kishy's 1985 Country Squire

[DerekTheGreat]

It isn't enough to have just a front facing dash cam anymore. Need a rear facing one too. Thinkware makes very good discreet dashcams.

Definitely would run both. But just like with security cameras, I want them to be obvious. The idea is that that hopefully they'll see them and rethink what they were going to do.

[gadget73]

the fact that video and pictures are what is required to make people behave like humans annoys me greatly.

[Mainemantom]

the fact that video and pictures are what is required to make people behave like humans annoys me greatly.

It seems like video and pictures encourages people to get their 15 minutes of fame on some social medial or news platform. It DOES prove to law enforcement that the other person is lying out their ass. Since they don't believe anything or anyone until situation is proven, It is evidence, hopefully useful for your case.

[Mainemantom]

Definitely would run both. But just like with security cameras, I want them to be obvious. The idea is that that hopefully they'll see them and rethink what they were going to do.

The nice thing about not being obvious is the thief doesn't see it. Here in Maine, anything attached to the windshield by suction cup (many devices use them) are illegal. Easy to steal, Easy to see. The discreet units attach directly to the glass.

[DerekTheGreat]

the fact that video and pictures are what is required to make people behave like humans annoys me greatly.

Yeah, me too. Lots of hypocrites out there too. They act like saints and do gooders when they know cameras are rolling but are self serving bigots any other time. That's the "new" U.S. sterile culture for ya.

The nice thing about not being obvious is the thief doesn't see it. Here in Maine, anything attached to the windshield by suction cup (many devices use them) are illegal. Easy to steal, Easy to see. The discreet units attach directly to the glass. [ATTACH=CONFIG]54473[/ATTACH]

I didn't even think of that. Now I'm torn between the two types. Life is great.

[kishy]

First of three thread bumps for the night:

Swapped the wagon tail light and license plate light bulbs out for Philips Ultinon LED lamps (1157 in Red for the tails, 194 in white for the license plate).

I have historically not had good luck with LED retrofit solutions. They almost always suffer one or more of the following design inadequacies:

• Focusing too much of their light away from the socket direction, only illuminating a small hot spot on the lens and not filling the whole lens
• Brake/full brightness not bright enough (often dimmer than incandescent bulb)
• Difference between low and high brightness not sufficient (typically seen in bulbs which use resistors to reduce brightness rather than using different quantities of LEDs for each lighting mode)

I am pleased to say the Ultinon product seems not to have this issue, again in 1157 red form. Although not shown in the video, the white 194s are super effective as well. For a car with two license plate lights such as this, it's totally overkill.

My motivations for going LED are generally not appearance related. I go LED where practical/possible to reduce current draw and temperatures inside the lamp housings. I was already buying LEDs for the Ranger Trailer, so decided to grab a few more to try in this, and it worked out well. I bought them from RockAuto, where they are catalogued under the vehicle along with incandescent bulbs too.

[DerekTheGreat]

Your bullet points are pretty much exactly why I don't do or like LED's. But the thumbnail image of your wagon looks great. Like you said, they've got great dispersion and look normal. I might put them in my truck because of current draw stuff. Seems I'm towing a lot lately and I am worried about that.

[mitymerc]

Looks good & NO hyperflash!

[gadget73]

Same issues with LED tails, which is why I never converted any of mine. The other issue is a dumb one, but it usually requires changing the old bi-metal flasher to something else and I like the sound. Specific to my two overly complicated Lincolns, it makes the tail and brake light outage stuff not work too.

[kishy]

Somehow, the bi-metal flasher in this car is perfectly satisfied by just the one incandescent 1157 up front. The Ranger is the same way. I, too, like the soft click-ping.

Tonight, made some progress on something I've waited way too long to move on.
I stripped the interior of this car in 2017, and also picked up the good condition replacement door cards then.
This is the first time since then that any of the doors have had a door card reinstalled.

On the left rear door, replaced window channel and dew wipe. Added plastic moisture barrier from an 88 (original for 85 was paper). Oil sprayed bottom inside of door. Put door card on with new retainers.
Window action is now smooth and door doesn't rattle as it did before.

