My 1987 Mercury Grand Marquis

[WagonMan]

I don't have a gauge lens, but I do have a "MERCURY" emblem. It measures 6 3/4" long and has 4 pins. Excellent condition. WagonMan

[87GrandMarq]

My 1987 Mercury Grand Marquis

Still it looks great! My paint is in good shape but there are rust spots poking through. And the po bent the doors when he locked his keys inside and used a screwdriver to dig the locks out... also it looks like yours is spec’d close to mine, same seats but mine has an analog clock which I haven’t seen too often on a gs trim.

I have a gauge bezel that you could take the lens from if you want it but it’s from a 79 and has gold trim instead of silver.

Also I’m left eye dominant as well and it doesn’t bother me. Maybe you’re just used to a centrally placed speedo, just sayin.


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[Kodachrome Wolf]

Your replacement MAP line looks similar to the one on my '87. Not sure if its how Nick got it years back or if he had to do the same thing, but it works, and that's what's important.

The instrument cluster panel is unique to GMQ, so you just need a replacement '79-'87 one. If someone doesn't reach out to you soon, I'll keep any eye out at the junkyard since Boxes still turn up.

Years back when I first drove the '87, it was a little weird having the speedometer off to the side instead of being centered, but you really do get used to it. Switching between the '87 and '97, the difference in instrumentation doesn't really bother me in the slightest. The only thing I don't like about the pre-'90 LTD/Marquis interiors is the lack of any temperature gauge stock. Way too much faith to put into a dummy light switch, which certainly could prove to be too little, too late. I've kept an aftermarket one fitted on principle.


Also, I assume your '87 is a later build car (post 02/87). You have the nicer air vents that don't seem to go floppy as bad as the early style. I found a later build '87 in the junkyard once that had the vinyl moisture barriers in the doors, better dash vents, and other small things that seemed to be ramping up towards the 88MY overall restyle. Seems the early build '87s got the pseudo-tar paper weather barriers and earlier style air vents, amongst other things. The improvements certainly makes IMO for the best of the best for the last year of the "boxy" box.

[Mainemantom]

I have some new old school lace up steering wheel covers. I have light tan. I guess you could put it over the old leather wrap or take off the leather wrap. What is important is the diameter of the wheel. Let me know if your interested.

[DerekTheGreat]

Really nice score. Car looks extremely solid for $500, and it ran to boot! Two Tone status is awesome as well.

[slack]

No on the Crown Vic clear speedo lens bits assisting you on your cracked Grand Marquis parts here.

The antitheft thing is neat in an old school sense of things. Ive never heard of it but seem similar systems from ford on ebay before.

If it worries you I would just remove the entire system carefully.

It looks like it just shorts out pins. I am certain it can be bypassed. If more than two wires leading to its connector mounted up their on the speedometer bezel then it is just a manner of finding out what wires need what when in a pinch.

Again nice score on the vehicle. Definitely worth the dough.

Thanks. Bummer about the speedo lens. I'm going to leave the anti-theft stuff in there for now. It's sort of odd which makes it cool. If it ever gives me any trouble though I'll take it out. I don't want to risk getting stranded somewhere. I did a quick Google search and someone else had a similar system and it fed to a relay and some more wiring under the dash. Hopefully it's simple enough to figure out.

Nice score!

Thanks!

The MAP line is a bit annoying being two very different sizes at each end. I have (had, mostly gone now) a stash of silicone vac lines and was able to slide the smaller line into the larger one to make the transition.

High heat copper anti-seize not just the tin man silver color stuff? (Tin man, because that's what you look like if you get it on you.) Not sure if it gets hot enough at that top 5.0 plate, but enough heat gums up the standard tin man stuff.

I drove my '89 MGM from when I was 18 until less than a month before my 28th birthday. The speedo never bothered me, but perhaps being right handed helped. The '89 cluster lighting was way better than the stock clusters in both '91 MGMs I've owned.

On that exhaust leak, it looks like the air injection tube at the cat (very common) although I'm looking on my phone and didn't zoom in. Dad had some high heat hose that we clamped on there to complete the connection. That lasted a couple years before the hose section broke. For some reason the next section of hose didn't last as long. It was cut from the same hose so maybe age and sitting in a non temperature controlled garage did it in. Nothing beats fixing something right but if a quick temporary fix is needed, you just have to get creative sometimes.

Nice frame and that rocker panel looks good too. Much better shape than my sub-$1k boxes. Do a little searching to see what undercoating is available in your area if this will be a year round DD.

Ah crap. I used the silver stuff. I have the copper stuff as well. I just grabbed the first one on the shelf. I guess I might be torching those screws again in the future.

The cluster lighting is surprisingly bright. I wasn't expecting how bright it was compared to the CV's.

