2001 Crown Vic P71 trying to figure out what it wants to become.

Never fails, If I go too long without a project I overcompensate. Well not really, I wasn't looking for this project but c'mon who here is going to pass up a dirt cheap P71 with 77k on the odometer?

Haven't seen the car yet, only owner provided photos. Its um, cosmetically challenged, but that's the easy part. It runs and drives good according to the seller.

Not entirely certain what I'll do with it yet but the thoughts/options are below:

1 - I had been contemplating selling my Abarth and getting a P71 or LS400 or something else big and cheap for DD use. I find myself driving the Marauder way more than the Abarth as its just more enjoyable on my long highway commute. So I wouldn't mind selling the Abarth and piling the miles on this one instead of the Marauder.

2 - Wash it and flip it. Based on local prices I could get 2-3x what I paid for it

3 - paint it and flip it 3-4x what I paid for it.

4 - part it out and used the drivetrain in my 66 F250 to give me a modern reliable FI drivetrain in the F250 (it is a thought I've pondered before)

Stay tuned, and feel free to offer up ideas for stupid things to do with a P71

No cruise control on this steering wheel.
Does that affect your decision to use it as a long distance commuter?

Driver's seatbelt has a buckle installed into it.
Does this mean the belt has been cut or is this a trick to keep the annoying buzzer off?

JohnRW1621 wrote: No cruise control on this steering wheel. Does that affect your decision to use it as a long distance commuter? Driver's seatbelt has a buckle installed into it. Does this mean the belt has been cut or is this a trick to keep the annoying buzzer off?

No, I never use cruise control on my commute anyway so not an issue.

Knowing the seller (speedycop) he keeps a stash of those buckles around to disable the buzzers while hooning. If it needs a seat belt I have a feeling it wont be hard to find :) And yes I have no doubt he's hooned this, look at the mud on the tires. Still, dirt cheap P71, I will hoon it too/

Potential chassis swap for the truck? The front clip swap from the 03+ cars are already pretty popular with the ford truck crowd.

Nitroracer wrote: Potential chassis swap for the truck? The front clip swap from the 03+ cars are already pretty popular with the ford truck crowd.

I'm familiar with the front clip swap, this is an 01 so I'd have to see how that goes. As much as I love the idea of making my truck a modern reliable driver I have some trouble cutting up 2 good vehicles to do it. But one never knows. More realistically I'd probably look to sell or trade +$ my truck for someone's roller project truck and build from there.

I'm going to say manual swap, but that's just because I'm too cheap and scared to do it on my b-body and I like living vicariously sometimes.

Go rallycrossing!

forget the front clip... use the whole chassis:

http://f100interceptor.blogspot.com/

Can't do that without cutting up the bed and removing the function of the truck. My truck still works.

I'll definitely be following along with this one. Hopefully you keep it for a while and dig into the steering and suspension.

I'm hoping to glean some Panther knowledge.

The_Jed wrote: I'll definitely be following along with this one. Hopefully you keep it for a while and dig into the steering and suspension. I'm hoping to glean some Panther knowledge.

I did steering and suspension on my CV sport. Nothing exciting so I never documented it.

Well I don't pick it up until next weekend but the photos and the car are speaking to me and I know what is to become of it...at least for now.

It's going on a banger rally! There will be a loose recreation of the original BABE rally this summer, July 4th weekend, starting in Philly and heading to New Orleans (because driving across NJ sucks)

Rally 2016 - Back to the Big Easy

So its first purpose in life will be to get prepped to go on a little 1300 mile adventure. Sounds about right :)

Well, the retrieval mission was last night. I don't think I mentioned it before but the car was 3 hours away. Luckily the seller's cousin lives near me and was headed down there so I hitched a ride with him (we're all friends so this wasn't some creepy akward 3 hour ride) Not forcing the wife into a 6 hour round trip for "another one of my rejects" went a long way toward marital harmony.

Overall it runs and drives very nicely. The steering is a little "wandering" which is typical of the pre '03 crown vics, my last one was much worse. A new set of tie rod ends should set her straight. It was a bit hot as I arrived last night and the seller and I both wondered if the A/C worked. For $500 I didn't expect it to work nor did I care. But it works just fine. As do all the other pieces.

The body is straight and solid but has a lot of flaking paint. At least there will be no major bodywork to do before a quick respray. The interior is all there, very very dirty, but its all just mud and farm dirt and everything is plastic or rubber so it will wash out easy enough.

Overall assessment thus far, it may be one of the best $500 cars I've ever bought. Quite happy with it.

Multiple panthers in my driveway makes me happy.

I second the manual swap... working at Ford dealers for several years, I always enjoyed working on and driving these. Cheap, simple and reliable.

I'll break everyone's hearts now. There isn't even the slightest thought of a manual swap in this for me. If I decide to resell it then the auto will sell easier. If I decide to keep it then its for my 70 mile highway commute to replace my Abarth which I dislike driving on my commute because it's a manual.

