Road Testing The 52 Merc (again)

For those not already tired of seeing this rusty old car tearing up and down the gravel road, here is the latest video from the fall of 2016. Some nice sunny days and autumn leaves. Plus the awesome sounds of an unrestricted flathead V8 exhaust.

We have finally figured out the carburetor problem. A simple adjustment and now the old Holley can breathe deep and put out some real horsepower.

The M68 Mercury

I thought it was about time for a new youtube video from Roosty6. This old Mercury truck belonged to my uncles and last ran over 40 years ago. Its home now but I have not made much progress on it yet.

Lazy Blogging

Maybe its a little lazy blogging just to post a link to my latest youtube video. But some days I don't have much to say.
I posted this "how to" video yesterday for the flathead guys who might find it handy when needing to do a compression test on their engine and nobody handy to push the starter button. Not likely a lot of people will find that too interesting. Maybe I need to start a whole new blog devoted to the 52 Mercury.
I got a lot of hits on the "Cutting Bulrushes in January" vid from a few days before. No critical comments yet.
I did manage to upset the safety police on one forum when they watched my hammer mill video from November. In which I purposely stepped over the moving drive belt several times, just couldn't resist annoying people I guess. It looks dangerous but trust me, its safe. So safe you wouldn't believe it.

Its Been A Year

As of tomorrow, the 29th, its a year since I resurrected the 52 Merc out of the woods where it sat for the previous 30 some years.

It was none too encouraging bumping along on 3 flat tires behind the tractor towards the yard.

Parked outside the shop all winter it was too cold to do much serious work but I did get it sitting up straight on 4 tires that held air, for a while anyway. 

By March I had compression on all cylinders and soon running and moving under it's own power. It made it's first trip down the driveway and back in April. 

A pair of new shock absorbers got the front end stabilized and more driveable. A set of new water pumps kept the anti freeze in the cooling system from self draining when it was parked. 

What paint was left shined up pretty well with steel wool and diesel fuel followed up with some Turtle wax rubbing compound.

The rusted out fuel tank was way beyond repair and a new plastic marine tank in the trunk solved that problem. 

A seat from a newer vehicle was a nice replacement for the raccoon ravaged original seat in front. 

It was almost a miracle that most of the lights still worked, inside and out!

It still has only a parking brake to provide some limited stopping action. It will of course require frequent driving to assure the valves do not stick from lack of movement again. 

It has quite a presence on youtube ..

Exhausting Work

Well not really. I refer to the "new" exhaust system I recently installed on the 52 Mercury on one of the many days it was either too wet to harvest or the crop wasn't ready. And there have been a lot of them. This video shows a detailed account of the installation of some new pipe and follows with a road test of course. Nice to have the exhaust exit at the rear bumper instead of under the passenger seat and sending fumes up into the driving compartment. The old V8 sounds better than ever breathing through an unrestricted straight pipe and idles so nice and smooth.

In other news harvest has come to a standstill due to crops not being quite ready on this farm anyway. Got a field of wheat swath laying , hopefully ripening. Although it is going to get a little damp if the forecast is right. I'm gambling on us getting another spell of drying weather after this weekend's rain so I can harvest it dry. Time may prove me wrong and I'll regret not harvesting it tough when I had the chance. By the end of October that 16 percent moisture wheat might look pretty good. 

Flax swaths usually dry quicker than cereal grain and the standing flax should be fine. Just need to get it swathed as soon as the weather permits.