The new toy... '95 Mark VIII *Large DUW*

[Mr. Land Yacht]

ooohohohoooo!

what did u use to shine up that finish to a literally Mirror shine?

[Southern_Pride]

Can I borrow the engine for a little while? Nice car man.

[Mr. Land Yacht]

I'm gonna guess you used some sort of Zano on that Mark...*sorry if I spelled it wrong*
WOW
sure is...
WOW!
awesome!
magnificent!
terrific!
friggin' great!
I'm outta words here

[drock96marquis]

Thanks guys!

Nope, no Zaino. Zaino is good as a very durable paint sealant - but not for paint correction like I did on the Mark VIII.

To get the outside on the Mark like that, I first washed and dryed the car, then clayed the paint and wheels. Then I went 2 applications of Meguiar's Mirror Glaze #83 med cut polish to remove medium-heavy imperfections. I followed this with 2 applications of #80 speed glaze to remove the marks/marring from #83 and smaller imperfections. I followed this with one application of #7 show car glaze, and finally topped that off with 2 applications of #26 yellow wax. I used #40 on the exposed rubber gaskets
The wheels were cleaned, clayed and polished with mirror glaze metal polish. Tires and wheel wells where cleaned with bleche-white/car wash solution and treated with Meguiar's HotShine. Glass was cleaned with Stoner's invisible glass. I late polished them with Zaino glass polish. Last was a final wipe down with Zaino Z-8 spray seal.

[drock96marquis]

Oh, and here's a nice new shot of the Mark's ass-end :P

[murphmobile2]

My god that is beautiful. I almost bought a green one once... but the bastard sold it.

Any performance exhaust plans in the near future????

[88MercWagon]

I had an MN12 ('93 t-bird w/ 5.0HO) for a short time as well. It drives similar to the Mark, and as most know shares quite a few suspension/'chassis' components to the FN10. Overall I prefer the Marks, but I've always been more of a Lincoln guy. I still think the t-birds have some sharp lines to them, and those souped up SCs are bada$$ looking

For $1500 you may be taking a gamble with that Mark's mechanical condition. Most know these cars aint exactly like a panther in regards to reliability

What is all shared with the MN-12 chassis? is the unibody similar? I have an MN-12 an I'm curious as to what is interchangeable.

[drock96marquis]

My god that is beautiful. I almost bought a green one once... but the bastard sold it.

Any performance exhaust plans in the near future????

Yep, the current exhaust is modified - I've ordered Dynomax super turbos and Magnflow tips to top it off. Other than that, nothing at the moment.

What is all shared with the MN-12 chassis? is the unibody similar? I have an MN-12 an I'm curious as to what is interchangeable.

Almost all the 'chassis' and suspension parts can swap. The Mark had a few unique pieces to save weight, as well as the unique front arms for the air struts.

[88MercWagon]

Almost all the 'chassis' and suspension parts can swap. The Mark had a few unique pieces to save weight, as well as the unique front arms for the air struts.

Hmmm...Turd on air suspension anyone? I saw a nice tan Mark VIII in the parking lot at work the other day, and I'm really starting to want one. I love the styling.

[Mr. Land Yacht]

WOW Drock...wow...really..wow.
looks like the hard work paid off.
lots of the guys on LVC were telling me that putting in Cobra Cams, Cobra intake, Headers, chip(like Xcal2) anda shift kit...then you'll really move.
I feel that 3.73 gears would compliment it more, but I dont think I ever brought that up on that forum...
if you have time Drock, search in there for "Mark VIII Performance"..that was the title of my thread.






















danggit!

now I want a black Mark VIII!

oh well, I guess a 400hp Marq will do nicely too.

[drock96marquis]

Thanks, Colin!


I was thinking of 3.73s (w/ t-lok) as well. I think it would compliment the power curve nicely.

As far as cams, I don't see myself doing that on this car. 2 cams is enough to accurately time, let alone 4 :P Besides that, the 96-98 cobra DOHCs used the same camshafts as the 93-98 Mark VIII, so I don't know what gain they are talking about....
The Cobra intakes are pretty cool, but since you have to delete the IMRCs to use it you loose low-end torque and driveability. In a car nearly as heavy as a panther, I'm unsure if that'd be a good idea N/A


The Merc is still going to be the focus of my modifications, not that I'm not going to modify this some, though.
And as far as modifications on the Merc goes; ....well, I've always got something in the works

[Grand Marquis GT]

4:10 gears are even better for these cars...

[drock96marquis]

4:10 gears are even better for these cars...

4.10s would be very nice off the line
But effortlessly cruising along the highway at 80-85 and getting over 24mpg+ doing so with the OEM 3.27s is pretty nice as well

I think I need to drive the car around some more before I 'jump' towards any modifications which I may regret later on. I do know gear swap or not this thing needs a traction-lok big time!





Oh, and here is one more shot I took yesterday of the Mark and the Town Car when I met my father for a late lunch:


Sorry it's crappy, i took it with a cell phone :oops:

[88MercWagon]

That's a damn nice picture for a cell phone. It looks like your entire family is into mainting cars exquisitely well.

[drock96marquis]

I guess it's ok for a cellphone, but I sure wish I had one of my digi cams - would've made some real nice shots!

It looks like your entire family is into mainting cars exquisitely well.

That's because I am the one who is in charge of maintaining all of our family's vehicles lol But I don't mind doing it

I washed and shined the tires and trims on the Town Car that morning for him before he left (was the first time the car has been driven (but has been washed a few times and waxed) in like 1.5 months) - so it still looked nice by the time we met up again later (I also washed/shined up my Mark before I left)


We wipe the wheels down at every stop with microfibers on all of our cars -makes it much easier to keep them looking good. Which is why the wheels are still nice and shiny on both even though they were being driven all day. We also keep at minimum a bottle of quik detailer in the trunk of each one to wipe off bugs and road grime occasionally while we are out.