[back to SFdc]

Yes, gasoline prices are going up, everything costs more, big american cars are fading into history. Well i won't have it !! So i went looking, and found the biggest bad ass gas guzzler i could find. $700 (cdn) later and she's in my driveway! Not only is this 77 Merc fully equipped with power windows, seats, locks, and air conditioning that all still work, she also has under the hood the largest engine Ford ever produced, yep, the 460 7.5L V8 ! yea baby!! :D she's going to sound so bad when the exhaust is replaced with duals. Some of you may already know that Ford produced a 429 in most of its sports cars, however for upgrades over 400 or 500 hp, it was recommended to use the crankshaft out of a 460.

Basically, it's a project car for me, something i can work on, but isn't so far gone that it is beyond reasonable repair, i AM on a tight budget afterall.. This page is a dedication to my beautiful ride, and the work i'll be putting into her over the next couple of years. I'll also be teaching my daughter all about cars and repairs, so you may see her in some of the pics :) She's a great helper. So let's get to it..

oh yes, and click the pics to make them bigger ;)

October 13, 2005

Made an animated GIF today out of the uncle buck car :)

October 12, 2005

I was watching the movie Uncle Buck the other day and realized that John Candy is driving what appears to be a 1977 Mercury Marquis!! hahahaa!! I couldn't help but get some screen captures of the beauty ;)

	The late, and great, John Candy		the car in the movie even has rust the same place as mine did
I love the smoke, the dent along the side, and missing teeth in the grill hahaha	the door pull is even busted like mine was, except mine was on the drivers side, how realistic!

October 9, 2005

Back from the shop.. again.. turns out there was more leaking than i could fix on my own. But now at least she's running smooth and is reliable. Not a great shot, but i took one of the engine today, kinda dusty, but you get the idea..


September 23, 2005

Got the valve covers done, and the air filter housing, i even picked up some stickers of a devil with a raceflag to dress them up a bit. I started the oil pan and realized that 3 of the bolts were blocked by the starter.. 4 hours was enough, i put it back together as best i could and took her to the shop. It took 2 days to get looked at, but in the end they didn't charge me to loosen the starter bolts.

Last night i jacked up her front end, slipped under the safety stands and went to work. It only took an hour and a half, but i had removed all of the bolts for the gigantic oil pan. Yes, unfortunately the guys at the shop were right, the oil pan won't actually come out unless the engine is unbolted and raised a couple inches. However, the pan DID drop far enough down for me to get at the old gasket.. wait a sec.. what gasket? there are bits of cork here and there.. but for the mostpart it feels like just old slimey gasket sealer. No wonder it's leaking so much oil :P

I didn't get it all finished last night, but most of it has been done now, i might have time tonight to finish it up after work. It would be nice to have it off the driveway and on the road again :)

September 18, 2005

I'm losing about 1L of oil a day *lol* time to change some gaskets.. i started with the valve cover gaskets, replaced the cooked/busted cork with rubber. Once the valve covers were off i figured i may as well clean and paint them since they looked like hell. A 10L icecream pail with 4L of varsol in it, and voila, instant engine parts sink ;) They look much better now though, and soon i will have the air filter housing done to match.. the color? "Old Ford Blue" which looks very nice next to the Edelbrock and with my red wires over it. I can't find the camera to get pics, so i'll post one i just got developed, shot with my wide angle lens


I also played with some images to see what she will look like with rims, Cragar SS of course, and a second picture i did up to sort of represent the colors i'm going for *lol*





September 15, 2005

Got the Merc back from the shop today, it appears that the old carb/intake manifold had exhaust recirculation on the back of it, and the new carb obviously did not. This basically left a finger sized hole near the back of the carb where HOT exhaust would pour out of when the car was running.. superheating my engine, boiling the oil, and vapourizing the gas in the carb, causing the engine to die.
whew
now that she's running smooth and better than ever, all i have to do is pick up my mufflers from Mopac on Saturday, and bring them into the shop for Monday so they can cut that shitty exhaust i have off of my engine, and put on a dual system running 2.5" pipe to the rear, no cats :) Once it's on the car i want to record audio of the engine running at idle, and maybe what it sounds like outside the car when i speed past, and from inside..

