Accidental Grand Marquis Project

I want to see the before and after picture on the seats.

Love the car and the build. Recently acquired my first Panther platform (09 P71) and all things considered it's cool owning a piece of history with a V8, RWD, body-on-frame, full-size sedan.

I looked at a lot of MGM's too and was shocked to see how many cheap low mileage examples of these cars were around. Luckily parts are abound for this platform. Best of luck, I'll be following!

You asked for it. I was downloading the Eclipse photos when I found that my wife had borrowed my camera. This is the tunnel: 

This is a clean spot: 

And even though I tried to stay clean, this is me at the car wash: 

Now blink as I go out to photograph the inside and upload those photos.... I am pretty sure this is better: 

You can still a little of the stain on the carpet, but I can live with it: 

And I am pretty sure this is a problem, I am no expert, but I think I need to fix it:  And yes I drove 65 hwy with the sway bar dangling and clanking all the way back.

Oh and the house keeping is most of what I have gotten done. You also screamed about pictures when your avatar showed the need to upgrade for 3rd party hosting. The posting will slow down for a few days as I am a full time student at 51 years old. Software engineering with crazy math and the need to do minimum 7 hours of homework each day. Family things take time also. Be patient. I wont post the rest of the week due to homework.

As for turning wrenches, I have owned / built 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1984 Firebirds. a 1966 GTO, a 1984 short wheel base C-10 4x4 lifted, and, well, that is the short list, I don't remember all of the ones I have worked on. I built my first car from 2 vw bugs, got it running and had way too much fun, blew it up before I got it tilted and registered at 16 years old. When I go to work on it I will document it.

Finally, I am waiting for the title to come back from Louisiana and then I have to get it through our DMV, I wont be spending money until its in my name, so next week, maybe.

Personally, I am digging this thread, pheo ... please keep going how you are! Maybe the other poster who complained about the content is just pulling your leg. Hope so !!

Wow doesn't even look like the same car.

Saw the before pics and thought eh it's not TOO bad I guess (thinking it's a gray interior). Then saw the after pics and thought OOOOHHHHH it's a tan interior!!!

Nice work.

Sometimes the best projects are things you just can't make worse....

It's good fun to know anything you do will improve it, any method anything....

KevinGale wrote:

Wow doesn't even look like the same car.

Holy berkeleying E36 M3!

Keep going, I love this.

I see ball joints in your future as well as those swaybar links!

Keep up the good work, I would have probably looked at the 'before' picture and thought - nope, that's gone. Can't be saved. Looks like I was mistaken, after looks marvelous.

If you ever want to spend way too much money this is a good place to start. Some hop-up stuff for these cars. Also for some information Crownvic.net is a good resource.

My avatar doesn't show a need for third party hosting, it IS the third party hosting image. With all of the dead threads here, and no real solution in sight, I thought that it was an entirely appropriate avatar. When GRM finally begins offering on sight image hosting like SO many other firms do, I'll change it to a pic of my C3. By the way, those seats look SPECTACULAR ! ! ! I mean really, what a terrific job of bringing them back ! What product(s) did you use on the seats and carpet? My Vette looks like it was left with the window wide open since new. A real mess.

Two_Tools_In_a_Tent wrote: My avatar doesn't show a need for third party hosting, it IS the third party hosting image.

LOL, The pain. I had to update 25 pages of photos on my build thread and I know I had it easy.

Last night the title came back from Louisiana, I took it to the DMV and they accepted it this time! She's mine, all mine! Reflecting on that statement it's kind of sad I am so happy about the bundle of work ahead of me. Last night I ditched some homework and I put it up on solid concrete blocks last night so I could crawl under it.  And I knew sort of what I would find under the car.  So Friday if I am not driving back down to Louisiana I plan to attack the Kansas City u pull type places and find a wiring harness. We may be driving all day Saturday and Sunday to deliver something, I don't know yet. We have been calling it Gertrude, or Gerti. Gertrude actually means "strong spear". Looking at all the damage, I am even more impressed with Ford engineering. This my 3rd Ford, a 1966 F100 (352 ci, 3 on the tree), and an '84 Courier that I drove all over Alaska were the other 2. @Two_Tools -- Cleaning the seats, Dawn, water and elbow grease, just found out someone else takes them to the carwash and uses that to clean really dirty seats! Also, I have to say now that I know you put that up for your avatar, its funny. I am new here and wondered why they didn't host photos, probably bandwidth issues. Like TED_fiestaHP said, if you can't screw it up, you have no fear and it can only get better. @Gunchsta -- thanks for the website, I haven't looked yet but will soon. I am going to start with a full front end kit (Moog parts) and add the sway bar links. The kit comes with upper/lower a arms, tie rod ends, everything. I feel kind of funny about getting those parts from a junk yard. Those flat concrete plates in the photo are steel reinforced concrete for the jack stands so I can just pull the entire front end apart.

