Building a 1960 Mercury Park Lane convertible

Discussion about Mercury Car restoration projects. This is not an all out engine section. Discuss whatever is of concern to your MEL car restoration project.
vanscooter
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Re: Building a 1960 Mercury Park Lane convertible

Post by vanscooter » Fri 24. Jul 2015, 04:43

looking real good!!!

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Shelby#18
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Re: Building a 1960 Mercury Park Lane convertible

Post by Shelby#18 » Fri 24. Jul 2015, 18:51

Gry, nice to see you back. Mine has been progressing also. I should have some photos posted soon. Hope all is well.
Rick

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Some 60 Mercury restoration details

Post by mercs4fun » Fri 24. Jul 2015, 23:29

Rick, I am doing fine and I hope you are too. I am looking forward to see some updates on your 59 Park lane as well. :)

Exhaust hangers
Regarding the exhaust installation, for more common cars there are reproduction exhaust hangers out there. For a 60 Mercury it is not so easy so I restored some old hangers I had. The metal was re plated and rubber replaced using rubber cut out from old tires. I also decided to go for a dual exhaust on my car, even if they only came with single exhaust that year. That means I had to order a exhaust system for a 59 Park lane and cut the rear pipes to fit the 60 as the 60 is a shorter car.
oppheng.jpg
Door Hinges
On old cars the door hinges are always worn, even if you can't feel it when the hinges are off the car, they are. So there is no way getting around rebuilding them. You can search all the catalogs in the world, but no one seems to list bushings and pins for these cars, so I just order a few different types for Ford hinges, and then I use the ones I think will work the best. For these hinges the outer diameter on the brass bushings are just a little too small so just to make sure they will sit as they should I also add a very thin coat of metal glue to them when I put them in. That will for sure hold them in place.
mars02_1.jpg
For these hinges I ended up using the hinge bushings from the kit to the right and the pins from the kit in the middle. Original worn pins and bushings to the left.
mars02_2.jpg
Mercury - Built to lead - Built to last

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The color drama.

Post by mercs4fun » Fri 24. Jul 2015, 23:53

Last year I spent a lot of energy trying to decide what color to put on my car. Since then I began to doubt my own judgment on the color choice I had made and decided to go a new round with the options. I painted a few test sheets with silver, gray metallic and black metallic and put them on the side of the car and walked around it for days and weeks trying to make up my mind. Some days I was wondering if I would ever be able to make up my mind, but finally I decided to just stay with my initial decision and go for the violet metallic color I made last year. So I went to the paint store to have a quart of paint made to paint the inside of the body and firewall. Well, it turned out to be not as easy as I thought as they had deleted the mixing recipe from their files :x So I was basically back on scratch and had to start over again and make a new recipe. Yesterday I had the fender skirts test painted with the new color, and to my satisfaction, it seems like we nailed it. The color is probably a little more lilac than the one I had last year, and that just makes it a little more vibrant, especially in the sun. I love it, hope you do too :)
IMG_0572.jpg
Trying to make up my mind
color2.jpg
Color in shadow
color1.jpg
Color in the sun.
Mercury - Built to lead - Built to last

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Re: Building a 1960 Mercury Park Lane convertible

Post by mercs4fun » Sat 25. Jul 2015, 11:27

Here is another thing that always needs attention on these cars, and that is the baffles inside the air ducts. The rubber seals inside them are usually rotten, if they are present at all. There is only one way to do this, and that is to take everything apart and use the old seal as a template to make new ones. I have found that a rubber hose from a truck wheel has the correct thickness for this, so that's what I used. When I installed the new rubber I used pop rivets to put the baffles back together, as I find them more convenient that the staples used originally. In this case, where nothing ever will be visible after installation I go for function over originality.
airduct1.jpg
Restored ducts and parts ready to be assembled.
airduct2.jpg
Baffels done.
airsuct3.jpg
Finished and ready to be put on the car when time comes.
Mercury - Built to lead - Built to last

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Re: Building a 1960 Mercury Park Lane convertible

Post by mercs4fun » Wed 29. Jul 2015, 15:11

Today I painted the inside of the body and the firewall. The lighting in my garage makes the color look slightly brighter and more lilac than it actually is.
60mercury.jpg
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Re: Building a 1960 Mercury Park Lane convertible

Post by Theo » Sat 1. Aug 2015, 01:03

Gry, thank you for the follow up. Nice job if that word ever nails this great restoration project.
Best regards
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Re: Building a 1960 Mercury Park Lane convertible

Post by mercs4fun » Sun 2. Aug 2015, 07:58

So I got the body back on the frame so I can put the doors on and do some final adjustments to the sheet metal if needed before I start the paint prep work. :)
together2.jpg
out in daylight2.jpg
testing the color in daylight.
60mercury2.jpg
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Re: Building a 1960 Mercury Park Lane convertible

Post by mercs4fun » Thu 8. Oct 2015, 01:05

The Mercury is now painted and ready to be re assembled.
september21.jpg
Coming home
sept15_2.jpg
While the car was out of the garage I painted the dash, steering column and other interior parts. This dash had no cut outs for the power windows, so that had to be made. As you can see I have also sand blasted the dash and some other parts.
I decided to go for black carpet, black dash and dash pad and a black convertible top.
sept18.jpg
sept20-5.jpg
sept20-2.jpg
AC cold air outlet integrated in the dash.
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Re: Building a 1960 Mercury Park Lane convertible

Post by mercs4fun » Thu 8. Oct 2015, 01:08

The back seat had some rust in the lower part, so some of the rods had to be replaced before it went to the sand blaster and then to the powder coater. Now it is ready for new upholstery.
seatrep1.jpg
sept15_4.jpg
Mercury - Built to lead - Built to last

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