VicCrownVic's 1989 Colony Park - Large Marge

[kishy]

The lock most likely has the same problem mine does, which I also found a junkyard one to have. There is a piece in the mechanism that is pressed/stamped in place, which functions as a stop for one stage of the lock mechanism to run into and then cause the second stage to begin moving. This piece wiggles its way loose.

It specifically causes the issue of the lock only functioning when the tailgate is open, IIRC.

[VicCrownVic]

I recall your post(s) on that subject. I'll have to re-read and see what I can glean from your experience. Likewise, I'll post my findings when I get around to working on it again, which may or may not be this year.

On a related note, the window will go down with the key turned in the tailgate, but it does not go up by turning the key in the tailgate. I assume it is supposed to go up since the switch within the tailgate is designed to go both ways. I'll have to get it apart again to investigate but I suspect the mechanism needs some adjustment to get the up direction working by turning the key. I did notice that when the window was all the way down and I didn't have things anywhere near properly aligned that there is a physical mechanism that keeps the switch from moving in the up direction. I assume this is only supposed to engage when the tailgate is down to keep the window from being rolled up since it would (potentially) be easier to break the window while the tailgate is down and window up.

When mom had her '87 Country Squire and I had my '88 Country Squire, I don't think we even knew about the key in the tailgate operating the window. The power locks worked on both so I suppose we just never used the keys in those tailgates. This was 20 years ago, but if I knew then what I know now I would have known why the door key is shaped different. Off topic for this car, what did the '90-'91 wagons have for tailgate key? Was it the large oval key since a sedan uses the small oval key for the trunk? But then the front doors used the square key like the '90-'91 sedans? My assumption is they switched to square key on the front door and retained oval on the tailgate.

[Kodachrome Wolf]

I know my '87 came with square keys for the ignition, and oval ones for the doors and tailgate. I know I have one large oval one (makes tailgate operation easier) and a small one I keep as a spare.

I always thought the doors were oval until the cars switched to one key operation in like 1994 or 1995.

[Tiggie]

My assumption is they switched to square key on the front door and retained oval on the tailgate.

You're right. Not sure on the large oval vs standard, as I don't have the original keys to my 90. I suspect it was the jumbo oval. It always rattles my brain to go from the round door key on the 88 to the square door key of the 90. I'll get it wrong at least 50% of the time.

[VicCrownVic]

I haven't drove the '98 in about 2 weeks. Switching between Marge ('89) and The Scab ('91) has been a real trip and I kept getting the door key wrong just like you, LOL.
Actually, since every car I had before The Ice Car was pre '90, it took me a bit to get used to the square key for the door.

I sometimes get out of The Scab and reach for the number pad to lock the door when I've been mostly driving the '98.

New for the '90 model year was the change to same square key for ignition and doors. The round key was trunk/tailgate, and glove box/boxes/rear-seats-folded-down lock only. The reasoning behind it was for vallet purposes, at least I think that's what the brochure said.

My understanding was the large head key was wagon specific just for the purpose of the window function via key turned in the tailgate lock cylinder.

[VicCrownVic]

Got something in the mail today. (D9AZ-7443052-A)

And installed it right away.


While I was in there, I took out the driver side interior panel to give myself more room to work.
I already knew this quarter panel is really bad but seeing it from this angle really emphasizes just how bad it is. Especially obvious once I removed the storage compartment.



I took some not-at-all-precise measurements of the check cable for those interested.




A few days ago I also grabbed one of my spare '90+ under dash/kick(?) panels to see how it might fit. None of the mounting holes line up. A couple along the top are close to bolts. The mount hole way by the firewall is actually closer to the passenger seat than the Box panel and lines up in empty space. Also, a '90+ under dash light socket would need to be swapped in so it can mount into the panel. The stock Box light is mounted to the dash frame with not a 194 bulb like all '90+ use. The far right of the panel has this goofy spot that would need to be hacked off to not interfere with the glovebox door. Overall, It could be made to work but far from a direct swap and I don't think I will go through with it. Looking at The Scab, I didn't think it would even be worth the time to pull the driver side panel and see what it might look like. I'm pretty sure there would be a giant gap at the top if it even comes close to somehow fitting.


