In reply to gumby (Forum Supporter) :
Darn. Wish I was home, I'd love to see this
In reply to gumby (Forum Supporter) :
Darn. Wish I was home, I'd love to see this
Only here would someone give the truck they looked all over for to their kid years before they could drive just to buy a sun beat up old station wagon.
Under 2miles into the journey, random stranger at a light, "I haven't seen one of those in years!"
Winning
Still at Robbie's. Much thanks to him for food and fellowship. Now, to swap out two of the junk tires with these trailer tires from Menards so hopefully I don't die on the remainder of this journey
Beauty
Yes, it is raining again
Who'd a thunk that you can just walk into Menards and buy pre mounted Ford Country Squire tires?
She's a beaut Clark?
So I saw and photographed a 1982 baby blue with white vinyl half top Grand Marquis version of this wagon today. It was for sale for $2800 and it appeared really solid. I'll post one pic but don't want to clog up gumby's thread here. Let me know if you want more.
it was sitting partially into the road side drain hence the odd stance.
After convertibles and wagons, coupes are next best.
Oh, did I emotion dark blue velour interior.
wawazat said:So I saw and photographed a 1982 baby blue with white vinyl half top Grand Marquis version of this wagon today. It was for sale for $2800 and it appeared really solid. I'll post one pic but don't want to clog up gumby's thread here. Let me know if you want more.
it was sitting partially into the road side drain hence the odd stance.
After convertibles and wagons, coupes are next best.
Oh, did I emotion dark blue velour interior.
That's should be just a marquis the 2 doors didn't use the grand but man did I love mine. They ride fantastic
In reply to dropstep :
Negative ghost rider.
Grand Marquis was used on the Sedan and Coupe variants.
The Marquis name was the base model from 79-82 on the panther platform, for both sedan and coupe.
83-86 The Marquis was Fox based.
John Welsh (Moderate Supporter) said:Who'd a thunk that you can just walk into Menards and buy pre mounted Ford Country Squire tires?
She's a beaut Clark?
Actually, you can't! trailer service tires are WAY illegal on a car! And quite unsafe as well. Trailer service rims are also NOT rated for cars... but I don't imagine any safety issues.
Phew, what a ride! This was not my first arrive'n'drive with an old car, but despite being one of the shortest distance, it was definitely one of the more eventful.
I started the day on the wrong bus. I was aware that two buses were leaving on the same schedule and I had reserved a seat on the direct line. When we pulled off the interstate in Lafayette it became apparent that I ended up on the wrong bus bound for Chicago. A panicked search for the new itinerary learned me that even though this line had one additional stop en route it would somehow get to Chicago 35mins earlier than the direct line. Crisis averted.
The actual purchase of the car took much longer than anticipated. After having Robbie look the car over I was expecting to drop cash, sign a title, and be on my way in 30-40mins. Roughly 2hrs later, I was finally on the road.
Stopping for fuel, I remembered that my phone was getting pretty low on battery because the bus had no plug-ins. I ran inside and bought a usb plug for the cigar lighter, and immediately realized I had no idea if that outlet even had power. With a bit of fidgeting, and holding my tongue just right, I got the adapter to stay lit up and everything was right with the world.
In reply to gumby (Forum Supporter) :
Why two hours to sign title?
Now that you've seen it in person, what do you think of F-dat?
Nice wagon
But wait, there's more!
Things really started to get interesting after I plugged Robbie's address into my, now charging, phone. Quickest route avoids 90/94, great I don't want to find out if this engine overheats in the middle of Chicago rush hour on a Friday evening! And then I get dumped onto 294 instead....it's actually going pretty ok trying to build confidence in the car and deal with the traffic and the toll plazas until I picked up the nasty high speed wobble. I was able to nurse the car along, make it to the desired exit, and the 7mins of surface streets to Robbie's safe haven where we began plotting solutions that didn't involve me staying up there till morning.
Exhausting a few leads, and being as all the tire shops were already closed, we decided the best course of action would be a couple pre-mounted trailer tires. We broke for food provided by Robbie's wonderful wife, and then headed out shopping only to learn that Wal-marts which have deleted their Tire Lube Express departments have also pulled the trailer tires off the floor. Across the street to Menards....that's when the rain rolled back in.
