LTDMan's '87 Ford LTD Crown Victoria LX (The Blue Beast) *DUW*

[LTDMan83]

My New Box Showcar Project is Here!

Picked this one up from another member on GMN who lives in VA.

Gonna be taking this Beautiful Loaded Beast, from POS to Showcar Perfect.


The Body is Perfectly Straight with no major damage or tweaking, and the entire Body/Frame/Bulkheads are Very Solid, and are about 90% rust free (it will be 99% rust free by the time I'm done with it). The Cars Title is Clean (Very Important to me), and Carfax reported that there had been no reported collision damage to this vehicle ever.

I will be Fully overhauling this box, and I do mean EVERYTHING. It would take a few hours for me to type out my entire plans for this thing, so you guys will just witness the plans as they happen from start to finish.

Enjoy the Progress and Pics!




Here it is Loaded on the flatbed and ready to go, when I first picked it up at tiggies house in VA.






Notice the Gourgeous, Red '08 Ford F-250 w/ 6.7L Twin Turbo Diesel engine, that helped save this beast by towing it home.







Detailed Pics of the original condition it was in when I received it, are coming soon.

[86VickyLX]

Nice, can't wait to see the progress on this once parts car!!!

[FatNasty]

Good looking vic, should be a great project

[packman]

I can't wait to see what you do with that car!!! I wonder what people were thinking when they saw you hauling the car home like it was streetrod or muscle car project.


Packman

[Dave84]

Nice ill definatly be keeping an eye on this one.

[LTDMan83]

WARNING: The Thread becomes a DUW at this point.

Thx mangs, I'll keep you all updated.






Here it is, in the shape I received it in. Definitely somewhat of a "Beater" right now, but that won't last for long, as I have a creampuff parts car sitting next to it, with a Mint Interior, Front End/Doors, and Engine/AOD

Tiggie's Original cardomain page for this car, can be found here: http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2157112/7




Many plans for the exterior of the car, gonna make it as custom as possible, while still remaining tasteful and not overdone. The Car will be painted Deep Wedgewood Blue after all the Bodywork and Customization are done. The Body is nice and Straight already, but will be Perfectly Straight and Ding Free by the time I'm done.

















The Original paint is still Nice on the Inside of the Decklid.




The only thing wrong on the body is were someone evidently used an old school dent puller, on this section of quarterpanel, and then foolishly tried to cover up the hole with Bondo, causing it to rust underneath. I'm gonna cut the rusty piece out, and patch it.




Vinyl Top is cracked and will need to be replaced soon as it is worrying me, hoping that their isn't any rust under it, or else it will have to be fixed before the top can be replaced.








Well Worn and Used Blue leather interior. Fully Loaded with every option available that year, aside from the heated windshield. It will be totally replaced with my Brown Velour interior w/ Towncar SS front seats, from the other '87, while still retaining all the Loaded Options.






















The Underbody/Frame and Bulkheads are still very solid, and have only light surface rust on them, which will be blasted off and Painted with a durable Flat Black chassis paint that will resist chipping. The rear end has 3.27 gears, and the housing is about the rustiest thing on the entire car. It will be replaced with a late model rear end w/ rear disc.
















Nice!, I got the LCA's which are already drilled Twice, again on this box.







The Engine runs rough, the AOD has no 2nd gear, and the alt caught on fire, destroying the Alt Harness and Plugs. Gonna fix everything in here and get this engine running decent first, then I'm gonna be swapping in my good EFI 302/AOD from the other '87. Has some Hacked wiring in the engine bay. Lots of work and cleanup to do here.









Who's bright idea was it to ground the Battery on the Core Support, instead of the engine block......lol.










Can't wait to get started on this project!


More Pics to come soon, as more Progress happens.

[LTDMan83]

Rust Repair has started.

Starting my Rust Search & Destroy mission (on the body of the car), in the Trunk area first.



Got Lucky with this one, as the inside of the trunk and rear quarterpanels are still Very Solid.





Only 2 Small rust holes under the trim in the DS rear quarterpanel.







The PS rear quarterpanel is Rust-Free inside and out.









Gonna be repairing the Rust holes, and all the surface rust in here soon. As well as searching for more Rust on other parts of the body, and Eliminating it, before I move on to the Undercarriage.

[gabegt90]

sweet I see ben put the front bumper back on lol

[LTDMan83]

Yep, it's a little crooked though. It's a nice and solid/dent free bumper, but needs a good polishing. The rear bumper is completely rusted out and pretty much ready for the scrap pile. I have a smooth '79 rear bumper on the way, that a member here on GMN pulled for me from a junkyard.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------



After I got off of work today, I went ahead and installed a correct and working Charging System. The neg cable it had originally was grounded in two places, on the core support and on the AC Compressor bracket. Swapped over my good Alternator and Alt Harness, as well as the correct Negative battery cable which grounds on the engine block. Dunno why the main Alt harness is tied into a yellow wire that goes into the oil pan, sure made it a pita getting the good one pulled off the old car. Got everything installed and working perfectly though, so now I don't have to jump start the engine anymore.


