1962 Mercury Unibody Pickup Project

Since it seems most folks here like to see build threads (with pics, of course) I thought I’d take the plunge and contribute mine. Progress has been slow for a variety of reasons, but here she is. My static display. My personal piece of garage art. The Merc:



Check out all its majesty!

It's coming up on 8 years since I first purchased this truck for the tidy sum of $250. But it's actually been more like a dozen years since I first laid eyes on it. It was sitting along Highway 11 near Girvin, Saskatchewan, and it wasn't alone. The story goes that it was originally owned by a man who had a plumbing business with his brother, and the two had matching trucks. Both red and white unibody Mercs. I vaguely remember that one of the two was a big back window, but at the time I had no idea what that meant (I’ve since realized it was a rare and desirable option). Since I was still a broke student at the time I just filed the truck away in my memory bank and moved on.

Fast forward to 2005. I was living in Swift Current, and I got a call from my friend. He had been trying to convince me for a while that I needed a project, even though I had no garage, no storage, and not even a driveway at the time! We had previously discussed what I would be interested in, and of course one option was a unibody Merc. So he called to tell me he had spotted one near Girvin. Red and white. The very same I had seen in 2000. My friend was even with me at the time we had first spotted it!

So the next weekend I drove out to take a look. She was rough!







As it turns out the second Merc had been purchased years earlier by someone who travelled up from the U.S. with a multi-car trailer. The seller said that both would have been gone if the guy had room for one more on the trailer. He also said he received offers of up to $375 for the tailgate alone, which he refused because he wanted to sell the truck complete. Lucky me!

Prep for Transport

Since my friend knew a welder from his work who did autobody repair as a side business, the decision was made to haul the truck to the Yorkton area until such time as I could afford new floor panels. So the next weekend we threw a junkyard wheel and brake drum on the front, along with some newly mounted used tires on the back, and away we went, battling freezing rain and tow vehicle breakdowns along the way:







The freezing rain made us abort the mission for the night and reboot in the morning, after "runnin' back to Saskatoon" to find some shelter at my parents' house. But we finally got it dropped off at the shop safe and sound.

The next step was to pull the engine to allow the bodyman easier access to the floor when the time came. So the 223 came out in -25 deg C temperatures...









We'd held out hope that the 223 would be viable since it had a rebuild tag from a machine shop that indicated it was 0.010 under on the mains and crank bearings, and 0.020 over on the cylinder bore. Unfortunately pulling the head revealed this:



Five of six cylinders were clean, but the bad one pretty much sealed its fate. I already had a set of 0.030 over pistons and rings I had intended to use, but the bore on #4 was so pitted that there was no way it would clean up with only an additional 0.010. So sadly this block ended up going to scrap, but a nice replacement from a '59 Fairlane was located.

The truck lived near Yorkton until 2006, at which point I was living in Red Deer, Alberta. I saved up and finally pulled the trigger on my floor panel purchase. The truck needed pans, steps, step risers, lower door pillars, and cab mounts, so I had ordered them up and had them delivered to my place. Some time later my friend came to visit for the weekend and hauled them back to Yorkton for the install:














When it was finally done I arranged to have it delivered to Red Deer. The driver was nice enough to help us muscle the truck into our snug little garage space.





I was pleased to see that the floor surgery was a great success!











And the new-to-me 223:



At long last it seemed to be coming together. I had the truck in my possession and a place to work on it! However, in 2007 we made the decision to move to a new house in Red Deer. It was a beautiful house and the upgrade was well worth it for more than one reason. However, no garage! So we built a shed to store all my spare parts, hauled the truck over with a tow bar and a GMC Sonoma, and parked it in the backyard while the garage was being built.

Once the garage was complete I was finally able to get my truck out of the elements again! I even fired it up a few times after replacing the points, cap, rotor, condenser, plugs and wires.