September 12, 2005

After driving around a bit and doing the Deerfoot Trail (Hwy#2), she stalled and wouldn't start again until cooled down a bit. I swapped out the thermostat in the parking lot of Canadian Tire, still no change. And she's leaking oil like crazy out of the bottom, making a big mess wherever i go, and forcing me to keep oil with me on all times. Maybe it's the water pump.. or something to do with the new electric choke, or a clogged PCV valve, i don't know.. :( She's now sitting in the mechanics shop down the road, i give up, for now, trying to "improve" her until i get things running properly first.

September 8, 2005

i managed to pick up the parts i needed today and after work i put it all together. I also found a crack in the fuel line that goes from the hardline from the rear, to the fuel pump, so i replaced that with new clips as well. Once the carb was installed i fired her up, and yea, she started alright, but holy crap is it loud. I mean, i know it's a high performance carb, but jesus ! The idle sounds way too high, even with the idle screw all the way out and my fuel/air screws turned out only 1 full turn. I adjusted the choke just a few mins ago as well, rolling it back to 1/3 of where it was, making it more lean, i dare not start it up again though, it's 11pm and the neighbors will kill me.


September 7 part 2

Before my rant, i have to thank my brother inlaw for helping out, two brains are better than one, even if both only have sort of a clue as to what to do..

3 and a half hours of work, and what do i have.. a dead Mercury.. F*&K! I specifically asked the guy at the pro shop if i needed ANYTHING else for this carb. For one, he sold me a conversion plate to go under the carb, fine, but the one he sold me is specifically pointed out in the manual as one NOT to use. Fine, i can deal with that, maybe the plate will work and Edelbrock just wants you to buy theirs instead.

oops, i look under the old carb to see if i'm not clueing into something and spill gas all over myself..

      I spent most of the night trying to figure out how the F*&K to hook up the kickdown rod and throttle. It just doesn't make any sense. Oh what's this? I need two special Edelbrock 'kits' to bolt linkage crap to the carb so i can hook up my Ford throttle and kick and whatever else won't fit.
      On the off chance i was able to somehow make it work, the fuel inlet for the carb is not only different than mine, and requires a fancy inline filter, but it's on the other side of the carb, so i don't have enough fuel line to reach it, and of the extra fuel line i had in my tool box, i'm about 2 inches short.
      So not only did i kill my car tonight, but i have to take the bus to work for the next while, and i can't even get to the shop to buy the parts i need because i work later than they are open. I didn't even have dinner when i came home, i just got to work. F*&K it. F*&K everything, i'm going to bed before i torch the car and push it into the street.


September 7, 2005

Picked up a new carb today and a set of plug wires! Ok, get this, the BEST part is that the merc was hard to get started when cold. It would need quite a bit of turning over before it would catch and run, then as it warmed up it would idle alright. When it started a puff of smoke would come out the back, etc.. After installing the new Taylor Performance sparkplug wires, one turn of the key and VROOM she comes alive! The original wires from 1977 were just old and crappy, but now i've got new plugs, wires, dist cap + rotor, solid spark!! :D

I also picked up this KILLER Edelbrock 1411 750CFM carb, i am eager to get this baby onto my stock manifold and see how she runs! Maybe if i'm home tonight not too late, i'll put it on. I also put on order two Flowmaster Super 40 mufflers, they should be here in a couple days, then i'll go to the shop and get my dual exhaust piped in, cut out the Cat converters, yea baby!!

