'55 Mercury . . .

Dylan started replacing all the unwanted holes in the dash with fresh metal today but Andrew thought that it was looking a bit patchwork, so he got Dylan to cut the whole area out and shape a new section to fit into the new gaping void. This included carefully rolling the new section with a tight curve to match the old curve on the bottom of the dash. Nothing's easy in this game . . .

Bert's Drifter . . .

 Bert's new project. A few people think that Bert is a man of vision, you just have to remember his 300C installation of the Charger and then there are those that are beginning to think that Bert might be drifting around in the top paddock, if you get my drift? Yep he's taking the gas axe to this pristine Drifter van and looking at it from outside the box, it's getting major external upgrades. . .

 First job is to hack off the rear openings and basically throw 'em in a heap. The rear end is to receive a Ford Territory style door in door that raises from the bottom and the glass section can be opened seperately. Now if you don't understand how that works well you're just plain stupid!

 To accommodate the new rear opening, Hodgey has had Dylan remove all the rain channel from the area and from the amount of rude words that I have heard over the last couple of days, either Dylan has learnt how to swear or all the grinding has pissing him off . . .

Next order of business was to lengthen the flook section out to match the two walls so that it is now all one square surface that the door butts up to . . .

'55 Mercury . . .

No pictures of this car today folks because it has been a hectic day of welding and grinding to get all the floor seams lined up and welded together inside and out. Then there was considerable time sent trying to work out the best location for the airconditioning internal unit and the outlets, not an easy job with most of the space in the dash already allocated to other things. This is the sort of day when all the little, but very necessary, things are carried out and you look at the car at the end of the day and feel that you have achieved nothing. . .

Big Red Val . . .

 Driver's side of thebig Val and you can see 31/2" tail-pipes and a pretty big fuel cell and very large tyres. This thing is set up for service, hard service. . .

 LHS is much more of the same with extra leaves in the springs trying to handle the power. . .

This is where Dave comes in, have a look at the metal craft in those chassis connectors running from front to rear. Take a long look at the work, coz it speaks for itself. Again, these new structures have been installed to handle horsepower in excess of 1000 ponies. . .Dave has carried out incredible work with the installation of these chassis connectors. . .

'55 Mercury . . .

 There's been a lot of banging and gringing from the big fella today in the boot area of the Mercury to finish off the boot back to the rear panel and fuel inlet. Note also the new swaged lines through the flooring to add extra strength to the metalwork. . .

This is the pic of the under dash braking system that I previously told you about. Note the heavy square tube structure running full width of vehicle to support the braking sytem and take the pressure off the firewall . . .

Dave put in some hard yards today and got the dash back into shape and refitted into place in the cabin area. . .

New Arrival . . .

You will remember this new arrival from last week, so no, it's technically not a queue jumper, it's a 'new arrival' even though it hasn't had to wait in line like a really nice HJ Prem. Anyway not much has been let on about the big old Val but she's in for some major structural support. Kinda like sticking a finger up ya coit to tighten the cheeks of ya bum right up. . . 

 The big old girl is going to get something along the lines of a 502 twin-turboed power plant poked down her throat so she needs some decent chassis connectors to help her hold things together when the lunatic in the driver's seat jumps on the 'go' stick and all friggin hell breaks loose. These aren't your ordinary chassis supports either with these works of art running close to the full length of the car. Dave has carefully cut out and crafted the connectors so that they fit in every nook and cranny to provide as much support as possible to the total chassis system . . .

Here he is, Dave the Photobomber himself, just jumping into the pic to make sure that we get to see a good angle of his chassis connector and getting the better side of his head in the pic, because the other side looks like it's taken a couple a knocks, if you know what I mean?
Good onya Davey . . .

'55 Mercury . . .

As you remember this is how we left the Mercury the other night, tubs in and waiting on some more sheetmetal . . .

The big fella working hard in the small space to pull the sheet metal down hard into place across the new diff and suspension set-up . . .

Pulled down and tacked in place, the new boot section looks good and carries on over to just under where the rear seat will be sitting. Starting to look like a car again, AND if you look really hard you can see the new brake assembly under the LHS of the dash. Dickhead photographer didn't get a pick of this new assembly, but I will because it's a huge beast and a cracking bit of machinery . . .