49 Merc bent frame ?'s and part search

[timdhawk]

My car is from N. Dakota and by looking at its frame has obviously seen more than its fair share of old potholed Nodak roads.


I'm planning on taking it to a frame shop soon for some gentle massage work. I have a few questions first to help them out if needed.

1. Is the rear cross brace where the shocks mount to supposed to be angled a little or a straight 90*? The welds to the frame rails on the top are broke on both side's.


2. Is this trans mount cross brace salvageable? If so, is the tranny mount location supposed to be angled any or just flat? If not, does anyone have one laying around or be willing to cut one off an old frame and sell me????



Thanks

[51 MERC-CT]

Looks almost like someone pulled the engine and left the tranny bolted to the cross member thus twisting it. Mount surface should be perpendicular to the welded end at the frame rail. Anything can be straightened and repaired, it all depends on the imagination and ability of whoever is doing it.

[rotorwrench]

That old 49 might have seen more than bad roads. My first 51 Merc was a hand me down and my Pop bought it from a little old lady that literally only drove it twice a week. By 1955 when my Pop traded for it, it only had 20,000 miles on it. The family and all of us kids drove the thing out to 150,000 and we had two pretty good collisions with it. That frame is pretty straight for all it went through. My 2nd 51 is a different story. I think they played bumper cars with it. Someone straightened the frame and welded an ugly patch over a crack plus it has two more cracks that they missed. I'm still patching and straiteneing but it is coming out pretty square now. Luckily, my 51s have a removeable rear trans mount crossmember. The 49 was the only one that didn't as far as I know.

The Overhaul manual has some chassis stuff in the back of the book. I'll take a look at that and one of my old Mercs after a bit on that aft crossmember.

[timdhawk]

Well, after studying the rear cross rail section, I see that it was built that way. So we're good there. So that leaves the last question: does anybody have another trans mount frame section laying around?

[Mart]

Rotorwrench, Could the OP cut out his trans crossmember and bolt in a 50 or 51 type? I'm not that familiar with these cars.

Mart.

[rotorwrench]

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There may be some differences in the rails after the old cross member is removed but it could likely be modified to work without much effort. The measurement to the center of the transmission mount would be the only critical dimension to get the drive train square. That aft cross member for the shocks & fuel tank support just sits relatively vertical in reference to the ground. There are extra radius areas around the shocks so that the big fat shocks will fit without touching the frame. Mine are pretty close there. As long as the shocks mount squarely you're good to go there. I'm including the frame dimesions from the O/H manual. If the numbers aren't clear enough, I can confirm them for you. I can also e-mail it if you send a PM. The transfere depleted the quality of the jpeg immage.

[51 MERC-CT]

Based on what I can see in your pictures this is one of the things I would do to straighten it out.

[Mart]

I too would have a go at straightening it out. It's amazing what can be achieved by carefully applied force and maybe heat.

Mart.

[51 MERC-CT]

Some frame dim's