Accidental Grand Marquis Project

Dang!  Glad to hear it was minimal damage.   (I unfortunately learned about how tough panthers are in a crash last week as well.)

Curious to hear what product you're thinking about for "going goth."  If you're thinking about plasti-dip, I can chime in with what little I learned this year using some.  

Bent-Valve said:

Well its Monday. E36 M40 it.

Hit  deer this morning coming to work. A hard left turn and on the brakes didn't save the deer. Damage to Gerti it minimal.

Blew the right front wheel bearing, I think. It growls when I turn left at low speed, anyway something is boinked in there. Got a wheel hub at lunch and hope to make it home (before it fails completely) and find that that is the problem.

 

@Brap and @Accordian, thanks!

Did you make it home? 

*Edit: he's alive, though it sounds like he got the wrong part :)

At lunch I heard the grinding noise, got the wheel hub then took off a little early and drove home carefully, to find that the part was the wrong one.

So I hopped into my unreliable RX-8 to go get the right part for the broken car, the reliable Panther Platform.

I have to pause, Matt always rags me when I go get parts in my RX-8. Quote "I know you're down on your luck when your RX-8 is your reliable car. <snicker>" Well honestly it can sit there for months then it starts right up, every time it hasn't run right is something I have done or done incorrectly. Oh and it will be my daily today.

Back to Gerti and her sore foot. And really, if somebody kicks you in the shin you're gonna hop around too. I didn't get it done last night, it was raining and cold, and my shop its full. The body didn't take much new damage so tonight an hour or so and Gerti will be romping again!

@Alex Are you ok? What happened? I have not had time to lurk on GRM like I should lately. Oh and Goth =  Murdered = flat black paint. But the dents and all might be more pronounced in that color, so maybe a shiny grey. It just needs to look a bit better, unless I get busy, which I don't have time to do, it will never be concours like.

Maybe a weird camo job? 

I have always liked this one:

Then there are things like these:

Other suggestions?

You can get a majority of the dents out with a little elbow grease and some patience.

I'm fine.  The P71, not so much.  I'm in more serious "shop for another CV/GM/P71" mode than I was, though.  

I figured flat black was what you were saying and was just going to say if you opt for plastidip, don't use the rattle cans.  If I was going to spray whole panels again, I'd get a sprayer and buy it in gallons or whatever the hot setup is.  Too hard to get a uniform coat with the spray cans and those suckers add up fa$$$t.

I like your shiny gray or flat-camo-like ideas.  I've been enjoying some of Toyota's new cars running around in shiny-but-not metallic colors.  Might be worth a slow-creep through a local-ish Toyota dealer lot to see what I mean.

I'm glad you're ok.  We can always build or buy another car, another Alex, not so much.

I'm in TN. Almost 600 miles and Gerti knocked it out at 70 to 80 without a hitch. 

22 to 24 mpg too! 

So tomorrow I turn and burn back to MO with mom in tow for the holidays. I was supposed to come over the 19th of Dec but with all the crazy going on we decided sooner was better. 

Pyro went to the store to do her part in hoarding  said there was no toilet paper anywhere. So she bought every toothbrush in the store ... (not really).

Bent-Valve (FS) said:

Blah blah ... delete non relate to question ... blah

 

The tag says V026A which I can't find in the ford identification stuff I have, It has a 73 on it and it feels like a 2.73 gear.

Gears look good. So I cleaned it up, added a gasket and popped it back together.

I took this pic, looked at it, pulled a bolt out and put the tag on the housing.  On to the truck ish part!

 

I did NOT count splines while I had it apart. I'm pretty sure that its 28 splines, does anyone know for sure?  Maybe using the tag? I searched on 8.8 VO26A but didn't get satisfactory results.

I know I should just pop the cover off to make sure but the shop is in use at the moment.

I'd like to get better gears and I might think about a locker while I am at it.

I think they are all 28 spline before 2005 and 30 after.

Gerti is still out doing Gerti stuff.

