VicCrownVic's 1991 Mercury Grand Marquis GS

[sly]

love the "bumper jack"

[DerekTheGreat]

Yeah, if you see rot on the outside it's 2x or worse where you can't see it. Parking stuff over dirt/grass accelerates the rot process too, especially if it's already got the cancer. It also encourages animals to take up squatting in your engine bay and chewing your wiring and whatever else bullfuckery they do. Hate rodents.

[VicCrownVic]

The bumper lift is a Hein-Werner AL?? that my dad picked up from some place in Detroit. I don't think it has the label with the model on it, but I know it does have a label from the place that used to own it. The only other one I've been able to find on the internet has the model label chewed up and a few minor differences. I don't think dad's has the original wheels, I think he swapped the originals out for some better ones. Also, dad's has the air inlet/outlet valve lever facing the rear rather than facing the top which I think would be easier to operate the safety block release compared to the top facing valve lever. The one in the link looks to be in rough shape. Dad's could use a rebuild/refresh (kind of posting that link for future reference for myself) but it's not that bad.

Derek, last fall I drove the Yukon out back to the cement pad, where I swapped the engine in this car, so it didn't have to endure more oxygen producing plants oxidizing things further. I may get around to pulling that engine this year. I might as well make it an annual tradition to pull/swap an engine. I guess that would mean it would be The Scab's turn in 2018 unless it's not tired enough by then.

[DerekTheGreat]

Whadja need to have the ass in the air for anyway?
If you need a pair of hands/tool fetcher for the Yukon's swap I'm down.

[VicCrownVic]

Whadja need to have the ass in the air for anyway?
If you need a pair of hands/tool fetcher for the Yukon's swap I'm down.

The car or the bumper lift? In the old picture it was up for a new muffler, last weekend it was for the new coil springs to go with the new air shocks. The rear of the car will come down once all the weight goes back into the trunk.

Tool fetching at dad's place takes longer than actually getting stuff done. Gotta search the basement, if it's not there go look in one of his vehicles, if it's not there go look in another vehicle, and at some point ask where it is only to find out that it isn't there either.

[DerekTheGreat]

Ahh. You should almost photograph everything on the ground before putting it in the trunk lol.

Haha. Ashley saves me a bunch of time by grabbing tools and making runs to the parts store. She's also handy with a timing light.

[VicCrownVic]

After some searching I think dad's bumper lift is most likely a model AL38.

Also, I've got a few years before The Ice car gets as bad as the '91 MGM pictured below. Shoot, my '89 is in better shape that that.
20160724_160052 by kishy ., on Flickr

[Mainemantom]

After some searching I think dad's bumper lift is most likely a model AL38.

Also, I've got a few years before The Ice car gets as bad as the '91 MGM pictured below. Shoot, my '89 is in better shape that that.
20160724_160052 by kishy ., on Flickr

I think this one might have failed inspection.

[DerekTheGreat]

Goddamn, that is a krispy panther. Where was that, 8 Mile PG?

[VicCrownVic]

I think this one might have failed inspection.

Good thing there aren't inspections in MI. They probably drove that car to the JY.

Goddamn, that is a krispy panther. Where was that, 8 Mile PG?

Not sure, I found that in blkpnthr's album.
Usually cars in the JY make me feel bad about my car, that one certainly helps me feel better.

[VicCrownVic]

Drove this one home today, put close to 100 miles on it today.

Over the past few weeks I've been getting this one ready to go for the winter. Some of the work done included pulling the trans to replace what I thought was a leaking rear main seal. Once I got in there I realized it wasn't the rear main seal, and boy do I feel stupid. Rear main seal was replaced anyway, and I made sure not to forget thread sealer on the flex plate bolts this time. No leaks now.
Also changed the trans fluid and filter while I was at it, it was due anyway.

2018 may end up being the last year for this car since body rot has really set in. Most of it was there when I bought it back in 2012, although much less noticeable, but it's all grown over the past 5 years. I suppose I can consider finding a good body. I don't need an engine or a trans, I can just take those from this car. Besides, this car is the 3rd the trans has been in and 2nd the engine has been in.

[DerekTheGreat]

Some then & now pics of said rot would be cool. If nothing else, it would make a good parts car after 2018.

[VicCrownVic]

I had posted some pics, but photo bucket went stupid so they aren't on this thread anymore (most likely). I'll have to dig those pics out and repost them.

[BigMerc96]

Me too. I lost a lot of my older pictures with PhotoFucket. I have the originals of the ones taken with my phone(s), but ones taken with my camera are MIA thanks to the camera corrupting its own SD card. Haven't dug into all of my old computers to see if a copy exists on one of them, I know a backup existed somewhere but my luck it'll have been on my Netbook's dead original HDD.

Your car has more rockers than mine. Mine are plastic covers hovering over nothing. Oddly enough, the actual pinch weld and structure are almost spotless. Sacrificial metal elsewhere on the rocker? hmmm. My rear quarters are made of expanding foam. If you ever managed to remove the rear bumper (in part held on by said foam), you'd see that everything from the bumper cover mounting points on down is gone. This caused an electrical nightmare after salty water got into a wiring harness, after finding and fixing that I decided I'd had enough and attacked it with a couple cans of foam. At least the trunk stays dry now and I don't get that musty basement smell after driving in the rain. Oddly, all 4 doors are spotless, as are the floors aside from a smallish spot on the passenger side where the floor and firewall come together. If I thought I could get the seat out without breaking everything, I might consider pulling the carpet and patching that spot, but its not bothering anyone where its at and it allows the floor to drain I guess. I discovered during fuel pump replacement that the body mounts had collapsed somewhat and trapped the fuel pump harness between body and frame, and then discovered the pinch weld is still strong enough to lift the body up off the frame.

[VicCrownVic]

Steve, it's actually pretty odd how good the rockers are on this car. Although the driver side is starting to get its first hole so the inside must look horrid.

I borrowed Derek's garage and replaced my calipers today. Actually Derek probably did more than half the work. I owe that guy a ton. Not just for this time either.

Braking is much smoother with the new calipers.