One door down, three more to go!

Side note, I found the rivets to be an acceptable means of attaching the dew wipe because they don't stick out significantly. I don't know how much real clearance actually exists. If I could get my hands on shorter rivets as further insurance I'd probably like to do that. I excluded those bastard clip things and doing so doesn't seem to have caused any issues but I do see how it could and still might (re: aluminum trim lifting off door maybe).























It appears there was a change between 85 and whatever year I got the armrests from. I don't recall what car I got them from, but they're E8 parts. The armrest upper middle screw hole is positioned differently between the door shell and the armrest, and there is no hole available on the door to pop a retainer thing into. Not the end of the world, I'm sure.

[87gtVIC]

Is there metal on the door to potentially make your own hole to pop the retainer into?

Those rivets look super shallow. I don't think you will have any issues as the small nuts and bolts I used appear to stick out further than your set up.

Those window channels were extra crusty. Many pieces were liberated!

[gadget73]

the pop rivets used on my Mark VII were too long and it was fetching up on the door itself. Short enough ones should be OK and ought to be a lot less annoying than using the staples. I've done enough of those with staples, bending with pliers and crimping them with hammer and punch to know how much of a pain in the ass it is.

[kishy]

No, there is an air gap at the spot required for that retainer. Also, it is a retainer that snaps directly into the door metal, rather than on a riveted bracket, so there's really not much I can do about it.

The key to the rivets seems to have been having the head face the door (away from the glass), so the long side is towards the glass, but by using such a short rivet the long side was short enough to not matter. We will see if over time it becomes an issue, but I'm sure the new material has many years before it turns as useless as the old stuff.

I continued with the other 3 doors today. Same as for the first one: window channels, dew wipes, cleaned out the crud, oil sprayed, plastic barrier, door card. + replaced front lock actuators which means minus the tailgate, the car has working power locks now. The tailgate is unable to lock even by the key, so that's a challenge for the future I guess. The tailgate is pretty much toast in every respect and probably needs to just be completely replaced.

The driver door is missing a normally-riveted bracket on which one or maybe two screw retainers go. Itching for some junkyard time when the border reopens, but that is contingent upon the US (pardon me) figuring its shit out about the pandemic.




































Interesting thing came up. As with the screw retainer discrepancy, the map pocket version of the door cards requires a screw hole to exist...somewhere that is an air gap on an 85 door. I used some wide fender washers to attach it directly to the door card. Maybe not as durable but it'll do the job.






At the conclusion of today's repair activities, I located Ants the Anteater, a Beanie Baby which came with the car when I got it, at that time sealed in new Happy Meal toy baggie.
I have re-installed Ants the Anteater in the car.

[Kodachrome Wolf]

I have the same thing going on with my door cards with those front door pockets, except I've never tried to attach them properly save for the front screws. Apparently the '88-'89 (maybe '90-'91 had them too, but those had the speaker stanchions instead) had the provision for them, but the early ones certainly don't.

It's very nice seeing the progress you've made on this car considering what you started with.

[kishy]

I have the same thing going on with my door cards with those front door pockets, except I've never tried to attach them properly save for the front screws. Apparently the '88-'89 (maybe '90-'91 had them too, but those had the speaker stanchions instead) had the provision for them, but the early ones certainly don't.

It's very nice seeing the progress you've made on this car considering what you started with.

I was sort of loosely remembering some sort of clip-in plastic thing that spans the gap in the door metal to receive the screw. But, had I found that when taking the junkyard door cards, I would have taken the plastic bit...so I'm actually remembering something that was never there and just solving the problem in my head, I guess.

I appreciate that. Every once in a while I skim back through early photos of it and considering I do not have a hoist, and I have a regular full time job at which I work plenty of overtime, I have achieved great things with this car. The fact it's roadworthy and I'm sort of dailying it is the product of a huge investment of effort and it seems to me very few people would have taken it on.