It's very good that you decided to merge the sites. This way there will be more visitors, a bigger gallery and will increase the popularity.
When do you think the new site will be launched?

when you convert to subd's and doesn't work, it will be shown a message in the lower right side of the screen (in red). if you click the button right next to it it will expand a window where you can...

sometimes the Normals do that. so check the normals, invert them or set them to be in the same direction on all objects (usually on the outside of the object). maybe it will help.