'49-'51 Merc Dogleg

[Joe Handley]

Other than just raising and flattening it out so it was just one continueous body like like on the Barris and Bettancourt Mercs, has anybody ever tried playing with the shape of the well known dog leg in the '49-'51 Mercs?  I've started doodling again and came up with an interesting and/or possibly just stupid design change for that portion of those doors and can't find much via Google searches other than that one particular change to the doors and quarters.

[Ace-Garageguy]

Have you image-searched specifically "sectioned '49 Mercury"? There are a lot if interpretations of the line, some fairly successful, some not so much.

[Joe Handley]

That I have not Bill, I'll have to give that a try, thank you!

[Joe Handley]

Ok Bill, love some of your's and Harry's input on this, just did a loose sketch on the back of a receipt from the dealership we've bought our cars from of what my thoughts were on the change to the dog leg in the door as well as that portion of the quarter panel.

 

[Joe Handley]

Now for those who didn't know what I was talking about with the Barris and Bettancourt Mercs, I found this image of 6 chopped Mercs that included the reworked doors and quarters for a consistent, smooth fade, as well as just stock with a chopped top.

As well as Dave Stuckey's (of Lil' Coffin fame) King of Mercs Mercury

 

as well as the change done to the equally famous Hirohata Merc, which itself had a variation of the the idea that I was thinking of.....and very well may have subconsciously inspired the change in my drawing.

I also found this one that I thought was......interesting.........as well.  Not sure if it's in a good or bad way either.

 

Edited November 20, 2016 by Joe Handley

[Ace-Garageguy]

I LIKE your concept sketch. A LOT.    

[Joe Handley]

Thanks Bill!

I'm thinking about doing the rework that I sketched up to one of the large, flat box '49 Merc kits I already have, even though the chop is different.  I may get a pic of the original concept in ink, which I did in the last 10 minutes at the office when things were quiet, the shapes are different (it even looked more like the longer V-12 Lincoln with the first 18" of sheetment swapped that of a Merc's) , but the concept is still the same.

[Mark]

 

I also found this one that I thought was......interesting.........as well.  Not sure if it's in a good or bad way either.

 

Gotta say, not a whole lot of Merc left in this one...

[Joe Handley]

Gotta say, not a whole lot of Merc left in this one...

I know, looks like part of the grill is Desoto, the arches over the headlights might be '57 Ford and the part under might be Bulletnose Studebaker, not sure about the A-Pillars and windshield, but I'd swear that roof is Tri-5 Chevy.

Edited November 20, 2016 by Joe Handley

[landman]

I saw this one under construction in 2008. He kept the dogleg but took another tack with the door itself. They worked extremely smoothly. I don't know if he ever finished it. Thought it might be of interest.

 

[Ace-Garageguy]

I think a lot of these customs are perfect examples of why less is often more when it comes to customizing, and a good reminder that just because somebody has the skills to do the physical custom work, they don't necessarily have the eye to do good-looking, coherent modifications that actually improve on the subject.

Though taste is subjective, good design is more easily defined...but it's still something of a matter of personal taste as to what "good" is. In general though, "good design" presents the viewer with something that looks like it's "all of a piece", with an almost calming effect (for lack of a better term) because all of the separate elements seem to belong together. A very radical and aggressive vehicle design can be "calming" at the same time, if it's well thought-out and integrated. The much-reviled Nissan Juke and Pontiac Aztek fail because so many of the design elements of each have no relation to each other. Lines going every-which-way and shapes that clash don't provide the "calming" effect you get from good work.

When re-styling a car that starts out as handsome as the stock Merc is, it's usually best to respect as much of the original design as is practical while striving to express individual creativity.

Joe Handley's concept sketch takes what's particularly attractive about the original design, and plays off of the basic lines and proportions that are already there. It's successful because the modifications work well together, and appear to be integrated into an overall theme, with no one part fighting for attention...or just stuck on.

Some of the other customs shown above are simply trying too hard, with non-visually-related elements added almost randomly in some instances.

The gull-wing car is interesting, but is very obviously mimicking the Gullwing Mercedes. The door design makes sense on the Mercedes because the wide and deep lower sills are there to cover a major portion of a spaceframe chassis, but they're just "look at me too" on the Mercury. Adding major design elements that have no rational function other than to copy the appearance of something else rarely works visually.