I love a manual trans car when I can go play on a fun road, but slogging along in traffic on the highway, give me an auto.

Gave the interior a quick scrub, I feel less dirty while driving it now. Bonus, found $2.20 in the interior, cost reduction!

Crappy weather today, but I wanted to accomplish a few things on the CV. First I jacked up the front end to inspect everything so I could see why it feels a bit wandering going down the road. Everything actually looks really good, no slop and it's all tight. Tie rod ends seem to have been replaced in the not too distant past. So knowing these cars are very twitchy if things aren't optimal I'm blaming the worn out tires for now and will get new tires and an alignment before digging any further.

Little things drive me nuts, like holes where something used to be, like the dome light.

Luckily it seems the PO had stripped a lot of little bits off another car and they were all in the trunk, including a dome light. However it seems there is a secondary piece which goes between the roof and the headliner that is used to mount this. That was not in the trunk. So a quick piece of aluminum and I made a little pressure mount that works quite well.

With that it was just plug it in and pop it in place, works great!

I'll probably never use it, especially since the police package dome light is still functional and much brighter but I feel better having the hole filled.

Ok I see a black pusher bar on front. Limo tint windows, about three different size antennas on the roof and it settled down about another 1.5 inches. Oh and get the spot light fixed. A nice new white paint job and walla instant people moving out of the way on the drive into and home from work. Plus ditch the window guard things just tacky.

Well at least here it would be as most of our staters are still using these. Starting to see more impallas and suv's now but those are easy to spot.

Only 77k... Never seen one with mileage that low not in service... And you got a center console box, pretty sweet deal!

When i was at the cab company and the first 2-3 (400-450k mile+) cabs broke down or whatever (in a 12 hr shift ) they would lease a "new cab" the lowest mileage being around 120k or so.

Good fix on the map light, those things were always dropping out.

If you have a door lock that doesn't have a key that fits let me know. I have maybe 20-25 variations if want to borrow them via usps. See if you can find one that fits, make a copy and ship them back.

Let me know if you end up parting it... I'm looking for a number of small bits for an '03.

GSmith wrote: Let me know if you end up parting it... I'm looking for a number of small bits for an '03.

Definitely don't think I'll be parting it, but as noted above the trunk is full of extra bits so depending on what you need I might have it.

jere wrote: Only 77k... Never seen one with mileage that low not in service... And you got a center console box, pretty sweet deal! When i was at the cab company and the first 2-3 (400-450k mile+) cabs broke down or whatever (in a 12 hr shift ) they would lease a "new cab" the lowest mileage being around 120k or so. Good fix on the map light, those things were always dropping out. If you have a door lock that doesn't have a key that fits let me know. I have maybe 20-25 variations if want to borrow them via usps. See if you can find one that fits, make a copy and ship them back.

Yeah, kinda curious, the previous owner got it at 53k in 2011 so it was pulled out of service with very low miles not sure why.

Thankfully my keys fit my locks, of course I keep looking for my key fob to unlock like I do in the Marauder but I guess I can live without that :)

Just got the P71 back from tires and an alignment, no more wandering steering...woohoo. Cheap fix considering I knew it needed tires when I bought it. Also found there is an adjustable lumbar support in the seat after all so yea for comfort. It begins DD duty tomorrow.

Been daily driving this for the past week or so now. Its a damn good running car. Shocks are getting a bit bouncy, ideally I'd really like to put Bilstein HDs on it but something about paying $400 for shocks for a $500 car seemed silly. But the monroes are still $250 and I dont like cheap shocks. So I went hunting and scored a lightly used set of Bilsteins for $80. Guy bought the HDs instead of the standards and didn't like the ride so he pulled them off and went to the standards, works for me. Waiting on those to arrive next week.

I had already cleaned up the interior but the outside was pretty nasty still so it got a quick bath today with a lot of scrubbing needed in the door, trunk and hood jambs where leaves had built up and rotted.

The rusty wheel look wasn't working for me so I gave them a quick spray with some satin black

And while I was washing it even more of the white paint flaked off when I hit it with the hose...I have a feeling if Im going to respray this thing its going to need a lot of sanding to get to anything solid.

But since it will be some time before I can respray it I hit all the bare spots with some rustoleum. Looks pretty good in photos, looks terrible in person. I didnt feather back the edges or anything and I put a lot of runs in it because I was just trying to cover it quick.

Still pretty darn happy with it, for the price I can get many many miles of commuting out of this thing.

Made the stupidest little mod yesterday that greatly improved comfort and enjoyability on the commute.

I threw a floor mat in it. With rubber floors who needs floor mats right? But since it never had any there was a hole worn in the flooring around where the drivers heel had sat and it made everything uneven under foot. My foot likes to be in a different spot but kept "migrating" towards the hole and getting stuck. So a cheap rubber floor mat and the drive in to work today was much more enjoyable. I like easy fixes.

and FWIW, Armor All branded rubber floor mats can be had for about $19.00 for a set of 4 and are pretty darn nice, nicer than the $40 sets the FLAPS had.