My 1987 Mercury Colony Park

[Brown_Muscle]

For what it’s worth my 351 has 3/4” heater hose in stock form.

[Kodachrome Wolf]

Took care of a few minor things over the last few days.

I managed to put every vacuum line on wrong to the dash pots controlling the air doors. Wondered why I couldn't get any heat on the floor. Solved that real quick. Also went about solving the exhaust leak at the engine. Kept hearing ticking from the driver's side bank. Tossed some header gaskets on (Percy's Seal-4-Good), and the tick was still there. Looked at the insulation and there was a darkening spot very close to the down pipe. Loosened the clamping plate, adjust the pipe some, and ran it back down. Hey, it got quiet! I can live with that.


Today the headlights got back on their horse-hockey with the left turn signal. So the symptoms that I can now see are 1.) If the lights are already switched on, the two cluster bulbs on the left side go out when the signal goes on, 2.) If you switch the high beams on when the issue is occurring, the two cluster bulbs go out and the turn signal indicator comes on at half intensity, 3.) The high beam circuit engages with every turn signal flash with the left signal engaged, 4.) The left indicator on the cluster will never illuminate.

Unplugging the headlight relay harness does not "rectify" the issue, as the indicator does not come back. However, I have a sneaking suspicion about the cluster illumination and related nonsense. So I swapped a number of incandescent bulbs in the cluster for LEDs, mostly just the ones doing illumination. I can't remember if I swapped the high beam indicator though. Why is that relevant? About two or three years ago I put an LED on the high beam indicator, and for some reason the high beam circuit would remain latched on, even when cycling the switch. I could never get the high beams to come off unless I removed the bulb. Toss an incandescent bulb in and everything was cool. Now I don't understand why this is an intermittent issue lasting only for select periods of time, but I think I need to revisit the cluster bulbs since this issue never occurred until after the swap.

This afternoon I knocked out an oil change. Wound up with a lot of $2.99/qt Amsoil from NAPA a few days ago, so I used the 10W-40 in the car and a FL-300 my friend didn't want for his Cobra because it had a very small mar on the can right at the base.

I am very serious this was all $2.99/qt. I wouldn't have purchased it otherwise, but they had it on their closeout rack, so I got plenty of oil for the cars here at the house. I am definitely not a "boutique" oil purchaser. I've usually just stuck with Shell, Mobil, Valvoline, or Motorcraft.


Also took care of the idler arm. Either a Ford part was put on at some point between 1987 and now, but I kinda suspect the original idler was still hanging on at like 335K.




Looked pretty typical to every other -'02 OE idler I've seen with mileage. The sleeve was a little stubborn since it stayed on the stud, but some penetrating oil and a pair of channel lock made it leave its home.

Slapped on a older Moog idler I've had laying around for a minute. Purchased it when I worked at the parts store since it was even cheaper than the house brand at the time.


Might need to get the alignment checked now. There's a pull to the right condition, but the tires also might have worn a pattern in them anyway. They're worn on the outer shoulders. I'll probably get the car scheduled for tires in November anyway. These Firestones are a mix of late '15/early '16 date codes and they're starting to show their age. I wasn't very impressed by the FR710s anyway since they were a harder compound than the Affinity/Precision Touring series, but those had just been discontinued when I was needing a set of tires for this car, so I ran with a whitewall I could get then. Firestone doesn't offer shit-for-nothing anyway now, so I'll just order the Nexen nPriz AH5 P225/70R15s I've been running on the '97. Fleet size tire with a decent compound and whitewall? It's a win-win!

[Kodachrome Wolf]

Did a little tinkering to get the shift indicator working again. When Nick and I did the heater core, we did disconnect the shift indicator, but it seems a bit too much stress was placed onto the indicator chassis itself while handling the cable on removal and installation, and it turned into several pieces internally.



That was the original indicator to the cluster. Being a 1980 cluster, it did have one unique trick, which is the fact the indicator just used a metal sleeve for the AOD shift pattern that covered the original SelectShift pattern. I swapped the sleeve onto an '88-'89 indicator chassis I had available, so it looks like nothing happened. Plastic of the '88-'89 unit also did not have the harsh yellowing of the plastic and cracking around the screw hole for the cable, so I suspect it'll last considerably longer.

I also pulled all the LED bulbs from the cluster and swapped the original bulbs back in, sans color filter for now. I'll be curious to see if the back feed condition returns, so I'll keep monitoring that to determine if it was just one of those oddities that don't make proper sense.

[Kodachrome Wolf]

Is anyone familiar with a suitable coating for the underside of the dashpads to slow degradation of the material? I ask since I plan on recoloring the dashpad I've recovered and it hasn't experienced any of the backing material falling away from the speaker openings, and I've noticed often where the material falls away from typically leads to the openings splitting/cracking in short order. I was curious if there was a way to seal the dashpad to slow the likelihood of occurrence.

I plan on using a sunshade to reduce UV exposure in the future anyway, but using something to help further protect the material couldn't hurt.

[friskyfrankie]

If anyone would know, it would be these folks. It is a father and son operation. Not sure they would part with this info as they do this type of work but a phone call would help you determine that!

