Lowering a '49 mercury

I lowered the rear just a little by hacking on the spring mounts.  The front would be a bear to lower.  You would have to hack the uprights and spindles, I think.

Thanks for the reply Don. I was thinking,what if before I attached the wheels permanently I removed part of the upper parts of the wheel wells allowing the wheels to be raised enough to lower the body? Let me know what you think.

Bob

If you could post the instructions showing the front suspension parts we may be able to offer more suggestions.

I'll try but right now Flickr is giving me fits. This web site says I need to host pictures at a hosting site so I'm trying Flckr 'cause it's free.

Hi Gearjammer;

   Listen, if you turn the spindles upside down this will help . At the rear remove Both the front and rear spring hangers . If you want the front lower then do this .Take an axle from a twentynine fore and use those spindles .Glue then to the upper arms with a spacer below .I don't think you can do anything with the fender wells .

    When I lowered mine I cut off the front suspension pieces and replaced them with Corvette items .

gearjammer

Thanks for the reply Don. I was thinking,what if before I attached the wheels permanently I removed part of the upper parts of the wheel wells allowing the wheels to be raised enough to lower the body? Let me know what you think.

Bob

 

I didn't need to cut into wells, but I only lowered it less than 1/16.

Thanks for the replies everyone. I'll have to do some thinking before I do anything.

Kensar,I'm unable to send you copies of car plan. When I try to sign in I et an error message that sign in failed. BTW- what photo hosting site do the majority of yor  use?

I use Postimage. It's free but there are ads.

I downloaded that program but now I have to figure out how it works so please bear with me. Sorry but what the hell do I do now? I found one of the pictures of the directions,I clicked upload the a window came up with source and location on it what now? I'll check back in a while.Got some other stuff to do.

Forgive me for jumping in, but check this link-from the Revell site-great resource for instructions for Monogram/Revell kits

http://manuals.hobbico.com/rmx/85-2860.pdf

No problem.I have the complete directions for the car,I'm just trying to see if there is a simple way to lower the car.

Thanks but to be honest the more suggestions I get the more it looks like I may just say the hell with it and leave well enough. I thought my idea might have worked but  I guess I was wrong.

Bob

On the front you can probably cut the spindles free that the wheels mount to and raise them up 1/16-1/8inch and glue back on the upright. The correct way in the rear is lowering blocks between the axle and springs. If you have a good X acto razor saw you can make pretty quick work of this assuming the parts are styled cooporatively .

For me personally, specifically with the 49 Merc would be to boil the whole thing in a pan of water and mash it all down with a good stout block of wood and a hammer and call it fully lowered for ever.

Serious again, what you propose to do in lowering the body to the frame and underbody is called channeling. There are a host of things that need cutting and trimming and blending to pull that off to a convincing result. One thing beyond the wheel wells would be the interior shell. Probably not on your Mercury but in some cases the engine hits the hood. But this is something real and performed on real cars too. Here is a page of links and Wiki description: https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1&q=channeling+a+car+body

A picture of the X Acto Razor Saw ($13 and change at amazon):