My new 1989 Crown Vic

[fordnmerc]

It's an LX, white/white, with burgundy cloth interior. It has 91k miles. I got it a month ago in Dayton, Ohio and drove it home here to upstate New York. It was Ziebarted when new and there is no rust on it. Even the bottoms of the doors are completely clean. The paint is original and very nice. Still has inspection marks visible in doors and trunk. Worker with the last name of Moore on the stamps. All of the chrome on this car, including the bumpers, is absolutely like new. I have never seen 30 year old chrome this nice. The entire interior looks new. No wear at all. I mean right down to there not being a single scratch on the clear plastic covering the speedometer. Ashtrays and lighters were never used. Looks like the cassette deck was never used. The a/c was converted and is ice cold. Two window motors don't work....big deal. There is a small, shallow dent in the hood on the passenger's side. Not terribly noticeable. Tires are new Goodyear Integrity. Alignment was done. Brakes were done. Tranny was rebuilt in 2015, at 73k. Other than the 2 window motors, the only issue is a vacuum leak....most likely the parking brake release situation. I will be dealing with that shortly. This car is clean, clean, clean! Original owner was an Air Force officer on the base of Wright-Patterson. When he passed, his son sold it to the second owner, two years ago. She "upgraded" to a newer vehicle and I very happily bought the Vic....for $2500. I have been getting tons of compliments for this car already. People can't believe what great condition it's in for being 30 years old. It looks more like a 3 year old car.

So....how the heck do you post photos on here from a phone??? The last time I was on the site was with my laptop and that is no longer used for internet stuff. I see no icon for attaching images at all. If they need to be through a hosting site, I do have one that I use sometimes.

Cheers,

David

[slack]

Wow! nice find! Can't wait to see pics.

For me, I usually upload to imgur.com and then you can either just link the page the images were uploaded to or use the BB code "[img]" tags to the urls. I'm never on this site with mobile so I can't say how to upload directly to the site on there.

[Tiggie]

Great color combo. The red tone interiors are non existent in most new stuff but I like it - especially with white outside.

I use the tapatalk app when inbred to upload pics.

[EaOutlaw1969]

Nice find, Plus one for wanting to see pictures. ( do not be such a tease LOL )

[knucklehead0202]

The insert image tab should allow you to pull pics straight from computer, don't know about doing it with a phone though.

[fordnmerc]

I will do my best to get some pics up tomorrow via cubeupload.

I found the car by searching Craigslist nationwide. In the pics, I could see that the right front wheel center cap was missing. I picked up a nice one on ebay for $27. I took it with me when I went to get the car. I had a little bit of intuition and also took with me a 5.0 distributor boot and a new matching set of tire valve stem caps. Sure enough, the original boot was missing and there were only 3 mismatched valve stem caps.

It came from the factory with a mini spare tire. About 2 miles from here I found a nice full-size spare wheel and tire for $10 total. Hardly any tread wear on the tire. I swapped the mini for a bumper jack handle, which was the only other thing that was missing. The jack itself and the base plate look like they were never used. The mini spare never had been. Sometime I will get a gray cover for the full-size spare. The one for the mini is clean, but doesn't fully cover the full-size tire, of course. The whole trunk is completely clean.

Question: Did these cars come from the factory with a tire change instruction decal on the underside of the trunk lid, like the Fords in the 1970s? My family's first 89 Vic has been gone since 1993 and I just can't remember that little detail.

The car does have every single booklet of the original owner's manual kit, including booklets for both Goodyear and Michelin tires. It has the warranty card with the metal VIN plate, a plastic card where the original owner purchased extended warranty coverage, etc. The car also has both sets of original keys plus an extra Ilco set. It even has the dealer lot tag that the keys were on. I think the only things not with it are the audio cassette and the window sticker.

I do plan to get a Deluxe Marti report for it in the near future.

I do know that the original owner took delivery of the car on April Fool's Day, 1989. My parents purchased their 89 the first week of June, 1989. Interestingly, both cars were assembled in March of 1989.

I put a set of white vinyl floor mats in the car that my family originally purchased in 1975 for a white 1974 2-door base Torino (blue interior in that car). I have kept them all these years!

I am loving the little wing vent windows in the front. Last year for those. Takes me back to the days of the 1968 Custom 2-door sedan that my parents had when I was a little boy.

Red interiors, especially with plush cloth seats, seem very warm and inviting. My family's first Panther was a 1982 LTD 2-door that was black with a red interior....brighter than this burgundy, but both shades are nice.

That reminds me: in 1989, I looked at a secondhand 89 Grand Marquis LS. The color combination was very eye-catching, to me. I would say that the exterior was Lemon Cream and the interior was Royal Purple cloth. What were the "official" Mercury names for those colors? I have always wondered. Couldn't make a deal for that car because the used car dealer was only offering peanuts for the 82, even though it was in great shape with low mileage.

[fordnmerc]

Okay, let's see how the photos go. The problem yesterday was that the full screen of options wasn't coming up here. Looks normal now.

By the way, the car also has new valve cover gaskets and a new alternator. Glad those are already done. The second owner's dad also took care of a heater hose and clamp. There are no fluid drips of any kind throughout this car!

[gadget73]

Never seen a decal on the bottom of the trunk, but it might be on the inside of the spare tire cover. I know my Continental has it there, I don't remember if the Towncar does or not.

[fordnmerc]

More pics. The server here has been very busy or I would have had them up sooner.

[fordnmerc]

Last batch of pics.

[87gtVIC]

Nice ride!

[TecNickal]

What a super nice car. How did you find it? Congratulations on the purchase.

[WagonMan]

I have a full size spare cover and it has the jacking instructions decal on the bottom side. I also have the black plastic plug you are missing on the front of the intake plenum. WagonMan

[fordnmerc]

Found the car with one of those search engines where you can look at Craigslist posts nationwide.

I would be interested in those parts soon, WagonMan, might be a few weeks though, as money is very tight right now.

Did the parking brake switch-vacuum leak fix a couple of days ago and the car is now running like new!

[GM_Guy]

Now thats a nice clean find.