Cruising in a classic Jag was really neat, but dang it has tiny wipers and a weak sauce defroster. Oh, and I left my wallet in the wagon... The comedy of errors continued as we survived traveling thru the thunderstorm back to the garage. Swapping the wheels went simply enough that we decided to have a go at changing out the worst offending tire for a loose one Robbie had on hand. It was 9yrs newer afterall!
Now, I have manually swapped a fair number of bias ply circle track tires, but this was my first radial attempt. With plenty of levers, determination, creative language, and lots of soapy water, we got it done. Mix in a touch of ether because the only air available wasn't up to seating the bead, and we turned a junk wheel and tire combo into another viable back-up spare!
We filled the mini-spare and tossed the two full size ones in the back of the wagon. The rain had subsided and I now had enough spares to keep Murphy at bay, so I hit the road once more. I got to watch an amazing lightning show as I chased the storm south, and the remainder of the drive was pleasantly uneventful. I rolled into my own driveway at 3am, giving up an extra hour of sleep to the inventor of time zones.
Getting up this morning for work was a bit rough, but walking out to this did make me smile
Looking good
Sweet! Glad you made it home safe.
In reply to gumby (Forum Supporter) :
I know it's the perspective, but the wagon looks absolutely tiny compared to your Ranger.
First things first, I gotta address the roadworthy bits. The fuel tank has been replaced recently, as well as the pump, but not the sender because that part is NLA. Well, that part is also the source of a leak when the tank is filled above half. Since it isn't working, and there is no proper replacement, I made a blanking plate and simply deleted the sender until a better solution comes along.
I also deleted these vintage "no drill" style mudflaps while inspecting the brakes and suspension.
Complete set of four, no low ballers please!
I haven't heard any clunks, thunks, bangs or clangs from the suspension. The front brakes look good enough to get me by until I gather the parts needed for an upgrade to 98-02 parts. The rears may not have even been apart before today.
Everything looked tip top inside the drums as well
With that, I buttoned things back together and bolted up a different set of wheels with decent tires so I can continue shaking this thing down.
Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) said:I know it's the perspective, but the wagon looks absolutely tiny compared to your Ranger.
Let's try this instead
In reply to gumby (Forum Supporter) :
Yeah that definitely looks proportionate now!
I'd think repairing the sending unit should be pretty straightforward. If the trace is worn out I bet there's other Fords(or even non-Fords with the same resistance) that you could adapt to work. If it's the wiper arm that's worn, then it's even easier as you could adapt almost any others to replace it.
In reply to Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) :
The white block thru the mounting plate has been abused. It is tweaked hard enough that it leaks externally and the signal wire popped off the inside terminal. I am not junking it yet, but it will likely be simpler to adapt a universal aftermarket with the proper ohm scale than repair this one.
Nice project.
Yep those rear drums have never been off the axle.
My wife's '11 escape had the same clips from the assembly line.
My pap had an '84 panther wagon that he bought when he replaced the 76 Monaco wagon.
We went to west virginia and michigan in it. When he traded it in it was still nice 'cept for some of the clear sticker stuff on the fake woodgrain started lifting.
Good luck with it!
Greg
Shout out to the line worker in 1990 with zero berkeleys to give on a Friday afternoon or the Monday after a weekend bender!
I pulled all five interior door panels to diag various window motor faults(3 stripped gears and 2 dead motors). All the original plastic liners were intact and appeared untouched
The rear gate was the exception, someone had clearly been in there before me. I did get the latches working properly in the gate.
The interesting bit was finding a power door lock actuator in the right rear door. This car doesn't have power locks! I guess that explains the stiff action on the lock rod in that door....
Quality is Job #1
HA!
do you think the whole door was swapped with a junkyard one at some point? Seems unlikely but maybe?
gumby (Forum Supporter) said:Anybody want an SHO?
Yes, though the timing is awful. Where's the for sale thread?
Awesome wagon too, BTW.
In reply to Powar (Forum Supporter) :
Sending PM
In reply to Robbie (Forum Supporter) :
If so, it was very early in the cars existence, already black, and swapped without removing the plastic lining.
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