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Author Topic: 1951 Merc 4dr - REAR DOOR REMOVAL!  (Read 16210 times)

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Offline Eyeball

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1951 Merc 4dr - REAR DOOR REMOVAL!
« on: December 05, 2005 3:18 pm »
First off I NEED to thank Dave Paras (glassguy) for all the helpful advice he gave me to make this conversion go so smooth. Dave told me that once I start it will easy and although it may not look like it in the pics it really was!

Here is what I started with. I first got my hands on this fairly solid 1951 4dr. Plans were for a chopped 4dr but once I found out that Dave's car was a former 4dr I couldn't resist the challenge. I found this hacked up 50 2dr on carsoup.com listed as a 1950 Ford. The A pillars are rusted away from the floor, this should give you an idea of the overall condition of this pos. However the doors were solid with a few rust pinholes on the passenger door and there are some dents to take care of but I had my doors. The spare coupe roof I stumbled on in MSRA's Line Chaser newsletter. This would have been a huge pain to do with out a good roof as you can see in the pics the "chopped" 2dr was cut with an ax and stick welded back together.
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henryj1951 HAMB

Offline Eyeball

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« Reply #1 on: December 05, 2005 3:20 pm »
I apologize in advance for not having taken enough pics, you know how it is when you get on a roll and completely forget about the camera. I pulled the doors of the 2dr and cut the b pillars out along with the ¼ panel. I just cut back far enough so I knew it would cover the rear door opening on the 4dr body. I had the spare roof too that had the B pillar down to the belt line still in tact so I only cut it up to the belt line on the 2dr body.

The first thing to go was the B pillars on the 4dr body. Then I hung and adjusted the doors so they worked properly. The next step was easier than I thought. I started trimming up the B pillar/ quarter panel sections to fill the gap where the rear doors use to be. There is a stud on the upper most forward part of the lower fenders that hold it on to the body. To my surprise there is a hole on the 2dr ¼ where there is a brace bolted on that is in the exact same location. (hope that made sense) So I trimmed it up and slid the ¼ over the stud and the B pillar was located just like that. The passenger side did require me to slot the hole and move the pillar about 1/8" forward to get a nice door gap.  At this point I tacked the B pillar in and check to see if the door would open a close fine. I still had the extra metal overlapping on the ¼ so I just took the cut off wheel on the grinder and slowly ran it down the line where the rear door opening was. Then I tacked it in place and made a few more tacks on the B pillar to the floor to keep it in place. I didn't want to make anything too permanent until I switched roofs.
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henryj1951 HAMB

Offline Eyeball

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« Reply #2 on: December 05, 2005 3:22 pm »
Next up was the roof. We had an ice storm earlier this week so the roof was covered with a ¼ of ice that made the sob heavy as hell for two guys to life. Thanks to skoford for helping me out with that task. I was lucky that the donor roof was taken off all the way down to the belt line and had the trunk lip under the rear window. After talking to Dave I took his advice and cut the roof along the line where the belt line stainless trim runs. I cut through the center of the holes on the body and then again on the donor roof so when I put it back together it was easy to use those holes to line up the roof. I was joking with a few of my friends that my cuts may have been slightly off resulting in about 1/8" sectioning of the top. The A pillars I just cut in the middle as they will be removed and discarded when I do the chop. Oh I also cut out all the bracing for the package tray as the donor roof had it in place still and just welded it on to the donor package tray when the roof was set back on.
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Offline Eyeball

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« Reply #3 on: December 05, 2005 3:23 pm »
So that is it. Easy huh.... Next up is a little dent and rust repair on the lower 1/4's and then time for the chop.
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Offline Eyeball

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The Merc
« Reply #4 on: December 07, 2005 2:04 pm »
Last night I finished tacking in place the "patch" panels that I made buy cutting apart the rear doors. The donor 2dr had rusted and creased metal that I had tacked in place in the earlier photos.
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Offline Eyeball

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Inspiration!
« Reply #5 on: June 25, 2008 3:25 pm »
Last night I was in the garage trying to decide what to do next. I started to dust of the Merc and look at the passenger door to see where I left off on it a few years ago. I decided I needed a little inspiration. When I was in Bismarck for the rod run there was a pile of old R&C and Custom Rodder mags they were giving away and I pulled all the Custom Rodders I could get my hands on. So I pulled them out last night to look through them for said inspiration. I found this pic in the first one I opened up.

This was the fall 1993 issue and as you can see it has event coverage of the 19th Annual BTT50’s. The heavy chop on the Merc caught my eye. Then I thought……..wait one damn minute that is the Merc I cut up to convert mine into a 2dr! I picked it up in the summer of 2005 and you can tell some more of the great body work had been completed by the time I got it and they also ripped off all the trim which is now a twisted up mess still laying in the car. They also laid down some grey primer on the hood and put the ¼ windows in. Check out the long scratch/gouge in the driver’s door.

I used the doors, b pillars, part of the rear ¼ below the ¼ windows and the grill opening off the car.

So I figure since Custom Rodder already shot the car I will call it a survivor!











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henryj1951 HAMB

Offline sundance

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RE: Inspiration!
« Reply #6 on: June 25, 2008 3:32 pm »
great provenance!!!!
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Offline Wowcars

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RE: Inspiration!
« Reply #7 on: June 25, 2008 3:38 pm »
You've got to be fucking kidding me....
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Offline Tom

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RE: Inspiration!
« Reply #8 on: June 25, 2008 4:53 pm »
Does this mean you have the top done on the roadster??
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Offline Eyeball

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RE: Inspiration!
« Reply #9 on: June 25, 2008 5:05 pm »
No... I gave up for now. Might try again this winter. I just don't have time to get it done since he needs the car there to do it.
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henryj1951 HAMB

Offline sko_ford

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RE: Inspiration!
« Reply #10 on: June 25, 2008 8:22 pm »
wicked
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Offline racerjohnson

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RE: Inspiration!
« Reply #11 on: June 26, 2008 8:40 am »
All your cars seem to have those little twists of history, don't they? Thats wild. So what did this inspire you to start on next?
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Offline Eyeball

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The Merc
« Reply #12 on: November 24, 2008 8:31 pm »
I used a little moderator magic and merged the two threads I had on the Merc into one.

Last week I finished up installing the grill which involved combining the Merc and Desoto gravel pans and then reshaping the end teeth so they would fit. I was going to re space the teeth so they were all closer together to get them to fit back in the opening but they just looked too crowded. The pan is now welded in place and the mud slinging can begin.







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camargma

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The Merc
« Reply #13 on: November 25, 2008 12:09 am »
i like it A LOT!!!!!!!  :P
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DeuceKustoms

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The Merc
« Reply #14 on: November 25, 2008 4:00 am »
hell yes. at least someone is making progress on a project... nice work thus far.
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