And now for something different...

[wallaka]

Not gonna say "not your average Pro-Touring car" or anything like that.



New car, '68 Mercury Monterey. 4000 lbs of comfortable, highway-eating fury. Specs: One-year only 390 "Premium gas" high-compression 2V. C6 auto, Ford 9-inch diff with 2.75 gears. Disc brakes. It'll boil at least one tire at will, 400 ft/lbs of torque will do that for you. Horsepower is down from the 4V cars, still a respectable 285. When I went to pick it up, I rented a Grand Marquis to try to get used to the bulk...not even close. This car runs stronger than the 4.6, too. Ride is very similar, for now, except more posh and floaty. My grandpa had one of these while I was growing up, and I thought it was the coolest thing ever, so when I saw this on craigslist, I jumped on it.



Next to older, midget brother:


Got rid of the wire wheel covers, they suck


Sense of scale--they're all pulled up to the sidewalk



Interior's in very good shape. It's not the poshest interior they had; bench seat, rolly-up windows. It does have seatbelts and a tilt steering wheel, good enough for me. There will be a reckoning one day with the climate control. One of the vacuum motors works, the other five will need to be replaced. Right now everything is ziptied into heater mode.










This car is pretty straight. Only rust is in the trunk area, pretty typical for something that has a rear window sealing area of approximately 200 yards. Luckily, there's new front and rear window seals in it, plus new trunk weatherstripping. The PO was an old guy with a passion for old Fords and Mercurys, and he did some maintenance. The car is mechanically sound, just has the typical FE leaking valve covers. I've already replaced the distributor vacuum advance.

First thing: Fix the speedometer. The cable is cut and the needle is broken off. The PO helpfully included a new speedo cable. While I'm at it, tunes. The AM-only radio is ****e, there's only so much Glenn Beck I can take before I go on a rampage.

So...dash off




I swear this is the original speaker.


Goodbye.


Hold the mounting sleeve to the original radio mount, spray paint around and you know where to cut.


Trala!


Also:



Speedometer time:
This will not do.


interesting little clips hold the cluster together.


Epoxy


Result-success!




Next:

What could all this be for?


I have gotten a lot of inspiration from this site, time to give back.

[wallaka]

Hmm, a few problems here





Got a solution:


Bilstein, valved by RCD to hopefully control these:



Moog springs for an '02 Crown Vic police interceptor. Gotta see what the drop, if any, is. Compressed height is supposed to be very similar.

These shocks are quality



Not nearly as bad as I thought it would be, getting replaced anyway



Need some carcino-mallows?


mmmmmm.....


Energy Suspension poly going in...




Had to slot the shocks to fit:



New Moog ball joints, new brake hoses (both were originals)



New Addco anti-swaybar for a Thunderbird. Beefy.



Detail: 1 1/8" vs 3/4" stock bar



This car is gonna drive like Mercury was owned by Bavarians.

[wallaka]

The pinnacle of 1972 street suspension tech. Hi-Jackers!




On to the rear springs: Moog cargo controls, made for a '68 Galaxie wagon. Spring rate is, again, roughly doubled from stock, though these are progressive springs (which I didn't particularly want, but it's all that is available).


It's weird but even though all the springs I got are supposed to have the same compressed height as the stock parts, the car sits lower. I don't know if that's supposed to be the stock ride height or not. The PO had those Hi-jackers aired up and the coil spacers in the front, it could explain it. I put it down to 40-year old sagging springs, but it does make me wonder.

I wanted the car lower anyway.

I have to go to the hardware store tomorrow. I've never seen a shock shaft with fine threads on it, but these do. Of course, they packed coarse thread nylocks with them. I should be done with the suspension tomorrow, all I have to do is mount the rear shocks and bleed the brakes.

[wallaka]

Got the nuts, hurr.

Replaced the last brake hose, went ahead and flushed all the brake fluid out.

This is how you know you have original brake hoses on a late 60's Ford. Note that the brass fitting was actually cast into the bracket.




This is what it looks like when you fit the new hose to the bracket:




I was alone and needed to bleed my brakes, this is the easiest way to do it. Never seen any need for a Mityvac. Your master cylinder can push a lot more pressure than that thing can pull. You need a little brake fluid in the jar to start so you don't suck air back up, but you can go right ahead and flush the brake circuit while you're at it. FYI, your brake fluid should not be that color.




That was the last step. Parked hard:

[wallaka]

The 2” single exhaust was strangling the big block. Went to Autozone...



