My 1987 Mercury Grand Marquis

[slack]

I just brought home my replacement for my '89 Crown Vic (Link to frame rot death sentence of the CV). I originally wanted to strip and junk the Crown Vic before buying something else to tinker with as I have literally no room to really fit this car at my house right now, but the deal was too good to miss out on. This is the 2nd Grand Marquis I've owned. The last one I owned was a 91 4 door (car before my Crown Vic). Out of the five panthers I've now owned, three of them were/are boxes and all three are this "tan-ish" color.

My friend saw this pop up for sale some-what locally for $500 saying that it needed some work and let me know about it. Amazingly we were able to look at it before it was sold and I thankfully had money in hand to buy it. I can't remember the last time I saw one pop up at that price here in NY.

The interior is the same as my Crown Vic and the exterior is pretty close (a little darker) which is nice because I have basically a whole parts car worth of pieces that I can transfer over as needed.

As I said, I don't exactly have room for parking this car now so I'm going to have to pull the engine/trans and strip the CV in the next two weeks which should be interesting with work and such.

Current To-Do List

• Exhaust Leak - It's pretty loud. I think it's coming from the cat area, but haven't had a chance to get a good look at it yet.
• Rough Idle - The car runs very rich at the moment. I blew through 1/4 tank of gas in 30-ish miles. You can smell the rich exhaust while driving/idling. The idle is pretty inconsistent.
• General Tune Up - Fluids, filters, plugs, wires, cap, rotor, yadda yadda yadda
• Door Locks / Window Motor - Rear windows are non-functioning and so are the lock actuators in the front. Will probably just steal them from the CV.
• Sanding/Rust proofing - There's some areas on the body that have a little rust. Frame looks good but I would like to give it a fresh coat of POR15.
• Shocks / Sway Bars - Shocks are shot. Need to be replaced. I'm going to transfer over the Police sway bars from CV.
• ...More as I think of it.

Anyway, I only have one picture from driving it home tonight while filling up at a gas station (full hour and 1/2, made it home without any issues).



I should have more pics tomorrow as I go through and start fixing things here and there.

[VicCrownVic]

Nice find, congratulations.
My $500 box was towed home and the $700 box didn't make it without incident (had to borrow a 2G from Derek when mine gave up luckily near his house.)
Looking forward to the fun you'll have with this one (even the "fun" fun, lol.)

[WagonMan]

When are you going to swap the nose and tail lights???? Just kidding. Congrats on the new ride! WagonMan

[Arquemann]

Is the thick stripe on the side an option or a yearly thing?
If it runs and drives, anything is a great deal for 500 bucks.

[packman]

Nice MGM! Must have been an interesting ride home with the inclement weather and all that. Sounds like You’re probably already familiar with Panthers; but from my limited experience, I would look over all the vacuum lines that you can get to, and make sure they’re not broken. Especially the MAP sensor line. Mine had a worn fitting and the line would come loose and cause the rough idling and black smoke.

[Kodachrome Wolf]

Ooh, that’s a two-tone car.

Hopefully the repairs aren’t too intensive, but for the price, I think all that can really happen is positive improvement regardless. Nice score!

[Tiggie]

Hooray for a replacement!

[87gtVIC]

Oh yeah. Two tones of tan. Very nice!

[87GrandMarq]

It’s my cars twin! Just nicer lol




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[slack]

Nice find, congratulations.
My $500 box was towed home and the $700 box didn't make it without incident (had to borrow a 2G from Derek when mine gave up luckily near his house.)
Looking forward to the fun you'll have with this one (even the "fun" fun, lol.)

It was definitely a gamble driving it that far. The car had basically been sitting for over a year at the point I bought it. My friend followed in his pickup and we had tow straps if we absolutely needed it. I'm not sure how we would have gotten it over the Whitestone Bridge in tow straps though. Thankfully it was late enough for the traffic to have cleared out and the whole way was basically highway miles.

When are you going to swap the nose and tail lights???? Just kidding. Congrats on the new ride! WagonMan

Thanks. Haha! Mr Bean has the early box to round box conversion covered already. This one is staying as is.

Is the thick stripe on the side an option or a yearly thing?
If it runs and drives, anything is a great deal for 500 bucks.

Agreed. For $500, even if it was in crap shape, the extra parts and frame would have been worth it.

Nice MGM! Must have been an interesting ride home with the inclement weather and all that. Sounds like You’re probably already familiar with Panthers; but from my limited experience, I would look over all the vacuum lines that you can get to, and make sure they’re not broken. Especially the MAP sensor line. Mine had a worn fitting and the line would come loose and cause the rough idling and black smoke.

Thanks! We actually just missed the storm! We left my house around 7pm, right as the sun started coming back out so we were good both ways. That would have been a nightmare to drive back in with bad wipers. The shocks are shot so I was already bobbing up and down with all the bumps and such. Also, the idle issue was the MAP sensor line!

Ooh, that’s a two-tone car.

Hopefully the repairs aren’t too intensive, but for the price, I think all that can really happen is positive improvement regardless. Nice score!

Thanks! So far, it looks like everything will be cheap unless I plan to fix the exhaust "right" instead of just plugging it up for the time being.

Hooray for a replacement!

Woo!!

Oh yeah. Two tones of tan. Very nice!

Thanks!

