Saved from the Demo Derby: 1990 Country Squire

[gadget73]

sorry but the flashlight taped to the column to see the speedo is funny shit

if nothing else works, I'm told an ozone generator left running for a few hours in the car does miracles for it. I use dryer sheets to keep things from getting musty but it has to not stink to begin with.

[Quincy]

Get some litterbox deodorizer powder, pour it in trays/tupperware and put one in each floorboard. Close the doors and park in the sun for a few days.

[Mainemantom]

I have tried the following for odors maybe one of these will work. vinegar for wiping down plastics, Febreeze, Sometime have to spray it multiple times then close the windows for a day, then open them up for a couple of hours. Baking soda spread all over the carpet and cloth seats when dry, let sit then vacuum,
Does your rubber steering wheel get sticky when it gets hot ? Mine did and was nasty. I have some new old school, lace up steering wheel covers in red.
I like the crank up windows. If mine wasn't such a mechanical dog, I would have kept it. It became a Tijuana taxi, (no joke).

[Tiggie]

Dunno, maybe it was made from biodegradable plastic in the interest of being friendly to the environment!

This was the dash lighting system when I purchased Quincy from the janitorial service company (NOT MY WORK!!! - I would have applied the duct tape much more neatly, and probably have used the shiny "chrome" variety! )

[ATTACH=CONFIG]55441[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]55442[/ATTACH]

I was able to simply replace the bulbs and a couple holders back then. FF to today, and interior looks MUCH worse due to 16 more years of exposure to the GA environment. ...and that's with Quincy parked under shelter most of the time, even.

That’s downright special! At least they tried instead of just guessed at nighttime speed and fuel?

I’ve never seen the real deal 79-81ish PI speedo. I don’t think the PI option was very popular that early in the Panther run. I prefer the 88-89 for the early cars with all white lettering (no blue metrics). Both the 82-87 and 88-89 version pop up on eBay from time to time.

Tried this Mother’s Odor Eliminator Thursday. Haven’t opened the car since. The wife is on the verge of accepting this car as something she’ll ride in without complaint but the smell has to go.

https://www.amazon.com/Mothers-06810-Eliminator-Refresher-Unscented/dp/B07K453N4P?th=1&psc=1

[Quincy]

Dunno, maybe it was made from biodegradable plastic in the interest of being friendly to the environment!

This was the dash lighting system when I purchased Quincy from the janitorial service company (NOT MY WORK!!! - I would have applied the duct tape much more neatly, and probably have used the shiny "chrome" variety! )



I was able to simply replace the bulbs and a couple holders back then. FF to today, and interior looks MUCH worse due to 16 more years of exposure to the GA environment. ...and that's with Quincy parked under shelter most of the time, even.

[87gtVIC]

I have heard about the early ones turning to dust with age across other ford platforms on other forums. Maybe that was fixed after 79?

[Quincy]

79 to 89 will fit your car. Avoid 90 and 91...Way different. 79 to 87 would be more proper....white needle....88-89 has the orange needle IIRC. Now that I think if it the early years may have been orange needled too like under 83 or so but all of those between 79 and 89 will fit your needs.

Yep. Mine (80 mph) had (and still has) the orange needle. Unfortunately, the entire cluster essentially turned to dust the last time I tried to remove it to access some dash and indicator bulbs (turned out it wasn't the bulbs, the whole thing was fossilized and crumbling, such that the bulb holders wouldn't "retain"). The speedo face also cracked, so I replaced it with one I had robbed from an early 80's model some time back with the white lettering. The speedo head for that one was nuked, so I used mine, and the original orange needle. Also kept the non-OD shift sector, so mine's really a hybrid, now...

[87gtVIC]

P. S. - I'd give my left nut to get ahold of one of those certified speedos. Been looking for several years now!

79 to 89 will fit your car. Avoid 90 and 91...Way different. 79 to 87 would be more proper....white needle....88-89 has the orange needle IIRC. Now that I think if it the early years may have been orange needled too like under 83 or so but all of those between 79 and 89 will fit your needs.

[Quincy]

Nice wag rescue and upgrade!

There's some irony in that I purchased my '79 LTD wagon with the intention of derbying it back in '04!!! But I couldn't bring myself to do it, so I settled for the "car show" at the Dixie Speedway (dirt track outside Atlanta that also hosts one of the only demo derby venues around here - this ain't the mid-west!) which consists of driving your car around the track to audience approval and applause, most applause wins. Ergo, the "S.W.A.T.T." titles. We had Quincy wired for sound (al la "Blues Brothers", with a PA system on the roof, but not stadium sized!) to blast AC/DC "Back in Black", had poles zip-tied to the door posts to wave Old Glory and USMC flags out the windows all for audience appeal. Six of us packed into Quincy for the 2.5 hour ride, but 1/3rd the way there the worn out 302 blew a seal and had a massive oil ejection, so we never made it! We turned back (stopping to pour oil in every so often) and piled in a more reliable vehicle to see the derby/race/"car show"/jet truck incinerating junk cars and had a great time - I think a Lincoln Town Car won the derby, by the way, and a lame-ass pickup truck won the "car show". Oh, well, we had fun trying! Never attempted again, though, but I fixed Quincy and drove him on 200+ mile trips with regularity after the fact.

P. S. - I'd give my left nut to get ahold of one of those certified speedos. Been looking for several years now!

[87gtVIC]

Only reason I mentioned it is because it happened to me before hopefully it is the case and nothing crazy is going on here.

[Tiggie]

Find where the oil may be escaping from?

I checked pulled it out right after I got home with it, so it had previously been tampered with after I thought about it... It's very possible it wasn't seated.

I'm going with that as an explanation. No way a valve cover would push oil that high up on the engine unless it was a huge leak.

[87gtVIC]

Find where the oil may be escaping from?

[Tiggie]

The 140 speedos just look so damn nice.

I see oil on top of number 7 plug wire. Is your dip stick fully seated?

I will check tomorrow. That could certainly explain it.

[87gtVIC]

The 140 speedos just look so damn nice.

I see oil on top of number 7 plug wire. Is your dip stick fully seated?

[Tiggie]

Put a new lock actuator in the tailgate yesterday. Forgot there wasn’t one in the drivers door, otherwise all the power locks work, roughly four years into ownership. Maybe by year five.

Also put the 140 speedo in that Kodachrome Wolf picked up for me from what I think was a Grand Marquis he found in a junkyard. It’s the a 1994-dated part, so I think it was a service replacement. Now I have a working odometer and trip odometer. Plus no worries of burying the speedo.




Put the PI rear sway bar on as well. No huge difference from the smaller one. At least not on 225/70R15 truck tires.

Hooked the clock back up while I was in there. Unhooked that while fixing the HVAC controls several years ago.

Washed it. Car still stinks inside. I think the vinyl has adsorbed the musty smell.

Drove about 40 miles. Smelled oil when I got home and saw smoke from under the hood. I guess the drivers side valve cover is leaking and the wind blew the oil around? Valve cover gaskets are new PermaDry parts. Can’t imagine anywhere else oil would come from in this area.

Also idles high and loses vacuum quickly on a hill, so we may have a vacuum leak somewhere.




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