The Mercury Project

[Gary 351C]

One down (sort of) and one to go. I finally got the "driver" Montego back on the road even though it still needs a few things. The ignition is junk, the cooling system needs attention and I need to replace the tie rod ends. At least it looks better than it did a few months ago, amazing what a few (12) cans of spray paint will do. I thought about just shooting it with grey primer and be done with it but I figured for the same money I could actually do it a color, eventually it will get a real paint job. In a couple of weeks I plan on pulling the "project" Montego into the garage and start going at it. My hope is that by posting this it will keep me motivated to make some kind of progress so I don't have to dig all the way down to page 14 to update.

Before


After ;D


Here's the "project" I know, it's bad.

[fahrenschnell]

Re: The Mercury Project

That doesn't look half bad....I assume it is a 20 footer?

Seth

[fast Ed]

Re: The Mercury Project

Still love that body style, good luck with the project. Makes me think of the 71 Cyclone GT (351C-2V car) my best buddy Stu had with his brother about 20 years ago ... it ended up pretty rotten underneath though.


cheers
Ed N.

[Gary 351C]

Re: The Mercury Project

That doesn't look half bad....I assume it is a 20 footer?

Seth

;D ;D ;D Actually, it's a 40 footer!

[milner351]

Re: The Mercury Project

Well heck - it's at least a 50 50 car as we used to say - it looks good from 50 feet away going 50 miles an hour!

You don't know how lucky you are to have cars of that vintage that are not rusted through!

[mlcraven]

Re: The Mercury Project

If such a thing exists, you qualify for a year's free membership in the Wood Bros fan club!!!!

Love the late-60s/early-70s NASCAR look.

[cantvalve16]

Re: The Mercury Project

Can you give some close up shots of the body? I am contemplating a temporary cover up for my car as the wife hates the way it looks right now.

[cantvalve16]

Re: The Mercury Project

Hey, you are in Ridgecrest right? I am in Bakersfield.

Oh, how many cans did it take you to cover your car?

[Gary 351C]

Re: The Mercury Project

Hey cantvalve16, yes I'm in Ridgecrest. Here's the dope on my redneck paintjob.

The paint I used was Rust-o-leum hammered blue, It took 12 cans to do the body. But I couldn't leave well enough alone, I ended up doing the inside of the trunk, the door jambs, and even the underside of the hood for a total of 18 at roughly $100. This attention to detail will end up biting me in the end when I get around to putting a real paint job on this car because I'll have to sand all of this back off. As far as prep, there wasn't much since the humidity is so low up here I wasn't worried about rust too much, I scuffed the whole car with 120 and wipped it down with acetone. And as far as paint choices the sky's the limit, after visiting the "Golden Cage" at Home Depot it can be a hard decision. I picked this type of paint because it was kind of a medium gloss and it has a refrigerator-like texture to hide some of the...um, imperfections. And If I was going to do a cheeseball paintjob, blue is probably the most acceptable. It took about 2 weeks to do the whole car and yes my fingers hurt from holding the nozzle down, those clip on paint sprayer handles don't work so don't waste your money. Hope this helps and good luck, here's the pics.

[fahrenschnell]

Re: The Mercury Project

That looks really clean....Good work.

Seth

[Huskinhano]

Re: The Mercury Project

Man, if you lowered it about 2" it would look bitchen!

[chryco63]

Re: The Mercury Project

Hey, that looks really good for spray-bomb! Did you paint indoors or outdoors? I think my Buick needs something like that.

[Gary 351C]

Re: The Mercury Project

Thanks everybody for the compliments, I was simply going for all-one-color! :D Yes, I did paint it outside. Funny thing though, whenever I got ready to spray, the wind would start to blow..... like it knew or something. Actually, the most important thing is alot of masking and an attention to detail. This could have looked real crappy real easy, but I took my time. I've only got a few more things to do on this car before it's done, sorta. Then I can get the other car back into the garage and at least get it running for the first time in 3 years.

[383S-10]

Re: The Mercury Project

One of the car mags needs to do an article on that paint job....you given hope to a lot of "low budget" guys.......congrats on your skills & a great job all around.

[chryco63]

Re: The Mercury Project

One of the car mags needs to do an article on that paint job....you given hope to a lot of "low budget" guys.......congrats on your skills & a great job all around.

X2. This seems way easier and less involved than the $100 paint job that was in Hot Rod a couple of years ago. How many coats did you apply? How much would one can cover on the car? Was the 120 grit scuff with a DA, or by hand? Did you paint "on top" of the acetone, or did you wash down after the acetone?

Maybe the car is a 40 footer, but simply from the pics alone, it is a rather impressive transformation! It honestly looks really good! The early stock car look is great, too!