I'll be curious to hear how your KC u-pull excursion goes. I got a trailer hitch and a couple of interior trim pieces for my P71 from the one at I-435 and Truman Road over there. they had a couple rows of these cars last year (and I'm sure they still do). If there are other good yards over there, I'll be happy to hear it. I get over that way from time to time for Family and Work.

The interior looks fabulous! That front end rebuild is going to feel great, I'm sure. My car will get some suspension attention over the winter, I think.

Bummer about the 02 sensor wiring but Gerti doesn't look very leaky under there, so that's a good sign!

If I didn't already mention it, and your car doesn't have one, look for rear sway bars while you're at the U-pull yard. They're cheap and I thought mine made a huge difference in the handling of the car over not having one. Better road feel as well.

MAN does that car ever bring back memories, you're going to have a blast with it. Once things are sorted out and the engine tuned, they perform surprisingly well for such a large vehicle. Make extra sure that you get a really precise speed balance on all for wheels, maybe something to do with the comfy car suspension settings (?), but it makes a huge difference between just average and terrifyingly superb at excessive highway speeds. I have a pair of nearly new snow tires mounted on steel wheels that you're welcome to, also have the cut pile spare tire cover. I live in Massachusetts, if you know anyone who's up here on vacation, have them stop by for them.

Update, got to the Truman Rd Pick-N-Pull, found a turn signal lense that was good, and the wiring harness I need. But I had to cut it to get it out, it crosses the top of the transmission and is secured there. I couldn't drop the transmission to get to it. And to put it in I will have to drop the cats and loosen the cross member, and lower the transmission.

Got the transmission range switch that OBD-2 said is bad, but that is most likely the wiring.

Cutting a wiring harness in half sounds bad, but its complete unlike the one in the car, I just have to splice the wires. I'll take pictures of the one that is in the car when I get it out. I can see and feel chew marks all over it, but I can't get a decent picture.

Saw several rear sway bars, I am going to check the frame on mine to make sure they will work, they mounted directly under the axle, if I remember right mine has the mount in front of the axle.

I forgot to grab a rear rotor. the right one on my car has serious grooves worn into it.

If the rear springs are saggy, p71 rear springs are stiffer.

If you can manage to find an hpp package rear swaybar it is 21mm, its a fantastic upgrade.

Sounds like a project after my own heart! My brother once admonished me on a Ranger I had picked up from the oil field. He wondered why I had changed the interior to blue! If I could count the number of times I stripped an interior and powerwashed everything with purple or green or once even yellow stuff I might declare myself stupid.

Making the list of broke stuff and watching as you cross them off is a wonderful thing.

Bruce

Great story to read, I like your style of blunt humour. Thanks! Will be looking for the next chapter

Today started out nice. Cool, no real plans. We had just finished a large project that really had taken our time and was stressful. I told my wife, “I think I’ll go to Pick-N-Pull and find a few parts.” She wondered if she should go. I forgot that she is part vampire and will burst into flame when left in the sun for 3 to 4 seconds. I thought she might find it interesting so I said, “Sure, you might find it interesting.” Idiot. I figured it wouldn’t be real busy being Labor Day weekend. We packed a lunch and planned to go to several yards. As I roll into the Winner road location it was a complete mad house! There were people everywhere! They were having a sale! Everybody knew this but me, and people planned to make the most of the ½ price stuff. Standing in line to get in like it was some rock concert I was holding my 50 lb tool box looking around for a cart. The first time I brought my own 2-wheel dolly. But they were around so I figured I would skip using mine. Bev was holding a 4 way and goggles, she was the color of rare roast beef. I was beginning to realize this might have been a bad idea. And there are NO carts anywhere. Oh, and the temperature is rising fast. The sun is brightly shining. That’s supposed to be a happy thing but I have never understood that saying because I don’t deal well with heat. Bev had slathered 2,000,000 sunblock on in a vain attempt to stop from bursting into flame. We tend to hide in the summer and kayak and stuff fall, winter and spring, then hide again. Off into the yard – I find the small selection of Panther bodies and start looking at a rear rotor. It looked pretty good, much better than the one on the car. About the time I have everything loose I see the “Min 13 mm”. I pull out my trusty dial caliper, 12.9 mm. It didn’t need turned but if the inspection guys check it, dang. This rotor is on my car: 

