My 1987 Mercury Colony Park

[TecNickal]

I think I ran it through the local car wash a couple of times.

[Kodachrome Wolf]

I think I ran it through the local car wash a couple of times.

I've done the same thing. I took it through an automatic one once and didn't do it again because the window seals at the time were letting water in. I been going to those DIY ones and never used high pressure water around the windows. I do know I need to install the passenger front door seal, since there is a small drip from the forward top side of the door.

FWIW, I've just never actually hand washed it nor tried waxing it.

[87gtVIC]

What is TR-3?

For anyone else looking into making there car shine after a number years of it not, please clay bar the car first. It will lift all contaminants off the paint allowing the paint to shine even more so after you do your compounding, polishing and waxing. Plus it ensures you are not compounding crud into your paint thus causing scratches.



I really want a wagon. Looking mighty good.

[packman]

So clean! I'm jealous of both cars. Very nice!!!

[Tiggie]

Are your bumpers both chrome plated? My front is chrome but the rear is anodized aluminum. I was able to use a clear "polish" which really seems more like paint on my rear aluminum bumper to make it quite shiny. It had turned a dull white.

I don't think many Owners polished the long roofs. On my 88, someone had buffed the hood and sides but left the top. I repainted the hood and sides, but the top is still a 1993ish respray. I water sanded the top and hand polished about seven years ago, followed by a six month waxing interval. Yours is looking a bit thin for sanding though.

[gadget73]

Only so much you can do with the polished aluminum unfortunately. It gets chalky. All of the rest of the trim on these cars is anodized aluminum. I believe you can chemically strip the anodizing off and polish it but if you don't clear coat it or do something similar to seal it, it'll get real bad real quick.

[Kodachrome Wolf]

What is TR-3?

For anyone else looking into making there car shine after a number years of it not, please clay bar the car first. It will lift all contaminants off the paint allowing the paint to shine even more so after you do your compounding, polishing and waxing. Plus it ensures you are not compounding crud into your paint thus causing scratches.



I really want a wagon. Looking mighty good.

TR-3 is something branded as a Resin Glaze. Apparently a cleaner and polish, it's supposed to help remove oxidation and restore shine. It says to rub onto the panels, then wipe off. The rags I was using on the hood and roof turned black and brown while using that. It had a sticker on top that says 'NOT FOR CLEAR COATS', however it mentions it could be used on clear coat cars on the back . I only used it since the wagon doesn't appear to be cleared.

When I'm doing a proper detail job, the clay bar is used. I didn't do it here simply because while I wanted the car clean, but expending the extra effort on toast paint wasn't worth it. Probably could have done it on the side panels, but I digress.

Also, thanks! It's been really solid since I got it from Nick. The only real hiccup was that TFI module, but nothing more than that. I still love driving it even if it isn't the prettiest car out there.

Are your bumpers both chrome plated? My front is chrome but the rear is anodized aluminum. I was able to use a clear "polish" which really seems more like paint on my rear aluminum bumper to make it quite shiny. It had turned a dull white.

I don't think many Owners polished the long roofs. On my 88, someone had buffed the hood and sides but left the top. I repainted the hood and sides, but the top is still a 1993ish respray. I water sanded the top and hand polished about seven years ago, followed by a six month waxing interval. Yours is looking a bit thin for sanding though.

Front is chrome, rear is aluminum.

There is a lot of roof to cover! Probably why no one did it, but it wouldn't be that bad on solid paint. My roof has splotches missing. This stuff looks like single stage, but there's gray areas like primer exposed. The black squares are irrelevant, those are from where the old roof rack rails went when the holes were sealed. When you look at where some of the respray has peeled off, you can see the original Sand Beige. In some other areas, it looks like there was a few layers done, so I have no idea what's really under there.

Eventually a repaint will be in order, but that's way down the road and have no problem working with what I currently have on there. I am curious as to when it did get repainted, since it definitely was done by the first owner some time before Nick got it.

FWIW, this was the roof in 2013:


The area that has turned really gray is that area on the front right side, but it looks like it had been doing that for a while. I'm just chalking it up to exposure coupled with thin paint. It's no big deal though.

