My 1987 Two Door Crown Victoria AKA THE BROWN BLOB

[tjc78]

Cool little mod. Love the placement.

[87gtVIC]

Thanks. I find it fits so well there. I am tossing around the idea of finding another one cheap to throw up under the p.side seat. I;ll hack out the interior of that one though and use it as storage.

[Mainemantom]

What an outstanding job ! Ford should have done that as it seems to be at home there. I can't believe it took so many years to sell mine. I will keep my eyes open for another one for you . I am liquidating though.
One idea for whenever you get a new console for your car. Get a "console vault" I have one in the Subaru. Very good security.

[87gtVIC]

What an outstanding job ! Ford should have done that as it seems to be at home there. I can't believe it took so many years to sell mine. I will keep my eyes open for another one for you . I am liquidating though.
One idea for whenever you get a new console for your car. Get a "console vault" I have one in the Subaru. Very good security.

Thanks Tom. I got plain lucky with it fitting there. It does not obstruct a thing and just fit well and really simple to install.

There is one on ebay for around 150 or so right now. I dont need it that bad.

Leaning towards just keeping this seat set up which would mean no place for a console. I am not sure if I would have anything of value to put in a console vault. The car parts on the car would be worth more than anything I could hide in a vault.

[87gtVIC]

I didnt have any issues with the tape player but decided to pick up a cassette head cleaner and demagnetizer kit considering I picked up the unit out of a 1986 Town Car....Id say it wouldn't hurt to try. Cant say I notice any difference but the tape did visually pick up some dirt so it at least makes me feel like it did something.

Snapped a few pics after my success. Juts so damn happy with everything.







The only things I have been kinda kicking around (interior wise) were installing some kinda LEDs in cluster for Cruise Control "ON" and one for a check engine light...maybe in amber.

[Brown_Muscle]

Very nice. I always wanted a cruise control on status light when I had the station wagon. But never really looked into it in depth

[Mainemantom]

What I used to do with 8 track and cassette players is clean the heads, capstan and rollers with long swabs and denatured alcohol. That got things clean. The tape cleaners didn't do well. I am sure there may be better ways to do things now. That is what I did in the 70-90s.

That is a good idea for a cruise control "On" light.

[87gtVIC]

Very nice. I always wanted a cruise control on status light when I had the station wagon. But never really looked into it in depth

Thanks Phil. I dont think it is very compicated to do. Just need to refrence the evtm and I am sure one can snag a switched ground or power and get a light to turn on with cruise on.

What I used to do with 8 track and cassette players is clean the heads, capstan and rollers with long swabs and denatured alcohol. That got things clean. The tape cleaners didn't do well. I am sure there may be better ways to do things now. That is what I did in the 70-90s.

That is a good idea for a cruise control "On" light.

I think that may still be the best way to clean them. I should have thought about all of this while I was bench testing the unit. Now that it is all installed I dont want to remove it...also I have no reason to do so. Just wanted to try the tape cleaner out as I forgot to (didnt even think of) cleaning everything before hand.

If I am ever forced to pull the cluster I will pursue this. Small green LED that matched my alarm light and low fuel light will do the job nicely.

[marquisman]

Holy shit... I know I have been away for a bit but damn, your car has had great progress! Very nice! I did the same thing, with going back to a stock cassette deck on GMGT. No need for fancy audio lol.

[Mainemantom]

You still can use the swab and denatured alcohol to clean the parts when the stereo is installed. You will get allot of the dirt. Just have to be more careful and the swab has to be soaked so the lint will not get caught on anything. 5 minute job.

[gadget73]

Have to clean all of the parts though, not just the head. The tape runs across a couple of guide pins, and on the capstan and pinch roller. Crud on the head makes it sound flat and dull, crud on the capstan and pinch roller can cause speed problems. crud on the pins just transfers back to the tape so it spreads through all the rest of the system.

One of the issues with tapes now at this point in time is they can break down and shed the magnetic material which makes an absolute mess inside. Basically its the same mechanism as sticky steering wheels and other interior panels.

[87gtVIC]

The tape cleaner I had used contained a cloth type tape and you add a cleaning solution to it. I think the idea is that whatever the tapes cloth touches it cleans or maybe moves the dirt around? Its all voodoo to me. I am just glad a junkyard picked 12 dollar radio worked!...especially one that I never really intended on installing but am now so happy that I did. Thanks for all the tips on cleaning. Certainly handy.

[gadget73]

the cleaner tapes work OK for regular maintenance but when they get really crapped up it requires a little more work. usually that only happens on things that haven't been cleaned in a long time, or if you run a tape that is coming apart. I ended up with a bad tape on my reel to reel and it got brown gummy crap everywhere.

[87gtVIC]

The tapes degrading and the belts melting are two things you have me worried about....

[gadget73]

the belts are just a thing that has to be dealt with every couple of decades. Not so bad when you change them before they fail, but when it turns to that black sticky goo inside its a real mess to deal with.

Tapes are hit and miss, certain ones are fine just about forever, others are crap. Ampex tapes especially seem to be bad for whatever reason. Cassettes are newer than the reel tape I have here, most of my stuff is from the mid 60s and mostly still fine. The tape formulas on cassettes are somewhat more stable too, so I wouldn't worry too much about it. Just have a look inside if you start hearing an awful screeching noise to make sure the pinch roller isn't covered in brown gak. If that happens, chuck the tape.