Mercury Headlight Ring

[RalphG]

I'd been assuming the headlight rings were easily interchangeable between the 52 and 53 Mercurys. They look the same. I found out they are not, even though they appear identical from the outside.
https://youtu.be/fok9IsL1RmM

[51 MERC-CT]

Probably 99.9% of '52-'53 Merc's in US had the two piece, painted, stamped steel headlight door. (hundreds were used to customize '49-'51 merc's as well as other cars)
The chrome, pot-metal ones were part of a 'beautification' package that was offered and were not interchangeable.
If you want to use the steel ones just remove the locating fingers from the headlight bucket.

[RalphG]

Originally Posted by 51 MERC-CT

Probably 99.9% of '52-'53 Merc's in US had the two piece, painted, stamped steel headlight door. (hundreds were used to customize '49-'51 merc's as well as other cars)
The chrome, pot-metal ones were part of a 'beautification' package that was offered and were not interchangeable.
If you want to use the steel ones just remove the locating fingers from the headlight bucket.

Again I have learned something new about the old Mercs. A little unusual they would have the die cast rings on my base line 52 Custom 4 door sedan. They were painted body colour on the outside so who would know the difference?

[51 MERC-CT]

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Originally Posted by RalphG

Again I have learned something new about the old Mercs. A little unusual they would have the die cast rings on my base line 52 Custom 4 door sedan. They were painted body colour on the outside so who would know the difference?

Yes they did have pot metal die cast also that were painted but the steel ones were the ones sought after because they could be and were welded.
This is an example of the Merc headlight doors in their second life.