Second Wind: the 200mph Merkur

[Rick Byrnes]

OH
He cut and drilled some holes and what looks like access panel holes where I had solid heavy pcs of steel for ballast.  That entire section where the brown mess is, was 1/2" steel

Fuel system.  The external pump replaced the 3 EKP-4 Bosh pumps that I had in the cell for enough flow and pressure.  600 at the wheels requires a ton of fuel at 100 PSI.  My deal was long b4 the weldon pump that I run now.

OH Man, you have more work than I thought

My thought, put the ign and fuel switches on the steering wheel.  No hands off the wheel for de - activation.

Protect yourself with lots of changes to the cage.  We have come a long way since I built this in 1987/88.

You are doing Good Mike.
We will see the old girl fly again...
That is way cool.

[gearheadeh]

So, at Gearhead breakfast on Friday morning, everyone is whining and moaning about not working on their cars.  "The wife" this and "the honeydo list" that.

Finally there is silence.

"I didn't get home till really late the other evening," say me.  "Had to drive across town and back to pick up  the new transmission for the race car."

Dead silence.  I can see that they're wondering what that had to do with the subject they just exhausted.

So I told them where I was storing it.

V




V




V





V





V





They figured it out.  

Mike

THAT is just way too nice to store on the kitchen table.....should be up on the fireplace mantle!

[4-barrel Mike]

Rick:

Oh!  That's the steel plate that you were talking about that I couldn't find!  LOL.  Holes are easy to fix. 

My first reaction on seeing the external pump was "WTH?"  But then, "Oh, of course, he was running a carb."  The high-pressure pumps are still in the tank.  Missing is the plumbing/fittings that combined the three -8's into a -12.

I like the idea of the switches on the steering wheel.

Mike

[4-barrel Mike]

Started trimming away the rusty floor and understructure from the right-hand footwell.  Then mocked up a stringer from the subframe to the rollcage post at the a-pillar:





Still needs some trimming around the inner rocker. 

A lot of the color you see is ruddy red primer sprayed by p.o.

Some the best I've ever spent on tools was on my little plasma cutter.   

Mike

[4-barrel Mike]

Got a call from Kent Plastics this morning to come pick up my Poly windows.  Not much to see:





The shapes seem perfect.  I'm pleased and heartliy recommend them. http://kentplasticsinc.com/

Mike

[4-barrel Mike]

Finished up the passenger's side subframe support for the rollcage.  I used 2"x4"x.120" because I had it.  It's a case of overkill, as the fabricated subframe running on either side of the trans tunnel is 1"x2".  Just the heavy piece:



From the underside with sheetmetal added:





It's been a long time since I've done some much overhead welding, especially while laying on my back under a car on jack stands.

Then, in preparation for the driver's side, I decided to pull the steering column.  That lead to pulling out the steering shaft, and, since it'll be done in the future, I pulled out the rack.  Grib lowered the steering approx 2" for clearance and added material to the steering arms.  I decided to change it back to original now rather than later. 

As done be Grib (note the center u-joint which is superfluous with the four-cylinder):



And the steering arm with added material:



The rack back where it was originally:



And the extra material cut off of the steering arm:



Mike

[Tman]

There was some scary forkin work done on that thing after rick sold it! Some folks should not be allowed a welder!

[t russell]

I saw the car on it's first run.You have one very cool platform.Good luck

[4-barrel Mike]

Got most of a replacement transmission tunnel tacked in.  Turns out that the early Merks had a "narrow tunnel" and later Merks had a "wide tunnel".  Since the car is usually refered to as an '86 (including on internal Ford documents) and sometimes as an '85, I never thought that it wouldn't be a narrow tunnel.  Turns out that it has a wide tunnel and when the VIN is run on ford.com, it comes up as an '87.  Oh, well.




Now, Rick has told me that he had to massage the trans tunnel a little to fit the 5.0L scattershield, so I'll build the engine and trans mounts before finishing the trans tunnel and fabbing the remaining missing floor.

Spare 2.3 block with crank, spare Rick Byrnes-built adapter (2.3L-to-5.0L, 1/2" aluminum), fresh Lakewood, Tremec TKO 500:




Mike

[4-barrel Mike]

A minor milestone: the first time since 2001 (?) that the Merk has had a 4-cylinder in the engine compartment.





It needs to come up a little and the mounts made.

K.P., no worries, mate.  Plenty o' room with all the doors closed.  

Mike

[Milwaukee Midget]

Nice seeing this one come together, Mike!   

[maguromic]

Mike, Looks great!!!  Enjoy all that room now, when you start bolting things up it will start to disappear quickly.  Tony

[Kiwi Paul]

Cheers, Mike! I know we had talked about the clearance issues.....Full Speed Ahead....

[Tman]

Very cool progress!

[DND]

Hi Mike

Following your build, will the Merc be N.A. or Blown? What kind of speed numbers are you looking for?

Thanks

Don