September 4, 2005

Yesterday i went to Princess Auto and bought a $150 spray gun to paint my car with, it's a fancy one with gauges and pressure control, on sale for $80. My plan was to paint the whole car tomorrow since i have it off work, but i realized today that tomorrow is a holiday.. where am i going to rent an air compressor on a holiday monday? :P

I also filled up the tank this morning, gas prices just jumped again, damnit, so now it's $1.10/L which is about $80 to fill from dead empty. I'm keeping track of the mileage now, which will be fun since my car is all in Miles *lol* this morning i started at 6421 miles on the odometer with a full tank, so we'll see how it goes..

August 31, 2005

I took the Merc to an autobody shop here in town and after one look, they refused to paint my ride. wtf you ask? basically the guy said that no matter what they do, for under $3000, it will look bad, and they don't want me driving around town telling people where i got it painted *lol* So, i've decided again to paint it on my own. Infact last night i started on the hood and front grill. Monday coming up i have off work, so i'll bust out the airgun, rent a compressor, and do the rest of the car in the metallic blue


August 30, 2005

Took some pics today, i have a day off work and it's actually nice out! :o
There are even a couple pics of how i'm fixing the missing metal. Instead of welding a piece on there, i am using a mesh and forming the bondo onto it. No, i'm not done those spots yet ;) they're a work in progress.. there's also an older pic there to show you what the drivers side door used to look like




August 29, 2005

I've managed to get more of the body work done. Some holes near the door edges were fixed as well :) I figured out that if i put a double layer of cast mesh (like when you break your leg) in the rust hole and bondo it, the bondo sticks and when sanded and primed, it looks like like new :o go figure..

I've also poked around town for prices on renting a bay with fans to paint her in. Good news and bad news.. good news is that i found a perfect place, bad news is that it'll cost me $200 to rent for the amount of time needed to do the paintjob i want. I know a place in town that will do it for me for $700 or so, maybe i'll call them tomorrow and see what the deal is. It's more money than i hoped to drop on a paintjob, considering my budget, but maybe i can swing a deal, or do it after winter passes.. Jan/Feb around here can get to -35C degrees outside :P


August 21, 2005

This 'summer' is the worst i have ever seen in Calgary :P rain rain bloody rain, which means i can't get anything done on the beast. Today was the first nice day in a while so i took the hour and a half after work to FINALLY finish the bondo sand & prime for the drivers side door. Being a perfectionist and working on autobody is not a great combination to have when time and budget are against you ;)
Most of her is now primed as well, all gray. I phoned around for dual exhaust since she has a Y pipe underneath and 1 muffler. The best estimate i found was $600, that includes the dual exhaust running straight from the engine, cutting out the CATs, custom piping 2.5" all the way back on both sides, and the dual high performance mufflers. I'm trying to get a deal on dual Flowmaster Super 40's .. damn they sound sweet.. [CLICK for audio sample] :) ..600 clams tho, hmm.. i dunno, just seems like a lot when i don't even have rims yet, subs, or the paint done. I think i'll wait on it, even if it appears, at this point, that most of the work won't be complete until after winter..

August 12, 2005

I phoned Blaskin & Lane today looking for prices on rims. Every rim i picked out wouldn't fit my car :( Infact the guy said that he would call the distributors and see what rims fit a car that old, and he would call me back and give me some to choose from. Blah. I want fancy rims, not old ones :P
In an effort to get my car one color again (even if that color is primer gray) i spent my lunch hour today sanding and cleaning and priming my car out back of my work *lol* all of the drivers side is primed, the front end, hood, and trunk, but nothing on the passenger side, it still looks old and spotty and green.

August 1, 2005

Ugh, i have learned to dislike body work. Perhaps a large part of it is that i'm trying to do this outside in the sun and wind. Yes, that is a nice big garage behind my car, but my brother inlaw doesn't want any work going on inside it (???)
    I taped off parts of the car, sanded a bunch of the bondo with 80 grit, cleaned it, sanded again with 180 grit, and sprayed on some primer. Not only does the primer sort of give my car ONE color, heh, but it's a lot easier to figure out which areas need some bondo touchups.
    I also sanded down the front grill with some 180 grit, cleaned it and sprayed on a couple coats of "chrome" color. I'm not sure who names these colors, but it has always looked more silver than chrome when it dries, but whatever, it looks much better than it did before.
Got an email today from someone who found the site on google who also has a 77 Merc, solid black, by the sounds of it :D He recommends the dual exhaust, and yes, i can agree. Once the body is done i'll start tinkering with engine and exhaust bits, then save up over the winter for the rims or drop a new set on my Visa.. hmm.. 18% interest.. naw, i'll save up and pay cash :)