Over the next two years I struggled to find time to work on the project, as it always seemed that my spare time was taken up with side projects. Then in 2009 I participated in a charity bicycle ride, and as part of my fundraising we had a garage sale. We gathered up donations of stuff to sell and to make room I moved the truck to the parking spot beside the garage. I believed this to be a temporary measure but that's where it would sit until 2010 when we relocated again to Calgary.

After getting hauled down to Cowtown the truck was immediately deposited in the 18 x 26 garage at the new abode. Unfortunately free time is still at a premium, as the new house has required quite a bit of work (and re-work of previous "fixes"), along with the garage itself. That brings us up to the present day. Since purchasing this fine piece of machinery I've moved a total of 6 times. The Merc has been moved 4 times and travelled almost 1400 km!

The Plan

AS you can imagine I've had plenty of time to ponder different build styles and let the overall vision coalesce in my brain. So here it is!

Overall style:

Mild kustom with a twist. I'm definitely not going modern with this one. I want the truck to be simple, clean, and subtle, and mostly period-correct.

Suspension:

The goal is a nice static drop that's aggressive but driveable. Options include front and rear axle flips or a simple drop axle with re-arched springs.

Tires and Wheels:

A simple, clean look with blackwall radials and steel innie wheels in gloss black. If budget permits I may upgrade to a 16" or 17" wheel in a clean style that mimics the innies.

Engine and drivetrain:

223 with T-5, though the short-term plan is to stick with the 3-speed. I love the look of the 223 and have a bunch of parts for it so it'll stay for the time being. I do have a 5.0 V8 to serve as a backup, but it would need to be dressed right (short water pump, v-belts, etc).

Axles will be 28-spline. Stock rear end ratio is 3.92 though I have a set of 3.55 gears that will be swapped in.

Ignition:

Duraspark II with a distributor from a 300.

Fuel System:

Round stainless Moon-style tank mounted in the bed
Electric pump
Fuel cut-off switch from 1987 Grand Marquis

Electrical:

Complete re-wire with aftermarket kit
Headlight relays

Brakes:

Updgraded rear drums.
1964 front backing plates and two-way wheel cylinders.

I do have a plan for a disc brake swap that's been kicking around in my head for some time though...

Interior:

Short-term plan is to run a 1996 F-150 seat. Long-term is a sculpted bench in white vinyl.
Stock gauges and refinished steering wheel. The giant hole in the dash will be filled. If budget permits I'll add a custom headliner and sound deadening. Otherwise I love the interior as-is. The Hurst floor shifter will be retained. Audio will be a simple mp3 player and amp setup. The doors are already cut for speakers and have some cool-looking metal grilles.

Exterior:

Ah, the fun part!
Repair remaining structural rust and drive it as-is, complete with non-faked patina
Company logo on doors (hand-lettered, not vinyl)
Louvered hood
Long-term plan is to have the lower part shot in a satin red, with the upper being a pearl white (I have some factory colours in mind that should work well)
Tonneau cover

So that's it for now. Unfortunately I have no idea when progress will be made again, but I do know I’ve become quite attached to this truck and have no plans to let it go.

What an absolutely great story of your build on the "dream truck".

I will be watching this one with much interest. Hey, thanks for taking the time to post up the photos and tell us your tale. GREAT......

Nice post so far, we loves peektures. I had a 223 powered 59 ford truck and that was a good engine, durable. Not a powerhouse and barely enough to pull my giant boat but it loved torture. The addition of a T5 gear box is a nice upgrade. I did front disc conversion to my truck too, very good conversion.

...truly inspirational post...great history, great plan....keep us posted

Great pictures, look forward to seeing the progress.

Nice project ,great pictures

That's a great lil' farm truck! Just about what I'm looking to build!

Nice old Ford. I had a 64 but it was a seperate cab/box. But it had a poncho 455 and turbo 400 in it.
Wouldn't it be nice to find a one owner big back window short box unibody merc that's rust free?
If you had xray vision you could see that same thing in a quonset 100 miles east of Calgary. It's his grand dad's and not for sale. Been there in dry storage at least 25 years now.
Oh well! I'll wait him out!! LOL!!
Keep us posted!
Nice truck style!