Edited November 20, 2016 by Ace-Garageguy

[Joe Handley]

Thank you once again Bill, I really appreciate the kind words!

[Mark]

The gullwing Merc looks like it's heavily channeled over a Seventies GM chassis.  Look how high the frame is near the firewall.  The floor (looks to be from the frame donor car) is awfully high.  It looks like the floor is so high up as to leave the chassis as its stock ride height in this application.  With the frame ahead of the front wheels as high as it is, I wonder if this guy has a radiator figured out yet.  Another case of "just because you can, doesn't mean you should"... 

[Joe Handley]

Well, did some work on an AMT/RC2 issue '49 Merc that has a failed chop attempt.......that top will have to come off, but I figured it might be worth experimenting on.   It's not perfect, but should be close enough for 3D proof of concept.  I haven't fabbed up, let alone added the cruizer skirts yet to flesh out that part of the design though.

[keyser]

I like idea, and sketch. Maybe 51  extended rear fenders rather than rounded 49-50?

Angle of front fender not flowing into RQ well, your drawing did, I really like it. 

The drawing looks like rear fender/skirts more pronounced than the front, a fadeaway into a curvier RQ?

Your rendering has your straightened line thru it, I think dropping the trailing end of the front closer to the drawing would help. 

Very doable, just needs fiddling. Don't hide it under dark color, 

Roof, I like front of failed chop. Rear post echo the rear and front fender shapes in window edges on post? 51 style wraparound rear window. 

Lots of potential. 

[StevenGuthmiller]

This is just my personal opinion but I think that if you take away the "dog leg" on a '49-'51 Merc, it ceases to be a '49-'51 Merc.

That dog leg is one of the main styling cues that make it the iconic car that it is.

Removing it makes it look far too "generic" in my opinion.

The red & white Dave Stuckey Merc you posted is just plain butt ugly as far as I'm concerned!

 

Steve

Edited January 1, 2017 by StevenGuthmiller

[Joe Handley]

I'm still refining the appearance, both of the model and of the concept drawings.  Can't find it at the moment, but there is an updated drawing I did a week ago  with a bit of a Santa theme, once I figured out where it went, I'll post that too.  Color wise, I'm going to have to see what kind of metallic or candy reds available, may have to check out the cosmetics department at the OSCO Drug I used to work for and see what nail polishes they have there now. 

 

As for the chop, what I was trying for was an easy way to chop the top without having to cut down the windshield much, if at all and not cutting the back at all.  As you can seem the back wasn't too successful, at least not when compared to the front......prior to the mishap that turned it into a failure that is.  All I did in the front was cut out the plastic between the top of the windshield and where the front of the roof curves back over into the top itself.  I just did some relief and pie cuts in the back then moved the roof forward to mate up with the a pillars/header.  The next victim will have a rear chop more like the successful ones shown in the how to chop a Merc thread, but I'm planning on keeping the stock back window, as don't care much for the shape of the '51 Merc back window compared to the '49.

[Joe Handley]

This is just my personal opinion but I think that if you take away the "dog leg" on a '49-'51 Merc, it ceases to be a '49-'51 Merc.

That dog leg is one of the main styling cues that make it the iconic car that it is.

Removing it makes it look far too "generic" in my opinion.

The red & white Dave Stuckey Merc you posted is just plain butt ugly as far as I'm concerned!

 

Steve

That's why I left some of the shape there, I wanted it to still look like a Merc, so didn't want to erase the dogleg completely, like in the Barris Merc and others, but I also didn't want the wholesale change in the car's appearance, like the Boyd Coddington built Merrodder either.

Edited January 1, 2017 by Joe Handley

[Xingu]

This is just my personal opinion but I think that if you take away the "dog leg" on a '49-'51 Merc, it ceases to be a '49-'51 Merc.

That dog leg is one of the main styling cues that make it the iconic car that it is.

Removing it makes it look far too "generic" in my opinion.

The red & white Dave Stuckey Merc you posted is just plain butt ugly as far as I'm concerned!

 

Steve

I agree 100% with this post.

I am curious to see how this turns out though. The concept sketch intrigues me. It does not remove the dog leg, but splits it into two segments. Of the photos shown, the only one I feel that may have improved on the original profile of the car is the Hirohata car. The dog leg is still implied on that car, IMO. The Coddington car is ugly, but I think that about most of his cars. To some, customizing is to change everything even if they should have stopped at a handful of mods.