July 26, 2005

Due to a recent financial crunch, i've had the Merc parked for almost 2 weeks now :P I walked out and took a look at her this morning. Oh joy, they're back.. spiderwebs all over the place hahahaa in the wheel wells, covering the front lights, on the doors, and a giant one from the antenna to the windshield. Click on the pic to see that one :) I also took a pic of the bondo work i've done on the door. Yea, i haven't sanded it yet, but so far i think it's better than when i started.

     

July 17, 2005

The Merc's been running good lately, although she needs about 1L of oil a week :P Must be burning it or maybe there's a leak around the valve covers. There's no oil on the ground where she's parked, hmm.. I still need to change the steering box as well, this one leaks and is starting to squeak, heh, must need topping up again ;)

I started more of the body work today too. i removed the stained busted nasty 'chrome' strip that runs along the bottom of the car, passenger side. Tomorrow if i have time i'll get out the metal grinder and take off the rivets and rust and prime it. I also did 1/4 of the bondo body work on the car. Keep in mind that i have never really done much body work before, nevermind sanding priming and using bondo with 'drip drip' hardener stuff. As near as i can guess it's a lot like drywalling with putty.. i'll find out tomorrow when i go to sand it down a bit. If it's gummy then i probably did it wrong, if it's hard, then i think i'm ok and will do the rest of the car. There are also some spots near the bottom of the doors, etc, where the metal is gone, i think i'm going to get some screen and mold it to the spots that are missing and bondo it as well.

Remember, she doesn't have to win first prize in any shows, just as long as she looks pretty for a couple more years :) On another note, gas prices are up again, it's almost $1/L for gas.. looks like i'm going to have to invest $500 in another beater car to drive around to/from work and save the Merc for going out to clubs and whatever... :P

July 8, 2005

Put on the new distributor cap and rotor this morning! Now all that is left is to replace the sparkplug wires and i'll have a 'perfect' electrical connection to the cylinders. I was also looking at performance air filters, the ones with the big chrome lid and open sides, but i have so much junk attached to my airfilter enclosure that i'm not so sure i would be able to replace it, we'll see. Also, although she's not leaking any oil, she does burn it :P Not usually noticable out the tailpipe, but i have to drop in a quart every couple weeks. I'd be gung hoe and replace the piston rings, but for that i'd have to pull the engine and if i'm going to do that, i'd probably replace the cam, rockers, and push rods while i'm at it, hell maybe even new pistons, put some headers on the block, mmmmmm.. headers...

July 1, 2005

Happy Canada Day! I still had to work today, but as soon as i got home i started on the procrastinated body work, and to make sure i finished what i started, i bought some b33rs too :)
I'm no bodywork expert, infact i've never done body work in my life just engines and mechanicals, so if i'm doing anything wrong, oops.

I started on the drivers side door, it was the worst part by far, lots of rust. I attached this paint/rust remover brush to the drill and started eating away at it. Unfortunately the brush didn't get as far down to the metal as i would like so Peter let me use his grinder. Ahh yes, nothing quite like having a beer and grinding some metal on a hot day, sparks flying everywhere. After grinding and sanding most of the car i started covering spots of metal with the rust inhibitor/ primer. Good thing i bought two cans. Yea the primer sort of ran in a couple spots and looks like hell, but whatever, she's gonna look her worst before her best. I also used the grinder to remove the rivets along the drivers side lower half where the chrome strip used to be. Since i can't find a replacement anywhere, i'll just take it off. Oops, now that i think about it, i forgot to remove the one on the passenger side.. i'll have to do that later.



