploughed back into the car and I'm wondering what else I can sell from the car!!! 2008-10-11T00:58:00+01:00 333 2 2008-10-11T00:58:00+01:00 15 I couldn't help buying a few things off eBay recently. First off was a wonderful little 1950 Mercury Accessories booklet that lists the various add ons your could order from your Ford/Mercury dealer. For instance there is a rear windscreen wiper, luggage, spare airhose and windscreen sun visor. The second and most recent eBay item that caught my attention was a pair of original factory Fog Lamps for the Mercury. I don't know if I'll use them yet but it might be a nice addition as I don't want Appleton Spot lights on the car. That's about all for now, I have another trip planned to Los Angeles for the end of September so I hope to have more news on the work to date then. 2008-09-01T16:38:13+01:00 328 2 2008-09-01T16:42:38+01:00 15 $685 lighter I now have all my parts looking almost like new..almost! Picked them up early this morning from L&M in Van Nuys and dropped them off at Martyn's shop. They will be given a coat of etch primer until we are ready to use them Can't wait until the work starts on the car later in the year. 2008-04-19T22:10:16+01:00 303 2 2008-04-19T22:10:16+01:00 15 Forgot to add these photos of the dash...spent the afternoon sorting out all the boxes of parts and ebay purchases, it seems I've been buying duplicates of things as I'd forgotten I had them. So now it's much easier to know what I have.<br><br><br>The roof chop isn't going to happen on this trip as Martyn is too busy with another customers 58 Buick convertible and the tax man has all my money...so it will have to wait until later in the year when I get back to LA.<br><br>I've added a couple of photos of the car even though nothing much has happened on it in a while, it's just good to keep a record of the work to date. 2008-04-18T15:56:05+01:00 301 5.0 2 2008-04-19T15:19:55+01:00 15 Went down to L&M in Van Nuys this afternoon to check on the parts being dipped. As I turned up they were putting some of the parts outside in the Californian sunshine to dry. I'll go back on Saturday morning and pick everything up. So here are a few images of the parts (plus a photo of the L&M building). They also had a chassis stripped outside, good news for me if I get that far with mine. 2008-04-18T02:45:32+01:00 300 2 2008-04-18T02:45:32+01:00 15 Have taken lot's of parts to L&M striping in Van Nuys to be dipped. They include the hood, front fenders, front valance, hood catch and trunk deck. Should have them all back by the middle of next week and will post some photos. In the meantime i have another ebay purchase...NOS chrome sun visor arms. My original ones were missing and I'd like to have them on the car when it's restored. Had a look at the new trunk lining that was bought through ebay, it looks perfect. Look forward to the day I can finally lay it in the car. More updates and photos next week... ...in the clear out and sorting through of parts I did yesterday, Ive discovered that I had another set of sun visor arms bought through ebay a while go but I'd forgotten all about them. The chrome ones look too new now, so they will have to go back on ebay and I'll use the more period looking set. 2008-04-11T02:41:07+01:00 297 2 2008-04-18T16:07:52+01:00 15 Bargain...a brand new (unused) trunk liner for the Mercury. Yet another successfull ebay purchase for $46. Back in Los Angeles in a week so should have a few more things to write about then. 2008-04-01T19:01:28+01:00 295 2 2008-04-01T19:01:28+01:00 15 After landed in LA on Thursday night and picking up a hire car (Ford F150 truck), Martyn and I left his place around 11.30 pm for the 14 hour drive north to Oregon as that's was where my ebay purchased 1953 Mercury flathead engine was located. We had all sorts of weather from sunshine and rain to sleet and snow on the trip North. We arrived around midday on Friday and met with Bob Stewart the owner, he met us at a local gas station in his black 50 Mercury (now with a new 327 Chevy engine place of the old flathead). The flathead and transmission has had about $1200 spent on it's rebuild, and with only 10,000 miles on the engine and 3,000 on the trans it will be ready go once in the car. The three of us did the usual introductions and chatted cars for about an hour, plus a quick look at the hot rods he's working on, Bob very kindly threw in an overdrive cable with chrome handle. So after loading the engine and transmission on the back of the truck we started the long journey back to LA. After about 5 hours we had to check into a Motel 6 as we thought we might grab a couple of hours before getting something to eat...both of us slept through and didn't wake up until 4.30 am, so by the time we hit the road again it was 5.30 am. Only stopping for breakfast we arrived back in LA early afternoon and nipped into a local Pep Boys to buy an engine stand, before heading to Martyns garage to get it out of the back of the truck and to put it on the stand where it will stay until it's ready to be painted and go back in the car. I'll take a day off to get over the trip and jetlag, but as I have a free day on Monday I thought I'd take all the sheet metal to the shot blaster and pick it back up again on Thursday. This way we can se what we have left of that secondhand floor I bought a while ago. With Martyn working on a 58 Buick Convertible almost full-time now, it takes the pressure off me to find the money to give him to work on the car, as I've just paid the tax man so I'm broke for a while. Will post more photos later this week or during my stay over here. 2008-03-16T19:07:16+00:00 284 5.0 2 2008-03-16T20:20:19+00:00 15 The trunk floor...mine is pretty rotten as I've mentioned before. But I might have found something to short cut all the fabrication that would be needed to fix it...another floor. I've just bought what remains of a 1950 Mercury Coupe rear end, out of Texas so rust shouldn't be too bad. It's going to be cut right at the seat riser and at the top of the 1/4 panel inset (where the outside 1/4 skin bolts on). So I would get the entire lower rear section of the car. The left rear body body mount does have some rust and will need to be rebuilt but the right is nice. Compain that to my non existent body mounts and I think it might be okay. Here are a few photos of the trunk floor as bought. When it arrives in about two weeks the first job would be to sand blast it to see what we really have, more photos and an update then. 2007-11-21T06:21:00+00:00 212 0 2007-11-21T06:21:00+00:00 15 Well as I can only add 5 photos at a time, here are the other photos of the car today. 