In this issue I get back to my roots of traditional custom car restyling. This, fellow R&C readers, is my design preference, and this time it's personal, as this issue's little ditty is my own '54 Vicky project car.
I've always liked '52-54 Fords, but I really love the Mercs. If you really look at a Ford or Merc of this vintage you'll notice that the Fords look pudgier. That's because the Merc is longer in wheelbase, and more specifically in the rear quarters, by as much as 4 - 8 inches depending on which 2 years you compare.
When I started laying lines on paper, I lengthened the rear quarters roughly 5 inches. I then used a shortened '52 Merc front lower bumper as a roll pan to give the car the Merc look as a starting point. With that completed, I chopped 3 inches at the A-pillar and 6 inches at the C-pillar and replaced the rear glass with one from a Volvo P1800 thus reducing the greenhouse and instilling fastback posture to the new roofline.
The front grille bar is a smoothed '54 Chevy, the headlights are frenched with Merc rims and bezels. I kept the stock Ford side trim and added Merc spears on the rear fender bulges, the V-8 emblems were lifted from a '38 Ford pickup.
One of the problems with stock '52-54 Fords are the pinched wheel arches. They give the car a sloth-like feel. I reshaped them front and rear by sweeping the trailing edges toward the rear to give them forward motion.
The tail of the car has forward-slanted frenched taillight rims with hand made lenses silk screened, so when lit blazing red Iron Crosses radiate like afterburners. The exhaust exits through modified '58-60 Corvette trumpet/bumpers grafted on to '63-67 Corvette bumperettes turned up side down leaning next to the frenched license plate in James Dean-like fashion. The stock rear bumper became the center section of the rear roll pan.
The dash was restyled by mounting a '57 T-bird instrument pod in favor of the stock '54 unit. Refaced Auto Meter gauges replaced the stock Ford instruments. The seats were replaced with a set of early-'60s T-Birds stitched in traditional tuck and roll.
Propulsion comes via a 390 FE topped by a factory Tri-power backed by a Toploader four-speed and a 9-inch rearend. Wide whites have a strangle hold on chrome reversed 15-inch '49-56 Ford steelies. Airbags allow this sled to change from forward rake to tail dragger with a flip of a switch.
With a some time, hard work, cash, and a little luck, this Dream Car may be gracing the pages of R&C in the near future as a feature car, possibly making it the first custom from Dream Car to reach fruition.
To see more Kaucher designs be sure to check out my Web site at www.kaucherdesignwerks.com.