With the primer now on, i looked at the vinyl top. I popped off the chrome emblems and started at tearing off the vinyl. It was so old and dirty and cracked that some pieces came off in chunks, others crumbled in my hands, so i grabbed a screwdriver and slid the rest off over about 1/2 an hour of rubbing and scraping. Am i going to put new vinyl on it?? Hell no, the car will be a dark metallic blue, so where the vinyl used to be i want to paint a pearlescent white. The kind of paint that shows off blues and pinks and different colors in the sunlight.



Now that that's all taken care of, i ran the engine, cleaned the carb, and checked over the engine. Aha! I found the fuel leak. There's a metal band that you can tighten, around a fuel line just before the filter, it's not as tight as it should be, i'll have to fix that in the morning when the stores open. I'm not as concerned about smelling gas in the car as i am with blowing up my car hahahaa!

I also popped off the spark plug wires from the dist.cap, hmm, wonderful, need a new cap and new wires too. A couple of the wires aren't clicking into place, and by the look of the inside of them, i doubt they're getting any spark. I could be driving a V8 on 6 cylinders :P More things to take care of i guess. I won't be able to paint her for a couple weeks still, i have to wait until next payday to afford the paint and everything. For the next 2 weeks i'll be driving the most getto Mercury in the city complete with primer spots, and a scraped vinyl roof hahaha

May 31, 2005

*yay* i finally have registration and insurance, so to mark the special occasion, i took the Merc to the junk yard for parts *lol* well.. yes i drove there, parked her, and went in to look for parts ;) I found a hood ornament, but it was from the wrong year, different mounts, hopefully the one i bought on ebay fits. I made a keychain out of it though, pretty sweet :)
I also picked up another clock for the dash, but i don't think it works either, i'll have to hook it up and see.. And last but not least, i picked up a trunk latch cover, jesus christ was that a task to put on. Unfortunately though, the little tab on the backplate that stops it from "drooping" is busted off, so when it covers the trunk lock, it's not even across.. i'll have to glue something on there .. hmm..

May 23, 2005

Whew, what a crazy long weekend, but today i had off so i decided to recouperate, take it easy, and work on the Merc. I busted out the tube of PL400 decking adhesive and re-stuck the roof lining where it's supposed to be, and glued some of the interior trim back wehre it was starting to lift off. That stuff is great, let's hope it holds in the heat.

May 18, 2005

I won the hood ornament on ebay :) total was $25 Canadian, so not bad, i just hope it fits the mount on my hood.. although if it doesn't, i can make it fit ;)
The bad news today was that Canadian Tire inspected my car, but didn't fix anything like they said they would.. so i had to take the car to a brake place and get the front rotors done and pads, drums and shoes were fine thank god. Good news is that both front brakes they can do for like $150 total, bad news is that the one rotor needs to be replaced, and it's an unusual rotor, so instead of $45 it will cost me $145 .. after all this running around and dropping $340 on brakes, $150 on insurance, and everything else, i didn't have enough money to buy the registration and get stickers for my plate. wtf. If i could borrow $40 off of someone i could do it, but i'd have no groceries or bus tickets to get to work for the next 2 weeks damnit. Looks like i'm riding the big blue limo for another couple weeks :P

