Maybe some dog dish hub caps?
Maybe some dog dish hub caps?
One thing I have seen others do... since most old school wheel covers are 14” or less, they can sometimes fit nicely inside the center of a larger wheel.
You’d have to work out a mounting system to secure the wheel cover but it might be a nice way to honor the history of this car, while still being able to mount modern tires.
Bonus points if you paint the rims black (instead of white as in this example) to keep it stealthy. Also would look pretty sweet if you used the same champagne color for the wheels to match the body too. Anyway, food for thought and keep rockin' it. I’m really enjoying seeing this car out cruising it’s natural habitat
In reply to jerrysarcastic (Forum Supporter) :
Thats a solid plan right there. I like it
Thanks for the Dumpstaphunk reference! I'll be doing some more listening while I'm in the garage.
How about painting the wheels body color and getting a set of polished stainless steel trim rings? More subtle than the black plus some flash from the lugs and trims. Plus easier and cheaper too.
Oh and my Mercury man head is on my key ring and grille of my '69 Cougar.
Lots of good food for thought, thanks!
I like the big steelies and stock caps, that's an interesting look. I also like the sound of body color steelies and trim rings, that could be cool. Maybe with the Mercury dog dish caps my old man has...
In reply to Gunchsta :
We've run bolt-on spacers on our big old 'Murican yank tank racing at the 24 Hours of LeMons. We've only broken one, and that was due to us using the wrong lug nuts to bolt the spacer onto the hub. So, operator error.
Paint 'em black and you won't even notice them.
In reply to volvoclearinghouse :
Good to know, thanks!
9/22/20 Update - Minimal effort, maximum outcome.
Holy cow. What an improvement. Since I bought the car the steering wheel has had a 1/4" of play in every direction. I attributed this to the upper steering column bearing being destroyed or otherwise absent, and frankly didn't think I'd ever get around to fixing it despite the fact it drove me bonkers.
One of those "I'm not quite sure how to approach this and I don't want to make it worse" situations. Plus I couldn't figure out how to get the steering wheel center cap off.
It twists off.
I removed the center bolt and got my steering wheel puller out and the wheel came off without fuss.
Notice the alignment marks on the column and the steering wheel itself. Cool!
Next I unscrewed the turn signal cam & horn button assembly, which put us here.
Problem identified
See how that cartridge bearing is only touching like 25% of the area it fits into? Yeah, I can only guess there must have been some kind of plastic race there that has since disintegrated with time, allowing that bearing to not really contact any of the points it's supposed to fit into. Interesting.
No matter, we have scrap steel, hammers, and deep wall sockets for shaping!
This hammer is cool, It was my Grandpa's and I got it from my Grandma when she moved out of her house this spring. It worked perfectly to shape these little pieces of junk into a vague shim for my steering column.
Two shims in place, looks like we could realistically use a third.
No matter, we're equipped for that.
All three shims tapped into place. In hindsight I probably should have done this with one piece not three, but whatever. They're held in place by the turn signal cam and the steel retainer that holds that in place so there's no where they can go. Once I got those in I put a little grease on the bearings and popped the wheel back on.
I took the car to work this morning and what a difference. The steering wheel no longer floats vaguely in your hands - it feels connected to the car again. Granted, the whole thing is a bit floaty in nature, but it's a lot more confidence inspiring to have a steering wheel that is mounted securely. I'm tickled because the research I'd done online hadn't given me much confidence I'd be able to solve this problem easily, which meant I was probably going to put up with it for far longer than I should.
A good fix, and it cost nothing!
This car is just ooozing with style. Very classy.
In reply to Hoondavan :
Thank you! Now if we could get the driver to stop picking his nose...
Gunchsta said:In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :
I think the cool looking P71 steelies are high offset. The 2002 and older Panthers had a more normal RWD offset but I don't think they had the 17" steelies.
That said, I do have some 1" and 1.5" bolt on spacers left over from my Town Car that I could use, I just don't love big spacers as a general practice. Although I'm not sure this is warranted.
What is the classes opinion on bolt on spacers?
The 98-02 Cars had 16" Steel wheels with the proper RWD offset. The newer 03+ cars came with a few varieties of 17" Steel wheels but with a more FWD friendly offset. I ran the 16" type on my old gold Ford.
I think 16" is as big as wheels should ever get on a car like this anyway. 
In reply to Nitroracer (Forum Supporter) :
Those look great! Nice Fairlane
Gunchsta said:In reply to Nitroracer (Forum Supporter) :
Those look great! Nice Fairlane
Thanks! I've been enjoying your adventures with the big Mercury.
Tis the season...
