My 1987 Mercury Colony Park

[87gtVIC]

It is nice when you can make it work.

I have the mandrel bent impy tails on my car and if they do go out and in fact cannot get them again I will bite the bullet and go to an exhaust shop to have something nicely bent up for me. I just hate bringing my car places because people just dgaf about your car and it will shurley come back with damage on it that it did not have going there....

[Mainemantom]

"I just hate bringing my car places because people just dgaf about your car and it will shurley come back with damage on it that it did not have going there.... "

I agree 100% . I think "dgaf" is the new normal in our society.

[friskyfrankie]

A real shame good craftsmanship no longer exists (except for the guys here and a few other places) as it once did. DGAF seems to prosper in all walks of life!!

[Kodachrome Wolf]

Finally got around to messing with a few things.

I broke one of the holes in the factory exhaust hanger behind the passenger wheel. I realized that the way the system was hanging was putting all the weight on the rear hangers, where really the muffler hangers need to be putting the most work. I found suitable adjustment by loosening the clamps at the H-pipe and moving the mufflers further out and away from the driveshaft and upwards about an 1-1/2". Still makes a good seal on the ball flange, while adequately offering more clearance between the control arms. This also allowed for the pipes to exit much closer to the edge of the body instead of being tucked under the car too much for my liking. I also managed to make the old hanger work by using the remaining hole in the rubber strap. I think with the repositioning work, everything is pretty much where it's gonna stay. Looking at the current system, I could argue that the lowest point is no lower than the old Town Car pipes that was on the car. Probably have put about 300-400 miles on the mufflers, and while they've gotten only a touch louder as they've broken in, they're plenty quiet at light throttle with just a light purr around 60 MPH. When you romp on it, it'll certainly start singing a much more imposing sound.

I also opted to clean up the car, and while cleaning the interior I went to check on why the tailgate lock quit working with the switch. The actuator is just plain missing, 100% disconnected from the connector and one rubber bushing is in the hanger. I have no idea where it's gone off to, it's not in the tailgate. Guess I'll have to get another. I did make some striker adjustments to compensate for slop in the hinge bushings for a better door-to-body fit, and so the window glass would make better contact on the passenger side with the weather stripping. Oh how I wish we had a good solution for that.

Final busy work involved the instrument cluster. I swapped around the appropriate pins in the connector so I could use the original 1980 text based warning light panel that came with the cluster versus the pictogram one I tossed in there as an interim deal. Tossed in some 2700K LEDs I've used in the '97 and D-150 cluster. Nice and bright while actually being incandescent colored.



Photo makes the color look a little funny, but in person it still appears as that traditional green glow, but just appropriately brighter. I took time to also fix the inoperative high beam indicator and thoroughly clean the multiple lenses. It gets a few days to hang out in the garage and avoid the sun.

I'm also already trying to determine what I'm going to drive out to Texas in at the end of September for a wedding. Both cars seem to be in good fighting shape, but I might need to log some more road time with this one before going long distance again. It's never left me stranded, but something has chewed at me a bit thinking about 2017 and then the odd times the AOD spat out two of the transmission cooler quick disconnects.

[87gtVIC]

Good deal on the repositioning of everything.

Actuator missing explains no tailgate lock. Definitely a mystery as to where that may have ran off to.

I smile every time I see one of those police merc clusters. Just so damn cool.

[gadget73]

its such a rare piece too

[1985crownvicltd85]

Agreed, that police cluster is cool. I wonder how many are left in this world?

[Mainemantom]

Every time I see one, I regret not special ordering a police package on my 82 Mercury 2 door.

[Kodachrome Wolf]

Agreed, that police cluster is cool. I wonder how many are left in this world?

Poking around here, I think Grand Marquis GT has one in his '83 coupe, there was a bidding process/sale between FatNasty and MrMarquis (correct me if I'm wrong) for one, and there's mine that I purchased along with an 85 MPH cluster from a member here.

There's also been maybe three or four police Marquis posted/mentioned, but none of them were in running shape. There's some old threads regarding a guy selling a 1980 and a 1981 from another site. There was an eBay listing for one that was in pretty poor shape. Someone mentioned one in a junkyard years ago, and that's about it.

I've seen photos of Kansas and Missouri State Police using them. I also have a photo of Toronto Police using one.



Given such a short model run, and likely most agencies ordering LTD, I'm sure these were a passing oddity and not much credence was given to preserving any at the time. Now what is obviously a very rare bird, I've never seen one in person, running or not.

Every time I see one, I regret not special ordering a police package on my 82 Mercury 2 door.

That would have certainly been a 1 of 1 car. Funny how the ordering options could be done then.

[DerekTheGreat]

Is it possible to post pics of it in this thread? I don't see any pics of the cluster or a link to them..

[sly]

Is it possible to post pics of it in this thread? I don't see any pics of the cluster or a link to them..

check the previous page and the post that started the discussion... http://www.grandmarq.net/vb/showthre...l=1#post867911

[DerekTheGreat]

Thank you for the link sly, but all I see is the photo of K-Wolf's car at the top and then the video of the exhaust job. No other links, what am I missing?

[jaywish]

check post #739

[DerekTheGreat]

It's text only for me:

[kishy]

It's text only for me:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]58247[/ATTACH]

The image you can't see is on Imageshack. The URL is https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...922/JAtZl9.jpg

The other image, of a yellow Mercury cop car, is also on Imageshack at https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img922/7856/5y5T8P.jpg

Are you maybe browsing from somewhere that is blocking Imageshack?