The injection tube on the cat is indeed toast. It's not leaking though. I originally thought it was but that black wrap is doing it's job. The leak is coming from the top of the cat itself. There must be a hole under the hose-clamped on heat shield or something. What's annoying is that NY changed the law on cats, so the cheap ones aren't for sale here anymore. The car doesn't have to pass emissions but it's suppose to have the stock emissions systems visibly there (functional isn't required). Getting dinged on the inspection for having a missing cat would be a gamble on who is inspecting the car. I guess I could throw one of those non-NY ones on there... who would know the difference?

Yeah, frame is what sold it for me. There's a little bit of surface spots here and there but overall it's in great shape. The car's not going to be a year round car. I plan on doing like I do with the CV and not drive it in the Winter.

I don't have a gauge lens, but I do have a "MERCURY" emblem. It measures 6 3/4" long and has 4 pins. Excellent condition. WagonMan

Cool. I'll PM you soon about it.

Still it looks great! My paint is in good shape but there are rust spots poking through. And the po bent the doors when he locked his keys inside and used a screwdriver to dig the locks out... also it looks like yours is spec’d close to mine, same seats but mine has an analog clock which I haven’t seen too often on a gs trim.

I have a gauge bezel that you could take the lens from if you want it but it’s from a 79 and has gold trim instead of silver.

Also I’m left eye dominant as well and it doesn’t bother me. Maybe you’re just used to a centrally placed speedo, just sayin.


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Yeah, mine has some rust spots poking through the paint as well. Doesn't look like there are any holes though. I prefer the look of the analog clock over the digital and might swap over to one down the line.

Thank you very much for the offer on the lens but I'll have to pass. The gold would clash too much with the silver.

As for the speedo location. I guess I'll just get used to it the more I drive the car.

Your replacement MAP line looks similar to the one on my '87. Not sure if its how Nick got it years back or if he had to do the same thing, but it works, and that's what's important.

The instrument cluster panel is unique to GMQ, so you just need a replacement '79-'87 one. If someone doesn't reach out to you soon, I'll keep any eye out at the junkyard since Boxes still turn up.

Years back when I first drove the '87, it was a little weird having the speedometer off to the side instead of being centered, but you really do get used to it. Switching between the '87 and '97, the difference in instrumentation doesn't really bother me in the slightest. The only thing I don't like about the pre-'90 LTD/Marquis interiors is the lack of any temperature gauge stock. Way too much faith to put into a dummy light switch, which certainly could prove to be too little, too late. I've kept an aftermarket one fitted on principle.


Also, I assume your '87 is a later build car (post 02/87). You have the nicer air vents that don't seem to go floppy as bad as the early style. I found a later build '87 in the junkyard once that had the vinyl moisture barriers in the doors, better dash vents, and other small things that seemed to be ramping up towards the 88MY overall restyle. Seems the early build '87s got the pseudo-tar paper weather barriers and earlier style air vents, amongst other things. The improvements certainly makes IMO for the best of the best for the last year of the "boxy" box.

Thanks. I didn't realize the panel was GMQ specific.. actually I didn't even notice that the lens was part of the dash trim until I just did a quick Google search. I wonder if it cracked when they installed the aftermarket anti-theft device. That's just screwed into the dash trim with two phillips head screws.

Interesting info about the vents. I have the floppy ones in the CV (which are from an 87). I still have the original 89 dash trim from my CV, I wonder if those are the same as the ones in GQM. I remember those being better than the floppy older style ones.

I have some new old school lace up steering wheel covers. I have light tan. I guess you could put it over the old leather wrap or take off the leather wrap. What is important is the diameter of the wheel. Let me know if your interested.

Thanks. I think I'm just going to go ahead and take the leather wrap off like I did with the CV. I don't mind the thinner steering wheel.

Really nice score. Car looks extremely solid for $500, and it ran to boot! Two Tone status is awesome as well.

Thanks!

[VicCrownVic]

The silver stuff has to be better than nothing, and it might not get too hot way up there on top to gum it up. Even if it does gum up, it probably will put up less of a fight than having the screw fused via corrosion to the intake.
Thankfully, no inspections of any kind here in MI. Although you should see some of the crap on the roads here in the Detroit area. The only reason we re-established that connection was to stop the noise from the open tube off of the cat.

[slack]

The silver stuff has to be better than nothing, and it might not get too hot way up there on top to gum it up. Even if it does gum up, it probably will put up less of a fight than having the screw fused via corrosion to the intake.
Thankfully, no inspections of any kind here in MI. Although you should see some of the crap on the roads here in the Detroit area. The only reason we re-established that connection was to stop the noise from the open tube off of the cat.

Part of me was even debating putting the plate back on. lol I guess we'll see down the line how the "tin man" holds up.

