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Jacked '49 Merc Wagon 7/7/17 switched to Fotki


Foxer

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Thanks for all the comments AND opinions! It always helps when I'm playing with a concept to hear what others think.

The big wheels are in . but they do project pretty far up into the wheel wells so a small lift at least is called for. This should make the tires clear the wheel wells better and alleviate that problem.

I did test fit the engine from the truck with the Merc body on and seems to clear everything and looks ok too. I got Chief Joseph's spectacular new four-barrel and that will find a spot in the engine bay ... non or removable filter !

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On the air cleaner you might look at some magazines at the newsstand that center on 4 wheel drive and off road vehicles. My thought, depending on how far you want to go with this , is the "snorkel" type air filter you see on some off road rigs that are in very dusty environments or fording streams. You could make a hose from the carb. out thru the rear edge of the hood and mount the air cleaner near the upper edge of the windshield off to the passenger side. See how it looks , if that's a way you want to go. Or just make a "K&N" type air cleaner which is the most common.

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Put 3" lift blocks on the springs .. maybe not the most authentic lift but it did the job. Now I see I do have to shorten the wheelbase about a quarter inch. Got some measuring to do to get it more exact. It looks like it will be easy to take a piece out just behind the transmission end and will be easy to reinforce there.

The guides are on fenders for the flare piece to be welded and I removed the side chrome on front fenders as they interfered with the flare putty when I blend in. Still to be decided if I add chrome back or leave plain .. or just drill mounting holes where it USED to be. This is going to be a bit worn out and rusty.

I did notice the wheels shown from Chief Joseph have holes for mounting air nozzles! .. amazing. And, speaking of the Chief, here's the carb from him I'm using ... another amazing piece! I detached it from the casting block and added a mounting pin under it. Traced the bottom to make a adapter for the truck manifold.

rochester quadrajet carburetor DSC 1471

rochester quadrajet carburetor DSC 1467

If you like this carb there's more photos in a thread I resurrected about how bad carburetors were cast ... I had to take that back after seeing these!

Edited by Foxer
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I got the frame shortened and somehow got an offset cut on one side .. by quite a lot! I've chopped and sectioned bodies wit no problem many times ... don't know how I managed to be so far off! ehheeh, that's what they all say, I know.

Anyway, it's all together and solid. It was nice of Monogram to provide rails with groves to slip a brass pin in. :) The white slice shows how far off I was in the cut .. it WAS marked with tape.

Frame cut DSC 1476

Frame cut DSC 1478

Frame cut DSC 1477

 

Edited by Foxer
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  • 4 weeks later...

Been working on the engine and adapting the blocked axles with extended driveshaft. Thi swas a test fit and looks good fit-wise. I see paint touchup is needed for all the handling the engine has endured. That one plugwire hole thats off will get hidden and burried once wire is on and it's in the engine bay. :D I made a carb adaptor to fit the truck kit intake manifold. This is the Monogram truck engine going in.

I thought I'd be able to just extend the shocks easily but will need to fabricate 8 new ones .. an easy job, just tedious.

engine tesDSC 1481

engine test DSC 1480

 

Edited by Foxer
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Just a small one .. seems like I've been cutting an eighth inch long small brass tubes forever! The shock mounting pins on frame are in, the muffler got the receiver tubes for the .062" solder tailpipes, sleeves to join the tailpipe to the plastic header pipes and aluminum tailpipe ends done. Looks like the Mercury radiator is a save and probably most of the Mercury engine compartment will be used.

mufflers DSC 1486

Edited by Foxer
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New Years Day and the internet was down so I removed myself to the basement body shop. The frame got painted .. last of my Floquil Grimy Black (!) .. hope Testors has released this color again.

frame DSC 1490

The engine is wired with plugs and fuel line. I may put some linkage on for that beautiful carb.

engine DSC 1491

engine DSC 1492

The exhaust pipes off the manifold are the only plastic parts remaining. I cut the pipes shorter and added a sleeve to take the solder pipes.

exhaust manifold DSC 1488

I've been working for days on all the pieces for the 8 new longer shocks and finally ready to paint. Just have to bend the smallest diameter piece to match the curve of the originals. Here's a pic of the process.

shocks DSC 1487

Edited by Foxer
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  • 3 months later...