Meanwhile Bev has been darting from shade to shade and looking for hub caps and headlight assemblies. Yeah, hub caps. See my mom might drive this car (not) and we sent her a picture on the phone. Her comment was “I would want hub caps.” She didn’t think anything about the flat tire, gravel in the water pump and she will never know about the rat thing, ugh, bad memory, but it was hub caps that bothered her. Bev and I have had way too much fun with hubcap jokes since then. But I am going to find blanky blank hub caps. If it kills me. And it might. So, Bev comes up and tells me she has found 2, come look at them. She is slightly less red than a Stop sign. I gather the tools and check out her find. Sure enough she has found blanky-blank hubcaps. But I am looking at the tires. The 2 match and the tread is good enough to get past inspection. Being on an extremely tight (nonexistent) budget $8 tires and $6 wheels look pretty good. Oh, and I snagged the hub cap, the other was busted. I found a third mounted tire with good tread, hey, this is starting to look up. Then I look at the scorching, sun baked, gravel maze back to the shade of the building. Bev is glowing, if she was knife blade she would have been ready for the final quench. And no carts, anywhere. This is the beginning of a relay race, 3 tires, a hubcap, a tool box and partridge in a pear tree. I got the first 2 tires close and then toted the tool box to edge of the shade and told Bev to wait there. She kept toting the tool box, bless her heart, but I figure if she kept it up she would fall over dead. I went back and rolled the last tire from the car. I got it within 100 feet and rolled / kicked it at her, in the shade, and went back for the 2 at the end of the row. Fast forward through lunch in the truck, oh wait, I had thought we would have a nice picnic lunch somewhere, that thought was this morning when it was cool. Now we just sat in the truck, a/c on max, drenched in sweat, sandwich stuff everywhere and ate. The good thing was the coke was cold, and I had a full stomach. Bev was down to a dull red heat. I guess it was the heat affecting my judgement, I went to the other Pick-N-Pull. Yeah, Really. I had seen 2 hubcaps there on my first visit. I grabbed just what I needed, left Bev in the truck and marched in. And waited, and waited. Not as crazy as the first but still busy. Long story short, I looked at all of the Panther bodies, got one of the hubcaps and went back out. I needed a wrench I didn’t have to get the bolt out of it. I took a socket set and went in again. Yes, I am stupid, I freely admit that. 10 minutes later I still didn’t have that blanky-blank hubcap off. It was rounded just enough I couldn’t get it loose. I tried holding my jaw just right, I tried different angles. No love. I thought about smashing the center out, then the hubcap would come off. I thought about it for a few seconds. I will be back. It was the heat. Walking out I saw a clean carpet for the trunk, hubcap be blanky-blanked, I was not going to leave empty handed. I need that carpet, my therapist told me I needed that carpet. Ok, if I had a therapist they would tell me that.  And that is where the day went south. Below are pictures of the tires. The tread is full of mud on one so it looks like bald spots, but they were pretty good for ~$14 each!

If you remember the mental breakdown after vacuuming rat poop out of the trunk in Louisiana, you will understand the next bit. I just mentally decided that MY Grand Marquis didn’t have trunk. I see others that do, but it must be an option because mine doesn’t have one. That is why I would need a therapist. I keep seeing other Panther bodies, and they have trunks. No trunk, I don’t have to open it. Life is good. So, I opened the trunk. The picture below shows a little of why it was a traumatic experience. I will say Febreze is amazing stuff, I bombed it with Febreze before I drove back from Louisiana and it really did kill the smell. 

I think the white powder is some kind of carpet cleaner that was sprinkled in there to help kill the smell. You know that I hate mice and rats, so as I was lifting the carpet out and saw a mouse running for the support, my arm, I twitched. The mouse flew … Before you think about animal abuse, I found out in physics class that you can drop a mouse from 2 stories up and because of the small mass and air resistance of the fur and all the mouse will land unharmed. So the 2 stories I threw that mouse did not hurt it at all. Unfortunately it landed safety next to the car and ran back under it. I am also proud to say that I didn’t scream or squeal. I think I was just too tired at this point. Then I saw the rat crap that had been under the carpet, and nests, and other things I just do not want to think about. One word, Bleach.  Yeah, I beached the trunk after I vacuumed all the crap out. I have a good used shop vac for sale.... 

We scrubbed it with an old mop that goes into the trash. Its currently drying, and then the fresh new junkyard carpet will be put in. On a positive note, it is now, finally, clean and the title came in this week. I am going to rearrange the barn so I can tear it apart and start on the real work this next week!

Lovin' it!

That's a pretty good deal on tires/wheels. Some stuff at those places is priced kind of high...other stuff pretty reasonable. The sale sure seems to help, though!

I don't like the sun either. I can handle heat if I don't have to be in sun. But the sun is not my friend.

Oh...and I don't think the state inspection includes measuring rotors. The machine shop just won't turn them anymore. They'll inspect your pad thickness at inspection time.