My 1987 Two Door Crown Victoria AKA THE BROWN BLOB

[87gtVIC]

Yeah yeah yeah I don;t have them anymore.

In other news...



boo ya. Hope I have enough this time around.......Gonna look fucking KICKASS. Shit load of work to do it though.

[tjc78]

Caps will look great. .. I see you have raided the craft store. Lots of detail work there.

[gadget73]

how much of that highlight stuff do you have? Yikes, one pen did my whole rear reflector with plenty to spare.

[miamibob]

how much of that highlight stuff do you have? Yikes, one pen did my whole rear reflector with plenty to spare.

EBAY sells them in a group of 12 so.....

[87gtVIC]

how much of that highlight stuff do you have? Yikes, one pen did my whole rear reflector with plenty to spare.

I had three medium points originally and figured it would do everything fine. They ran out really quick on me. I don't know it the angle I am using them in is effecting the paint flow but they don't last.

EBAY sells them in a group of 12 so.....

Yep. I first picked up three medium and three fine. Now I moved up since I severely underestimated what I needed the first go around.


Tested the center cap out. Fits great.

Before:



Comparing the two:



And after:



It was worth the expense. They will look fantastic. Gonna give the centercaps a cleaning and a coat of wheel wax before they get permanently installed.

[tjc78]

Caps look awesome, little touches add up.

[87gtVIC]

Thanks. The latest little touch can be seen below....

Continued on with the bumper stripes today. This was around a 4hr job......

I carefully masked everything off one line at a time. I'd do a bottom line then a top. I didn't want to get tape on fresh paint so I waited till all was dry to proceed.

Here are some in progress pics:





My priming pad:



And some completed pics...













Masking off helped tremendously getting nice sharp lines on the horizontal bumper pieces. On the bumperettes some paint got under the tape and made the lines a bit fuzzy but all in all a very nice job.

When all was said and done I ended up using about 5 medium point paint sharpies and 1 fine point.



What is in the box is basically what I have left.

Turns out I was not using the sharpies correctly. I was using them with horizontal strokes and it seemed to work a hell of a lot better with short vertical strokes.

Some extras I will give to anyone (1 per person) with some worn down interior trim at Scottfest this year. They will do wonders in freshening up an interior.

Lastly Thanks Zach for the idea..

[miamibob]

I ordered one for the interior of my '87. Just a few spots to touch up on the IP bezels so we'll see when I get the pen and am up to doing it!

[gadget73]

ah, I see what you were doing. I was thinking you were just doing the tail lamp lenses, and I thought WTF, they aren't that big.

[pantera77]

Looks great Dave! Those little touches really set the car off.

I've been using the same ancient, crushed, ran over silver paint pen forever, and it still somehow works.

[johnunit]

those are just standard silver sharpies, right? I've been meaning to do the dash trim for a while.

Looks cool. I didn't realize until a couple weeks ago that that treatment was at least optional on earlier cars.

[Mainemantom]

Excellent job with the trim. The center caps are also a big improvement. A sharpie job wouldn't be for me. It would be a mess as I have tremors in my hands.

[tjc78]

Those are Sharpie paint markers , much more robust than a standard silver Sharpie marker

Nice touch, reminds me of the Mark VI Signature Series trim.

[87gtVIC]

ah, I see what you were doing. I was thinking you were just doing the tail lamp lenses, and I thought WTF, they aren't that big.

Yeah. I still picked up too many anyways. The first three I used actually were still good. I was not priming them enough and I was not using the pen properly. I was trying long horizontal strokes whereas it worked a million times better with short and quick vertical strokes.

Looks great Dave! Those little touches really set the car off.

I've been using the same ancient, crushed, ran over silver paint pen forever, and it still somehow works.

It really does set the car off.

I had a testors paint pen that my dad got used from his friend and then he used it then I started to use it. I touched up the entire interior of the car as well as the stock taillamps with the horizontal bars and then it started to die. It really lasted a LONG time.

those are just standard silver sharpies, right? I've been meaning to do the dash trim for a while.

Looks cool. I didn't realize until a couple weeks ago that that treatment was at least optional on earlier cars.

The ones I am using are oil based paint pens. I don't know if the sharpie will adhere enough on the interior trim. I always used paint pens for that.

My father who has been a ford mechanic since the 80s didn;t know that some cars got this treatment either.

Excellent job with the trim. The center caps are also a big improvement. A sharpie job wouldn't be for me. It would be a mess as I have tremors in my hands.

Thanks!

Those are Sharpie paint markers , much more robust than a standard silver Sharpie marker

Nice touch, reminds me of the Mark VI Signature Series trim.

Thank you.

[87gtVIC]

Fender prep

Current fenders turned to junk over the past few years...

Anyways I pulled fenders for the car a few years back. One came from a minty 88+ grand marquis while the other came from a minty Crown Victoria.

The passengers side one is the grand marquis' That is the one I started working on first. You can see below what I had to do....





Those holes and pegs are not used for Crown Victoria trim so I had to break out the welder...

I backed the holes I had to weld with a copper plate







Yay Not holy anymore.

I then whipped up some duraglass short strand fiberglass filler and gave the weld areas a quick wipe down.



I also treated any rusty spots with Eastwoods Rust converter....

Next was seam sealing the back side of the weld...



And prepping the back side for Eastwoods Rust encapsulator...





Encapsulated.



Tomorrow I will block out the fiberglass filler and go over the area with some lightweight filler. I intend to prep the rest of the fender for primer as well. We'll see.