1949 Mercury Convertible Restoration Part 28
Submitted by Auto Restoration 101 Blog
After the left quarter panel was epoxy primed it was time to finish the repairs to the outer tail panel or trunk latch panel which ever you want to call it. Earlier when we were repairing the trunk floor we had replaced some metal on the inner latch panel but we never finished the outer part. The chassis is starting to come together also. I had to locate a clutch pivot which took some time. We should have the parts for the lower “A’ arms sometime next week. All of the brake lines are finished and next is the fuel line.
We repaired some more rust on the outer rear trunk latch panel. Here you can see the patch that we welded in.
I had to do some searching for these also. They are not shown for sale in any of the major parts suppliers catalogs. Actually they discontinued selling a complete replacement rear shackle kit for the car. You can get the front spring bolt and bushings but not the rear. When I received the front leaf spring bolt and rubber bushing kit, the rubber bushings had a company name and number on them which led me to Rare Parts. They sell the bushings individually, so I just had to order eight of them for the rear spring and shackle. Since the shackle is not available I had to do some repairs to the originals. They were rust pitted and worn a little. Nothing that a little welding couldn’t take care of.
This is the clutch arm pivot ball that took some time to locate. I found this one from Mercury Land in Nebraska. You can see how worn out the original one was. I can’t believe no one makes these. Maybe not enough demand?
This is the clutch arm, the spring and pivot ball to show you what it goes to. The bushing is missing in this picture. The bushings are available, but they are not brass as they were originally. They are now phenolic.
This is the clutch arm pivot installed on the bracket and on the frame. The bushing is installed onto the ball. This is something that should be greased frequently to prevent it from wearing out the pivot again.
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