2007-11-10T22:46:29+00:00 205 0 2007-11-10T22:46:29+00:00 15 New trunk floor arrived in California, it's a little smaller than I thought but it's better than nothing and will better than fabricating it from scratch...but if I find a whole floor out there then that's a different story. 2007-11-10T22:41:28+00:00 204 0 2007-11-10T22:41:28+00:00 15 Just bought some rear fenders for the Mercury, at $799 each side plus shipping these are the most expensive parts bought for the car yet. But it has to be done, and nobody but Sherman Parts make them any more. They will arrive with Martyn in California towards the end of the week. By that time I should also have the new trunk floor there too, so I'll post a couple of photos at the same time. Now hopefully we can crack on with the lower half of the car and get rid of the rot and make the car solid once more...then we can make a start on the fun part...chopping the roof! 2007-11-03T10:09:17+00:00 197 0 2007-11-03T10:09:17+00:00 15 As you might have seen in some of the photos posted this year you'll have seen that I have very little of a trunk floor left, so with that in mind I started the hunt for a new floor. To get Martyn to fabricate one would be too expensive in man hours, so after a few posts on various website I was pointed in the direction of www.shoeboxford.com I put a ad in the Classified section and a few weeks later I had an email from Ed in Texas who had a complete 51 trunk floor left over from his wonderful restoration of his 51 convertible (cream with a red interior). So for $75 plus $25 for postage to California, I now have a new floor for my 50 Mercury. No photos of the floor yet but hopefully Ed won't mind if I show his restored 1951 Mercury convertible. 2007-10-28T22:51:03+00:00 192 4.0 0 2007-10-29T07:36:54+00:00 15 I've located a company that reproduces the quarter panels for the Mercury. So Martyn should be doing that job in October. Now I just need to find a repro trunk floor...anybody know where I can get one? Link to Sherman Parts: http://store.shermanparts.com/cgi-bin/sherman/product_list.html?img_num=523 2007-08-23T19:34:57+01:00 160 0 2007-08-23T19:34:57+01:00 15 Nothing much to report, other than Martyn has been removing more rust from the trunk and it's going to be more cost effective to find new sheet metal work rather than try and recreate it. Sorry about the blurred photos, I thought he's a a rough night but he says it's the camera! 2007-07-24T21:59:59+01:00 142 0 2007-07-24T21:59:59+01:00 15 So here are a few photos of the bondo that's come out of the car and the rust that's eaten away the bottom of the car over the years. 2007-07-08T10:01:35+01:00 129 0 2007-07-08T10:01:35+01:00 15 Just had a few more photos sent from Martyn. They show the extent of the rust in the lower part of the car, the boot was held together with thin air and he could lift the rear body up by hand!! My new/second hand fender skirts (ebay purchase) arrived last week and are shown in position on the car. Along with the rusty bits. 2007-06-05T16:36:53+01:00 113 0 2007-06-05T16:36:53+01:00 15 All I can say is thank goodness for ebay! Here are a selection of parts bought recently for the car. I still have to find a suitable grill although I might use the existing grill but remove the center bar. I'm also thinking of getting rid of the 351 Windsor and finding an early 50's Cadillac engine (possibly a 53). I'm going to try and keep everything pre 1955 on the car to make it an old school custom. 2007-05-18T07:39:49+01:00 106 0 2007-05-18T07:39:49+01:00 15 Just had some photos emailed over from Martyn who is doing the work on the car in Los Angeles. Rust and bondo seem to be the subject of the photos. The gas tank has been removed, so has the Hurst shifter. The front fenders are now off the car too. More updates as and when I get them or until my next trip over to LA. 2007-05-16T06:43:32+01:00 103 4.0 0 2007-05-17T08:45:32+01:00 15 My last day to work on the car, the dash is now out and it's back to bare metal and bondo. Hopefully over the next few weeks I can update this page with more photos as and when work is done to the car. 2007-04-25T07:14:16+01:00 100 0 2007-04-25T07:14:16+01:00 15 Went down to the garage yesterday to try and take the dash, front seat and the inner front tray out, but was defeated by a few rusty bolts...so these will all have to be cut off. Instead I turned my attention getting more paint and primer off the car. Most of the car (except the roof) is now back to bare metal which show the areas of bondo. Hoping to finish the rest of it before the weekend as I fly back to the UK on Monday. Then it's up to Martyn (body man) to start on the real work. 2007-04-20T15:59:05+01:00 96 4.0 0 2007-08-23T09:14:11+01:00 15 I bought this 1950 Ford Mercury in Detroit last November (2006). It's had a very mild custom done in the early 80's including fitting a 351 Windsor engine, shaving the door handles, bonnet and boot. The car was shipped out to a friends place in Los Angeles in February/March. I've just flown over from London to help start the restoration/custom work. We have started to tear into the car, taking apart everything that we didn't need when we come to repair the rust and chop the roof. the idea for the car is to do a very mild custom, similar to an early Barris style custom. With maybe a maximum of 2" taken out of the roof (see blue tape in some of the photos). The original colour was a dark metallic blue which will suit the car much more than the 80's yellow its in now. More photos to follow as and when we do more work. 2007-04-15T17:34:39+01:00 92 0 2007-04-15T17:34:39+01:00 15