78 Mercury zephyr wagon

I like the built to beat sticker!

Normally the car gets put away October 4th but they had a cruise the 10th and then a trunk or treat tonight. They started salting bridges on the highways today so this was the final event of the year for me.

then just a fall photo. Got plenty to do before next summer. Starting with cleaning up the accessory brackets and painting a few things. Adding 130lbs too the front of the car also means I really hve to get the suspension and brake refresh done. 

dropstep said:

........

.... They started salting bridges on the highways today so this was the final event of the year for me.

then just a fall photo. Got plenty to do before next summer. Starting with cleaning up the accessory brackets and painting a few things. Adding 130lbs too the front of the car also means I really hve to get the suspension and brake refresh done. 

Yep.  Today on the way home from work, I noticed the "Salt Brine Solution" was applied to the bridge on my commute.  Winter is a coming.

Great looking shot of the car.

Are you planning to paint the hood?

In reply to Indy "Nub" Guy :

Hopefully paint the hood this spring, the shady dealer the car came from was a fan of atf for bringing back old paint. The hood like the tops of the fenders has to be stripped too bare metal. I've been trying to find another hood but that's proved impossible. This one was bent over the hood prop and "fixed" at some point. It has a small buckle about midway down the driver side, with a peice of 1/4 inch plate screwed into it to hold it solid again.

I'm sure it looks different in real life but from the above shot... I kind of like the dull red hood with the matte black on most of the rest of the car.  The inverse might be better?  I actually scanned through this whole thread to see how the paint has changed over the years.

I still think black early SN95 mirrors would look good on the car like I suggested a few years ago.  Would be a fun little wiring project to make that all work since they're all power only.  Maybe a de-rack of the top would be another fun way to kill time?  I'm sure I can come up with more fun suggestions for someone else's project if you want.  Just ask!

Might have went full ricer but I was working on cleaning up and prepping the truck for winter and decided it was a nice day to clean and paint the brackets on the zephyr. Got everything cleaned and primed and then figured out I was out of black spray paint.

Warmed it up because I needed in the tiny garage too see what control arms I had for the front. Developed a small trans leak out of the shift rod bushing. I'm just happy that like the i6, the 302 fired right up. New tubular control arms for the rear but using moog replacements up front because I don't want to do bushings on the set off the 83. 

I sent you  PM.  There's a guy on FaceBook with some automatic shift linkage parts you might need.  (You had mentioned it to me in my Wagon thread).  

In reply to ClemSparks :

Thanks for the heads up. I found the pm, with shipping it ended up being better to order both parts of the linkage from desert valley auto parts.

bit more day one cost then I wanted but it's out for the summer! Age killed the used front tires finally so fresh rubber for the front and we put around 120 miles on it today 

just some maintenance stuff and driving it for April. 6 weeks of surgery recovery time means mid June before anything fun happens 

I see picture uploads are still wonky, been recovering from surgery number 3 but got the shifter fixed and a fresh set of 14s on it for a charity burnout contest tomorrow. See if this old truck engine stays together for another round! 

motor stayed together, there's video somewhere but it's been a long day. The competition Raised over 1k for the local animal shelter and movie theater 

I always look at these and wish someone would use a Z7 door and B pillar on them. Create that car that never existed but should have.

photos still seem weird as hell but we entered in a car show! It was required for the burnout contest, there's another contest October 9th at a show. Ordered an intake and eBay shopped for a carburetor too install before then. Car starts boiling fuel at 180ish degrees with the iron intake.

did find out my temp gauge was way off, it finally died so I went thru 3 replacements thinking they were wrong. Temp gun proves car runs 160. Old gauge said 190.

also attended several cruises this summer, it's been fun. I really need to rebuild the suspension because it's frightening at 70+ mph 

looks cool but the maxpeedingrods intake uses weird threads for the heater hose fittings. So they leak everywhere and it will be coming back off. Wasted some cash but not the end of the world 

summits "stage 2" intake, the stage 1 was sold out until November. The npt fittings work and it's a much nicer peice then the eBay failure. I learned a 130 dollar lesson! 

While working on carb tuning yesterday the starter decided to explode springs out the front. No pictures because I was annoyed with the fact I had to drive 40 miles to get a starter, and I forgot I had to pull the passenger side header to remove the starter. 
 

in other news carburetor is almost set, ordering a slightly larger squirter and a new diaphragm. Still a small lean stumble off idle! Burnout contest again on the 9th

No photos but wanted this post here so I remember, rebuilt my "refurbished " eBay carburetor purchase. Looks like someone did a half ass rebuild because some gaskets were new but the power valve and diaphragm were both shot. It's unfortunately raining like crazy so no test drive yet just some tuning sitting still. No more flat spot! 

Awesome!

decided at 1030am today the 3 day old starter that barely cranks when warm needed changed so we could make it too a cruise in/burnout contest an hour away at 230.

this is why it has too come out the top. So header removal sucks because of the large tubes and 12 point bolts requiring a thin box end wrench.

new starter gets a blanket because we thought heat was killing them! 
loaded up and ready to go! Car cruised the 18 miles of 55mph fine, first stop sign and the car died. Would barely crank, like nothing had changed. 
can change this with the header on, seems to have cured my hot start issues. So back to chasing why it will randomly die at stops. We have been chasing fuel because new intake and carburetor is what started the issue.

well a friend built the "harness" when the small block swap was done, and wiggling the tach side of the wiring shuts the car off. So currently no tach, hoping that this fixes the issue but I was too beat to risk another drive.

the highlight of my day was one of my twins actually wanted to help. They are 13 and 3 sport athletes I'm proud of, but they don't show a lot of interest in cars so this was a pleasant surprise. It's a shame we didn't make the contest after his hard work. 

2 weeks of chasing fuel issues and the problem was the signal wires for the tach touching because the guy wrapped them together. It got disturbed during the intake swap 

In reply to dropstep :

Hurray for finding & correcting the wiring problem.  A ratcheting gear wrench would probably help with the header bolts. They were a game changer for me when I added them to my toolbox.

Years of dodgy wiring work rears it's ugly head occasionally on my Cougar too.  Repair it right and it should be good!

You might want to replace that red battery cable clamp too.  The bolt on versions seem to corrode quicker as the cable is exposed as is the clamp body.  

In reply to Indy "Nub" Guy :

Sadly ratchet wrenches won't fit. They are too thick. I do love my ratchet wrenches though! 

finally replaced my 15 year old tach. The wire short killed the old one. years of sun, oil and grease has left the front clip rather different shades of black!