May 17, 2005

I popped the seatbelts in, topped up the fluids, and drove her down to the shop today this morning to get her insurance inspection, required in my province because of how old she is. I've been waiting anxiously all day for 'the call' to pick her up, but nothing still.. infact i doubt they've even started :P oh well, at least i have tomorrow off work as well, so i can get her then. Check out what i came across on ebay !! Sweet!! You may have noticed my Merc is without a hood ornament, so i will be getting this one, i don't care what the price goes up to :D Right now it's around $15 Canadian, so that's still a pretty good deal i think. I'll be going to the junk yard ASAP when she's road legal too. We have a couple huge lots here with hundreds of cars to go through, and i can imagine quite a few Mercs. I'll be trying to find a trunk lock latch cover (mine's busted off), and maybe a new drivers side door in better shape for painting. Oooo! I wonder if i can find an original clock for the dash too.. i have one, and it looks awesome, but it doesn't work :( ..just the same though, it has a sweet look so i left it in. There are also full car covers for Mercury models 1969 to 1978 on ebay for $80 or something, i'll be investing in one of those before she gets painted. I won't have a garage to park her in, so ..     I had a small crisis yesterday too.. i don't know if it was the rain, or the warmer-than-usual weather .. but the 'roof' fabric inside the car isn't sticking to the roof anymore, it's sorta puffy and drooping :P gotta fix that asap, it looks alright, but it looks better when it's where it's supposed to be.

May 5, 2005

I managed to finish the drivers door, and some little things that needed touchups. Ceiling still has to be put in, and new carpet. When you look at these pics, imagine the carpet is down already and black, not busted ass old green :) After putting in the seats, i couldn't resist.. i popped the hood, connected the battery, and drove once around the block. Sweeeeet Lincoln suspension, it was like she was floating on air. I couldn't really touch the gas pedal though, those 8 cylinders wanted to wake up and run .. soon baby.. soon..


April 27, 2005

I took off the passenger door panel, started to tear it apart and reupholster it, and then i realized that i won't have enough black furr to do the driver side door, and i will probably run out of glue at some point today, which isn't that bad, except payday is still 3 days away :P working on a budget sucks ass.
I was thinking of just reattaching the doorpulls afterwards, but that green color made me shudder, and i had black suede left over so i hand stitched black suede covers for the door pulls, i think it ties the door together nicely :) I'm not sure how much i'll get done today, it's +2 degrees outside, and there's no beer in the fridge, but we'll see..

here's the panel just after i started to redo it	i used pieces laying around to even make the inside of the glovebox fuzzy. That book in there is even the original drivers manual	starting to sew the slipcover for the doorpull.. in hindsite i should have looked harder for black thread.. mental note for when i do the drivers side
here's me sewing the doorpull, yay for sewing, don't i look impressed? ;)	inside front right portion	the same shot as before, but this time with the passenger door redone. I hope to have enough $$ to get the new carpet in a couple weeks, it'll look sweet with it down

April 22, 2005

Got some work done last night before the sun went down, nothing major, but a nice addition to the interior, i have the fuzzy dash attached now! :) i also finished attaching the black suede to the rest of the console, so now it's ready to have the glovebox added back again.

yay! for funfur dashboards :)

In this picture you can see the look i'm going for. On the door is the original green vinyl, and towards the back is after i have reupholstered it

April 20, 2005

My day off work this week turned out to be a great day in the sun, eating cold kfc, drinking beer, and working on my car :) I started to piece together the interior, wire in the cd player harness, and reassemble the dash. Unfortunately i noticed, after starting her up a couple times, a leak coming from the engine right around where the steering column is.. hmm.. that might explain why the power steering fluid is empty :P ..great..


April 17, 2005

I had today off work, so i went shopping! But since my ride is all torn apart, i had to walk and take public transit.. almost 5 hours later i returned home with a backpack full of stuff, a giant roll of foam, and two bags :P I rewired the turnsignals and cleaned the connectors in the steering column so they work now *yay* I also rewired the headlight covers so they roll back when you turn the lights on! It looks super sweet.

I also changed the fuel filter, the oil, and put in a new battery and fired her up.. VROOM!! yea baby!! 460 cubic inches sounds pretty sweet, i wanna rev it a bit but the neighbors would kill me, so i'll just wait patiently until i can drive her on the road :)

I started on the interior as well sinc i went all out and got the choice materials. Some of it was even $30/m but damnit i wanted it, so i bought it :) now i'm broke again, but at least i have a lot of projects to keep me busy until next payday..