Work has been ongoing on this .. lots of painting for the chassis and it's coming together. The engine and transfer case are just placed for these shots but everything else is glued. The shocks I made came out wonderful and were easy to make. I started to rust and weather so all those tiny white specs are baking soda I dropped in the wet rust paint for texture. I just glued the headers on and they have an aluminum pipe at ends to receive the solder tail pipes I have to make when engine is glued in place. The wheels also got painted but still need a black wash.

chassis DSC 1559

chassis bottom DSC 1564

chassis DSC 1560

The drag links I made after asking a question about the sway bar attachment here in the forum and the help I got vastly improved the look of this chassis! Next two are shots of front and rear drag links which are still in brass.

drop links DSC 1556

drop links DSC 1555

drop links DSC 1562

 

 

I have been contemplating the body. I'd like to use the louvered hood from the '49 Merc sedan but it will take some cutting and fitting to adapt it. This is a really custom hood. Haven't decided yet, but it will look good on this.

Edited by Foxer
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Glad to see you are back on this project. I have also thought of the louvered hood on the woody for my next build. I would like to see what all it would take, have never figured out why it wouldn't just be a bolt on.

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I have also thought of the louvered hood on the woody for my next build. I would like to see what all it would take, have never figured out why it wouldn't just be a bolt on.

 

The louvered custom hood was a lot further from a drop in fit as I also thought it would be .. other than the rounded corners. It looked doable so I started on it and still has a passel of fitting left to do. I started by aligning the back edge and measured how much the center overhung. Then I scribed that amount along the back edge .. it was about .05". I used a Dremal to rough cut it and a sanding stick from then on to get it back to the line. I also had to sand the bottom rear edges to a more vertical line and shorten them as I did that. From there it has been a little more sanding, check fit, sand more, check .. etc. It's not far off now but still needs some plastic removal at the rear. I also had to sand a little off the width to drop it between the fenders. It's good that it's mostly too large and is removal rather than adding material.

It's mostly too far forward in the photos but the front edges align very well.

Merc hood DSC 1569

Merc hood DSC 1571

The front fits pretty well and I'm thinking I'll just gob some two-part putty where the corners round and get that to at least follow the curve. I can shape it up once the basic shape is there.

The louvered hood really looks good on the wagon! :)

Edited by Foxer
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Thank you for the info on the hood conversion. I was thinking of using Plastruct 1/8"/3.2 mm "L" stock to shape the curve in the fenders for the hood and then fill behind the "L" stock with putty. From the pictures it looks as thou the hood could even be to narrow.

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The photos are tough to judge by .. and there's still a bunch of sanding to do to push it back.

The front does get narrow as it comes down but that should be resolved when the body curve is done.

I can see where it looks like the rear of the hood is narrow but I haven't noticed it as such. The hood is not squarely in place is these photos and just resting in place.

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More hood fitting .. it's very close. I glued some short .02" strips into the front hood radius and clamped the hood in place to shape the strips. Then I puttied up the space left.

hood radius drying DSC 1575

Here's a few photos just before a primer check coat and after more sanding, filing and adding some thin gap-filling strips to raise .01" and close the side gaps. Also under the front edge between the radius pieces.

hood putty DSC 1578

hood putty DSC 1576

 

After primer .. not too much to tune up here .. ))

hood primer DSC 1584

hood primer DSC 1582

Edited by Foxer
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Great job fitting the hood to the body. I think when I made a remark before about the hood to cowl fit, what I didn't realize was the wood door trim on the door and not the cowl.

Yeah .. the door wood trim is a bit wider than the hood but it should look natural . or at least acceptable.

Been looking at the body for some mild custom updates and the front is in glue and something I like. I inserted some tube into drilled out headlight holes and drilled out the turn signals to accept the custom tail lights from the Revell Sedan. These have a similar pointed shape to the headlights. I will shape the leading edges and may file the headlights back. Then some putty to mold them all in. I have a winch coming to mount in front .. maybe no front bumper ... some suggestions would be appreciated.

headlights DSC 1585

headlights DSC 1586

headlights DSC 1587

The K10 truck frame fits very well ... the engine tucks up nicely into the Merc engine bay!

Now to start distressing the wood! I have some ideas that will need testing on some scrap body ... :)

Edited by Foxer
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