1954 Mercury Woody

[Mercuryman54]

This is my first on the Workbench post. Hang on this may be a long one?. I started with a Jimmy Flintstone 1953 Ford Woody. I'm starting out with pics of the resin woody, a 1:1 53 Ford woody and a few pictures of 1:1 1954 Mercury Woodies. This is to show the difference between the two. I'll be adding as life allows. I have most of the body roughed in and all the wood changes. I'm carving the bumpers out of glued up styrene. I have measured my 1:1 1954 Mercury Sun Valley for general parts they have in common. But a lot of what I do is by eye. You all will be the judge?. Thanks for looking.

Dennis

[Mercuryman54]

Here's the Mercury pictures. For some reason they didn't make it on the first post. 

[Mercuryman54]

Here we go!! A few pictures of the changing of the wood on the sides. Hood roughed in and taillight extensions. Started reshaping of the front wheel openings. All of the work so far is just roughed in. Also scratch building/modifying the Lindberg 1953 Ford interior. Comments welcome. Will post as it progress allows. 

Thanks for looking, Dennis 

[espo]

I like your conversion work on the wood trim. The tail lights look in the picture as if they extend to far back, but since you have a 1:1 car to measure from it may just be the picture. In the 1:1 world this is an easier conversion than I would have thought. Your post reminded me of a short article in the Nov. '17 issue of Street Rodder magazine. A "Merc Guy" converted a two door Ford wagon into a "54 Mercury. He made it look showroom stock and might give you some perspective on your build. He did it without wood trim but it looks factory to me.

[Ace-Garageguy]

Enjoying this already. Lotsa work to get to where you want to go, but we have faith in you. 

[Mercuryman54]

Working on the rear bumper. Also quarter extensions. The work and comparison on the dash. 1953 Ford at the start and the Mercury dash, all still need much work!!! The Mercury dash looks a little funny, I think it's the camera angle. Still a lot to do. 

[misterNNL]

Very ambitious project of a beautiful vehicle.You have obviously planned your work very carefully as the work done looks right on target. You are you brave soul too carve the bumpers from scratch but they appear very accurate. I look forward to seeing it develop. Thanks for sharing your project with us.

[Mercuryman54]

I like your conversion work on the wood trim. The tail lights look in the picture as if they extend to far back, but since you have a 1:1 car to measure from it may just be the picture. In the 1:1 world this is an easier conversion than I would have thought. Your post reminded me of a short article in the Nov. '17 issue of Street Rodder magazine. A "Merc Guy" converted a two door Ford wagon into a "54 Mercury. He made it look showroom stock and might give you some perspective on your build. He did it without wood trim but it looks factory to me.

Posting a few pictures of 1:1 Mercury wagons showing maybe a little better of how the taillight extensions are longer on the wagons. I may need to shorten them a bit. But for me it's easier to shorten than extend. Thanks for looking, Dennis 

[Mercuryman54]

Here's some pictures of the engine and chassis. I have to do some more details like brackets, wires and lines. Exhaust pipes left long until get everything finalized at the back with taillights and bumper placement. 

[Mercuryman54]

A few more pictures. The rear bumper is getting closer. All the "wood" is added. And I had to do a mock up with the chassis. Still a lot of tweaking to do on all of it. 

[espo]

After looking at the 1:1 photos it's easy to see just how far back the tail lights extend. I like the duel quads on the engine. Looks like a lot of work on the hood to make it a Merc.  

[Foxer]

looking good!

[Ron Hamilton]

Great Work!!!!

[Mercuryman54]

Thanks to all for looking and comments so far!!! 

[Mercuryman54]

This build is going to be a tow vehicle for a Chris-Craft style boat I'm building using the AMT kit with real wood and scratch building. I will throw in a few pics of the boat occasionally.

[Mercuryman54]

Although the chassis is not totally correct for a 1954 FoMoCo product, I basically used the 53 ford frame for this build with some modification. I probably should have used the 56. I did use the Y-block from the 56 as the 1954 Fords and Mercs were the first year for the Y-blocks. I just used the dual quad intake and carbs for something different. 

[Buffs Fan]

Digging this....

[Mercuryman54]

Here's a few pictures of the progress on the AMT boat I'm building to be pulled behind the Mercury Woody. I may do a post on it in All the rest. It's going to have a Flathead Ford V8. Thanks for looking.

Dennis

[cobraman]

Some very cool work going on around here.

[misterNNL]

Absolutely loving that boat as a towed vehicle! Thanks for including those photographs.

[Modlbldr]

Loving the work that you are doing on the Mercury but I'm really interested in your boat. I am trying to build one to tow behind a custom 39/40 Ford Sedan. I may scrap my project and pattern a new one after yours.

Later- 

[espo]

Your real wood hull and deck look just like the old Chris Crafts I remember seeing in my youth. I like the flat head engine idea, but since the Merc. wagon has an overhead valve engine, might the boat engine match ?  

[misterNNL]

We live near a small sport fishing lake here in Ohio and every July they host a "Vintage wheels and wooden keels" boat and car show.The wooden boats that show up there are phenominal things to behold with mirror straight varnished wood,gleaming brass and chrome  fittings and vintage engines of all possible origins.Some and dual engine monsters,others powered by Packard 12 cyl.engines,Etc.Any engine within reason would be acceptable as long as the year of the engine correspond correctly to the year of the boat's manufacture.

[cobramike]

Really enjoying watching your build, even more so since you added the boat.  Fantastic!

[Mercuryman54]

I thought I would post a couple pictures of my 1:1 1954 Mercury Sun Valley. I've owned this car since July 7, 1976. I'm pretty much obsessed with 54 Mercs. I've done most all the work on this with help from some friends. 

Dennis