Like towing the "new" truck home....

And it was a stressful tow because I could only get one bolt in each side. Sketchy doesn't begin to describe how I felt about this. I did use a heavy backing plate and double nutted the bolt. I also went really slow and easy, I got it home without incident.

Accordianfolder probably thinks sketchy four down tows are becoming my trademark. But I refuse to tow an AMC.

The truck is the next / newer project. Its a 1995, 2.3 5spd. A bit crunched on  one side. So ugly I think its cute. It popped the timing belt and they parked it. I'll get a belt in the morning and see if it runs.

Its a non interference engine so I hope it just coughs to life and doesn't rattle or clank.

In reply to Bent-Valve :

Yessssssssssssssss

I like it!

 Ordered a timing set from RockAuto, it won't be here until next week. Tomorrow,(later today I guess), I plan to brave the dmv for the title.

I'll just post Ranger stuff here. I have yet to decide, sell it to the kid that needs a vehicle, keep it for a daily (ish) or build a $2000 ride and see how much I can do on how little.

I got the best kit I could for the least money on the timing set, it has seals with it and even with shipping it was less than the local parts stores.

Found the other 1/2 of the truck, maybe.

Its a Copart sell, <link> so i registered and when they ok me I plan to bid on it.

It would give me all the stuff I need to redo the other truck. the bed is in better shape, It has the front fender, door and cab corner. Or I could swap cabs since it does have a title.

What should I bid? I was thinking $200 - $280 (ish) and then wait. If I get out bid, I am not out anything but I haven't watched these much in the last year so I have no clue how the prices run on stuff.

Ideas / comments?

In reply to Bent-Valve :

Have you checked the local pull-a-pqrt and junkyards? What all parts are you trying to get for it? 

Yes to checking pick and pull.

I found a door, right color and year. And I found a fender, right color and year on CL close by but $75. Those 2 together are roughly 1/3 of the bid I put in. There are several Rangers out there right now and nobody is bidding on them that I know of. I'm going to watch a couple of auctions before mine comes up and see how things are going.

The Copart Ranger is a 4.0 / 5 speed. and the cab is straighter than the one I have.

So if I put one together and sell it for the total I have invested I will have a 4 or 6 cylinder engine, 5 spd trans, 8.8 rear,  frame, etc left over for not much money.

I have no idea what to do left over parts, you know, that I have mucho less than $2000 in ...

Curse you Copart!

Checked my bid just now and they added 2 of these 2011 Rangers!

Both about 190k miles, 2.3 automatic. And I'd try quite a bit harder to get one of those.

But this is my first auction so I plan to watch and see how my first wrecked Ranger goes. if I lose it and its before these ones I will bid on one of those. I doubt I lose it. in fact I wouldn't be surprised if I get it for $70.

I started taking stuff apart so i could just reassemble it when I get the timing set.

Found 2 things, one when I put gauges on the ac it has freon in it, since its not running I can't tell exactly but I think its got a full charge. So that is cool, pun intended.

The other thing I noticed was it has a header:

I have mostly detached myself from this little truck myself because there is a kid at work that needs a vehicle when she turns 18, and she wants a truck. If she doesn't want it I'll start thinking about the next step.

DMV is officially a four letter word. Three trips to get one title.

DMV be like, "Uh, you forgot to bring an original copy of the US Constitution. In triplicate. On fire. Riding a horse. No, a white horse. With spots."

I digress.

Parts came, a Dayton kit which I like. Has assembly lube. Grabbed my special trusty 1 1/2 seal installation tool. Salesman said the chrome flutes inside help align it with the shaft for, and I quote "a smooth effortless install experience."

Denied.

So when I went back he sold me this crazy tool that makes tools.

It took weeks of schooling but I got this! So I design the new seal installer...

And I am currently waiting for it to print.

It doesn't look like much but that plastic is pretty tough. Material is PLA+ and set up is 1.6 mm walls and 25% infill if anybody out there does 3d printing.

