My Other Project(s)
 

I'm not sure if this is the place to post this. I have projects other than my Aunt's Vue that occupy my time. This thread will be mostly about the '86 Crown Vic project; as that car was part of an agreement I had with my Mom when I sold my 1978 Malibu (she really loved that car) 15 years ago. And I will post pics of my Grand Marquis and my Mom's current 2005 Explorer because I will be doing simple mods to them.

I will start with my Dad's former welding rig; a 1982 Chevy C20 that I call Putter Project. My Dad started his own welding business back in 1982. His 1st welding rig setup was a 1953 Ford F-250 with the original 239 flathead; paired with a rebuilt 1954 Lincoln SA-200 Pipeliner welder. In 1990; when the flathead finally gave-in to multiple cracks in the block; he replaced that rig with a 1973 F-350 with a C6 and 360FE. That truck with the C6 was a pig and he ran that for a few years before getting the '82 C20. He bought the C20 from a friend who also hooked him up with another 1973 F-350 4x4; with a 390FE and a 4-speed. The '82 C20 has a 292 inline 6 and a 3-speed. My Dad ran that truck all the way up until 2010 when he had a major stroke. Before he had the stroke; he had already bought a 2001 Ford F-250 utility body and a 1967 Lincoln SA-200 welder to replace the '54 SA-200 and the C20. He was going to junk the C20 as it had over 500k miles at that point. I intervened and agreed to pay for maintenance and insurance for it as a work truck and weekend toy. It was this truck that I used to cut my teeth with the other projects. I did my 1st front suspension rebuild on this truck (it's 2WD). And a year later; I replaced the fuel system as well. I had learned how to assemble AN hose assemblies at the end of college (I was very bored at that point) and decided to try it out. Immediately afterwards; I did a full exhaust on it with Pacesetter headers and a 3" single exhaust that consists of a Summit single inlet/dual outlet muffler. Since that was fairly loud; I installed 2 x 2.5" glasspacks behind it; and it quieted it down a little. I would take this truck to work in the bad weather as I installed some used 34" Interco Super Swampers on American Racing Baja wheels. Somewhere in between 2013 and 2014 it started missing and I got a wiff of exhaust fumes in the radiator. I concluded that the head gasket was on its way out and parked it for shorter trips to the landfill (other side of town) and Home Depot. I spent most of my time since on the other projects. Most of my pictures with this truck are held prisoner on Photobucket; and I only have 1 picture of the 292 on my computer. So here it is

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.sat...e6928417d2.jpg

The great thing about the older vehicles is that you have PLENTY of room to work.

I got my 2005 Grand Marquis in 2016 when I blew the head gasket on the 4.0L in my 1991 Ford Ranger. Since that truck had too much damage by previous owners; I patched it up so I could look for another car. When I got the Mercury; I gave the Ranger to my Mom so I could take her Crown Vic off the road for the rebuild (more on that later). I bought my Grand Marquis with 70k on the odometer. It was owned by a retired police Captain who used it for both business and personal. I just don't get why anybody would get a base model Mercury and not get a base model Crown Vic; or at least a P71; but whatever. My first mod was replacing the sway bars with ADTR units. I pulled the P71 wheels I had on the Crown Vic and ran them on the Mercury for a couple years before switching back to the wheels/tires it came with. Then last October I switched them out for 2015 Explorer wheels that were intended to go on the Crown Vic. I had to open the center bores up to 2.79" to fit on the front hub and rear axle. I like them; but they have Blizzak snow tires on them; and I will have to switch them out in the Spring (found out the hard way that I can't run winter tires in the summer). I'm still up in the air about what I will replace them with. On Thanksgiving weekend; I replaced the plastic intake manifold as that developed a crack by the T-stat housing. I also used that time to paint the EGR valve bracket and metal heat shields on the 4.6; a subtle improvement in appearance. The car runs a lot smoother now. I also started on my dual exhaust project around the same time. I had gotten a left-side tailpipe assembly from the junkyard a couple years ago to use as a template to build a larger 2.5" tailpipe. Since the passenger side of that P71 was ripped up; I decided to cut off the passenger side tailpipe on my Mercury to use as the other template. This I did in December and have mocked up the tailpipes in the basement. The mufflers are 2.5" Dynomax Super Turbos with the 25" case. I was going to run these on the Crown Vic; but I miscalculated the length of that exhaust and could not run them on that car. When I clear other parts out of the basement; I will acquire the rest of the exhaust which will be a Pypes X-pipe with built in cutouts and Stainless Works long tube headers. I wasn't going to do this originally and was going to do a more budget friendly single 3" exhaust with BBK Mustang shorties, cats (I was going to run 2 x 3" cats), a 3" cutout, a 3" version of the Dynomax muffler, and 3" piping. But these former CV mufflers changed all that. Almost forgot to mention that I installed a K&N CAI that I was going to use for the Crown Vic; but later supplanted it with a custom CAI with 4" PVC for the Crown Vic.
Pics......

