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

[gabegt90]

Looking great brandon I'm sure I might have a leak on to the cross member. Sure makes it easy to find leaks with the interior striped.

[LTDMan83]

New Rear Bumper Installed

Installed a Chrome Smoothie '79 LTD/Marquis Rear Bumper today. The Bumper was found in a junkyard in Detroit,MI and then sold, crated up, and shipped to me, Courtesy of (theredlineboss).


Without any delay we get to the meat and potatoes of the thread, the pics:




The Original rear bumper was rusted out from the inside, and looked like shit. I've been wanting the smooth rear bumper for quite a long time though, the rear end needed more Chrome as well, IMO.




The Rear Bumper, right after unpackaging it.




Not bad at all on the inside, especially for a 30yr old bumper which came from the salty roads of Michigan.




The only flaws on the entire bumper are in the Chrome, a prick obviously keyed it at some point, and the Chrome is peeled on the top (standard). This Bumper will be re-Chromed at some point in the Future.





Using Eastwood's Heavy-Duty Anti Rust, for coating the inside of the bumper, after I get done sanding and blasting it. This Spray produces about the toughest barrier to corrosion I could Imagine. It sprays on like fresh motor oil, and after a few coats are laid down, it takes around 2-4 days drying in the sun to harden to a Waxy finish, which repels water very efficiently. It should last for a Very Long time. I wouldn't recommend spraying it on anything that you would ever want to lay a Finish coat of paint on, as it cannot be top coated at all, and would be a bitch and a half to try and strip back off, as it would clog any abrasive sheets or wheels very quickly.




My work area (Backyard). Pretty much sucks, as there are Fire Ants EVERYWHERE. At least it has a view, and a fresh breeze, though.




The inside of the bumper, all de-rustified and freshly coated, drying in the hot southern sun.




Also took the time to restore the Inner Support at the places where it needed it.




Removed the Nasty 3M adhesive off the outside of the trunk lip, that was left behind from the trim piece, and laid down some High Build and then Sealer Primer. This car has a very nice Decklid, which hardly has any rust on the inside




Shots of the Car with the bumper Installed. I also recently installed Turbines w/ Ford Center caps as well. I love this car already, Enjoy the pics!
















The Work Continues...but not today, as it is now raining again here, because of a hurricane that is over 1000mi away.

[monterey1962]

Holy crap! That smooth bumper really cleaned up the look of the car. Very nice.

[gabegt90]

sweet looks great brandon I love that bumper looks like she coming together. How's the new place?

[packman]

That rear bumper looks awesome!!! That is high up on the list of things to get for my mom's CV. I am trying to plan a trip to PA for that sometime in early October.


Packman

[86VickyLX]

Wow, that's a really nice bumper. Any updates on the cranking problem?

[theredlineboss]

Lookin' good dude!

[Grand Marquis GT]

Nice bumper, I shoulda lept on it while I coulda :nonono: Ah well, i'm holding out for a perfect one.

Thing's riding high, is that stock? I will still try to coax you to get rid of that coach roof

[LTDMan83]

Thanks Mangs, I thought the Bumper really cleaned up the look of the rear end of the car, as well.

How's the new place?

The new place is great mang. The house is nice, I have a massive yard to screw around in, and all my neighbors are Gearheads like me, so no one around here cares about any car-related annoyances, Loud Exhaust/Music, Yard full of old "junk" cars, clouds of paint particles floating around, etc...

I ended up not being able to use the garage next door to me, as the guy who owns it, and the place, wanted an extra $250 a month to let me use the garage. Which wasn't worth it at all to me, for the size of the thing. I have no problem doing most all of my work outside in the sun though. I do still have a definite place locked down to paint my car though, when the time comes, as well as any other High End paint projects I may take on for people.

Any updates on the cranking problem?

Yes, the starter tested good, so I'm officially at a loss. I'm now trying to diagnose why the engine won't fire, during the 4-5 seconds I can get it to crank. I think I may have found the problem, I still need and am looking for a 1 1/16 deep well socket before I can go any further with it though. I'll update the thread in the Tech Section, when I figure it out.

Nice bumper, I shoulda lept on it while I coulda :nonono: Ah well, i'm holding out for a perfect one.

Thing's riding high, is that stock? I will still try to coax you to get rid of that coach roof

Hehe, you may be holding out for awhile. Perfect bumpers are hard to find, even in their regular black stripped form. Out of all my years of junkyarding around here, I have only ever found 1 of the P72 Stripless type in good unbent shape. Damn near every Box that comes into the yards around here allready has Bent, Tweaked or Dented bumpers, either from the previous owner, or when they dragged them across the ground at the junkyard with no wheels, after pulling them off the rack. The yards around scotts in PA may be better though. I will have to get this Bumper Re-chromed eventually though, which will be expensive.