The kid at work wants to learn how to drive a standard, but really wants an automatic for daily driving. So unless that changes (17 year old about to be 18...nuff said) I guess this will be mine? ish?

In reply to Bent-Valve :

snail. 

Snail.

SNAIL!

Im glad the voice of reason is chiming in.

And as I am prone to do stupid things at times....

OK back to the seal, its hard to see (yellow arrow helps)but I used the crank gear to push against it, 2 big wrenches to clear the nose and the seal is in.

 I added the new water pump and stacked all the carpet and seats inside. I'm working second shift and have to start getting ready.

Tomorrow if I am awake it should run. Also my auction is happening tomorrow. So I may have another Rangerish thing in the driveway.

Oh the interior....

It wasn't the worse we have ever cleaned, but its still cleaner now. Pulled the carpet and the seats, pressure washed, sun dried for 2 days. Pyro wiped down the plastic parts inside and it lookes great.

Auction got a bit crazy, it went for $475 which was a bit more than I wanted to pay. Its not an easy tow from Springfield and the extra fees just didn't make it a great value. So I'm looking closer to home.

The Roadkill Curse struck. Got the timing belt on, it only took 3 tries to get all the pulleys lined up correctly. Went to spin the engine with the starter, click, click, click. I know the battery is good, click.

Pulled the starter, spun it with jumper cables. Spins free and sounds good.

I guess sitting around it just needed a little vibration.

Putting it back in the plastic around the main battery connection broke. I am guessing it was just about to break anyway. So new starter. I thought about just a solenoid to keep costs down but then I thought about being stranded cuz I was cheap. Nope.

Local cheap reman $119 -- Bosch from RockAuto with shipping $109.78.

RockAuto for the win.

Made a trip to a few pull it yourself yards today.

Somebody is reselling the regulators out of the doors. I'm all for making a little money.

But not if you use a saw to remove them from the door! Every door that would fit, right color or wrong, had been butchered.

I haven't been up there since before the pandemic thing, man has stuff changed. Lots of destruction. Everything sawed to get to what they were pulling. Everything picked over to the point it was a waste of time. I needed a solenoid to to fix the starter I have. Nope. I don't think I'll bother to go back, I'm am setting up a tow bar for Rangers and I'll just start buying the whole thing and dragging it home.

Got the Ranger put back together and the bumper on. When the starter comes in I'll know if it runs. Tracking says the starter should be here tomorrow!

Only thing I have a question on is the tube that mates with the water pump. It seemed loose. So if it leaks I won't be surprised. I also found a heat sensor that was broken.

In reply to Bent-Valve :

That stinks, I hate when boneheads trash parts and panels in the u pull yards. Forgot to call you the other night, I'll give you a ring sometime this weekend!

Well the starter came in last night while i was at work. I got a few hours of sleep and installed it.

I sound almost drunk. I think I'll go get some more sleep before next shift.

Today Pyro drove the Ranger. She went out onto the asphalt and a couple of miles.

It would have gone better if I had attached the shift knob. I haven't quite reassembled the interior yet. We switched places and it fell off on me too.

We wound up laughing all the way home. It's a 2.3, low end is pretty, um, sedate, but if you stick your foot in it and let it rev its not too bad.

A few issues, the solenoid on the fender is bad, the a/c doesn't come on, but had power at the fuse block.

I took stock of everything and ordered  parts from Rock Auto.

Rear brakes were a pleasant surprise, they are the 10 inch instead of the 9 inch normally found on the base model. Should hold up better at autox if I decide to go?

Headlights work but are frosty. So new ones since I drive home at 2 am everyday.

Air, oil and fuel filters, some fluids, fresh gas, a little work and it should be road worthy.

Total cost so far is $1143.90 for a soon to be "semi" daily driver.

Truck - $450

Timing set $100 -ish

Starter $100 -ish

Everything else $493.90

I'm gonna drive it to and from work to save miles no my Honda Fit which I am killing. Gerti will get retired and sold (?)

And that is about all.