My 1987 Two Door Crown Victoria AKA THE BROWN BLOB

[87gtVIC]

Corner of my room is now filled up with parts...much like how it looked when my car was being painted years back. Gotta get moving on all of these goodies!

[grandwagon]

u go man!!!!!

[87gtVIC]

I have not been going anywhere lol. Everything unfortunately is at a stand still due to my work schedule. BUT the weather was great today so I did wash, claybar, polish and wax the car. God it is always satisfying seeing the results.

[tjc78]

Looks great. The problem is this time of year it will be covered in a thin layer of
pollen in two hours.

[87gtVIC]

Luckily the worst of it has passed, actually nearly all of that has passed here by me. A couple weeks back when I was in Cleveland for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductions I came back to a green car.

[gadget73]

I went somewhere today and had to park in a big dirt lot. The car is sort of grey in color now. There are times I miss the shitty paint. 2 years ago I wouldn't even have cared that it was dusty, nor would I have been able to tell.

[87gtVIC]

Started the body bushing swap this morning and completed the entire drivers side.

Core support bolt came right out, one of the two bolts under the foot well area broke...had to use a bolt extractor on that. One under the drivers seat came right out the one in front of the rear wheel came right out, one by the shocks came right out, one behind the rear wheel came right out and the one right by the rear bumper had the nut spun so we cut an access hole in the trunk, used a sazall on the bolt from underneath and nut and bolted that one together. 3hrs total. Hopefully the passengers side goes as smooth.

As of now the car definitely sits at least a 1/2" higher because of the new bushings.


OH and remember to unbolt the fender extensions before jacking the body away from the frame. I didn't.

[andyfanshawe]

Nice job sir. 3 hrs eh? Very impressive.
My body bushings swap took 6 months!

Did you take any photos? Get that camera out for the other side.

Looking seriously sexy that car of yours If I saw a car like yours in the UK I would faint

Andy.

[87gtVIC]

Lot of it has to do with luck and my dad and I are doing it, so you can look at it as 6 man hours. I will take some photos of the pieces of jello and smashed bushings once the other side it done, and of course with the car sporting its new red poly bushings.

Thanks for the complements. I gotta say though I wish I took the precautions you did when I was getting my car ready for paint. Fenders on my car are getting bad. Areas that were solid are now starting to bubble up. Oh well there is always something. Will have to get new fenders at one point. Luckily that is easy to replace compared to a rusted out quarter panel..which I do not have. The car does still look really good though....even with the freak hail storm that rolled through last summer.

[gadget73]

Were any of your bushings missing an entire part? I seem to recall the bushings over the rear wheel arch in my car had no lower "biscuit" at all.

[87gtVIC]

Yeah I did notice that Thain. Whats up with that? Were they just entirely gone or never installed?

[86VickyLX]

Some of mine are non existant. There's one that's right under the drivers floor pan, so worn out, spins on the bolt lol.

[87gtVIC]

haha oh my!

[gadget73]

I'm not entirely sure if they rotted away or were never there TBH. Seems like they should have been in place but who knows.

[87gtVIC]

Well Thain I can tell you that we found no lower bushings for the body mounts above the rear wheels. Maybe both sides just withered away.

So the body bushing replacement job is finished....aside from reinstalling the fender extensions, front and rear. Car does infact sit at least a 1/2" higher as I previously stated. At least this is a SOILD 1/2" higher.

Passengers side gave us a bit more trouble. Only bolts that we needed to drill access holes for were the one below the passengers side rear seat and the one just above the rear wheel. Otherwise it was trouble free...OH and trying to get the body centered on the damn frame was fun....and by fun..I mean not fun. Got it as close as we could. We put in 4hrs each today bringing the total man hour labor at 14hrs for the entire job.

Test drive will come soon. Then at the next oil change I will snug the bolts up once more.