kishy's 1985 Country Squire

[kishy]

Yeah, I'm not super optimistic about that...but especially with the driver side mirror being junk (flaps around like it isn't attached to anything), I really needed the mirror back up ASAP. If it comes off again I'll look at other options.

Today, decided to look into why the passenger rear window wants to run into the inside side of the door rather than stay in its channel. Was not able to determine the true reason why, but it almost seems like the glass is shaped wrong. Not quite long enough at its longest point, so it can pop out of the channel at a specific point, and also the arc/curve seems just a little off. It's Carlite glass, so I don't know. I bent the window frame inwards and that fixed it, though it has done unfortunate things to the fitment of the door against the body. I consider the ability to operate the windows without hands on them as guides to be pretty essential, so this is still better than it was.

Found enough screws to mount both rear armrests. One of the ashtray/switch plate things needed some surgery as it had a broken latch. Rear doors are now 100% back together. Need to find more screws before I can tackle the fronts. Driver power lock is lazy, unsure if it's the actuator or gummed up latch. Could go either way. The actuator is new, however, it has been in that door rolling around at the bottom since 2017...and has been exposed to water many times. It may be failing prematurely due to my mistreatment of it.

The woodgrain is from an 88ish Mercury. I'm back and forth between it and the 85-correct just blue. The blue needs something to break it up, it's a little...overly blue. Yes, the lights for the front doors will eventually be functional if I keep the Mercury parts.











Was able to greatly improve the tailgate window operation, making it now "hands-free" where previously it required manual guiding as it raised. Adhesive-backed felt from a craft supply store replaced the high pile felt that at one time existed on the metal guide blocks, and I've adjusted them up all the way. Not perfect but it now keeps the tailgate window in the right place, roughly, and doesn't drag the metal on the glass and defrost grid anymore. My assessment of the tailgate is that it requires replacement. Too much metal is gone to rust (replaced by air), the bottom hinge is too sloppy (and not in really repairable ways), there is some unknown defect of the upper latching mechanism...just a bunch of blah.





Replaced the driver seat track, as two of the motors were seemingly seized up. Then found defective (in different ways) switches once the new track assembly was hooked up. Swapped those too. Now I don't hit my head getting into the car.









Went on a drive to do some dashcam evaluation. Angle is a little weird as both cams are off centre. Clarity is good.

[DerekTheGreat]

Very good clarity, love the lines of the hood.

[sly]

That is good clarity. Mine are that good in daylight, but night time has more glare from lights than that. That really is good.

[gadget73]

I had a problem with the rear window on the Conti after replacing the dew wipes. The outside pushed the glass inward some, but the inside ones did not push back. That caused the glass to want to tip into the car a bit too far. Before I replaced the window channel felt it just shattered the old plastic and went up. With new felt it would bind up about 3" from the top. My fix was to attach a small block of wood with a roll of felt stapled to it to push the glass outward enough to keep it in the guide. I think Vics have those metal tabs at the top edge of the glass for that purpose. Might need to adjust or re-felt it.

the tailgate hinge/latch thing on these things are slightly shit. They get sloppy and the way its built makes it impossible to fix in a reasonable manner. I guess if you had a spare hinge to cut apart to see exactly what wears and how it assembles, some new parts could be fabricated to fix it but it was not built to be serviceable. Adjustment is also a giant pain. I remember spending a lot of time futzing and fussing with Donald's tail gate when it got replaced in order to make the blasted thing work correctly. How much of that was because of component wear and how much was just because of the design I don't know but it sucked. Its easy to make it work in one direction or the other, making it work both ways and having the glass run up correctly gets tricky.

[mitymerc]

Lucky for me the P.O. rebuilt the gate hinge mech on the Blues Bison before I bought it.

[kishy]

I do have a whole spare tailgate. I don't know its overall working condition but I believe it at least latched properly, which would suggest the hinges (which should be attached) aren't sloppy. I do have another extra set of tailgate latches, as well. I think I have the parts to make this not suck, but I don't know how I feel about a tan tailgate going on my approximately blueish car. The...er...integrity of the...uh...authentic, original patina could be compromised with a mismatched body panel. But when the whole thing was $50 it made sense to have on-hand. I miss the border being open for cheap junkyards.