Thanks for all the comments folks.

I left out the part of the story where I temporarily lost my wallet after dropping it off at the welder's yard. And when my brother and I had to improvise to get the non-running truck with no brakes and a flat rear tire up on the car hauler for its trip down to Calgary (we pulled it up with my fwd import DD, of all things. Should have had that on video, lol). So it's been an interesting journey so far.

shaune said:

Nice post so far, we loves peektures. I had a 223 powered 59 ford truck and that was a good engine, durable. Not a powerhouse and barely enough to pull my giant boat but it loved torture. The addition of a T5 gear box is a nice upgrade. I did front disc conversion to my truck too, very good conversion.

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I've heard that they're tough engines. I think it'll be cool with some performance upgrades but I don't really need to build a screamer as I already have an O/T sports car for that. This truck will be more in the low/slow category, so the 223 should fit the bill just fine.

Kermit said:

Wouldn't it be nice to find a one owner big back window short box unibody merc that's rust free?
If you had xray vision you could see that same thing in a quonset 100 miles east of Calgary. It's his grand dad's and not for sale. Been there in dry storage at least 25 years now.
Oh well! I'll wait him out!! LOL!!

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That would be quite the find! Pretty rare combo. I'm actually grown rather fond of the long wheelbase myself, as I like to be a little different, and I think they look good when lowered.

Just came across this thread.

U still have this Mercury truck? I have a 1961 Mercury shortbox, i also live in Red Deer Ab.

^Cool. You should post an intro thread in the Rodder Introductions section, with some photos if you have 'em. I'd love to see what you're working on!

And yes, I do still have mine. No progress to report but I am getting the itch to get the project moving again. Next on the agenda will be a garage organization to clear some room to work. Having multiple home projects on the go has led to a severe case of tool scatter, lol.

When someone said, " put a straight axle under it," I don't think this is quite what they ment.

^Gasser stance.

I hope you get the chance to get back on this soon. Love seeing more customs trucks being built!! Especially on this side of the border.

^Thanks K13.

I recently started contemplating how to get the springs under the front axle. I've seen it done a few different ways, with most being variations of a similar theme (new mounting plate welded to the underside of the axle). I've seen photos of one that used machined blocks to tie in the bottom plate to the original mounting pad, and another that used welded gussets to box in the entire area. I've even seen a simple plate welded to the bottom of the axle with no gussets at all, but that seemed like it wouldn't stand up to braking forces very well.

So with that in mind I set about to create a setup that is entirely bolt-on, and wouldn't require welding to the axle. The advantage of this would be that it could be entirely pre-fabbed, and could easily be removed if I decided to go with a different setup. I made up a quick 3D model in order to visualize what it might look like:



The beam isn't quite to scale as I haven't confirmed the dimensions yet, and the springs are a simplified representation. So it would require some tweaking but so far I think it has potential. The materials would consist of DOM tubing, keystock, and plate (which I could easily get plasma cut at work!).

This setup would require a slight notch in the front framerails, and possibly some fab work to the oil pan, depending on which engine I end up running. My 223 is a front sump which I believe would interfere, but my 5.0 is the dual-sump type which I suspect may provide more clearance, depending on the final engine position.

A very worthy build I'll be watching this one, glad to see NO SBC under the hood!

Kermit said:

Oh well! I'll wait him out!!

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Hum, must be an Island thing!

Many years ago, in a different life, I was chatting about cars with a guy (waco antiquer) from maybe Parksville and he was telling me a story about a old guy that had a hump back Dodge panel that the antiquer wanted. So one day he drove over to this guys place and asked him about the Dodge, and yes it was for sale or maybe a trade. So not knowing the old guy hated, absolutely hated, Ford products for some reason, offered to trade a nice Ford that he had. The old guy said “get off my property, and never come back!”

So the antiquer started watching the local paper obituaries everyday for twenty years until the estate sale came up and went a bought the Dodge from the estate and keep his mouth shut.

True storey ……………….as relayed to me.