49' mercury m68 build
 

hey! i've been "lurking" on this forum for a while and finally decided to join and post a build thread after buying my new toy. a found a 1949 mercury m68 with a foot of snow on it and when a got the snow off she wasn't in too bad of shape. cab is good and solid front fenders need some work rear fenders are rough and the back end of the box is a little rough as well. no tailgate, front bumper or stearing wheel but those will come eventually through swap meets and buy and sells i hope. flathead hadn't ran in 24 years but my dad and i managed to get it rolling this past weekend. had a couple stuck valves and the compression is a little low but she runs. i'll probably have a bunch of questions for all you old pros so bare with me! lol!!! like normal this will probably be a slow build and i'll post more up as i do it but for now here she is the day i found it in a farmers field.

cheers, darrin
http://i872.photobucket.com/albums/a...d/DSC04307.jpg

Welcome to the forum.:-wink Good looking old truck:-X22. Ask away.:-blah We like questions and pictures. :-drink

Welcome Aboard! Nice looking truck!
We are wimps down here in Texas - We'd be holed up for a month if we had that kind of snow. We certainly wouldn't be outside looking at trucks.

You might stir up some confusion with that "Nickname" as there is already a Jolly Roger Joe on here.

Ben in Texas
1950 F1

Wow, nice looking Merc. Looks like the original paint is still on it ? And looks like all the Mercury trim is present which is a real bonus as that stuff is getting hard to find. Merc hubcaps ?
Looks like white or light grey around the headlights. Just had a discussion about this on the site. The white rims are interesting. I thought they would be red like the body.
Anyhow welcome from a fellow merc truck guy.
Greg M-47

Beautiful Merc!

Welcome to the forum! :-wink

It looks like you made a great score. All the special Merc parts appear to be there and in good condition. The rest of the stuff is easy to find. It looks like the old farmer had a couple other old neat trucks, too. Keep us posted on your progress. I'll be looking forward to watching this one. And if those are Mercury hubcaps, we'd love to see a close up of those. :-X22

didn't realize there was another similar username, don't want to create any confusion so if i can figure out how to change it i will. thanks for the comments, all the decals are there including the merc hub caps (are they hard to come by?) the only one i'll have to look for is the plastic mercury radio hole cover, it's split in 2 pieces.they original color of this truck was red (interior is still this color) so it was obviosly painted somewhere down the line.
here's a pic of the caps all in pretty good shape except for this one with a ding
http://i872.photobucket.com/albums/a...d/DSC04351.jpg
and a pic of the broken radio cover
http://i872.photobucket.com/albums/a...d/DSC04343.jpg

this is a pic the farmer had from last fall sittin beside the other trucks where i found it. 49 merc m47, 52 f3? my 49 m68 and a 60 longbox
http://i872.photobucket.com/albums/a...summerland.jpg

Wow, nice truck and welcome. Where is Kaleden if you don't mind me asking?

thanks Mervy49! it's in the okanagan, close to penticton.

Yes Darrin those Mercury hubcaps are hard to find. The M-47 are different then the M-68 ones. Most of the ones I've seen are dented and scraped. To have only one with a small ding in it is great.
The plastic radio plate is darn near always cracked. I've seen only a few that have been crack free. Keep the one you have. Might be able to repair it. The uncracked ones that I saw were priced in the $ 200 dollar range. Might be easier to find a radio.
All the silver/grey knobs present inside the cab? They are getting hard to find too.
Greg M-47

Am I smoking crack or have I seen/read about an aftermarket source for that Mercury radio plate? Calm down!!!! I may be wrong...just trying to help!

Cool Truck and Welcome to the forum!

Nice looking truck, Jolly Roger. And it has all the rare bits, outstanding. I'll add my welcome.

But I'm sorry to say that when I look at your hub cap, all I see is the wheel behind it. M-68s, like our F-3s, came with 17" wheels that are today known as "widow makers". The technical name for the rim profile is "Firestone RH-5°". You'll want to know about them. I'd suggest doing a Google search for the quotes above. There's been a lot of discussion here, so you might include my user name and FTE in your search title. Stu

thanks stu, but my dad is an old hot rodder and i know all about the ticking timebomb known as "the widow maker". lol!!! it's very high on the priority list to find a solution for this because i would really like to keep the entire drive train stock. if not i will be looking for a d60 to pop in there. i do need to get this truck safety inspected so my goals right now are not on a total restore but a running truck that i can safely drive and pass all requirements for inspection. i want to enjoy this truck for a bit before it becomes a MAJOR project. it's still going to take some time and work to get this truck rollin but that's ok!

@greg m-47 this is a pic of the dash i think everything is there but i'm not sure about heater fan control, may be missing. i haven't dug into that yet.

http://i872.photobucket.com/albums/a...d/DSC04362.jpg

Hey Jolly Roger,
So how did you end up picking the one you did from that lineup?
Were they all priced about the same? That would seem to be a hard chocice to make.

Ben in Austin