Tanner's 88 Grand Marquis LS "the walking dead panther"

[Tanner02480]

I starting a thread about my daily driver, excuse my english mistakes, this is not my native language...
This is a 88 LS with 302 EFi, the odometer was around 200.000 kms (124.000 miles) when I bought this car in spring 2016
It was sold by the original owner to a mecanics guy with an issue with the overdrive in 2015, this guy rebuilted the transmission and sold me the car one year later, so I'm the third owner.

When I bought the car, it missed the muffler and tailpipe, it was very dirty and looked a bit like a clunker but it wasn't rusted and looked strong, I paid 1100$ for it.

the first pictures !




options on it
Automatic lights
vent windows
rear self leveling system


I installed the old single exhaust of my Colony park, replaced the starter, brakes pad, rotors, calipers, front bearings, shoks aborber (taxi/police grade on the front and air leveling on the rear), replaced the water pump, installed a class III hitch, rear swaybar + complete engine tune-up to make this car safe and reliable

Also I installed some goodies like Remote starter stereo system ...

after my first winter with this car, (we are in early 2017)I trusted it and decided to do something with it but what ? new paint was too expensive for a car that I use in the winter so I taken the decision to do something special that I can do myself, and I was inspired by vehicules in the TV serie "the walking dead" that look badass.
So I conbinated that with my interest in Police equipements and that is the result :

I bought an old police push bumper on Ebay, it came from Arizona !, it will see the snow for the first time !
After restauring it + home made brackets






I spent a lot of time to find 80s 90s police steel wheels compatible with the chrome 11" dog dish cap I wanted, I was lucky for the cap on an auction on ebay, but the wheels was very hard to find, I bought them one by one by corresponding with scrapyard sellers on ebay.

Also added the rear sway bar that is a rare part, this picture shows the wheels just came back from the sandblasting and paint shop



One thing you have to know that in Québec, it's like "the automotive third world in north America" , everything about box cars is rare and hard to find, peoples in general dislikes american cars and don't kept them a long time, so there is nothing to eat in the scrap yard since a long time all the old cars has been shredded and recycled a long time ago.




In my project, I decided to install a Safari cargo rack but it was near to impossible to find in the dimentions I wanted, so I decided to do it myself, let's see the pictures...










And this is the final result with everything installed on the car;









Front lights are controlled by an independent swith, both light on together,
the rear lights are connected with relays on the brakes and backup lights,

morever, I installed 3 wires sockets in the inner section sof the tail lights so when I depress the brakes or put the flashers, the entire tail light + the rear roof rack lights come on!
there is nobody can tell my (I didn't seen you braking !) lol

Everything I did is reversible, there is no drilling holes or welding or cutted parts, I did everything bolt on and removable without damages.


One thing that I'm sure you never seen before :

[Tiggie]

Did the push bar come from a newer Crown Vic or something else? Appears to fit well. Would love to see your work on the brackets installed on the car. My 88 has been needing a push bar for years.

Also, where did you find a class 3 hitch? I know they used to make them but all I am finding new is class 2.

[VicCrownVic]

Very nice car! And very nice fabrication you've done.

What color is this car? It looks like either brown or a dark gray.

[ZombieTown94]

Very nice car!

[Tanner02480]

Did the push bar come from a newer Crown Vic or something else? Appears to fit well. Would love to see your work on the brackets installed on the car. My 88 has been needing a push bar for years.

Also, where did you find a class 3 hitch? I know they used to make them but all I am finding new is class 2.

The push bar come from an early 2000s crown vic, I cutted it to give the shape of the 88's bumper and built the custom brackets to fit on my bumper fixation bolts, I will try to take photos of it, and the hitch is the bigger model I've ever seen on these cars, it come from a Country squire eqquiped with towing package, I don't know if it's oem or aftermaket, the rust on it made me unable to read information, I sandblasted and painted it and installed it on my car, it was bolt on. it's a massive part.

Very nice car! And very nice fabrication you've done.

What color is this car? It looks like either brown or a dark gray.

Thanks I dont' remember the paint color code but it's look brown at the sun and grey in the dark

[Elias]

I starting a thread about my daily driver, excuse my english mistakes, this is not my native language...
This is a 88 LS with 302 EFi, the odometer was around 200.000 kms (124.000 miles) when I bought this car in spring 2016
It was sold by the original owner to a mecanics guy with an issue with the overdrive in 2015, this guy rebuilted the transmission and sold me the car one year later, so I'm the third owner.

