FatNasty's 1984 Grand Marquis GS

[1987cp]

At least flares on 3/16" line aren't too hard. Getting proper flares in 3/8" steel line, using ordinary tools, is all but impossible! Still incredibly to perform the nutless screwup, which is I proceed so painfully slowly with flare lines and still have to redo them from time to time. My favorite phenomenon is when you find out the fun way that the flaring yoke you're using is inadequate and instead of getting the initial outward flare, you just scrap the tube through the hole in the yoke. Turns out Vermont-American Chinese yokes work better than Harbor Freight Chinese yokes, so I mixed and matched what I had so it worked.

Always fun to see engine bays without the inner fenders installed.

[marquisman]

shit, i wish i had a shop like that. i would be doing the front and rear end service of my lincoln. good work mang!

[gadget73]

Its kind of stupid how huge the engine bay gets as soon as you remove those plastic inner fenders.

[FatNasty]

shit, i wish i had a shop like that. i would be doing the front and rear end service of my lincoln. good work mang!

Took a lot of cleaning and organizing to get it to the point where I could work on a car in there. Rear bumper is touching the garage door, and about a foot of space in front. Its well lit and warm though, I love it.

Got the drivers side frame cleaned up and undercoated. Also touched up the white paint on the firewall. The '90 TC fender wells don't look like they are going to work. Tried for a while to get the drivers side to fit right. Lots of problems with the spot where the air compressor stuff sits, but an even bigger problem with the general shape of it. Fits great towards the back, but closer to the front the fender metal just has a different curve than the fender well. As a result it doesn't go up or forward enough, you can see where it hits in pic #6. I think I'll just go get a 90/91 GMQ or CV drivers side fender well. As for the passenger side, its a lot closer, but still the same issue with shape. I'm going to try to modify things and make that one work though. I might look at aero CV's and see if they would be anywhere close as well.


David- I included a couple pics of the fuse box position on the passenger fender, fits there nice, thats why I really want to make that side work.

[87gtVIC]

That does mount nice. Hope you can get her working. I installed a 90 CV d.side inner fender and that fit perfect. Maybe an aero one like you are thinking would work on the passengers side to hold the fuse box if the one you have can't be made to work.




....And....I recommend a new hide a key position....Before I run off with your ride. j/k

[1987cp]

Its kind of stupid how huge the engine bay gets as soon as you remove those plastic inner fenders.

Yeah, it really is. Makes one want to find a way to make new ones that take up less space. Don't know how possible that is, though ... I imagine the tires occupy much of that space if you happen to be turning with the suspension at full compression?


Though come to think of it .... if one were to put on a representative space-consuming wheel/tire combo, such as a 275/60/15 on a stock wheel ... or any reasonable size that you're reasonably certain would take up more inward space than anything you'd actually run ..... and remove the spring and put a jack under the LCA, and then devise some sort of coordinate system to plot the maximum space that the wheel actually requires ............ hm.

[FatNasty]

No more progress on the car yet. Haven't gotten around to going to the junkyard for fender wells. Did get the remaining gauges i needed to do a new dash. Speedo, tach, and gas gauge to go along with my oil pressure, coolant temp, and voltmeter. This setup will be replacing my current digital cluster. Will be nice having a properly functioning odometer again

[85crownHPP]

That sucks the 90 TC fenders didn't fit right... It would be nice to use them to tuck those wires away...
I bet you can get the fuse box to sit pretty on an original fender, Dave got his a lot straighter than mine, lol

[FatNasty]

....And....I recommend a new hide a key position....Before I run off with your ride. j/k

Good eye, that thing has been sitting there since before I owned the car. Luckily have never needed it.... Only contains the door key, but I'm sure thats all you would need to take off with the car....

That sucks the 90 TC fenders didn't fit right... It would be nice to use them to tuck those wires away...
I bet you can get the fuse box to sit pretty on an original fender, Dave got his a lot straighter than mine, lol

Looking more and more like I will need to modify the original fender. I think i'll just custom make a really perfect bracket to go between the fuse box and fender to get it sitting just right. Still less work than what i would need to do to the TC fender.

Today I got the new booster painted black and installed. One side of the rear brakes is done, need some new slides before I can finish the other side. Mostly been working on a setup to hold the new gauges. Also need to find the best way to hold the speedo cable to the new speedo. Already have some ideas, don't think it will be to tough. I could just get the correct speedo cable but thats too much work and extra cost.

Now back to work, our furnace went out so now the garage is the only heated part of the house. I'll be spending my time there for now.

[1987cp]

No more progress on the car yet. Haven't gotten around to going to the junkyard for fender wells. Did get the remaining gauges i needed to do a new dash. Speedo, tach, and gas gauge to go along with my oil pressure, coolant temp, and voltmeter. This setup will be replacing my current digital cluster. Will be nice having a properly functioning odometer again

Should be fun. How do you plan to place these?

[FatNasty]

No new pictures yet, but the brake system is all finished (assuming i dont have leaks...) Everything is mounted, lines are all in. Bench bled the mc then gravity bled the rest, just have to wait til I have a helper to finish bleeding them properly. New shocks are in as well. Reinstalled the drivers seat, and got it all working properly and its switch mounted correctly for the first time in 3 years. At some point in the process of troubleshooting the seat, which was hooked right up to a battery with some test leads, i pulled the leads and shorted them frying the insulation instantly. In the few seconds before i got the wire unhooked the car had completely filled with that lovely electrical fire smoke. I had just bought new leads the day before too But all is well now, the seat works perfect and the smell came out.

Still haven't gotten around to picking up a new fender well so that part is still on hold. Finally have a design for the gauge mounting i'm happy with though, so can continue that now as well. Really starting to miss driving it, I cant stand being limited to using the wagon only.

Should be fun. How do you plan to place these?

Its a layout similar to the one in this pic. I think i'm going to put brushed aluminum as the background around the gauges. Got some other cool ideas for the gauge area including some led stuff that i'm working on. I'll try to add some pics this week.

[Lincolnmania]

cool! cant wait for pics!

[FatNasty]

Got some 90 vic inner fenders today. They came out very easily compared to mine, and the previous donor car which had tons of stuck bolts. maybe 10-15 minutes for the pair this time. The passenger one is the same as on the '84 but i got another one since i hacked my original a bunch. Hopefully one or both get installed tonight.
Also picked up a pair of good tires for new spares in both cars, and a 140 speedo from an '88 PI vic. Pretty good trip despite the weather.

[87gtVIC]

Damn you finding all police goodies in ID.

[86VickyLX]

Got some 90 vic inner fenders today. They came out very easily compared to mine, and the previous donor car which had tons of stuck bolts. maybe 10-15 minutes for the pair this time. The passenger one is the same as on the '84 but i got another one since i hacked my original a bunch. Hopefully one or both get installed tonight.
Also picked up a pair of good tires for new spares in both cars, and a 140 speedo from an '88 PI vic. Pretty good trip despite the weather.

Hey mang! Sounds like you got alot of stuff going on with your Grand Marquis. Can't wait to see pics of what you're doing with it!

I wanted to ask you, have you noticed any popping/backfiring with your engine? I'm trying to determine if the problem with the explorer engine is the heads, or the cam. Also, are you running mass air or speed density?