It’s my cars twin! Just nicer lol

Holy crap! They really are twins!! That's awesome! I'm not sure I'd say "nicer". Mine looks okay from 10ft away but definitely has it's dings and stuff.

[slack]

Fixed the idle issue

I fixed the idle issue today. I pulled the car into the driveway and was doing a "once over everything" type of deal.

Quick rundown of what I checked:

• Plug wires - They look brand new. I popped them off and they had zero corrosion on the connectors.
• Distributor Cap / Rotor - The connectors look a bit worn on these. I took some sandpaper and sanded them down, but they're now on the list to be replaced.
• EGR Valve - I took it off and it wasn't clogged. I cleaned it up a bit and made sure it held vacuum. All good there.
• IAC - I took this off as well. Also clean as whistle inside.
• Air Filter - Brand new fram was installed. The filter portion still looks brand new.
• Vacuum lines - Saw some problems here. There was one (pic below) where the brittle plastic line was snapped. I patched that so it's now connected. Also I noticed the line to the MAP sensor was bad.
• I didn't get a chance to check the spark plugs yet. If the plugs are new, hopefully they are too.
• Did an oil change as the oil was black as tar.

Left line on this tree was snapped (on passenger's side).


The condition of the vacuum line to the MAP sensor:


That line was pretty "gummy". I noticed that when the car started, it collapsed which caused the car to stumble. Then as the car stumbled, the line opened back up and the cycle repeated itself.

The vacuum line to the MAP sensor has two different sizes on each end, so I had to improvise with some new line and some old line I had floating around the garage. (As you can see, I keep a very clean and organized working environment. haha)


Plenum had to come off to get to the line under it. 6 1/2'' bolts hold it to the intake manifold. 2 are behind the "5.0" plate. That is held on by 4 T20 torx screws. I had to use map gas on those otherwise they would have stripped right out and caused the whole process to be a major PITA. Going back in, I coated the torx screws with never seize so when I'm back in there, I don't curse my former self.

I left the throttle stuff connected and propped the thing up with a random box of screws I had. There was just enough room to get under there.


New line in. I decided to not put a hose clamp on it because it took SO much force to push the size I had on there I (hopefully) don't see it coming off any time soon.


I probably should have replaced the other lines while I had things apart, but the others didn't seem so bad and it was already 10:30pm.

Also, added to the "TO-DO" list is the brass TV cable grommet. The one that's on there is the original. It's amazingly still holding up but has definitely seen better days. I'm thinking I might just take the one from the CV when I strip it instead of buying a new one. We'll see though.

Next post I'll show some more pics of the car itself.

[slack]

General pics of the car.

Here are some pics of the car itself:

Front. Headlights need to be swapped with new ones. There's a small dent in the bumper and of course my CV also has a similar dent in it so swapping doesn't matter there.




Back. Bumper is rough. CV one isn't great but I'll probably be swapping it over. I'm also missing the "Mercury" trim on the trunk lid. Left taillight was repaired at some point with what looks like super glue.


A completely un-interesting stock LOPO 5.0 we've all seen 5 billion times.


Interior. I thought I actually had more of these. The inside is in great shape except for a single crack on the speedometer "glass". I have two 85mph CV speedos. Can I swap the clear plastic from one of those to this one? The leather wrap of the steering wheel is going to go though. It's pretty sticky like my CV's was when I took it off.


Driver's side exhaust is completely replaced with new cat as well as new y-pipe and muffler. Passenger's side cat is a different story...



Pic of the nice and solid frame.


Here's the source of my loud exhaust leak. I think I'm just going to try and plug the hole first before actually replacing it. It needs to pass inspection within 10 days so I'm pressed for time for now. It's interesting that they did the rest of the exhaust but left this portion...


This was a surprise to see. It has an external transmission cooler! At some point someone put some real effort and attention into this car. It's absolutely crazy that it was passed along for so cheap.


Here's a bit of an oddity. When I had my '97 Towncar that was equipped with Lojack from a previous owner, I had to press the rear defrost switch before I could turn the key to start the car. This car has something similar yet much more crude. To the left of the column is this "cartridge" that plugs into a slot that needs to be in place for the car to start. I hope all it does is just make the connections between the wires and there's no extra logic baked in there because that would be a pain if this thing goes missing or stops working. There's a spare, but after that... that's it.


The "cartridge" itself. Anyone ever heard of these before? It's install is a bit hackish. There's literally wires running from under the dash up to the cartridge slot's mount point.


I don't have pics (yet) but the rear door's corner glass sort of tells a bit of the car's history. There's stickers in 1998 for Police Veteran's Association. There's another old one I think just for Veterans. Then on the other side, there's some pictures of Jesus with captions in Spanish saying "Please protect me". Then there's a parking permit for a SUNY college upstate from 2010. The driver's side door panel has some cigarette burns as well. I wonder how many owners this car has had in its life?

Side note, it's interesting getting used to looking at the speedometer on this dash. My last Grand Marquis was a 91 so it had the usual 0-85 straight across style. I'm left handed so maybe my left eye is my dominant eye because reading the speedometer section on the right takes some getting used to. I feel like I'm never 100% sure exactly what speed I'm going when I glance at it, just a round about. Anyone else experience this on their first time using this style dash?

Well... that's all for now!

[87gtVIC]

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.

[GM_Guy]

Nice score!

[VicCrownVic]

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.