Chase's 73' Merc w108 Build Thread

[V8Finny]

OK.......I must admit to being *****#1 when I first saw what you were doing.....I'm glad I kept my opinion to myself. That's actually starting to look ok!!

I think the slim bumpers should be about 1.5 inches higher.
Also, you could try others, eg W116 rear uppers, that wrap around further down the sides of the car...

Maybe you could even cut 'pockets' into the sides of your addition to sink the chrome bumper tips into, so they blend back into the body line

[lewda]

i will agree with V8 finny, i dont want to be that debbie downer or jerk off, I love your motivation and what your doing, im just not 100% sold on the front, but......its not done! So i think i should just keep quite. I would although look into closing the gaps in certain areas...although im sure you know that One small suggestion is, maybe the lower piece under the grille follows the line of the grill? Instead of it being flat like you have it, make it angle outward like the grill?

I guess my only biggest concern for me, being silly, is that both your fenders are now connected, and me being silly, is wondering how you would remove just one fender.

I love your dedication, keep it up man.

[Schmaudi]

OK.......I must admit to being *****#1 when I first saw what you were doing.....I'm glad I kept my opinion to myself. That's actually starting to look ok!!

I think the slim bumpers should be about 1.5 inches higher.
Also, you could try others, eg W116 rear uppers, that wrap around further down the sides of the car...

Maybe you could even cut 'pockets' into the sides of your addition to sink the chrome bumper tips into, so they blend back into the body line

Lol, thanks.

Yeah I'm going to play with the fitment a bunch before I make the brackets they will be mounted to, we will see where they end up.

I have thought about that but at this point I have to quit having "ideas" lol. But we will see, I do like that idea.

i will agree with V8 finny, i dont want to be that debbie downer or jerk off, I love your motivation and what your doing, im just not 100% sold on the front, but......its not done! So i think i should just keep quite. I would although look into closing the gaps in certain areas...although im sure you know that One small suggestion is, maybe the lower piece under the grille follows the line of the grill? Instead of it being flat like you have it, make it angle outward like the grill?

I guess my only biggest concern for me, being silly, is that both your fenders are now connected, and me being silly, is wondering how you would remove just one fender.

I love your dedication, keep it up man.

That's cool if you're not sold on it man. Correct it is far from done, I think once some primer gets laid down it will start to make more sense. Yes the gaps will most certainly be closed up. I like the idea of the piece under the following the point of the grill, I may have to play with that a bit, wouldn't be too tough.

Lol, yes I would consider that a big concern myself. I guess I failed to mention that there will be a seam right in the center of the lower piece where the grill comes to a point that will be attached together in some way and I will make a trim piece to go over it that will be finished to the same finish as the rest of the trim. That would be terrible to have to remove/install them if it was one piece, especially once the paint is laid down.

Thanks for the suggestions guys.

[Schmaudi]

Welding.. Grinding.. More welding.. More grinding.. So much welding and grinding.. So much fun. The front is taking me waaaayyyy longer than I ever would have expected. Mostly because I keep adding, changing, and improving it. It may be taking me way longer than expected but I want to make sure I really like how it looks and that it will last for many many years to come.

I considered a couple suggestions that you folks had and decided to put them on paper with my own twist. I am now slimming the original front upper bumpers that naturally wrap farther around the side of the car retaining a more stock look. I also added in a bump out that follows the bottom of the grill. I agree it just looked a little off with the grill protruding past the panel. I also decided after a bunch of research and chatting with my friends that it was indeed best to lay a solid weld at all the seams to help prevent decay.

The curved corners are almost all closed up, the sides are cut to flow into the wheel wells, and I completely welded up the drivers side of the panel. These things still need some tweaking to get them perfect but I'm getting closer to moving on to the next step.

Not too many pics, I was dead after working on it last night so I will put up some more after I get a little farther along..



Action shot.











Over the next week or so I need to finish this front end. I need to make brackets to mount the corner bumpers on still, finish all of the welds, grind everything smooth, prepare the backside for POR15/undercoating, and lay down the fiberglass.

[lewda]

nice dude, i think the bump out looks great, just one of those small details that really helps. nice progress!

[mrkrinkle]

The piece following the grille completely does it for me. That looks %100 better man.

[ryanjblajda]

i dig that front.

[Schmaudi]

Over the past week I have been trying to button up a lot of different things.

I figured I would take a stab at the undercoating in the wheel wells considering I want to have it all removed prior to priming it.

This shit is nasty, really nasty. Lol. I'm so happy with how clean it was under there. But I am happy that I am removing/redoing it because there were numerous signs that decay would soon be occuring.

This was my first go at it.



This one is very close to being bare.

















Ewww..



Decided to do a test fit of some wheels that were at the shop. I've been tossing around the idea of going with 17's and they fit perfect, so my 16's will soon be up for sale.





No I'm not going to say what they are

Next it was onto the doors. I have been procrastinating digging into them for some time now. But I made some good progress so far. There was one door in particular that needed a lot of love, because of some rot. I got a major part of the work done.





I also shaved my side mirror holes on both sides. Realized I didn't really take any pics of that. Oops!

Last night I made the decision that I am going to keep the cream interior and go with a different paint color. Really excited for my change in heart. It surely will not disappoint you, but the new color is staying under wraps.

Most of the welding on the front has been done, I just need to grind everything down and reweld some areas.

There is still a ton to do before I lay down primer I am realizing. But we're getting closer for sure...

[Schmaudi]

Not sure if I ever posted this. It brought back a lot of great memories for me and I'm looking forward to writing part two.

http://weareloweredvalues.com/post/36240166443/an-introduction-chase-kieke-of-lowered-values

[SD202]

I love you for this. no really. This is great and I can only dream of having the time and skill to do custom fab work on a car much less a vintage merc. you have balls of steel and a keen sense of craftsmanship I was skimming thru thinking he needs to make the bumper pointed bam. done. no need to critique this at all, just going to sit back and enjoy it. Threads like these are a big part of why I want to learn to weld and work with sheet metal. big inspiration keep it up man !

[Raarasutra]

Coming along nicely!!

[Schmaudi]

Took a little time off to gather my thoughts and recharge my batterys. I was starting to get a little frustrated and needed some me time. But now I have a good game plan and should be knocking things off the to-do list for getting the car primed.

First I layed down some filler and fiberglass on most of the areas that needed it. There are still areas that need more but the bulk of it is done.









Last night I dug into the task of getting the welds ground down on the front end. Needless to say this was a task that I had been procrastinating for some time. But once I started seeing what it looked like with the welds smoothed out and after hitting it with a flap disk, I was like a kid on Christmas morning unwrapping his first present.

I still need to do some more welding and blah blah blah, but its starting to take shape.



























I am also now taking the car in a completely different direction paint wise and style. I felt really restricted with all of the colors I had wanted to do. With my new idea I will really be having some fun making this thing truly unique.

Stay tuned.

[Schmaudi]

Well I never thought I would see the day, but it came. Today I laid down fiberglass on the passenger side. It was a happy day. I cant wait to get the rest of it glassed this week and finally move on to a new part for the car for a bit.













My flap disc gave me a little love tap on the finger, had to share.. lol

[TheNeek]

Good stuff.

[softg]

brilliant progress, not sold on the front end but I'm excited to see your vision.

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