April 16, 2005
Tomorrow i have a day off work so i'm going to start on reupholstering the interior finally. The car most likely won't be in any car shows ;) so i can cut some corners, save time and $$ in a few spots. I'll be redoing most of the inside in a crushed velvet and 1/4" funfur, mostly black, and trying to preserve the original 'wood' grain accents where possible. One of the strips of 'wood' trim in the back is snapped in half, the real downside being that i could only find 1/2 of it :P i'll have to go hunting at junk yards soon and try to bust out some whole pieces if i find any still intact.

all 4 original hubcaps are still intact, however after the bodywork is finished and painted i will be putting on 17" chrome beauties and keeping the hubcaps for winter driving	just kind of a neat shot of the side showing some lines and sweet chrome trim that will look outstanding against the black finish	here's the door panel as is. since i am replacing the carpet with new black loop, i'll be finishing the lower half of the door to match, keeping the wood trim, and replacing the top and padded accents with puffy 1/4" fur (on the top trim to match the dash) and velour where the puffy parts are
i've made a mess so far	yup

April 13, 2005
Had today off work so i messed around with the Merc some more.. basically just made a big mess. I took out the back seats, a bunch of the interior trim, and spent a couple hours disassembling the front dashboard panel.. i'm glad i only have to do it once, it's a bloody nightmare. Peeking behind the dash i noticed a lot of wires that aren't connected to anything, or wires that have been cut for some reason or broken, some are even melted :P All the more reason for me to pull the dash off for reupholstering, and so i can get at the guts and rewire as much as needed.

I fooled around with the headlight covers as well, looks like they're almost the same as my old 76 Thunderbird, air compressors keep the things shut. This means that i will be most likely having to replace about 30' of rubber hose if the original one is leaking more than what is repairable. I also noticed, as i was packing up my tools, that the drivers side door isn't lined up properly. The passenger side is fine, but the drivers side looks like it's going to have to be realigned on the hinges. Just by looking at the doors, they've got to weight 100lbs at least, i better find some help for that fix ;)

April 3, 2005

Here she is present day, a nice side shot, complete with rust and ORIGINAL factory hubcaps.. yea, amazing, but hopefully will only be used in winter soon ;) I wanna replace the 15"s with 17"s or 18"s	The other side, more rust, and Cassidy helping with the windows	a great hood shot.. look how big it is! sweeeet
Cassidy helping to change the sparkplugs, damn were they ever caked with crap, i'm surprised she ran as well as she did	Shot of the dash, great condition :) When i pulled off the dash i noticed why the clock doesn't work anymore, someone cut the power to it so they could run the deck.. :P booourns on that noise, i'll be fixing that as soon as possible and running a power lead from the battery for the new deck	Here is Cassidy ripping like mad at the original fuzzy seat covers .. i wonder what's under them.. hmm...
Well god damn, under those dirty faded seat covers are.. nearly mint, plush comfy seats! The ones in the back turned out to be in even better condition than the front ones when we tore off the covers	So i tore off the dash, it had a couple cracks in it, gonna reupholster it. Check the speakers i ripped out, sweeeeet 1977 paper cone 6x9 action was buried under the dash ;)

The front seats are now removed, the upper dash is gone, and i'm removing the steering wheel and column to rebuild the electrical. Soon i will be ordering new factory molded carpet for the floor, black of course. And although i'm not really a huge fan of green, the seats are in such awesome shape i may keep them 'as is', or make seatcovers for them and sew the Mercury logo onto them myself. The first big job though will be to get the necessary equipment together and prep the body for paint, one panel at a time.

March 15, 2005
Purcahsed the beast and drove her home!

Here are some pics of other Mercs around the same year, and misc stuff for ya..

Advertisement featuring benefits of buying a Marquis over a Cadillac	Cover of the advertising pamphlet for Mercury Marquis 1975	done up merc with hydraulics	3 wheelin	Boing!!!
Big pimpin front grill action	wide ass on her	and enough trunk space to plant a couple 15" subs at least! hahaha	nice shot of the grill	magazine ad from 1977 for the Marquis

[back to SFdc]