10/6/20 Update - Getting Grounded
This barely begs an update, but I replaced the negative battery cable finally. The old one was very small gauge and the bolt on battery terminal barely fit.
The cable was almost too small for the clamp on the terminal and it had some play. One time when I was cranking the car my dad happened to be watching and he said it was arcing from the cable to the terminal. Probably not the best.
Old on top, new $9 parts store unit on the bottom.
Much better.
Woo!
10/12/20 Update- Took the car back down to Redwing with the wife this Saturday (10/10/20) for some cruising, exploring, and fall color seeing. It performed well, even cranked it up to 95 chasing down a Harley we thought might be her mom & step father. Once in motion this object likes to stay in motion - it's slow to get going but above 60 it has plenty of spunk.
In other news I'm continually chasing a tip-in stumble. I ordered a new accelerator pump diaphragm today so we'll see if that has any effect. If nothing else it isn't a bad part to have in stock for $6.
10/14/20 Update - Addition by subtraction
Additional mild custom points for 'decking' the car by removing the emblems on the trunk lid. I also peeled off the 'Monterey' emblems on the side (one of which was missing a Y and screwed in place).
I need to get some bondo tomorrow and some primer to seal it up, but I like it. The trunk lid looks really cool to me sans distracting emblems, and will look even better smoothed over and at least primed.
The back of the car looks wider and sleeker, and the lack of emblems to read directs your eye to those crazy double tail lights.
The emblems were really cool and a part of me feels bad taking them off, but I also think this adds to the mild custom vibe I'm chasing.
Plus, there is a practical application - my garage is small and every time I passed by the car I figured I was about to rip one of the emblems off hooking it on my pants anyway. I just sped off that process.
Turn the emblems into fridge magnets just so they don't go to waste. 
In reply to slowbird :
That is a terrific idea!
Dog dish caps work, but to break up all that beige and black I would paint the lettering red, maroon or blue. Almost any color would work. Car sits sooo muc nicer with new shocks!
Something like this ....
10/15/20 Update - big mess big success
Finished up the bodywork part of emblem removal on Thursday night into Friday morning. Ended up getting super lucky with some random paint color I had in the basement. It's not a perfect match, but it's closer than anything I've eyeballed in the past. I'll take it.
This is a GM color, BGM0457 Light Driftwood Metallic (33 WA5322) if I ever need to find it again. I'm confident the car was poorly repainted sometime in the past so at this point it's anybody's guess what the actual color on the car is.
Below are some pictures of the finished product.
I'm very pleased with the outcome. It fits the '60's mild custom' vibe quite well and I no longer have one broken emblem screwed into the quarter panel.
I also had luck with the 'rolling' the tape over method of not creating such a hard tape line when touching the middle of a panel up. You can still tell where I painted, but you have to look harder than if there was a solid line.
So that was Friday, on Saturday my dad and I went to a friends house to test fit some 15x8 steelies. They didn't fit, but I did end up getting some chrome dust covers for the front hubs from him, so that was cool.
The following will be Saturday 10/17 and Sunday 10/18 update: More mild customization
So with the chrome dust covers we stopped back at my dad's place and he remembered some weird old rear-hub covers I bought on eBay probably 10 plus years ago. I bought them for my Nova at the time, but they ended up being Ford bolt pattern not Chevy. I gave them to my dad figuring he'd have more Fords than I would... so they collected dust for 10 years and now have a home on my Merc. I think they're kinda gaudy and cool in a real 60's way, and go with the chrome dust covers on the front nicely. It's not much but it breaks up the black wheels some. I like it.
Sunday I woke up and started working on my exhaust project, centered around these fancy jobbers I ordered from Speedway. Bellflower tips; a staple of mild west coast customs. And something I've always wanted on a car and never felt I had the right one for.
I've seen the word 'fabricobble' used on this forum and I think it nicely sums up what I did to mount these bad boys. Stock single exhaust cut after the axle, split off to both sides, and out the quarter panels.
Flux core excellence. This T is what splits the exhaust from the axle to get it behind both wheels. Some straight tubing, a couple of hangars, and some head scratching later and we have Bellflower tips!
Not for everybody perhaps but I love it. Added bonus it sounds a little better too, throatier without being noisy.
Fun stuff!
The bellflowers add an interesting element, and sort-of continue the chrome line there started by the rocker covers. I like it more than I thought I would.
I like the wheel hub treatments, too. And the cleaning up and painting I think had the desired effect. The vertical line on the quarter is a bit distracting...perhaps a bit more blending would help?
In reply to volvoclearinghouse :
Thanks! I might try and wetsand or buff & polish that transition line. I'm not quite sure the best way to get rid of it if I'm being honest.
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