My 1987 Two Door Crown Victoria AKA THE BROWN BLOB

[DerekTheGreat]

That has to be one of the cleanest engine compartments I've ever seen, especially considering the car gets driven.

[87gtVIC]

Some time ago I added black seat belt sleeves that mounted up to the rocker panel to replace the cracked originals.

http://www.grandmarq.net/vb/forum/te...16#post1386216

while on a junkyard trip this summer I came across a 1979 Ltd-s model that had really good condition black seat belt receivers with great condition black plastics.

The plastics around my seat belt receptacles were replaced and painted to somewhat match by myself years ago but the color was off and the paint wound up not sticking well and they were cracked too.

http://www.grandmarq.net/vb/forum/te...439#post898439

This morning I went about adding the newly acquired black seat belt receptacles to my car. Came out better than I could have hoped.

before:





during:



Above...from left to right

Stock 87, stock 79 in the middle and my combination that I installed into my car on the right.



I swapped the inner press button and the chrome outer cover onto the 79 black housings/plastics and receiver.

and after:











and the black covers swapped into the stock belts with chrome backs



looks good to but the beat up plastics and crappy paint don’t do it for me.

The black plastic receptacles now match really well with the black sleeves down at the rockers. Much happy.

[Arquemann]

I wonder if the black receivers get less scalding-hot in hot weather and sunlight...

[87gtVIC]

Id imagine more, strictly because of the low albedo of the dark color.

[friskyfrankie]

Black will absorb more light (heat) than other colors so it should be hotter.

[Mainemantom]

Looking good !

[Lutrova]

How hard is it to take apart those buckles? I've looked at my own before, but couldn't find an obvious way to disassemble them.

[87gtVIC]

Remove the buckle from the vehicle. Look at the bottom of the cover and try to pry up one corner. Usually one side has a bit of room to slip a thin flat head in. Put buckle in a vice with a set of rubber soft jaws and then from inside use that same thin flat head and tap on the backside of the tang and it will pop loose the cover.



you can see the tangs in the photo above on the black cover

[87gtVIC]

Nothing much going on as of late. Got the car out of the backyard last week and back out to the streets.

First outing and a bunch of compliments, thumbs up and a guy in an AMG Mercedes saying he never knew they came with a manual trans. I responded with “ they never did and that I did this myself!”


couple shot after the ride.

[87gtVIC]

Oof. Haven’t driven it in over a month and a half. Battery was unhappy with me. Stone dead. Gooloo jump starter handled the dead battery no problem. I gotta look into purchasing a deep cycle marine grade battery. This battery is from Jan 22 and just ain’t cutting it.

anyways her she is after a morning run out to Long Island and back.

[kishy]

Keeping batteries in good health is definitely one of the harder parts of owning multiple vehicles that sit for months at a time. Solar battery maintainers seem like an option that works well enough if there's a way to keep the sun on them. They deliver very little current, but still enough to either prevent it discharging from sitting, or slow it down so much it just isn't an issue.

Car's looking good.

[DerekTheGreat]

Car lookin' great as always. I'd love to have it. I run Battery Tenders on the garage queens. Finally got my dad sold on the idea this year as he's now finally done dealing with dead batteries. That and it seems modern cars don't like having their batteries unhooked.

[87gtVIC]

Thanks guys.

I have the tender on the car when it’s in the backyard over winter. Once better weather rolls around it gets the boot from the yard and off to the curb. No possibility of running a cord to it to continue using the battery tender.


I like the idea of solar panel but the car is covered year round. I don’t want a panel outside of the car. It’s just an invitation for some lowlife to mess with it.

it is what it is.

[DerekTheGreat]

Yah, as it's been said, "You gotta piss with the cock 'ya got."