Also, I'm not sure if I mentioned already, but I was reminded this morning that the rear defrost actually works except for the top two lines. That's pretty good and should be an easy fix but would require removing the tint to repair those lines.

[jaywish]

At least the "quarter floor pan" looks good

[Grand1]

Late to the party, but really glad she is yours. With four other cars, I could not give it the attention it deserved , you are taking care of that, Vic ....it couldn't find a better home. I think you are getting her and stopping a major negative dive and the TLC you do will ensure she is on the road years to come. I know the engine and the trans is solid AF.

[VicCrownVic]

The TV cable was sticky when I first drove her home, but once that got worked out my '98 has been getting quite a bit of rest from the daily grind. Although it will be time for the annual oil spray for the '98 and it will resume exclusive DD duty for the crap weather months.

I don't have reasonable Internet connection so no pictures, but this weekend was spent pulling my low miles previously uncracked windshield from my '89 MGM. I say previously uncracked because I did crack it in the bottom left corner. Still better than what was on Marge so I continued on and of course didn't crack Marge's already cracked windshield during extraction. I may have lucked out as there are 2 cracks from one spot about an inch above the black strip at the bottom. One crack for sure went down to the bottom, is mostly hidden by the black strip, and terminates at the bottom edge posing no further threat. The other was heading up but looped back to the same side. I'm not as sure that this one will not be a future threat but it is still far enough down that it will not be an issue in the foreseeable future.

I used the HF wire tool for extraction, broke the wire twice on the MGM windshield and the third wire finished the job and Marge's windshield without breaking. What I learned is if I pushed the wire through on the side, the further down I went the more problems seemed to happen. Bottom corners seemed near impossible going down but starting on the bottom middle, go to the edge then up and around the corner worked much better. Upper corners seemed to be fine going either way. There was a bit of rot in the upper left of Marge's windshield, but nothing compared to my '89. Wire wheeled and sanded down as best as I could then cleaned and threw some primer on the bare metal which actually cleaned up fairly well.

Definitely put the urethane on a bit thick on the driver side but did a bit better on the passenger side. Pretty confident that I won't have any leak issues.

I had also learned a few years ago not to go crazy putting the trim around the windshield on. I put a few cracks in The Ice Car's windshield (removed the trim to clean crap out). Didn't make that mistake this time.

[Tiggie]

Kudos to you for doing your own windshield. I did gasket ones in the Rustang (fairly easy in comparison) but haven't messed with glued in ones. Been considering stashing one away. I heard you can't get new ones anymore, not even the standard ones (someone please correct me if I am wrong).

[VicCrownVic]

Thanks to Kishy for sharing his experience. After reading through his wagon thread and his experience with windshield replacement I figured I would give it a shot since I already owned the windshield.

This windshield was new (by force) in 2012 a few months before I stopped driving my '89 MGM because I bought The Ice Car. It has low miles and is very clear. I assume because it doesn't have high miles it hasn't developed tiny, maybe microsopic, pitting like a windshield with lots of miles.

Pneumatic calk gun worked great. The Dupont U-428 urethane that I used came with nozzls that had a cut template molded into them which worked great to create a triangular bead. I also used Betaprime 5504G (after cleaning) to ensure adhesion to the pinch weld window frame. I used a sheet of plastic taped to the dash frame (dash pad and interior trim removed all around for removal and install) and draped over the front seat backs. Taped to the door would have been good too since I did get a drop of the primer on the p-side armrest.

There was string, not thick enough that I'd call it rope, in the adhesive that was holding Marge's cracked windshield on. This along with how easy (compared to my '89 MGM) it cut leads me to believe it was butyl holding that windshield on and likely the original windshield.

Pretty sure I could do this again without cracking. So if I feel motivated/have time to address rot issues and can find a good windshield, I may eventually get around to replaceing the cracked windshield on The Scab. Much easier now to get large items like that with Marge.

