Road-tripping a $550 Crown Vic across Canada!

Well, it's finally happening. In 16 days, I depart for Ontario in a car that has no reason to exist in its current form.

My lowered 1996 Crown Vic! Originally bought for $550 from an older dude, this thing is currently running on G-body dirt track front springs, and modified (1cm of the pigtail cut off to accommodate the Crown Vic perches) SN95 GT rear springs, it promises at least a semi-comfortable ride. No air conditioning and slightly oversprung on the odd occasion, but it's all that I've got.

As of today, it's gotten new shocks up front, extra anti-squeak isolators made from heater hose, a quieter exhaust system, and a brand new set of tires.

On the to-do list is the driver's window regulator, front rotors (pads, surprisingly, are fine), fresh oil and filter, and figuring out why my ABS module seems to have E36 M3 the bed.

Proper video and write-up to come when the trip is done, but for now let's see how this goes!

What do you need a/c for in Canada? And be careful with that abs not working when you hit snowy/icy patches... My experience is they don't work that well when nothings wrong.

Also that thing looks great like that! What kind of suspension travel is left? Bottom out the shocks yet?

jere wrote: What do you need a/c for in Canada?

The Prairies.

And Ontario.

And if G_Body_Man is still in the Okanagan, for the Okanagan.

This global warming thing is messing up our igloos.

What is the destination in Ontario? I live on the other side of the lake erie and go racing up in Canadia from time to time.

In reply to jere:

SkinnyG is right. It'll be in the 90s next week. Global warming affects us Snow Mexicans more than you guys think .

Suspension travel is decent, I've hit bumpstops before but never bottomed out shock travel. If it weren't for the springs being about 50 lb-in too stiff for the shocks, it would ride like an E39.

In reply to Nitroracer:

College is in Welland (20 minutes from The Falls) but I'll be criss-crossing the province between Windsor and Cobourg for most of the summer.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/dzP0hHygADQ

The first of the videos (rebooted vlog format) is up!

G_Body_Man wrote:

My god. I love it. I have a lowered Towncar and I've been curious about what others are doing for springs. I just have cut coils in front and I moved the load level/ride height sensor in the rear to where I wanted it. Would like to go lower and would like coils in the back. I would love to hear more about your setup- shoot me a PM if you get a chance.

If not safe travels, I'm sure the car will work just fine!

In reply to Gunchsta:

Thanks, PM sent!

have you looked into bilstein shocks? I know a guy that had a lowered vic same gen as yours and that was what he was running. apparently you can get them revalved to match your springs.

In reply to failboat:

I looked into it, and found that QA1 sells circle track shocks that will fit great and can be ordered in a variety of valving for around $65 a shock (compared to $70 + revalving). For now I've got cheap but comfy NAPA house brand shocks in HPP valving spec, just to keep the ride sorta comfy for the trip (it takes some really bad undulation to make the car feel oversprung).

And fully loaded, that's 30.5" from the ground to the rear door handle on a Crown Vic!

This might be interesting.

And final ride height with all my stuff on board. RIP spines

T-minus 20-ish hours until launch. Here we go.

is the weight of "all my stuff" more or less than 1000 lbs? 500?

In reply to sleepyhead:

A full set of winter tires on steelies, several duffel bags of tools, a box of books, electronics, clothes, etc. I'm guessing around 700 lbs or so.

Waiting anxiously for update.

In reply to Robbie:

Hopefully the waiting has paid off. I'm already in Barrie! Other than a false start, the trip has gone flawlessly (even at what could have been freeway speeds on gravel). I even AVERAGED 31 MPG US on a tank of gas! It hasn't burned any oil, temps and pressures have remained steady, and everything still works just as it did when I departed. I guess I'm a bit of a marathon man behind the wheel, as my codriver only needed to do 6 hours of driving. Overall, not bad for a $550 car with only a few consumables replaced (front shocks, tires, front pads). I now firmly believe that everyone needs to own a Panther at least once.