A combination of things has happened recently.

My upholstery man has a shaky lead on a 40 Mercury Convertible about 30 miles from here. Supposedly over halfway restored with "some parts" missing. Supposedly nice black paint. No radiator which is supposedly unique to 40 Merc. Whatever.....

I gave it a "maybe" and just kinda forgot about it.

But the other day I had a brainstorm and remembered a car I saw at Woodward a few years ago. Then I looked out the shop window and spied the 56 Seville in the field with a complete and supposedly running Dual Quad 365" V-8. I called the owner and asked how much for the motor in the parts car. He gave me a good deal. Total price $000.00.

Okay, so if the lead pans out (probably not but ya never know) the 56 Caddy complete with way cool gold valve covers and batwing air cleaner goes under the hood of the 40. Plan A would be adapt to original 3 on the tree powertrain. Plan B would be a 37 Caddy LaSalle box with open driveline, probably use the 56 Caddy rear axle if not overly wide.

I like the look of the Woodward Merc but the spotlights would have to go. The white interior and boot would be replaced with red. Keep the Caddy wheel covers. Skirts??? Not sure but they would probably stay to keep the low smooth look. Maybe shave the deck, at least relocate the license plate.

I would not cut up such a rare car. Everything would be adapted, no cutting, no welding. Maybe a hole drilled here and there but everything I did would be easily returned to stock whenever that time came.

So that's the plan. Now all I have to do is beat the info out of my informer.

That would be one sweet ride! I agree, lose the skirts & spots. I had a 50 Merc just out of high school (1976) that had a Cad engine with the batwing breather, I thought it was the bomb! I really messed up & swapped it for a clean 70 1/2 Z28

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You can't condemn the bad if you don't commend the good

Let's see here. You know how we always rant and rave about chebbie powertrain's in Fords? Does that apply to Caddies in Fords? I'm not sure as it's an earlier model. But it's also a rare model. But then again, that Caddie motor is cool as heck. So, maybe it's a wash? Besides, who am I to talk? I'm puttin' a late model cammer motor in one of 168 Cyclone, LOL!

I say go get em.

Some 40 Mercs from days gone by.

I bought the Convertible in 1973. Apparently it had been a drag car somewhere along the line. The firewall and floor had been cut for a BIG engine set back. There were signs that it once had a roll bar. Note those GROOVY long traction bars that go all the way to the firewall! It had a 57 Chevy rear end with 4.56 gears on the buggy spring with about 6 plies added. Up front it had a split wishbone with about 10* caster and 3 spring plies in the buggy spring.

The devil got the best of me and I fabbed up a new floor and firewall and installed the '71 Chevy 400/THM 400 with less than 10,000 miles on it that came with the car. I pulled a 3.36 (???) center section out of a 58 Chevy and plugged it in. I put an exhaust system on it, went over the brakes, and drove it to Mt Rushmore SD from Chicago. And back.

Eventually it got a decent enamel paint job, but the somewhat raggedy top and the red and white 50's vinyl upholstery stayed. No show, just a cool bomber. I sold it back to the guy I bought it from but then I got a Model A that the guy wanted. So I traded the Model A and got the Merc back again.

I bought the Coupe in 1975. I had a 428 SCJ and some big ideas but they never happened. I sold the Coupe to get the coin to buy the 64 Galaxie 500 427 8V.

Maybe time for another.........

As far as I'm concerned the Dual Quad Caddy is light years away from the generic cookie cutter fits everything 'cause it's cheap small block Chevy. Caddy won't be cheap to rebuild. Nor will a 37 Caddy/LaSalle box.

I'm going back to 49 or early 50s when the coolest late model was a Fordillac. Ford dealers actually built these things and would exchange your flathead for the Caddy. Back in the early 70s I knew an old guy (actually the friend of my young friend) who worked at Nelsen-Hirshberg Ford in Chicago. The building was new in 1932 and he was there shortly after. One day he took me down the basement, an old dungeon by the 70s, and showed me all the old Fordillac stuff that was left over. Engines in crates and all the adapter stuff with instructions. Cool stuff but it never occurred to me to try to buy any of it.

So whatever.....it's close enough to "factory" for me........

Dougger, early Fords with Caddies were real hot rods in the day. I remember seeing a ton of them in car shows & at the strip as a kid. My dad had a '54 Ford with a Caddie engine & he used to point to them at the shows & stuff & tell me those guys run the same engine as my old Ford. His '54 had a 4 speed

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You can't condemn the bad if you don't commend the good

I know the Caddie and La Salle's were the hot ticket for engine swaps back in the day. Most of my experience with em have been in highboys and the like, however. What can I say? Sheltered life, I s'pose. (shrug).

I remember that Merc at Woodward. I dragged one of the group over there because of the factory gauges
were so neat. Kind of art deco.
The Caddy motor would be period "hot rod" correct

That would be really cool. Or, how about a '49 Caddie Sedanette with a built 460? You could challenge Top Hat John to a match race.

I like this picture the best. It just looks "too cool".

Ed, many years ago at St. Ignace I walked past a 48 or 49 Fastback Caddy and peeked under the hood. It had a 56 Caddy 4bbl air cleaner and a big blue V-8 underneath. I figured maybe a '56 365" in the earlier body. Wait a minute! That distributor is up front! Okay, a much later model Caddy 472/500??? No, look again, the distributor is straight up! Yes, my friends, a 460 in a Cadillac. Somebody had even spliced the stamped Cadillac script into the top of the valve covers and painted the whole thing Cadillac Blue.

I asked the owner why and he said that's how he bought it and it runs fine.

I'm likin' the dream. I vote for skirts just because they go with the clean body lines and the "vibe". The Caddy mill is pretty cool. I would think there are some speed parts for that mill at this point with the whole rat rod thing, but I've not looked. I assume you can bore that mill out a bit for more cubes if necessary. Nice tuck & roll red and white gut would go well.

Damn! That's a GREAT idea! Damn cool azz HOT ROD! I've heard stories about my grandpa, he was a Ford man and his Brother was a Chevy man, but the both agreed that back in the 40's a Caddy motor in EITHER was damn cool...

When you brought up the Cad in a Ford/Merc subject I remembered that a friend of mine has been talking about building his 49 Cad with a 460. Claims he has the Cad and claims to have a forged 460 crank from a offshore racing boat, don't know what the stroke is.

Can't picture a '40 Merc with no radiator. Antique car friend of mine said he never heard of such a thing, and added the Model T had a radiator, but no water pump. No air cooled engines then.

Back up a few words from the "no radiator" part. It says "some parts missing". The "no radiator" means that the radiator is missing and if it is unique to a 40 Mercury it might be hard to find one.

If you are putting a Caddie engine in it a custom radiator shouldn't be a problem

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You can't condemn the bad if you don't commend the good

If memory is correct, did not Ford sell Cadillac the plant in which they began making Cadillacs? Or maybe they were connect some other way? If so...looks like it's oem parts.

Back in the early days everything pretty much revolved around Ford. Chevrolet worked for Ford, Olds worked for Ford, Dodge worked for Ford, Holley worked for Ford, Sorenson worked for Ford, etc etc etc etc.....

Cadillac was once The Henry Ford Company, Henry was ousted by Leander B. Leland. And that same Leander B. Leland created Lincoln, Whom Henry later ousted to take over it.

1965 Galaxie 500
2007 Shelby GT500
2004 Marauder
1994 Aerostar