I can't even imagine the things that must pop up on the road with no inspection.



The other day, I was checking the trunk out for leaks (learned after my CV). Unfortunately, it looks like this one is leaking as well. Not bad (yet). But it's coming through the same seam area. So, after the CV is all disassembled and gone, I'm going to have to go through and rust proof the inside of this trunk like I did to the CV.

Paint is peeling pretty good because of the rust:


Water leaking in:


Thankfully the rest of the trunk area is still solid. There's just the rust forming on the tail lights. One thing that was interesting to find is that the driver's side tail light bulb closest to the reverse light is currently being held in by chewed gum. At first I thought the bulb connector was melted.. nope, smushed gum. It's holding so I guess it's fine for now.

While checking in there, I found some stuff stashed up behind the spare tire:

• Brake release handle - It looks like it snapped off..
• A broken door light cover - both sides are broken. My CV ones are still okay so I'll move them over. (Stupid brittle plastic...)
• Ignition coil - No idea if it works. Definitely not new though.
• Ignition coil wire - Again, no idea if it's shot or not.
• Some bulbs and connectors - Bulbs are probably shot, connectors are good to have.
• Original rubber floor mats - I thought these would be cool to use. I put them in the front seat. They're too slippery for my taste. CV ones are going to go in and these back to the trunk.
• Shift indicator and collar - This was awesome to see. The collar isn't cracked! Looks new.
• A single reverse tail light lens - This also looks to be in great shape. Nice to have an extra.

Better pic of the shift indicator:


Reverse light lens:


Car passed safety inspection today!


Edit: Almost forgot. Now that I've been able to drive the car a bit more, I noticed that the shifts all seem a bit later than expected and are firm when they happen. This sounds like the TV cable might be set a little on the tighter side, right?

[Kodachrome Wolf]

Definitely sounds like firmer than normal TV pressure. Not a bad thing IMO, at least considering the alternative.

[Arquemann]

Check the vertical seam between the quarter and the taillight panel from the inside aswell. On mine the seamsealer had cracked so it leaked into the trunk.

http://www.grandmarq.net/vb/showthread.php?56926-My-85-MGM-quot-Maisa-quot&p=841337&viewfull=1#post841337

[87GrandMarq]

That looks like the stash I have in my trunk lol. I even have the same looking coil!


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[Mainemantom]

If you don't like those mats and they are genuine Ford in good shape. Put them on Ebay. They will sell. I have sold every set I have listed. The cheapest was $25, the most expensive sold for $150. That reverse light,and shift indicator are really nice to have as spares.

[slack]

Definitely sounds like firmer than normal TV pressure. Not a bad thing IMO, at least considering the alternative.

Cool. From what I read, pressure on the higher side doesn't really hurt things. I might lower it a bit when a rob the brass bushing off the CV.

Check the vertical seam between the quarter and the taillight panel from the inside aswell. On mine the seamsealer had cracked so it leaked into the trunk.

http://www.grandmarq.net/vb/showthread.php?56926-My-85-MGM-quot-Maisa-quot&p=841337&viewfull=1#post841337

[ATTACH=CONFIG]56466[/ATTACH]

Yeah, I think that might be where it's coming in too. I'll have to take a better look in the day time to make sure. Nice job on your repair. My CV had the same issue but was much more rotten. The patch work I did worked really well. I haven't had a leak in the trunk since.

Related: http://www.grandmarq.net/vb/showthre...l=1#post830179

That looks like the stash I have in my trunk lol. I even have the same looking coil!

Same exterior, interior (minus the clock) and now same trunk stash! lol! That's awesome.

If you don't like those mats and they are genuine Ford in good shape. Put them on Ebay. They will sell. I have sold every set I have listed. The cheapest was $25, the most expensive sold for $150. That reverse light,and shift indicator are really nice to have as spares.

Thanks. Good to know. I'll have to take another look at them. After searching the listings on eBay, I can't find rubber mats that look like these. Maybe they were just old ones from a previous owner.


Just for kicks, I checked the pressure on the AC system's low side. Surprisingly, it actually had some pressure in it. (~10-15psi). I shot some more refrigerant into it and brought it up to filled. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like the compressor is kicking on. The system appears to hold pressure though.


Last thing, the hood emblem on this car is wrong I think. Shouldn't an 87 still have the Lincoln style hood emblem instead of the 88-91 GM one?

[1985crownvicltd85]

This is the correct hood ornament:

https://www.justparts.com/Auto_Parts/MINT-OEM-79-87-Grand-Marquis---Colony-Park-Chrome-Hood-Ornament-Emblem---Base/32701301

Btw nice car!

[Mainemantom]

Regarding the mats, look on the underside, on the side. It will have a Ford part number if they are a Ford part.