Burned through a couple times before I got the welder adjusted right


Good penetration


This reducer should just slip into the existing pipe and I'll clamp it. Easily removable. I would've gotten one that went outside, but they didn't have any. Whatever.





$60 for dual exhaust, not bad. These are perforated core, not louvered, so they are as free-flowing as mufflers get. Yeah, the turndowns are crush bent but I doubt it'll matter. Turns out I got the wrong reducers too, so had to fill in a bit. Gave me practice lapping my welds, not a loss.

[wallaka]

I got an idea.






I think they'll do for now. Can't beat the price, since I already own them. This should stop the terrible sidewall-rolling issues I'm having.
These are VMR V710s, sized for a BMW M3 (one of my other cars):
Rear: 19x9.5 ET+22, (6.11” BS) 285/30-19
Front: 19x8.5 ET+35, (6.12” BS) 245/35-19
Both have a 1” spacer/bolt adapter and fit perfectly. Zero rubbing on the front, and a slight fender roll in the rear.
I'm not going to leave these on forever, but it'll be good for now. I might go to a bigger sidewall on front, it doesn’t look quite right but it’s close.

The car handles like a BMW 545 with the Sport Package now. It's not quite to M5 specs

[wallaka]

Time to install more parts. The easy part is done:


Et Voila!


Needed a break after that one, glad I've been going to the gym.
110 lbs. of cast iron and spite:


[/quote]

Progress!


I need a carb spacer, kickdown adapter, and radiator hose fittings now...it never ends.

Next money is being spent on junkyard rear disc conversion. Should be able to pull everything I need for $100 or so, not counting a master cylinder. A Crown Vic will again be the donor.
Finally!



Now I need an air cleaner that doesn't hit the hood. And a tuning kit, it'll run, but it's rich enough that it throws black smoke everywhere and makes my eyes water. I have a wideband O2 that I need to install, no guessing for me.

[Bryce]

This is super cool!

[LeighP]

Very cool car...love the body lines.

[Toadman]

Kewl!! That thing begs for a good nickname!

[monteboy84]

Ha that thing is looooooooooooooooooooong, I like it.

-matt

[6'9"Witha69]

Have you upgraded the main mast yet?

Looks like good progress. I have a FE390 in my '62 F-100. Good engines. Terrible intake/valvetrain design, but good engines.

[Nessumsar]

One of the coolest builds right now! This things should be a hoot when its done.

Subscribed!

[wallaka]

The difference from stock is night and day. There's no body roll. No brake dive or "planing off" on acceleration. It does this and isn't harsh either. I had visions of going over a set of railroad tracks and all the trim falling off. That said, it is LOW. The exhaust turndowns scrape over speed bumps. There's about 1/4" frame clearance over my jack. I had contemplated lowering springs, and I'm glad I didn't get them.

I set it up to understeer a bit...I couldn't imagine all 19 feet sideways. I think that it doesn't have enough power yet to get me into trouble anyway, but planning for the future. I'm planning on a mild turbo installation, only 500 hp or so. It shouldn't take much to get there, and I want it quick-spooling. I just haven't decided between twins or a big single.

Mainmast upgrade next month, it takes a while to find the right tree.

[Bullockracing]

Awesome ride! I love anything different, and this certainly qualifies!!!

[The Stickman]

Great project. Good to see I am not the only heavyweight here, lol.

[dusterbd13]

i love boats.

one day i will build a NASCAR clone 63 galaxie (only done ti PT specs so i can open track it)

ill be watching this one closely.

Michael

[cobragt]

Very cool!

[asifnyc]

now that's cool!

[wallaka]

No huge updates, except tuning. Got the bung welded in for the wideband and the tuning kit for the carb. Looks like it was set up for drag racing; the metering rods were bent 90* at the tip and did zero metering. This means no transition circuits, just main jet action at all times. Right off idle A/F ratios shot under 10 and stayed there. I swapped to smaller mains and richer metering rods. It's not perfect yet, but getting there. Cruise A/F ratios are 14.2 or so at 70 mph, 15 at 50 but lean out a lot more at lower RPM cruise. Not sure how to solve this, maybe a larger main but leaner metering rods. I only played around with it for an hour or so. WOT A/F is decent, 11-12 at least until the secondaries come all the way in, the numbers continually richen up as RPMs rise. Maybe I should get a tach so I can see exactly where this happens.

Also got a Grant 960 steering wheel, classic walnut-rivited with brushed aluminum spokes. Classy.