On the wire tool/saw, it says to us 2-3 feet of wire. I maybe used 1-1.5 feet at a time, which seemed fine except the middle top and bottom. I pulled one side at a time until I could reach both handles for the first (top) section. Second section I had my 11 (next month) yo nephew stand in the empty engine bay to help until I could reach both handles. Cutting out on Marge was so easy I got it without help and that butyl cut like butter.

I had plenty of help around this past weekend. Nephew as mentioned. Youngest brother helped remove and install both windshields (HF double suction cup handles work well, just make sure each individual cup is holding before lifting). Wife helped put Marge's hood back on (not installed but leaning on the hinges and radiator support) then off when I realized I wanted to fix the trim gasket and could not get the middle trim screw so she helped lift the hood back off then she helped lift it back on but she was too short to lift the hood to get bolts started so then dad helped actually install the hood. Somehow I reinstalled the hood on The Ice Car years ago on my own, I think I just propped it up while getting the bolts started.

Had a bunch of little things I wanted to get to, but I spent more time on the windshield than I thought I would. Although I did this windshield job on a long weekend in case I really ran into issues.

[VicCrownVic]

Since I never posted pictures from last weekend, I'll start with a couple of before pictures that you can kind of see the crack in the original windshield. It was smack in the middle of the driver side but dipped down in front of my view for a short bit then swooped back up right to the middle again. Nice to no longer be worried about getting pulled over and forced to have the windshield replaced.




A picture of the windshield out. I learned while pulling the good windshield from my '89 MGM to put tape around the outside of the windshield so that I wouldn't scratch the paint with the wire tool. That and being a little more careful worked.


And some of the after pictures that I took yesterday. The tape I used was good name brand stuff that actually functioned as tape. Some of that cheap dollar store stuff is fine for covering stuff while painting but has such low quality adhesive that it barely functions as tape. These cars have little stops at the bottom of the windshield but the way I have the replacement placed it's sitting maybe a quarter inch above the stops. Not sure if it's slightly shorter than the stock windshield, but it seemed to be wider than the stock windshield as there was not as much room side to side as the stock windshield had. Anyway, knowing that putting the tape on after placing the windshield on is what all the pros do, I wasn't about to trust that to the cheap dollar store tape. Also, I've left the tape on a bit longer since at least the driver side has excessive urethane, therefore may take longer to cure. There was actually one spot on my '89 MGM, right where I cracked it, that was not fully cured, and that windshield was replaced just over a decade ago.


The cracks that I put in the good windshield while extracting it. I'm quite confident that if I were to attempt this again that I could do it without cracking. You see the excessive urethane that I used on the driver side before I got the hang of handling the pneumatic caulk gun. The passenger side, as mentioned before, turned out better. Also, while trying to install the A-pillar trim on the inside that trim piece kept getting into the excess urethane and if you zoom in you can see the small bits of urethane that the trim deposited all over the windshield as I tried to fenagle that trim piece into place.


And from the inside you can barely see the lower of the 2 cracks.


There was also a bit of rust under the windshield on the mounting surface and 2 spots on the exterior of the A-pillar that I wire wheeled and sanded down to bare metal. You could see it in the earlier after picture, but here's a close up of that spot. Not the best looking but better than letting the rust continue to grow. I'll have to get some color matching paint and cover over that primer. I also finally looked up the paint code, 9G (M6381A) Midnight Currant Red Metallic.

Edit: re-uploaded the pictures. They weren't present in my Media>>Posted Pictures section of my profile and I could only see the pictures from the PC I posted from.

[sly]

Not sure what happened to the pictures, but it seems they got lost in the shuffle somehow.

[VicCrownVic]

Not sure what happened to the pictures, but it seems they got lost in the shuffle somehow.

Appears to be working now after re-uploading. I could see them only from the PC I posted from but now I can see them on my phone and from another PC that I previously couldn't see them from so I assume everyone can see them now.

[friskyfrankie]

Not seeing any photos here.