When I bought the car, it missed the muffler and tailpipe, it was very dirty and looked a bit like a clunker but it wasn't rusted and looked strong, I paid 1100$ for it.

the first pictures !




options on it
Automatic lights
vent windows
rear self leveling system


I installed the old single exhaust of my Colony park, replaced the starter, brakes pad, rotors, calipers, front bearings, shoks aborber (taxi/police grade on the front and air leveling on the rear), replaced the water pump, installed a class III hitch, rear swaybar + complete engine tune-up to make this car safe and reliable

Also I installed some goodies like Remote starter stereo system ...

after my first winter with this car, (we are in early 2017)I trusted it and decided to do something with it but what ? new paint was too expensive for a car that I use in the winter so I taken the decision to do something special that I can do myself, and I was inspired by vehicules in the TV serie "the walking dead" that look badass.
So I conbinated that with my interest in Police equipements and that is the result :

I bought an old police push bumper on Ebay, it came from Arizona !, it will see the snow for the first time !
After restauring it + home made brackets






I spent a lot of time to find 80s 90s police steel wheels compatible with the chrome 11" dog dish cap I wanted, I was lucky for the cap on an auction on ebay, but the wheels was very hard to find, I bought them one by one by corresponding with scrapyard sellers on ebay.

Also added the rear sway bar that is a rare part, this picture shows the wheels just came back from the sandblasting and paint shop



One thing you have to know that in Québec, it's like "the automotive third world in north America" , everything about box cars is rare and hard to find, peoples in general dislikes american cars and don't kept them a long time, so there is nothing to eat in the scrap yard since a long time all the old cars has been shredded and recycled a long time ago.




In my project, I decided to install a Safari cargo rack but it was near to impossible to find in the dimentions I wanted, so I decided to do it myself, let's see the pictures...










And this is the final result with everything installed on the car;









Front lights are controlled by an independent swith, both light on together,
the rear lights are connected with relays on the brakes and backup lights,

morever, I installed 3 wires sockets in the inner section sof the tail lights so when I depress the brakes or put the flashers, the entire tail light + the rear roof rack lights come on!
there is nobody can tell my (I didn't seen you braking !) lol

Everything I did is reversible, there is no drilling holes or welding or cutted parts, I did everything bolt on and removable without damages.


One thing that I'm sure you never seen before :

Need more information on the back interior lighting. I’ve been wanting to try this too, did you just use some door interior light from the front and put them in the back. I really hate that the back seams so dark even with my leds in the back

[87gtVIC]

Love it. Great work.

[Tanner02480]

Need more information on the back interior lighting. I’ve been wanting to try this too, did you just use some door interior light from the front and put them in the back. I really hate that the back seams so dark even with my leds in the back

I did a mix with front and rear door trim that I had in spare, I cutted the front lighted trim with a Dremel to have exactly the same shape of the rear unlighted trim, I spent a couple of hours to do that.

Me too I dislike the dark in the back, the new lights are very useful for the kids to buckle the seatbelts in the night.

[87gtVIC]

So the rear doors never came that way with the lights?

I have a two door so I never noticed things like this before.

[Tanner02480]

So the rear doors never came that way with the lights?

I have a two door so I never noticed things like this before.

No, the rear doors panels are not illuminated in 80s crown victoria and Grand marquis, I never understood why they didn't make it illuminated, I think most of the equivalent cars had illuminated rear doors panels.

[gadget73]

Lincolns aren't lit either, front or rear. It has those little lights down in the lower corner of the panel but they do nothing useful. I do get rear map lights, which I suppose is of some use.

[BigMerc96]

Lincolns aren't lit either, front or rear. It has those little lights down in the lower corner of the panel but they do nothing useful. I do get rear map lights, which I suppose is of some use.

Are they like my "Aero" Lincoln where the rear courtesy lamp on the door is basically right against the rear seat bottom when the door is closed? I always wondered why they didn't move them up or forward a few inches so they actually lit up inside the car with the doors closed.

[gadget73]

Yep, same deal. Not sure what they did on the 90s, but the 80s ones had a red reflector and a lit white rectangle. No idea why.

[kishy]

I absolutely love this car. I don't see anything I don't like.

Yep, same deal. Not sure what they did on the 90s, but the 80s ones had a red reflector and a lit white rectangle. No idea why.

That light does a decent job illuminating the ground below the open door, which seems to be its intent (and the function of the red reflector is obvious, but redundant). Perhaps all the shiny chrome-like stuff in there has flaked off on yours? Much like the cornering lamps, although they face sideways, the reflector behind the bulb puts the light where it's useful so the condition of the reflective surface is critical to the usefulness of the lamp.

Way, way back, before my Lincoln had its nose job, I had "fixed" one of the front turn signals with aluminum foil. That turn signal was like an amber floodlight after that.

[DerekTheGreat]

Red reflector with a white triangle?? I never noticed a light on my rear doors. Cadillac has them and I'd like to add them to mine but never will. They do have the map lights which light up when the doors are opened though, and they've got foot well lighting under the front seats.