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51 Merc Monarch Build

5K views 13 replies 9 participants last post by  killeratrod 
#1 ·
We I haven't posted this one one here but think some folks might like this one. I did some work for a friend of mine and got a 1951 Monarch in trade and the wife claimed it as her own. So around Sept this is where we started. Now seeing as this isn't actually going to be my car we decided on a chassis swap to which I had a 1986 or so Pontiac Parisienne was used for a donor.

This is how it looked when we picked the Merc up.




The start of the cropping of the Merc.









Fast forward to the donor, I'll spare you the tearing apart of this one other than there was lots that I didn't need.





All the not needed stuff...



Prepping the Merc for it's new chassis





After lots of cutting and trimming.











Rocker to Rocker fit was so close that the Merc rocker overlapped the Pontiac's.



You'll have to do a little head on your shoulder for a few of these :D

Here is a shot of the rear fender tubs just needed little patches.



Clean up the firewall a little more hindsight I should have left more material and trimmed it away, live and learn.



This is where the donor door post use to be.





So here is where I ran into the fitment of the front fenders that I knew I was going to run into.



To solve this I just moved the wheel well opening back a little.





I wasn't to happy with the front part, and later in the build trimmed the opening to the grille piece to smooth the look over a bit.

Here we have Esther doing her part as it is her car after all stripping all the paint off.



Almost all the paint gone





Sealing up the welds in the trunk

 
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#2 ·
So at this point we started with the chop.

On with the sacrificial first cut....



Many many cuts later.





Giving the roof it's new shape.



Fun times lol



We decided since the rear window was broken on the 51 that we got a rear window out of a 1950 Merc.



More Chop!!!!





This part actually posed the biggest problem really. Didn't help that I decided to change the way the rear window opening worked, but just kept plugging away at it and getting it done.









Now for the rear..





Some new panel shapes



Now to put in perspective what we started with.



Ah the fun with paper.



Testing to see if I made it right



Time to rid of the excesses.





Little bit of welding to go.





I also wasn't going to do all the welding haha time to learn babe....



Didn't take to long she got the hang of it. Told her your either a good welder or a good grinder.... She chose the first route.



Well time for some vent windows which is always the crappy part of any build.

The arsenal....



Stripped apart



What it need to turn into.




Apply a little heat... Volaa



More or less did round it out a little more down the road..

 
#4 ·
WOW! My hat is off to you! That is an ambitious project!

I love the center opening doors. I have been helping a relative look for a Merc project car, but he wanted a two door, and all I could find were 4-doors.

We talked about all of the ways we could modify a 4-door body... a converted 2-door... a Ranchero... a convertible... center opening doors on a "hardtop" conversion... a panel truck... a stakebed... etc. etc.... but he had a mental block over starting with a 4-door, so we never got anywhere.

Keep us updated with pictures! Thanks.
 
#7 ·
Thanks guys.

Couple more pics.

I love the back of this car!!





So anyway at this point we where pretty tired of welding and stuff and started the mud..



Saving you all the drama of bondo and stuff

Boom Primer!







So we where hunting the paper and found some tires and rims for the car.



Then I set out and started on the dash. I moved it out 4" to clean up the steering column and clear the heater box from the Pontiac.




Few more touch ups.

 
#8 ·
So now we got a little paint in the door jams and some color on the dash. Started getting the interior back in.





Then set out to make some sill plates. As the carpet didn't quite reach to where the original sill plates fit.





Then made a makeshift head liner for this year. Gets a little dizzy in there staring at it haha







Then I took a shot at making door panels turned out ok. But I do want to redo them as I now just got a good sewing machine. The typical house hold one works like *** to try to sew through vinyl and foam.



 
#9 ·
So at this point we had a friend of mine come out and do a little painting of her wheels and strip the dash before glass as put in.





So any way this car just kept snowballing originally all I was going to do was just swap the body just to make a little room in the yard. But Esthers got so excited that I had started on her car. It was sitting in the lineup for about 1-2years that we decided to just keep going. It was going to just be rough and rock it in epoxy primer for this year. Then tear it down next year. But one thing lead to another and we just went for paint as a buddy had some of the color she wanted and it's still rough but straited it out the best we could and shot some color on it Monday.



Theres Esther still in Awe that that's her car haha.









So this is where we are at as of this week still have a small list of things to do before she is ready to cruise.
 
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