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Man, that Merc is a damned good looking car. I like it. Bet it's a comfortable ride down the road!

Now with the 1986 Crown Vic. Most of my pictures on held prisoner by Photobucket until I pay the ransom. I have a few of the later pictures on my computer. I bought this car for my Mom back in 2003 to replace her 1983 Oldsmobile Delta 88 that died in the driveway. I was on my way back from looking at a 1964 Satellite when my Dad spotted this car sitting in a driveway with a FOR SALE sign on it. This was in a ritzy town; and I didn't feel comfortable approaching the house; but my Dad being much bolder than I, went right up and inquired about it. 2 weeks later; the Olds was towed out; and the Crown Vic was in our driveway. A few years went by and after graduating college and moving out; I decided that my 1st car; a 1978 Malibu (305sbc/TH350 combo); no longer suited my needs. So I sold it to the sister of the guy I bought the Crown Vic from. My Mom finds that out when she saw the girl driving my Malibu; and out of panic (not knowing anything about it), she called me up and exclaimed that I need to call the police because a chick car thief is driving my Malibu around town. I explained the matter to her; and she hangs up on me. As it turns out; she really liked that car. After 3 months of talking through my Dad; I agreed to mod her Crown Vic like I did with my Malibu. The mods began with replacing the wheels with American Racing Ansen Sprint 17x7 front/17x8 rear wheels on Kumho tires. That gave the car a nice; but updated Starsky & Hutch look. A year later; I did a full 2.5" exhaust that consisted of BBK Mustang shorties, BBK cat'd H-pipe, cutouts, Summit chambered mufflers, '94-'96 Chevy Impala tailpipes, and Pypes Trans-Am splitter tips. That set up lasted until 2014 when the mufflers came apart; and were replaced with the large case Dynomax Super Turbos. I really liked how those mufflers quieted down the 5.0L and decided that will be the muffler of choice for future builds. Going back a little to 2009; I did a full tune-up of the CV and made a custom CAI out of 3" PVC and a K&N cone filter. It made a difference with that 5.0; even with well over 200k miles at that point. It was that point when I came up with the idea of building a Lightning engine for this car. But my Dad shot that down and said I should just rebuild the 5.0 and be done with it. In 2011; whilst at the junkyard looking for Explorer engines; I found a F4TE 5.8L in good condition. I went against my better judgement and took that engine home instead of the Explorer 5.0. I was going to go back and strip the Explorer engine of its heads to put on the 5.8L; but my "friends" intervened and incessantly petitioned me to get better parts for the larger Windsor plant. So I started saving money for a better build. In 2012, it crunched a spider gear and I replaced it knowing that I needed to do more work. Which I did by pulling the rear axle and front suspension off of a 1990 Mercury Grand Marquis. I rebuilt the rear with 3.55 gears, a limited-slip drive, and a girdle cover. Right after throwing that on the car; I rebuilt the front suspension with poly bushings and Speedway drag springs. Those mods completely changed the ride of that car. I had a little more accelaration (very tired engine at that point) and it handled much better. This lasted until mid-2016 when I noticed that my Mom wasn't driving her car that much. At that point, I was dealing with dead lower intake gasket and a clogged pcv system. This condition put a bit of pressure in the oil system and that 5.0 oiled everything down. At that point, she was mostly driving my Ranger; so on July 11th 2016; the Crown Vic took its last drive; to the car wash; to clean the engine bay and suspension of oil and grime. When I got the car back home; I pulled the other vehicles out of the driveway and backed the Crown Vic in. As I was backing in; it died; and I had just enough momentum to coast to the back; where it has sat since that day.

@Rubehayseed Yah, I can sit comfortably on the inner fender and work on that 292. If I had the funds; I would opt to LS swap the C20; but since it's not 4WD; I just don't want to spend the time and money on that. Yes the Merc is very comfortable. I was initially looking for a different car and actually went to an Acura dealership at the recommendation of a co-worker who raved about his TL. It was at the Acura dealership that I spotted this Merc sitting in the back lot. I couldn't afford a pre-certified TL; so I inquired about the Merc and the rest is history. Funny thing; having lines of cars driving behind me on the highway and getting thumbs up from State Troopers and local PD hasn't gotten old yet. I actually thought that would be a problem with this car because LEOs don't like potential wackers driving anything that strongly resembles a police vehicle.