[friskyfrankie]

Sorry - forgot the link!

https://www.justdashes.com/

[Kodachrome Wolf]

those wheels have got to go.

And five years later the Lincoln wheels come off.



Using the steelies from the '97 now since the tires on the Lincoln wheels are fairly worn and are starting to weather check, and I did not plan to put another set of tires on those wheels. As I was removing them, one of the centers absolutely grenaded, so that further sealed the deal. Anyway, the wagon is off to the tire shop tomorrow for a new set of tires on these wheels. Tossing on the same Nexens I have on the '97 because P225/70R15 size available with a whitewall. This swap also gives me an excuse to see what set of wheel covers looks best on here, but for now the mid-70s Mercury covers are on.

[Kodachrome Wolf]

Much better! These are the same type tires I've used on the '97, and I've been very happy with the ride comfort and traction.

[friskyfrankie]

Me likey!!

[87gtVIC]

Looking sharp.

[Stocker]

I always thought those Lincoln wheels were an interesting look for that. The '70s wheel covers, though, seem to fit really well.

[Kodachrome Wolf]

Getting the wagon ready to go up to Salisbury, NC for a little model railroading event next week.

Did a general once over inspection of the car for any oddities. Decided to check on the spare tire and air it up. I probably need to replace it next year or so since it's a date code 2014 tire. It was one of the lesser worn Firestone WSW tires from the '97 when it got those BSW tires in 2018 because the spare that was in this car originally was from 1995. Didn't trust anything that old hitting the pavement, so a good used tire seemed most sensible.

Also have a few small rust pinholes in the spare tire well to repair. No cancerous rot, but looks like just moisture exposure in there at some point caused some rusting to occur and made the metal thin and perforated a few spots. I'll get that fixed this weekend and spray some rust preventive paint down there to slow additional wear.


Hopefully I'll have some stuff to share next week from the trip.

[Kodachrome Wolf]

Huh, I guess I never followed up after Salisbury. I didn't get really much in the way of photos there just kinda from how the space was laid out. I got some photos of the more recent event while at Johnson City, TN, but the '87 didn't go there as we only took one car then. Fun event regardless.

Haven't needed to do much since February. A few months ago I noticed one of the tailpipes was looking kinda crooked; one of the cheapie exhaust hangers at the driver side muffler gave up, so better quality universal types were used.



The one on the right sucks. If it needs to support any considerable pipe work or muffler, you want the one on the left if you're not using weld on type. Despite both being Nickson brand, the cheapie one was a China made deal and the 360 Swinger was a USA made one.


I swapped out the AutoPal E-Code headlights for a Hella set. After driving Nick's '89 with them, I could tell a difference in beam pattern quality. The AutoPals were cheap, but considerably still better than a traditional sealed beam. The Hellas still beat the AutoPals hands down, though.

I've also got my hands on a NOS set of air shocks manufactured in late 1998 by Tokico. Dunno how much I really trust 20+ year old bellows, but the rubber is still supple, and nothing appears out of sorts about them. Both are late part revision numbers sporting F0xx part numbers. I just need to figure out a sensible way of re-installing my air compressor since the '92+ style air intake is in the old home for it. I've heard pray tell a Aero Town Car fender liner could be used, so I guess I might figure out if that's true. If I can get all that fitted up, I can see about restoring the system since the tail end gets a little saggy with a full load of cargo or people even with the cargo springs.

Also checked up on chassis mileage since the odometer doesn't match the car anymore. It's presently in the 342K range. So since 2017, I've driven it 28K miles, not bad. The complete HO swap has about 11K on it so far.

Otherwise, outside of those minor happenings, I've just been driving it intermittently along with the '97. So far I've been loving the heater core shutoff this summer, this car stays properly cold, if almost uncomfortably so if you keep the vents aimed towards your hands and face.

[87GrandMarq]

Looking good! I’ve been tinkering with my boxes recently. I’ve been busy with other things but I forgot how much fun it is to drive them. Did you install a pusher fan to help with your ac? And I don’t remember if you posted it but did the dodge (I think) tailpipes work?

[Kodachrome Wolf]

Looking good! I’ve been tinkering with my boxes recently. I’ve been busy with other things but I forgot how much fun it is to drive them. Did you install a pusher fan to help with your ac? And I don’t remember if you posted it but did the dodge (I think) tailpipes work?

I did install a pusher fan a few years back, but the bearings have since started to fail in it. I noticed it sounded kinda rough, so I've disconnected it. Arguably I've found better A/C performance is to be had in these cars with just a heater shutoff. A proper vacuum controlled one would be dope (only have it engage on Max A/C), but no one makes a return style in 3/4" hose, so manual it is.

I mentioned A-Body GM tails earlier on, but apparently that is definitely more of a suitable thing for '98+ cars with a Watts Link. Due to the 4-link setup on these, you can't position the pipes correctly. They happen to contact the control arms to the center chunk. I found a company that is making 2.5" Impala tails, albeit crush bent vs mandrel, but it was a solution that worked.