1967 Mercury Commuter Wagon...

UMMM....WOW. What motor is that?

I really like the brackets for the pulley's and accessories on the front of the motor.

 

So cool! Great job on your Commuter! I can't wait to see this fired up!

David

 

Thanks all! The engine is a '69 429 with D0VE-C heads, mild cam, Performer (not AirGap) intake and a Holly 750. It should get me down the highway, but it won't be a race car.

The front end is off of a '87 460 and it bolts right into place. I really wanted to do the serpentine front end on the engine, although I did manage to collect a complete original V-belt front end for the engine as well, and believe me when I say that ain't easy.

 

pvan ,429 with plenty of get up and bogie sweet

 

Bolted in the radiator support and prepared to install the radiator when I realized I'm missing one of the lower brackets!

Need to get this sorted quickly!

 

Looking good! Nice work!

 

A little closer to starting it back up...

 

Been working on fitting everything on the front of the car. Now that I have a correct fan on the front of the engine, there is some light interference with the radiator.

So, I pulled everything back apart, notched the top of the radiator support for clearance at the top of the radiator. Then I pulled the lower brackets, drilled out the welds, moved the mounts forward, and rewelded them adding in an additional reinforcement to the bottom. Then I notched the lower part of the radiator support to accommodate the modified mounts.

Hopefully I can get back to finishing the plumbing of the radiator hoses and all new trans lines, and hooking the brakes back up. I have to (I should say "really want to") get the inner fenders installed so I can add the new ignition system, and route a few things that mount up to them.

Tomorrow I should be able to add water to the cooling system to see if it will hold water without pressure.

 

Here are a couple of pictures of the new throttle cable installation. They say use a sharp blade in a hack saw to cut it. I say, if you are a glutton for punishment, knock yourself out. I got a much cleaner and much faster cut using a cutoff wheel on the angle grinder.

And, yea, it did take a couple of tries to find just the right spot to drill the pedal.

 

Agree with the cut off wheel being superior to hte hacksaw. But either way, run a few wraps of masking tape around the cable straddling the cut line. Helps with controling fraying wires.

In your core support pic, looks like the bar running side to side is part of the hood release, but how does it work?!? Can't figure if it works 2 side latches from a center pull, or is a torsion spring (BIG!), or...?

Nice work!
Tom

 

It comes with a stainless steel sleeve that runs over the end (under the black plastic piece. No worries there.

And, yes, that bar is part of the hood release. Never saw one like it until I purchased this car. The way it works is there are two hood pins that drop straight down through the deck of the radiator support. The pins look sort of like an arrow pointing down. The hole they pass through has a spring-loaded catch that closes on the back side of the arrowhead.

The long bar in the center is used to release boh catches at the same time. I can't even imagine the turbulence that must be under that hood for them to require 2 hood latches to hold it down.

 

Wow, I can't imagine trying to adjust all of that on a less than pristine reassembly. On a center catch you can tweak/bow the hood up or down in the center to correct bad fit. What would one do with this...

 

I guess I will get to see.

 

We'll be watching...

Somebody pass me a beer...

 

"hey hold my beer...i wanna show you something I saw on Youtube"


otherwise....I have faith in you young grasshopper