[StevenGuthmiller]

 The Coddington car is ugly, but I think that about most of his cars. To some, customizing is to change everything even if they should have stopped at a handful of mods.

Agreed!

There is nothing about that car that says '49 Mercury.

What was the point?

You could have done the same thing with any other car from that era.

In my opinion, if you can't look at the car and say, "that started out as a '49 Merc" it was a waste of time.

I thought the idea behind customization was to "improve" upon the design of a car, not obliterate it.

One more reason why I have no love for customs.

Everybody thinks that they're a "stylist" & as I see it, they fall flat 90% of the time.

I'm a classic car junky & very rarely do I see a custom car that looks better than the original.

As I said, just my opinion.

 

Steve

[TarheelRick]

I know, looks like part of the grill is Desoto, the arches over the headlights might be '57 Ford and the part under might be Bulletnose Studebaker, not sure about the A-Pillars and windshield, but I'd swear that roof is Tri-5 Chevy.

It does really stretch the imagination to see a Mercury in this one.  I believe the top is from a '54-56 Ford or possibly a Mercury.

[Joe Handley]

Apparently it's not a Coddington car like I thought, it was, however, originally penned by Larry Erickson, who also sketched the Alumacoupe, Caddzilla, and what became the '05-'09 Ford Mustang.  I'll be honest, the Merrodder looks more like a heavily stylized Buick to me.

[Spex84]

I like this discussion

Very cool sketch Joe, and I think it's worth trying. These are plastic models, after all! No real Mercs getting wrecked if it doesn't pan out!

I'm a fan of the Sam Barris Merc. The blended dogleg works best when it complements the re-shaped C pillars on a chopped roof. Personally I prefer the the stock dogleg; it gives the '49 a sense of "muscle", and your sketch takes that even further.

The Hirohata is a killer re-working of the stock design. Super effective and nicely balanced.

To me, custom work is worth attempting because it might fail. That's the whole appeal! It's a creative and technical balancing act, one that 1:1 designers walk constantly. Sometimes they fall flat on their faces, and sometimes they produce cars that we consider iconic, untouchable, beautiful, perfect.

I'm plinking away at a full-kustom '40 Ford right now, and it's a fool's errand. The stock '40 is just too good to mess with. That's what makes it so fun!

///

A couple ideas/tips:

-don't let the rear skirt/fender bulge touch the rear door cut line...in drawing this is referred to as a "tangent" and is to be avoided.

-in order to justify the new divide that splits the car, it might need a trim strip that follows the front fender down (a la the Hirohata), or a scoop or some teeth recessed in the leading edge of the skirt....or go the other way and emphasize the newly divided pontoon fenders with colored panels (this can backfire, see the Barris "Chrysler City Coupe" from a few years back).

-some kind of chrome dagger/gravel guard on the leading edge of the skirt might work...like Troy Trepanier's "Sniper", or the '53 Ford. It might also backfire and draw too much attention.

-if you move the front of the skirt back so it doesn't touch the door line, it might make the rear quarter look short...and to get that long, low look back, you might have to extend the quarters to look more like a '51 Merc. Or...section the heck out of the car and remove a lot of vertical height so the quarters look longer.

 

[Ace-Garageguy]

As I said before, I LIKE the concept sketch. A LOT.

Concepts start to lose it sometimes when they begin to drift away from the original strong idea.

Watch your angles and proportions, stay true to your original vision here, and I believe you'll have a stunning model that's instantly recognizable as '49 Merc.

[keyser]

I agree about keeping skirt off door. A Tucker like mesh intake on the skirt/fender may work. I like the dogleg, left it on most my Mercs. Just maybe a little less elevation between front and rear? 

The newer builds are odd at best. The Mystery Merc looks mor like a 53 BelAir with Merc features, unsuccessful. Hardtop maybe, echoing the dip lead and trail edges? Round wondows may not work. Think it needs a bit more fender in back to balance it a bit maybe. Lay down stock window and maybe 1/2 the current C-pillar? ,ake it end on same diagonal as the split in fenders, pulls focus rearward a little. 

Best part is you can do what you want, plastic is forgiving. 

Looked at sketch again. Your original unrounded window/Cpillar was what I was tryimg to describe. Maybe a small trim there like vent mimicing the rear skirt leading edge? Small, like old Caddy AC intakes?

Edited January 2, 2017 by keyser