The Crown Vic Build

I pulled the 5.0 and AOD out the following September. At this point, it was no longer a pull and replace deal; as I had already decided to do a mostly aftermarket build with the CV; only thing that's stock are the block, crank, and rods. And in 2016, my job was really starting to consume A LOT of time. So the progress was slow. I cleaned the engine bay and started to plan wiring routes. In the Spring of 2017, I disassembled the 351W and was trying to convince my Dad to let me build it in the basement; but he said no. I was annoyed at the time; but I realized that I had a hard time maneuvering a full built rear axle out of there; and a 500# engine would be far more difficult to get out of there. So I sent it off to a local speed shop to be rebuilt. Because of work; I woukldn't be ready to retrieve the engine until the Spring of 2019; a full year after they finished rebuilding it. During that down-time; I asked that they paint the block Ford blue. Before all of that; I pulled the brackets and anything else that was useful off of the 5.0 and AOD and sent it off the junkyard at the request of the township (instigated by my neighbors). I cleaned and painted the brackets to be reused. I noticed with the empty engine bay; that there was a lot more oil that needed to be cleaned. So I pulled the engine mounts and cleaned the frame and X-member. This ballooned to cleaning and painting the rest of the frame back to the rear bumper. I noticed that there were a number of dirty severed wires that look to have been that way for a while. I decided at that point to install the MSD 6AL inside the defunct glove box. When routing the wiring for that I noticed that the main harness was looking rough. So I pulled the harness and realized that a number of connectors had been broken. So I rebuilt the harness on the kitchen table. When I reinstalled the harness I found other things that were missing or not made functional; such as the fuel vapor solenoid; which was one of the severed connections that I discovered. I took it apart; cleaned and painted the bracket; and replaced the solenoid and its connector. I noticed during that process the remnants of a metal battery tray. I had always thought that it was part of the plastic fender. So I took the evap canister down and grinded the rest of the metal off; cleaned and painted that area; and installed a metal universal battery tray. Then I started the plumbing. I got a gas tank and a Specter fuel pump to modify. I fitted a Holley 255lph pump in place of the larger stock fuel pump. I stepped the both the supply and return lines of the fuel system up to a combination of -8AN hose and 1/2" aluminum tubing. I modified the stock fuel filter housing to hold a TFS fuel filter. I ran 1/4" tubing to the evap canister and stepped that up to -6AN to the intake manifold. I knew I wanted/needed to run gauges; but didn't have anywhere to put them. So I got a center console from a 1994 Subaru and made a gauge mount from that and a piece of aluminum sheeting. Since I was also planning on running an electric fan; I realized that I needed an auxiliary fuse box. So I got a Painless fuse block and installed it under the dash. All of the added accessories run off of that fuse block. This further necessitated the need for an organized power supply. So I bought a bus bar and cleared the passenger fender of useless things like the EGR solenoids. When I got the engine back; I had much difficulty fitting it into the engine bay because of the aftermarket heads and the Ford Racing valve covers. The valve covers were for carb'd applications running a shaft rockers assembly; so they were very tall. So much so that they hit the wiper motor and smashed it during the install. After removing the wiper motor; I still couldn't get the engine in position; so I cut sections of the wiper motor box to get the engine to fit. I should have gotten different valve covers instead of doing that, but I liked the way the Ford Racing covers looked with the painted engine block. This caused me to thoroughly clean and paint the inner fenders. Then last year when COVID-19 became a thing; I found myself having reduced hours at work and more time to work on the CV. And that is where all of the little things started getting done. And they are many little things that have become very time consuming. Just got done plumbing the power steering pump and currently fitting a Flex-a-Lite 295 fan to a universal BeCool radiator. When we thaw out a bit; I will get right on that. Afterwards it's fitting and plumbing the trans cooler; and wire up the fan controller. Then I will check the car over a dozen or so times before the 1st start. I will post the progress as it happens.........

Pics.........


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I forgot one of the other major things; the exhaust. So my original plan was to run modified Doug Thorley tri-Y headers for a '67 Mustang with a 351W/C4 combo; 3" piping; 3" cutouts; 3" X-pipe; reduced down to the 2.5" Dynomax mufflers; another pair of Impala tailpipes; a set of 2.5" resonators; and Trans-Am splitter tips. I ran into a space issue as the mufflers sat under the rear axle (the casing that is). So I tried to cut the exhaust back with marginal results. I gave up and bought 3" Dynomax 17792 mufflers as they are 4" shorter. But even those wouldn't allow me to run the tailpipes; as the outlets were touching the rear axle. So I dumped it and that's how it will be. Also, I marked the exhaust; disassembled it; and sent it to an exhaust shop to be welded. Unfortunately, the exhaust warped a bit during that process and I found that my cutouts wouldn't fit; so I will have to address that issue at a later date. Probably gonna have to heat up the pipes and bend them down a little so I can fit the electric cutouts. Very annoyed with that; but that how it seems to be with this project.

Oh, did I mention that this is not my car? It's actually my Mom's weekend cruiser. Although I got her a low-mileage 2005 Ford Explorer; which she loves driving; she still wants her hot rod back for the fair weather months.

Pics.......

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You do some very nice work, man. I don't have the patience or money for that kind of stuff. Once you get married and your wife isn't able to work, money becomes much more important for paying bills, with nothing left to play with.

Thank you for the compliment. I am learning as I go; as this is my first real project; and the quality of my work is borderline sketch. Camera hides a lot of the flaws.

If my Mom wasn't into hotrodding; I wouldn't even be doing this; as I hung that belt up when I graduated college. But a couple disastrous relationships during and after college; and (married) friends who live vicariously through me; have kept this hobby alive.