police interceptor bonuses?

[BerniniCaCO3]

Hi!

Driving 50 miles out of my way tomorrow to a junk yard that claims to have a 1990 police package crown vic.

I'm pulling the rear sway bar off of it for sure, but while I'm at the car, anything else I should pull off that will be tougher than the stock version for my 1990 colony park? I don't have to install it tomorrow... but can certainly keep it on hand.


thanks!
-Bernard

[79lincolnlover]

Dog dish wheel covers, to keep on hand or sell here on GMN.

[Bowman85merc]

You can get the front sway bar, its an 1-1/8" solid bar, as yours is a 1-3/16" hollow, they're arguably the same, but you can still get it to re-sell it if the price is right.

You could also grab the 140 speedo to re-sell, if it was a good price.

Also, the rear lower control arms are made of 12GA. steel instead of the civilian 14GA. so those would be an upgrade. And, if its still intact, grab the front air deflector or "air dam", it will slightly help with cooling.
And if you wanted, you could grab the tranny cooler, P/S cooler, and if it has it, the oil cooler. But personally, Id just buy aftermaket ones.


Thats about all I can think of right now, Good luck

[1990LTD]

gauges

[Heretic]

Oil cooler / oil cooler adapter (On block) for resale.

[gadget73]

They also have a larger alternator, but its an old style externally regulated thing thats not really worth changing to. You're better off with a later style 3g if you're going to mess with the alternator.

If you think of it, could you let me know how many blades are on the fan? I'm thinking its the same 7 blade with the odd blade pattern as the civi cars got, but I'd be pleased to find out its a 9 blade fan.

[BerniniCaCO3]

Well damn: drove all the way up there, and they didn't actually have what they said they had. Maybe a half dozen grand marquis, but none with the rear sway bar, and no police packages! *sigh*.

This is the 2nd junk yard I've visited. I have to say, they mostly seem a waste of time: they are all 30 miles away, can't tell you what they have, are all pull-it-yourself; and then the prices aren't good enough or the products good enough to justify the trouble.
For example, a radiator is $40 for something 20 years old and rusty, versus $100 new. A power steering pump is $15, versus $40 rebuilt with warranty from the much closer autozone. I can hardly thing of what I'll be able to use from a junk yard, that won't have aged badly and stack up poorly versus a rebuilt part you can rely on. Short of a door panel, interior trim, that sort of thing; non-moving parts that won't be as susceptible to wear.

[johnunit]

to me, for panthers, junkards are basically useless for mechanical parts. Interior, body, and trim parts are a different story.

[79lincolnlover]

The Panther's in Canadian junkyards have decent interiors intact but crappy body/frame because of the road salt...

[1987cp]

Well damn: drove all the way up there, and they didn't actually have what they said they had. Maybe a half dozen grand marquis, but none with the rear sway bar, and no police packages! *sigh*.

That's about the case a lot of the time at U-Pull yards. They've seen something square with four doors recently, so they tell you they have a police car. My favorites don't even differentiate between different LTD-ish vehicles, be they Fox, Panther, or most anything else.

On the other hand, the turnover for vehicles we'd be interested in tends to be pretty high; seems a lot of Panthers don't sit around very long before heading for the crusher, so it's possible it really is hard to remember what's still there and what's now baled for recycling.

[87gtVIC]

4+years ago box panthers were a plenty in junk yards. I remember hundreds upon hundreds in the junkyards I traveled to in P.A. They are just becoming more and more scarce because of their age.

[1987cp]

Possibly they were plentiful in your area, but where I was at that time in Indiana, practically no one kept them around long enough to have more than two or three at a time.

When I first came to this area, the only yard I was at first able to locate on my own didn't have a single box-body in their inventory when I visited them. There was exactly one in their yard (full-service yard, so they wouldn't allow me to touch anything), but they said it actually belonged to someone else and they couldn't touch it. One or two others had supposedly gone into the crusher the week before.

[1990LTD]

The only box in a junkyard around here that I know of is the one I gave 'em

[85merc]

i consider my self lucky theres a cream colored 87 in a yard 5 miles away and a vic and a gm in a yard close to were i am moveing and theres 2 at the pick a part not far from that..