I've been collecting information on the Mercury Speedsters for close to ten years, with the intention of some day building a model of one. I finally found the patent numbers for the Mercury Speedster body in late 1997. The patent numbers allowed me to obtain copies of the drawings from the patent office. I began building the model in 1998.
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| These are pages from the patent drawings I obtained. They were scanned, scaled and printed at 1/24th scale to be used as templates in building the model. Click on the image to view a large version of the drawing. |
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Patent No. 1,360,656
Sheet 1 (1,148k) Sheet 2 (1,082k) Sheet 3 (1,119k) Page 1 (344k) Page 2 (372k) Page 3 (163k) |
Patent No. 56,884 D
Sheet 1 (937k) Page 1 (92k) |
| The body was fashioned from flat .020" styrene sheet formed over .040" styrene bulkheads. The sheet metal developments from the scaled patent drawings were used as patterns to cut the styrene. After the first layer of .020" sheet was in place, a second layer was added on the inside to strengthen the body. The body is shown here on a modified AMT Model "T" chassis. The chassis modifications include a doglegged rear frame and dropped front axle. The scaled patent drawings also provided the pattern for the dogleg modification. |
| The molding around the "cockpit" was added using styrene half-round strip. A new hood was also scratch built from sheet styrene. I was not satisfied with the original front axle modifications, so a new dropped front axle was fashioned using styrene sheet and rod stock. |
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