kishy's 1985 Country Squire

[DerekTheGreat]

Haha yeah, as if a sub 200HP 4400+lb beast will ever get to 120 in under two miles... Lofty goals man.

It's probably just the light that does it. Red is an organic pigment and those fade the fastest. Despite the needles being in the shade there are still periods of time where the exposure does it's damage. It'll probably be 2-3 years where you'd see a difference when compared to original. A lot of it is like looking at your face every day in the mirror, you don't notice the changes since you see it every day, same thing with that needle. The ones on my Townie are still minty orange, Ashley's '89 were faded in comparison and I thought they looked good until I saw mine.

[Tiggie]

I think you get a good five years without noticeable fade. It will show most on the fuel gauge. I try to watch where I park and keep the speedo away from the sun and towards the sunshade in the windshield.

Good point on the speedo ranges. I think it was federally regulated. I liked the 85 speedo for the 55mph readability but it sucks at 75mph because it’s difficult to read and a bump in the road throws you 5-10mph. Then again, the 140 sucks at cornering at highway speeds because it’s standing straight up.

[DerekTheGreat]

Tiggie, I think you just condemned the that type of speedometer

Just get a towel for the dash, drape it over the cluster and you're good.

[Tiggie]

Tiggie, I think you just condemned the that type of speedometer

Just get a towel for the dash, drape it over the cluster and you're good.

Agreed. I’ve always wanted to do a box townie dash anyway.

[gadget73]

The idea was that if the speedo only goes to 85, you won't know how fast you're going so you will stop accelerating after the needle tops out. I find this to be a stupid argument, and apparently so did everyone else because it stopped by around 1990. Canadia didn't have that nonsense so it goes to a more reasonable top speed. Unfortunately your miles are the wrong size so to make one of those useful the odometer needs re-gearing and the faceplate would have to be changed to put real miles in biggie size.

[DerekTheGreat]

"..your miles are the wrong size.."

[kishy]

The winter so far has been very unproductive. A lot of garage organization I want and need to do involves needing more room to work, which is not available because of the current state of organization, which can't be helped until there's more room to work, which...yeah.

Windshield is not in the wagon because it's significantly below good temperatures for applying any sort of product out of a caulking tube, curing temperatures, etc. That will be a reasonably quick thing to do once it's warmer out.

I did, weeks ago, stumble upon a B-body wagon in the junkyard (91-96) and studied the check strap/cable setup. I do not need one currently, but it seems like the sort of thing that'd be good to know where to get them from down the road.

The B-body cable is the same style, crimped metal ends with a rubber-coated metal cable, thinner and longer than the Box Panther wagon cable. The ends are straight rather than the bit of an angle the body end of the Panther one has. However, it appears it should be possible to use the B-body cable on a Panther wagon with some adjustments to how it mounts (mainly, using one of the bolts for the latch rather than the originally-intended bolt). Pics below.





Ideal? Obviously not, this isn't some crazy new mod every wagon guy needs to go out and do...but it might be a viable retrofit option as the supply of good Panther ones dries up.

[gadget73]

You make it when you can't buy it. I have a few things modified simply because the original part couldn't be had anymore, hence the Chevy idler pulley replacing a Ford part on my BMW motor.

[kishy]

So...yeah. I'm glad I decided to pre-emptively check out the heater core. The vent selector doors are broken off their stupid flimsy garbage hinges.

The heater core itself is fine, it didn't leak any coolant since I've owned the car. It's a Ford part so it might be original, but I found some indications (like a grommet replaced with silicone) that the plenum may have been out previously. I dunno.

I'll put a new heater core in because I can and I have one already. I need to figure out a solution for these hinges. Maybe piano hinge?

This has me wondering about my other cars now. I'm pretty positive, given the crap-tier design employed here, that many of our cars probably have failures in this area.

[gadget73]

mine was rebuilt using some small metal hinges from the hardware store. No idea what they were specifically, basically it was a case of wandering around and grabbing something that looked like it would work. I used the original hinges as spacers under the metal ones in order to make it all fit right.

[87gtVIC]

Same here. Mine was rebuilt by dad in the early 2000's already.....

[sly]

piano hinges of the needed length should do well to fix that up.

[kishy]

I'm thinking one single length of piano hinge, and cut a slot in one side of the hinge making it act as two hinges attached together on one side. Should keep everything aligned well enough. Since the top and bottom halves of the plenum don't look so easy to separate I'll be working through the openings that already exist.

[Birdofprey]

I get a faint smell of coolant when I run the heater on the 86 so I feel this carnage is in my future as well!

[kishy]

I get a faint smell of coolant when I run the heater on the 86 so I feel this carnage is in my future as well!

Funny thing is I had no reason to do this other than "because I can". I figured it's a lot less of a pain to do it before the car is on the road, and with the interior and glass out.

I'm pretty confident the core I took out is good. Conflicting, because I know if I put it back in, it'll spring a leak the first week I drive the car. Way too much work to risk that.