Mercury TopChop blues
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About a year ago I was asked by two friends to help them chop their 50 Mercury.
This build was supposed to be started at in last fall but when taking out the interior and prepping for the chop work there was some rust issues showing up. Along with the owners of the car we decided to not rush away but instead take the time to fix the rust before cutting the roof.The rust was located to upper part of the rockers on both sides, passenger front floor and trunk floor.Nothing really bad mostly small holes but spread over a bigger area.Most likely the carpet have got wet and caused the rott.
By the way the blues word in the title doesnĀ“t mean anything gone bad yet but instead refers to my love of blues music.When working I mostly have the blues coming out of the speakers.
Here is the patient, a really good looking 50 Merc.
The rotted trunk.
Magnus whoĀ“s the owner made this wooden buck for hammer forming the new trunkfloor.
I cut a bit of sheet and screwed it to the wooden buck.Here you can see how I heat shrinking the radiused corner over the buck.
A few runs in the pullmax to make the beads and here testfitting.
Always good to see how work “should” be done Kenneth. First class every time. How did you do the beads? Shame Magnus isn’t called Roger . Then it would be Roger’s Buck.
Very nice work once again. Perhaps the rust repair work might not be as much fun as chopping the top. This sure is a lot of fun for us.
Saw your shop article in Gasoline magazine… very nice… Wish I could read Swedish š
Enjoy the beauty of Customizing
Or maybe Buck Rogers.As Tony stated I made the beads in the pullmax.
Rik. I was helping HĆ„kan repair his deuce frame and he made an article out of it.IĀ“m trying to start a small hot rod and kustom shop called Vintage Kustoms and maybe the article will give it a little push.Who knows.
Made a new corner piece for the trunk and got it all installed,welded,grinded and done
Kenneth… Please tell Magnus to do the dogdish hubcap tric for rearaxle clearance like Rik showed us in Sam Barris merc,if he want the speedboat stance…
Also made new rockers and a new floor board for the passenger side.
The cut out floor with the bad rocker.
New floorboard
Floor board and new rockers installed
Nice work on the Mercury. Saw that your cool -59 project got some coverage in the latest Traditional Kustoms too. Best of luck with your Rod&Custom shop.
Thanks Bert. Unfortunatly the 59 is put on hold for a while since my son have bought a house and have to priority where to put his money.Plan is to bring it over to my place when I have space for it and finish up the body.
Well, rust is done and I have braced the body.The bracing for the rear window I rolled in the roundbraker to get it the same curve as the window.By doing that I think itĀ“s easier to get a nice and smoth curve from the roof down to the window and continuing towards the trunk without having the window installed and risking it to brake.
Magnus is freshening up the door hinges and when his done the doors will go back in.Then itĀ“s time to cut the roof.
The window curves quite a lot.HereĀ“s the rolled bar before I cut it in pieces.
I cut the bar in three pieces and you can see how the curve from the roof flows into the bracing bar.
Welded in a bar in center of windshield opening to have as a reference and make it easier to center the roof when it comes down.
Wish I could drop by and watch. I’d sit on the third step up on ladder with a hot coffee. What Blues is playing so I can get in the vibe? Is that a DeTomaso or a Monteverdi in the background? I’m doing rust repairs on a Rambler Matador and a rear door on a 70s GMC motorhome this week. Gotta do what you can whilst it’$ there. My mate wants to send me two of the rustiest 58 Buick Limiteds that I have seen. Don’t know if I am up to it. Acres of rust. . . what coffee do you serve?
exciting. I think it was Paul Bragg who told me that there were two different types of rear glass for the 1950 Mercury. It depeneded from which factory in the US the model came from (I think there were two factory’s that prouced them, but I could be wrong there.) One of the rear windows had a lot more curvature than the other one which was more flatter. The last one obviously makes the chopping a lot easier.
If I’m not mistaken this photo shows one of the flater units.
I took this picture at Paul’s shop.Enjoy the beauty of Customizing
You have a sharp eye there Mr Hawkeye. It is a DeTomaso IĀ“ll fix and build it as a group 4 historic race car.
If you should drop by I think IĀ“ll serve some stronger stuff than coffee.And then weĀ“d put on some Muddy Waters on the stereo and had some serius man talk.
Rik. I have heard that too somewhere and when deleting the belt line and letting the roof flow all the way down to the trunk it would definitly be easier with the flatter glas but as we will ceep the belt line on this I think it doesnĀ“t matter that much wich glas to use. IĀ“m not sure wich one on this car.
Know the time has come.Over the hollidays the roof came off ,the pillars where cut and roof tacked back on.Rear window is also mocked up. Thanks to Wolf and Rik for good advices. I cut the A-pillars 4″ along the post ( 3″ vertikal amount) and the C-pillar is cut 5″ vertikal. Rear window is now in itĀ“s stock possition and tilted forward to where it flows with the roof.An even radius from the roof continuing in to glass and down to the trunk was the goal and I think it came out great.
Still not sure if the rearwindow will stay where it is or if I shall move it slightly forward.Have to think about it for a while. Quarter windows is extended 3″ on the top bow.When I got the roof and window in place I send some photos to Rik to finish them with color and chrome details for a better wiev and it turned out pretty good I think. Not very far from what I have in mind.
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