[John & Shirley Harvey]

I went and looked at Mac’s Auto parts and they do not list the outside door handles for 55-56 Mercury, just Ford, so I suspect that there is some difference.

[John & Shirley Harvey]

The 4 switch module is located on the left side of the dash, on the dog leg.  The other 3 passenger doors have a single switch mounted in the panel. I don’t know for sure if they made a different interior panel for the doors, made blanks for the crank holes,  or simply installed the switches in the crank holes.  I don’t recall if my dad’s 57 had a blank on the door panels, or not.

[John & Shirley Harvey]

Go look at street rod sites.  They do this al the time.  The primary concerns are what will fit in your car, with the booster, the weight of the car, which dictates how much fluid you need to be able to move, and how much you want to spend.  Applications from Ford Motor Co, and GM are best simply because they kind of tended to have a few models they used across the board, meaning that there are millions of them available at discount auto parts like Autozone.

[John & Shirley Harvey]

My Hollanders shows that 54 Mercury OD is alone.  I have no idea why, but I bet that it you don’t mind doing a little modification, you can get anything that will bolt to the engine to work.  54-57 Ford and Mercury had overdrive transmission listed under 452, then they go from blank, through 452 A- 452L for everything up to 1962, including light duty trucks. I’d take a flyer and guess that anything that will bolt to a 272, 292, or 312 can be made to work.  My question is why do you want to go to all the work and expense of changing from an automatic (if it works and is in decent shape) to an overdive?   Even with gas at $4 a gallon, it is hard to believe that you will drive a 58 year old car enough to save enough gas to pay off.

[John & Shirley Harvey]

I used a color that you can get at most auto parts stores in a spray can.  I used a GM color called Garnet.  If it gets down to whether you have the actual “correct” color in your wheel covers, offer the judge a beer, which will probably have more influence than anything anyone else can say.  The factory never published a paint formula for the part.  After getting close to 60 years, even NOS ones will no longer be “right”.

[John & Shirley Harvey]

Hey Ed, how is the book coming?

[John & Shirley Harvey]

54-56 will bolt in, if you get all of the parts.  Ford used the same type system into the 80s, but it would take some modification of the tie rod among other things to fit it up.

[John & Shirley Harvey]

Just pick a red that you think looks good, and make anyone challenging you about it either prove you wrong, or SHUT THE     H_ _L UP.  I consider this the correct response to anyone who’s uninvited criticism about the corrrectness of your car is presented.  These are art objects, produced by successful artists, over a relatively long period of time, in several different locations, with many different suppliers, and there were running changes by the factory through the production cycle. There is no 1 “correct” for the whole production run.  Most of the parts did run through the whole production run, but there were changes made periodically, some of which actually were announced to the dealers, but many just magically appeared.  Then there were the first few thousand and the last few thousand cars of a model run, especially where the changes were not shocking, like 48-49, 51-52, and 56-57, that were combinations of the current year, and the coming year.

[John & Shirley Harvey]

Why don’t you just take one of yours as a sample, and make one?  It isn’t really a hihgly stressed part.

[John & Shirley Harvey]

There is nothing electrtical there, other than the neutral safety switch.  Have you been messing with the linkage adjustment, or has someone else done that?  It takes very little change to really mess things up. 

[John & Shirley Harvey]

Ed.

  Mail a copy to me, and I will do what I can.  There will be no fee involved.  I will get the pleasure of seeing your book first, and having some input. 

 

John Harvey

5256 Heritage Lane

Oakley, Il 62501

[John & Shirley Harvey]

It is chrome, but due to the texturing, it doesn’t shine the way the smooth parts do.

[John & Shirley Harvey]

Which circuit do you want? The shop manual does not have an overall wiring diagram, they have 11 different ones, showing only one circuit. Only the convertible top diagram is body style specific.

[John & Shirley Harvey]

What happened to the question?

[John & Shirley Harvey]

Yes, we are out here.  You will note that if people have nothing to say, they don’t say it here, anyway.  There are no personal insults, no irreverant referances to the desirablity of other person’s cars.  There are simply serious questions, and honest serious answers.  Sometimes I wish that there was more activity here, but I prefer the “professional” approach people here take, rather than use it to beat up on other people.

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