And on that point, I think I have decided not to LTD-S swap the car, nor to replace the hood...not yet anyway. If it starts to try to peel open, I may change my mind.

After an extensive search, I found my stash of hex-head armrest-to-door screws! They were in the container of R134a conversion fittings. Because that makes sense.

Also sorted out the TPS, TFI, Lincoln dash pad, and certain other types of screws that are useful to know the location of, and put them in individual baggies.

Found the blower motor speed knob with the screws, too, so I put that on. Small, incremental improvements.

[packman]

I do the same thing you do; I have nuts, bolts, and screws from the various box Panthers that I have taken apart at the junkyard over the years.

[WagonMan]

I am the king of spare parts/hardware. I have stripped at least 15 boxes for the demo derby guys and for myself. WagonMan

[DerekTheGreat]

I am the king of spare parts/hardware. I have stripped at least 15 boxes for the demo derby guys and for myself. WagonMan

Noted.

[gadget73]

I have access to plastic wide mouth jars at work. I've got a bunch of them full of semi-sorted hardware.

[kishy]

I'm keeping my eyes open for parts organizer trays. Would be nice if I can find some sort of option where the trays lock together and can be carried as a stack, maybe. I have far more hardware than you've seen...maybe 5 times that, scattered about, and that's not even counting the big stuff like control arm bolts. Basically if I take it apart on a junkyard car, I throw the hardware in the toolbag, and add it to the collection back home. In the case of the wagon armrest screws, they aren't an item I've got a lot of, but I just couldn't find the ones I took out of the car to start until the R134A fittings turned up.

Today, re-replaced the driver door lock actuator. This time I was impatient and knocked out the rivet. I used JB Weld SteelStik to make a bolt become captive in the bracket for the actuator, and used double nuts with threadlock to mount it. Effective. New (again) actuator was the answer, lock works reliably now.

Installed both front armrests. Used original blue inserts for the bottom sides for now - when I have necessary parts to make the courtesy lights work, I will swap to the Mercury woodgrain later, maybe. The car really feels a lot less hooptie-ish with the switches not dangling from their wires.

Car does not seem to need U-joints, but checked and they are the little ones (re: there being two sizes used on these cars). That's an item to grab when a future RockAuto cart will ship from the same location as them.

Studied the tailgate hinge some more. The slop seems to be mostly or entirely in the specific joint that enables it to fold down like a truck, as opposed to the more traditional hinge elements. It is sloppy to the extent that the hinge has overextended and imprinted itself in the tailgate skin. I think it can be refurbished with bolts but it would be an invasive surgery and might be prone to un-adjusting itself.

[mitymerc]

Nice! I just got the Blues Bison's doors finished up, I finally found the correct sockets for the armrest lights, wires have been dangling since spring. On the MegaMerc the door panels have been off since last fall. LOL

[kishy]

Nice! I just got the Blues Bison's doors finished up, I finally found the correct sockets for the armrest lights, wires have been dangling since spring. On the MegaMerc the door panels have been off since last fall. LOL

Don't feel too bad about that, I think my 3 years with the doors taken apart beats you

I am so very glad I decided to pull these good junkyard door parts back in 2017 when they came up. The originals from this car were totally unusable. Pics from this thread, 2018:





With the border being closed due to the pandemic, I would still be without door cards had I started fixing the door issues at the same time, but didn't have the junkyard ones on hand.

Since the wires to feed the armrest courtesy lights are present, terminating in a connector, I will ideally come across the connector/socket pigtail bits to just plug in. If not, I may have the parts to make them myself. But the lenses are also MIA so I'll need to figure out where those went. The dome light lens is also missing, I believe I never put it back on because it was in poor condition, but I don't like the way brand new ones look.

[mitymerc]

If you do not get the right sockets they dont fit. I figgered this out after a nice neat shrink tubed solder job...

BTW, the Mega Merc's front door panels have been off for at least 2 winters, kinda drafty LOL

[gadget73]

I was thinking for the hinge pin thing, make a new pin with a threaded or tapped end so it bolts together but has a proper length shoulder so it doesn't rely on the nut being set just so in order to work. If done right, the old part could just be cut out, the new installed with a nut and some loctite to hold it in place. Bonus points if its just a commonly available shoulder bolt that could be bought from McMaster-Carr or whatever.