Below are photo's supplied by our forum member sidesho_bob1961. They were photo's recovered from the Ford Archives. Thank you Bob for sharing!!
Mercury Monterey sedan 1958 pass front corner underside detail Mercury Monterey sedan 1958 exhaust detail Mercury Monterey sedan 1958 driver front corner underside detail Mercury Monterey sedan 1958 driver underside detail OOF Mercury Monterey sedan 1958 driver suspension detail, Sharp 1958Mercury Monterey underside

Rick, I assume these photos are up regarding forum member "sidesho_bob1961" post about paunt residual on factory new cars.
First of all I wonder if paint was ever sprayed on assembled cars rather than spraying groups of sheet metal BEFORE they get assembled.
I'm also puzzled why GM is providing those photos instead Ford. Mercury is under the FOMOCO group and to my best knowledge has nothing to do with GM.
Did GM try to spread that FORD products were manufactured carelessly?

Did "sidesho_bob1961" provide you with additional information on what each photo is showing. I can only barely figure them. But that doesn't matter.....I just woke up and my world is still upside down.

Thanks to both of you for sharing these photos.

All the auto markers bought new models of the competition's cars to examine and compare them to their own models. They usually bought them right off the staging lots outside the assembly plants. This car happened to be purchased by GM for examination. After GM was finished with it they in turn sold it as a "used car" at a close by dealership. I don't know if this is still practiced today for every year, but I would think when new models come out it would be. How these pictures ended up back in the FOMOCO Dearborn archives is anyone's guess.

That's intersting and makes perfect sense. I still wonder if paints were ever sprayed after assembly. I don't doubt it, but I'm also not sure if this was a normal process.

Correction, these photos were only forwarded to the group by Bob. I am the original source and photographer of these particular shots. They were taken with a rather inexpensive Kodak digital camera at a library table under an incandescent desk light, which explains the strange reflective artifacts.

They did not come from the Ford Archives, nor any other Ford library of any sort, but a public library. These original 8 by 10 glossies are accessible to anyone who pays a $10 out-of-state user's fee (assuming you are not a resident of the area). There are more in this series of GM proving ground photos, including a couple I took of both a light and dark-colored 1957 Mercury Montclair trunk interior. Plus, the same collection contains photos from the Chrysler Proving Grounds (including some of a 1958 Edsel), and many, many more from FoMoCo and other manufacturers.

A well-placed bribe may convince me to reveal the location.

I'm still looking for that 1957-60 Lincoln seat belt, you know.

gauss

Thanks for the correction Guass. I don't know about those seat belts since I've not seen thier like before. More photo's would be appreciated especially if there were some of the '59 mercs... You'll see a thread for a '59 Colony Park I'm restoring and detailed photo's would sure help a lot.

How about a Starbucks Gift card.....

Sorry, Shelby #18,

I have to travel to get there myself. . . it's NIMBY. So, I imagine most people interested in the contents of the library would have to specifically target this place with considerable expense involved in order to benefit from its contents.

Next time I'm there, I'll see if there are some 1959 Mercury photos. I'm almost certain they'll have some. The place has the photos stored by make and year. You just tell them what you'd like to see, and they'll fetch it for you and you can snap away.

It helps to take a tripod and a high-resolution digital camera capable of macro focusing; the tripod would have helped me get cleaner shots. Oh, and extra batteries. You wouldn't want to have the camera go dead on you at this place.

57-60 OEM Lincoln seat belt buckle, any condition, FoMoCo JL-56-A.

gauss