1959 Colony Park Wagon 430 cu in. w/air Frame Off Resto

[Shelby#18]

Thank you very much Bob for the critique and information. I have called the restorer and am having him go back through the original photo's of the car to see about the hood liner. Pointers like this are extremely helpful, and appreciated. We are trying to keep the restoration as "authentic" as possible and any "heads up" issues will help us achieve this goal. So keep'm commin'!

All the best....
Rick

[Shelby#18]

O.K. here is what we have...
Hi Rick,

Here are a couple photos of the hood insulator. It doesn't appear to have been painted, although you can see a couple sections that look as if paint had run down it, and over the years, the paint could have soaked in or wore off the material. It makes sense that it would have been painted as it was one sheet, sandwiched inside the hood. If you'd like I can splatter some paint on it or spray over the insulation. Whatever you'd like. I personally prefer the clean look, but it just depends what you're going for. I have extra material so if you'd like I can spray a test piece.


The one thing that bugs me is it makes perfect sense what Bob is saying, but the photo's don't provide the proof. I'm wondering if that through the years the paint has flaked off the liner. But then I would think you would have people complaining about the "dandruff" on their engines.

Anyhow here are the photo's...

[sidesho_bob1961]

Rick, If you want I can send you some detail photos of some 58 Mercurys that were taken right after the cars were pulled off the assembly line. Lots of information on them. They may help you greatly. The problem with that under-hood insulation is that it's porous like any other insulation. After 50 years of being exposed to oil vapor dirt and road grim it turns black. I have two photos of a black and light colored Mercury with the trunk lids in the up position and it's obvious the insulation is body color. I also have undercarriage shots that show alot of information, although your chassis seems to already be finished. Send me an email off line and I'll forward you all I have. My email address is:

rstoudt@ptd.net

[Theo]

Could you please post us a few photos into this thread too? It would be very informative to all those who follow this thread and well hopefully for generations to come too

[sidesho_bob1961]

Theo, Sorry but I'm not the most computer literate. The pictures are embedded in emails and I cannot seem to copy them out. If you want, I can forward the emails to you and you could possibly put them in some sort of archive "restoration file of original features" that all members could easily find and view. These are all photos of cars that were bought by GM and Chrysler to examine and compare product lines. Some cars still have build sheets attached and the engine paint is not even burnt off the exhaust manifolds!! They actually tell a lot of information as to how the cars were originally built.

[Theo]

Hey, that's extremely interesting information. Of course you can send them photos to me too and I'll take care on the rest.
BTW. It's easy to copy embeded e-mail photos to your hard disc.
Just right click on the attachment icons as they appear in the e-mail's header on top and choose "Save to hard disc" or"Save to..." dunno exactly what the english dialog is. I work on a German desk.
In many instancs you can also drag the attachments with your mouse and drop them to some location, for instance your desk top.
Feel free to ask or send them to me by either the PM (personal message) function of this noard or by the e-mail function of this board. This triggers from the icons that can be seen under my nick name and avatar.
Thanx for your input and feed back.

[Shelby#18]

Progress is starting again!!!
The Pistons and Dash are in. For both of these they are the second attempt. My restorer also made some of the rubber parts that were unavailable.
Pistons

Dash

Rubber

[reijerlincoln]

Nice to see progress is being made. Keep it up!

[Theo]

Rick, just a question from a side fence sitter. Is this restoration going to pay if one had to sell it once it's done? I assume that you didn't have selling the car in mind, but it would be interesting to know. I'm not asking for numbers and I have no idea about the current market prizes.

[Shelby#18]

Doubtful, my goal was and is to preserve a piece of history and enjoy it. Since it is not complete yet a final number has not been reached. The quality and amount of detail work that has gone into this project is needless to say expensive.

Hey, this was my 100th post!