That is stock rear suspension to my knowledge. I think the spot it is sitting on in my yard is causing it to unload the PS spring a little, making it sit up higher. It also has the classic Lean to the DS, like all boxes with stock springs.

I really love Coach Roofs, especially on the 79-87 LTD CV's, The fact that this '87 already had a Coach Roof, is partially what made me go Far out of my way to acquire it, so this CR is staying put. I may slicktop the other '87 with the CR, when the time comes, and I get ready to el-strippo hotrod it.

If I ever get my hands on a nice 79-87 GMQ with the regular rear window, I will slicktop it, I can promise you that.

[Mr. Land Yacht]

oooh..shiny bumper!

[LTDMan83]

The Interior Project Continues...

Finally finished getting all the Tar stripped out of the floorpans, and the rest of the interior. It was a massive PITA stripping the tar mats off. Probably spent around 10-15 hours on this alone, because the mats where perma-bonded to the front floorpans and tranny hump. I used a Heat Gun with a Scraper, and a flatheaded Screwdriver for the tight spaces, to get all of the tar removed. Still need to finish removing the remnants of the tar, before I start in on the sanding/blasting. Here are the stripped pics:












The only rust hole in the entire floor, I consider myself lucky on this one. Depending on how bad it is after I blast it, I will either make a patch piece and Tig Weld it in, or tack weld the hole closed. Afterwards I will use Rust encapsulator, and then some USC All-Metal on top of that, to make the thinner rusted area a little stronger.








Next up, I will be finishing up stopping all the water leak points in the interior, as well as Sanding/Blasting the Floorpans in preparation for Rust Removal, and the as yet undetermined Protective Coating that I will be laying down on it, probibly either Eastwood's Rust Encapsulator, or Por15.

After that I will be installing Sound Deadening on every square inch of sheet metal in the Interior, including the Pillars and Roof. I probibly am gonna go with Second Skin Audio's: Damplifier Pro, and then Luxury Liner on top of that. By the time I'm done, I want to have Tomb like silence inside this interior while driving.


Any recommendations you guys may have for additional Sound Deadening products, let me know, I will consider them.

Stay Tuned.

[gabegt90]

looks great brandon so how long did it take you to fully strip all the tar lol

[86GmLsCoupe]

Dynamat Extreme is very good stuff, thats what I used when I redid my floorpan. You should be able to get a bulk pack on eBay for a good price. One word of caution, be careful if you sandblast, I did mine 3-4's years ago and I still get sand falling out of the dash here and there and it was very well covered. Good luck with everything.

[Tiggie]

Looking good. I never realized they painted the topcoat after the tar mats were installed already. I think you have the LX package to blame on those tar mats, my wagon just has carpet with nothing underneath but metal (well make that rusty metal).

[LTDMan83]

looks great brandon so how long did it take you to fully strip all the tar lol

Thx Gabe. It took around 15 hours to strip it all out, but I was trying my hardest not to damage the floorpans, or anything else at all. It had at least 20lbs of tar matting, alltogether. I hated every minute of it, probibly the biggest PITA of the whole project.

Dynamat Extreme is very good stuff, thats what I used when I redid my floorpan. You should be able to get a bulk pack on eBay for a good price. One word of caution, be careful if you sandblast, I did mine 3-4's years ago and I still get sand falling out of the dash here and there and it was very well covered. Good luck with everything.

Thanks. I was originally considering Dynamat Extreme, but after I figured up how much I would need for the entire car, and how much it would all cost, it didn't really seem worth it to me, to be paying that much, and still have only one layer of sound deadening on everything. I actually found alot of very scientific, fact-based reviews of Second Skins sound deadening products, and it seems like they may have a Superior product to dynamat. When you use their dynamat like product which is called "Damplifier Pro", in combination with an acoustical noise absorbing mat like Luxury Liner Pro, along with Spectrum Sludge in the hard to get at areas, the outside and road noise reduction should be excellent, from what I have read. Ever driven any of the new Mercedes, and felt/heard how silent those cars interiors are while driving? That is my goal for this one.


Second Skin Audio's site

Looking good. I never realized they painted the topcoat after the tar mats were installed already. I think you have the LX package to blame on those tar mats, my wagon just has carpet with nothing underneath but metal (well make that rusty metal).

Thanks Ben. Thats one feature of the LX package I could have done without! lol