[Georges86]

Hop on Amazon, get some decent Lake Country pads, and a Harbor Freight DA polisher.

Meguairs 105/205 combo, with some good pads would make.short work of that, and could probably bring that roof back to a shine.


Car looks great though

[Kodachrome Wolf]

Wagon made the trip back. Didn't take as many photos as I should have, but wound up with this:







5 PM on a Saturday and people are heading out...


And Regular Car Reviews was also at the show on Saturday with the Vagabond Falcon. They had an open to the public broadcast.


The one thing I didn't photograph was later in the day after their podcast ended, Mr. Regular and his intern were walking the show field and were actually interested in the wagon. They both jumped in the pop up rear seats. I told him that I was unfortunately down in GA, but I've left him with an e-mail submission in case he ever winds up down in the Southeast again. I thought that was pretty cool. There's a picture of my friend Mark and Mr. Regular together standing beside it, but I'd need to message him for that. Mr. Regular's Falcon definitely looks pretty cool in person.


Anyway, now that I'm home, I've got to iron out a new issue that turned up after the heater hose issue. The wagon was running fine after that, however on a return trip to our hotel, our pack got carried away and was cruising fast, and being in the middle, I was pushing it along (read: speedometer was usually near leaving the numbers). Anyway, it has a distinct miss feeling at idle. It's not as smooth as it used to be, but stays running without issue. You can really feel it on light acceleration below 10 MPH, kinda like a stutter. Once you're moving at speed, it's not obvious anything is wrong. I'm going to check the cap to see if anything got sprayed in it, check the wires, and then the plugs. You can really hear the fact something doesn't seem right from it's exhaust leak since the ticking isn't as consistent on the passenger side as it usually is.

[87gtVIC]

Get that tailgate swapped out already!

Looking good on the field there.

[Kodachrome Wolf]

Get that tailgate swapped out already!

I need a single day on a weekend so I can go up to TecNickal's and grab that thing and some other components. Maybe we can just slap on the replacement and I'll haul back the dented one. I'll worry about the paint later. I want my panels straight again more than you'd believe. It's so bad without the trim on the bottom.

[DerekTheGreat]

This thing has got 315k miles? Verify that the EGR isn't stuck slightly open & check your plugs.. Typically after thrashing my car hard on the interstate it runs a bit smoother but theory has the gears in my head turning.. Not that I understand the system entirely but seems to me these things require damn near 50% throttle to maintain 80+mph so there can't be much manifold vacuum to run the PCV & it might end up pushing oil vapor through the vent and getting inhaled by the engine.. If the TB looks all oily around that vent that says to me she's ingesting her own waste, which could be fouling the plugs over time.

[Kodachrome Wolf]

This thing has got 315k miles? Verify that the EGR isn't stuck slightly open & check your plugs.. Typically after thrashing my car hard on the interstate it runs a bit smoother but theory has the gears in my head turning.. Not that I understand the system entirely but seems to me these things require damn near 50% throttle to maintain 80+mph so there can't be much manifold vacuum to run the PCV & it might end up pushing oil vapor through the vent and getting inhaled by the engine.. If the TB looks all oily around that vent that says to me she's ingesting her own waste, which could be fouling the plugs over time.

The engine and transmission has less miles than the body. I think Nick said it had a engine put into it around 250K or 260K from the original owner, so it has around 60K something miles most likely.

It only feels like one cylinder has the miss at idle and low speed operation. I'll definitely be pulling plugs when I have some time to do so, but I've got class and work this week back to back for most of it since I was gone over the weekend. I'll update on my findings once I get things opened up.

[DerekTheGreat]

Oh, you think because you've got a wagon that you've also got class eh? :P

Hmm, sounds like Ashley's '89. That needed valve seals. LTDman83 supposedly did them but have not seen any post about the car since those were done. And here I thought we'd see periodic updates...

[TecNickal]

That wagon doesn't have a valve seal or valve guide problem.

Any codes if you scan for them?