My 1989 Crown Victoria.

[slack]

So with pushing the control arm bushings project back to late summer (hopefully). I figured I would get the other front suspension stuff done now as it's almost dangerous to drive on bad roads. The front end suspension basically bounces around like a dolphin in the water.

I ordered new heavy duty Mevotech stabilizer link bars, Moog upper and lower ball joints, heavy duty Moog springs and KGY gas-a-just shocks for the front of the car.

[87gtVIC]

My thoughts...will the trunk seal on the weatherstripping.

My thoughts continued.....While the taillights are out please fix the seam sealer behind them that run up the the corner of the quarter panel. Re seal them so no water gets in.

Some more of My thoughts...Good choice with the LEDS as the tail-lamps would have never bolted back in place.


Oh and whose car is that in the background???

[kodiak]

Check www.superbrightleds.com

Sent from my VS980 4G using Tapatalk

[slack]

My thoughts...will the trunk seal on the weatherstripping.

My thoughts continued.....While the taillights are out please fix the seam sealer behind them that run up the the corner of the quarter panel. Re seal them so no water gets in.

Some more of My thoughts...Good choice with the LEDS as the tail-lamps would have never bolted back in place.


Oh and whose car is that in the background???

Thanks for the input!

On a quick look, it looked like the weather stripping will seal. It's not in the exact location as it would be in an '87 and older car by the trunk lip but it seems like it should work. I'm going to have to double check to make sure though. I've already dealt with that trunk flooding every time it rained once before.

For the seam sealer. I agree. That needs to be fixed. It's basically a hole right into the trunk of the car. My question is, where do I get that and how do I go about applying it? Is it similar to using caulking? If so, I figure I can grind down the rust with a drimmel bit, throw some quick paint over the bare metal and then seal it up right?

Nice eye! lol

That's my friend's '83 Black tudor (dude in the pic you quoted). It's probably the nicest CV I've seen in person ever. Right now the transmission is shot and it only goes up to 2nd gear. (TV bar is still in place and verified with pressure gauge the trans was getting the right pressure while driving) His dad has a couple replacements laying around and he's hoping to swap one in soon to get it back on the road. I'll see if I have some pics lying around from when we picked it up in CT last year. He got it for a steal. Only $1700!

Check www.superbrightleds.com

Sent from my VS980 4G using Tapatalk

Awesome! Thanks! I'll check that place out.

[slack]

I don't know where my pics from the trip are. I can't seem to find them. I'll post more if I can track them down. I was only able to find this one pic from New London, CT where we were waiting to get on the ferry to go back to Long Island. The pic doesn't really do the car justice. It was nasty out and it was still dirty from coming out of the dude's garage.

[slack]

Ok. Got some pics from my friend that he had on his phone. Still not 100% current but way better than what I posted. lol (Sorry for the triple post. I guess you can't edit your post after a certain amount of time has past?)

[87gtVIC]

Yep that is a nice vehicle.

I use eastwood products lately. They sell seam sealer in caulking cartridges as well as in quarts to brush on, either will work. I like the cartridges better because of convenience. I would use some sort of rust pain before applying seam sealer over rust.

[Mainemantom]

That is a beautiful CV ! My favorite colors and a 2 door with vent windows

[slack]

Yep that is a nice vehicle.

I use eastwood products lately. They sell seam sealer in caulking cartridges as well as in quarts to brush on, either will work. I like the cartridges better because of convenience. I would use some sort of rust pain before applying seam sealer over rust.

Awesome! Thanks. I just looked up the Eastwood stuff. It's cheaper than I thought it would be. I'll definitely be checking it out. Also, Rustoleum rust paint good to use? Or should I be looking at some other brands? I haven't really done any rust repair before.

That is a beautiful CV ! My favorite colors and a 2 door with vent windows

I know right! I can't wait for him to get it back on the road.


Side note. I tried to take a pic of my upper control arm bushings. As you can see, they're pretty cracked and the nut is rusted. No bueno.

Cracked rubber:

Nut:


Aaaaaaaaaaaand while I had the hood open, I noticed that I had some coolant dripping from the bottom of the passenger's side radiator tray. Awesome. Upper hose is new and good. No wetness up there. I'm thinking the radiator is now probably busted. :\

[87gtVIC]

mmm crusty.

As far as rust paint I cannot say. I have no luck with rust. This last go around I am just going all out with eastwood products. I suggest looking for reviews on line and on youtube before purchasing anything. This is how I fell upon the eastwood stuff.

[packman]

They look like mine when they came out. Surprisingly after 2 months of soaking them with Kroil, they broke free.


Packman

[slack]

mmm crusty.

As far as rust paint I cannot say. I have no luck with rust. This last go around I am just going all out with eastwood products. I suggest looking for reviews on line and on youtube before purchasing anything. This is how I fell upon the eastwood stuff.

Ok. Thanks. I'll check out the Eastwood stuff as well as a starting point.

They look like mine when they came out. Surprisingly after 2 months of soaking them with Kroil, they broke free.


Packman

Oh thank god. So there's hope I'll be able to get these things off!

[slack]

Lots of work done yesterday. After 13 hours on Sunday my friend and I were able to replace my shocks, springs, upper ball joints, lower ball joints, sway bar bushings, stabilizer links, rotors and inner and outer wheel bearings. (Basically what wasn't already previously replaced of my front end last time. )

I used the HD coils. A word of warning on those, they take A LOT to get them compressed enough. For a moment we were unsure if they were even going to fit in the car. The ride is super firm now but not harsh. I like it.

Anyway, on with the pics!

Here's more or less what we started with:



Detached the sway bar as well as the outer tie rods.


Disconnected the upper ball joint. Careful with these, they spring out like it's trying to punch you.



Upper ball joints were original so the rivets needed to be drilled out. This was a pain in the ass and in the end required a decent amount of prying.



Out:



Here is the hub about to be taken off the control arms: (Note: The rotor makes it impossible to get out with it still on. You have to take it off first)



Pressed out the lower balljoints with the tool rented from AutoZone:



Another shot of the of everything but the coils and shocks removed:


...More pics to come.

[slack]

Lower ball joint hole after pressing out:



I used the method stated in other threads about getting the shocks out. Basically put vicegrips on the shock and twist the screw until the head snaps off. Worked like a charm! Here's looking down at the snapped bolt:



...and here's the nut:



Here's the suspension stuff removed. The springs were still good but the shocks were toast.




We got everything out quicker than we expected so I decided to paint the inner wheel wells and control arms with some engine paint before we decided to reassemble. Came out okay considering it was a 10 min afterthought.

At this point I stopped really taking that many pics as we ran into issues with getting the springs in that ate up a lot of time as well as pressing the lower ball joints in became a headache.

Here's a pic of the new shocks and springs in:



Upper ball joint installed but not yet greased:

[slack]

Last pic I took during the job. Putting the hub onto the lower ball joint after it was pressed in:


And here's some final pics of the finished job. We started at 9am and didn't get done cleaning up until 11:30pm. What a day!

A little run down of what wasn't pictured, after the coils were installed, we installed the shocks. After that we screwed in the new upper ball joints and then had to press in the lowers. (Headache, even with the tool...) After the lowers were installed it was new rotors with new inner and outer wheel bearings. Greased them up and installed. Then it was just a matter of connecting the outer tie rods, putting on the new bushings on the control arm and screwing in the stabilizer links. Finally... grease grease grease.

Energy suspension control arm bushing:



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