Introducing My 1989 Grand Marquis

[Seth1972]

Hello everyone; I've been lurking in the forums for the past few weeks, and decided that I now have enough pics of my car that I should join to show 'em off!

My family history with Grand Marquis' started back in 1993, just before I was born. My dad thought his 80's 2.2 Charger wouldn't be suitable for a child seat, so he traded it in for a barely-used white 1989 Grand Marquis GS. We've had it ever since (it just rolled 200,000 miles this spring). About 5 years ago, my grandpa sold us his grey 1989 Grand Marquis LS for something like $300. We've seldom driven the grey one because we have so many cars, but my sister just got her license and she took over my previous winter driver, so we decided I'd get the grey Merc.
My dad's white '89 GS: My grey '89 LS (before I did anything to it):


The car has 114,000 miles, and pretty much everything works except the climate control (I was just reading about troubleshooting that on the forums here). The interior is just about perfect, but the paint was really badly fading and had some clear coat peel.

Though I'm only 19, I love muscle cars, so I decided to do a muscle car theme for my Merc. Pics of progress coming soon...

[Seth1972]

I didn't like the blackwalls, but the tires are in decent shape, so for $10 I got some white tire paint from eBay (who even knew that existed??) to get me some raised white letter tires.
<---before after---->
The wheels were quite corroded, so I decided to refinish them. Once I popped the centers off, I really liked the look, so I've kept em off ever since.
After a lot of sanding, I sprayed the entire wheels black-

Then sprayed the outer lip and inner hub silver-

I think they look pretty dang good-

[fmansfield444]

Welcome!

I'm trying to do the same thing with my Crown Vic, I like the sleeper look of it.

I really like the simplicity and the look of the tires and wheels on that white GM, even though its just plain wheels I like the raised white letters on the tires. it looks good.


Anyway, there's a lot of helpful people here, and good luck with the car

[Seth1972]

Next, I had to address the terrible peeling clear coat on the body. Since it had only peeled above the belt line, I though if I painted a stripe there, it would hide the uglyness, and look pretty sweet at the same time. I chose red to contrast the silver car:

When I was waiting for the paint to dry between coats, I put some auto-zone stick on chrome over the rear door pillar to cover the fading black molding-
<---before after--->

[fmansfield444]

Ah now i see your other post, those painted tires look great too

I got white walls on mine for now (not my doing)

[Seth1972]

And finally, I rolled (yes rolled!) white paint over the cracking vinyl top. My dad rubberized undercoated the front vinyl top on a few years ago because the car had stared to rust (it was originally a half vinyl top). I also painted the door frames red because they were starting to rust in areas, and outlined the red stripe with black pinstriping tape to cover up the edge which was ugly in areas where overspray had seeped through.

The 'finished for now' car:


Future plans include painting the faded rubber strip that goes down the side of the car. And I'd love some 15" magnum 500 wheels for that really old school muscle car look.

[Seth1972]

Ah now i see your other post, those painted tires look great too

I got white walls on mine for now (not my doing)

Yea, I actually like white walls with certain wheels, but with the mostly black wheels, the white letter tires just make it 'pop' in my opinion.

[Seth1972]

Oh, I almost forgot my license plate - I thought you guys would get a kick out if this!

Maybe that's what I should name the car!

[MattDoscher]

I actually like the red stripe you did. It looks good.

[MrMarquis]

Welcome to GMN Seth! It's always good to see someone younger come on board who wants to tinker with "Granda's car" over some newer thing. I'm only 23 myself, my Merc was my first car.

I'm likin' the muscle car theme too. The red stripe looks pretty awesome, especially how it follows the contour of the body. I'd recommend starting a "Reader's Ride" thread in the respective forum so you have a place for everyone to follow your work, instead of it getting stuck in the Newbie forum here.

[tjc78]

Welcome, nice car!

[sxcpotatoes]

Nice work mang! I am hoping to address my peeling clear on my silver car soon. After a new vinyl top. But if there's rust under mine, I'll probably say eff it and go slicktop.

[t65neon5]

welcome to the club!!.....if you would have told me you were gonna put a red stripe on the car i woulda said....yuk!...but after seeing it,i will admit it really looks good(real good...suprisingly good!)....

[gabegt90]

welcome seth where in mi are you from? these are great first cars my 89 was my first car as well

[chitownvic]

Welcome to the party man.. G Marq is looking pretty good