Also got most of the Emissions equipment, and other crap in the engine bay outta my way, so that now I can work on things easier.


The engine still runs pretty rough and hesitates at 1/4 throttle, I suspect that it may have the wrong spark plugs installed, I will look into it tomorrow. I want to try and get it running right soon, so I can at least take it up and down the road a few times every once and a while, while I'm in the process of working on it. I can't resist wanting to drive it, even in it's beater state.

[86VickyLX]

Dunno why the main Alt harness is tied into a yellow wire that goes into the oil pan, sure made it a pita getting the good one pulled off the old car.

Don't know what Ford was thinking when they put the low oil sender wire in the alternator harness. I ran into the same problem when I replaced my alternator harness.

[86GmLsCoupe]

Looks like a really nice project you have and I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out for you. You should really look into Por15 for the frame and any other rusted areas. I've probably got 6 small cans of it into my car by now and it's worked really well for me. Eastwood sells their Rust Encapsulator which is supposed to be pretty decent as well.

[P72Ford]

POR15 is great; I painted the inside of my floors with it to prevent future rust. Although, I think I am actually going to paint the floors and frame on my car, with regular paint.

Looks like good progress thus far.

[LTDMan83]

Thanks Guys, I think I'm gonna pick up a few cans of Por15 for the interior metal and seams.

For the Undercarriage I'm gonna be going with Eastwood's 3-step, Satin Full Frame and Suspension Restoration Kit. Which consists of a 2K Rust Converter, followed by their Rust Encapsulator, and then Finish Coated with their Chassis Black. I've seen a few pics of old resto rods in which guys have used the eastwood products on their Chassis's, and it really does look excellent when finished.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Right now I'm just trying to get it running right. I also forgot to mention that the car has No Keys at all, and a very buggy Ignition Switch which will not crank the engine correctly half the time.

Now, I'm diving into replacing the entire steering column in this car with the one from the other car, so that I can have a Good Ignition Switch/Lock Cylinder w/ Key. I will need the brown steering wheel for the future brown interior swap anyway.

This Car is a PIMA right now, give me Bodywork anyday.....

[Bowman85merc]

why are you stripping the other one for this one? the body looks better from what i can see then this one. just curious is all

[LTDMan83]

why are you stripping the other one for this one? the body looks better from what i can see then this one. just curious is all

The other one was my DD for awhile, and ended up getting hit in the PS Rear End by an early 90's taurus at about 35mph. Tweaking everything non-bolt on in the vicinity of the impact, the Trunk Body, the PS Quarterpanel, the PS Decklid hinge arm, the PS of the fiberglass shell of the coach roof, the PS roof line itself, and lastly the PS Rear frame rail.

I got $800 from the ladies insurance company, which paid for the Car entirely making it basically free, but as a result the car has a salvage title. Making it basically worthless, other than scrap value. I'm a fairly skilled bodymang, and I could bring it totally back to were no one would ever be able to tell that it was hit, but even then I would still be left with a Slightly Tweaked Salvage/Rebuilt Title car, which isn't cool with me. If I am gonna be putting this much work into a car, I would like it if at least it would have the possibility of being worth something someday 20-30yrs down the road, even if it's only $2-3K at the most.

I have also recently come to the realization, that I am a perfectionist and really do not like putting my work into anything that cannot be made perfect or as close as possible, such as something that has been in a wreck at any point. I bring cars/trucks back from the dead daily at work, but even after we bring them back, and no one can ever tell it was wrecked, it still doesn't change the fact that the vehicle is wrecked and will never be the same again, no matter how much work is performed.


It really is a Damn Shame though that the Creampuff got hit, because before that it was the Mintest box I had ever seen. I shouldn't have DD'd it, I regret it now....

The now parts car is still very Mint otherwise, and it will be giving up it's entire Front End and all it's Doors, to this car. As well as it's entire Mint Interior and Rebuilt AOD.

It makes me kind of sad to disable a perfectly running and driving Car that I have such fond memories of, but it's parts are going to a better cause, as the Body/Frame of the new car are not-tweaked, and still solid and mostly rust-free. I'm still not gonna Junk the old one though, I just can't bear the thought. It will be pieced back together with Beater Parts, worked smooth with filler, 400 horses dropped in the engine bay, and then it shall live on as an El-Strippo Drag Car.