FatNasty's 1984 Grand Marquis GS

[pantera77]

Looks good. I'm liking the lights in the vents.

[Grand_Marquis_LSS]

I Love your car man. So Clean

[Grand Marquis GT]

Mang, you need to do a set of big brakes on that sucker, and some 17" wheels. Drop it about 1.5" or so, and you'll REALLY cook!

[FatNasty]

Wow, I suck at updating this thread..... Been busy with school, and am working at vatozone on the weekends now.

Well, the snow has hit... hard... and the Marquis is safe inside the garage while the wagon is my winter beater. Now its time to do some work on the marquis I have been meaning to do for a while.

Now i'd like to do a big brake swap, just dont have the money right now for all of that so I'm keeping the stock front disks. I've got a '98 brake booster and master cylinder i'll be installing. Running new brake lines everywhere, and ditching that stupid proportioning block which i'm pretty sure is messing me up since i've got rear disks. I found some new front rotors at the junkyard to put on. Will likely put in new calipers since they are so cheap, and i think the passenger side is sticking a bit. If they are worn much, i'll do a warranty swap on the pads. I've ordered bearings, seals, dust caps, hoses, and spindle hardware kits from rockauto (still beats the autozone price by $20 even with my discount).

The other half of this project will be some more engine bay cleanup/upgrades. I'm swapping fenderwells to ones from a '90 TC. Passenger side has a nice fuse box spot, and the drivers side has better mounts for pretty much everything else. Having those out will make it easier to get all the brake lines run as well. I've also got the 90/91 style engine wiring harness to install. Cleaner than the old version, and I especially like the relay locations. I'll take off the upper intake to make the wiring easier, and also to clean up the lower intake a bit. Hate to see the purdy blue paint getting gunky. I really need to put relays on the headlights, can't believe I haven't yet, but I might leave that for after all this, I hate to have 2 wiring projects going at once. I'll try to get pics and keep this updated.

[87gtVIC]

Please Mark keep us updated...You do really nice word and it is a shame you keep it all to yourself.

[LTDMan83]

^ Most definitely.

I've always enjoyed seeing your work.

[FatNasty]

Got to working on the project yesterday. Old master cylinder and brake booster are out. The nuts for the brake booster are a pain in the ass to get to on these cars, I removed the front seat so I could lay down and look up there. Seat needed to come out anyways for some work. If you have a ratcheting 9/16 its not that long of a job, just tougher to access than on some cars.

I've got some new-used rotors I'm putting on. New bearings and seals since I took the old ones out for some reason. Bearings are all packed and seals are in, ready to go on.

[FatNasty]

Today I got the upper intake and engine wiring harness out. Took a while longer than a stock harness since I had some goofy splices and connections in there from the CFI swap a few years back. Also had to dig out some other wires I had included in the harness like fog lights, gauges, fan wiring. Removed my underhood fuse box, and this other little box I had for quick connections to +12v ign. on.

Once that was all out, I got to work removing the passenger side fenderwell. Cut out a few remaining A/C pieces since I don't plan to reinstall for a while, if at all. Then switched focus for a while to brakes. Rotors and calipers are off on both sides. Rotors aren't that far gone, but looked warped a bit. Cleaned up a ton of caked on grease and dirt from the upper control arm... you can see the mess underneath in the pics. I'll clean and repaint the exposed metal. Probably clean and undercoat the frame there, looked excellent on David's vic.

I was tempted to do ball joints while i was in there, but they are fine and I'm trying to keep costs down so I resisted. Picked up some new shocks since the old ones pre-dated my owning the car. Trading in the pads for new ones when they get to my store sat. Got the new calipers tonight as well.

Whats with most brake pads for these cars not being slotted/chamfered? I hadn't noticed till today, I just always assumed they were since pretty much all pads are.

Anyways, more work on it tomorrow....

[87gtVIC]

Wow that car sure ain't going anywhere. I am curious to see how close the brake lines end up near the master cylinder with the newer booster and such being installed. I am very curious seeing how the fuse box will mount with the TC inner wheel well. Might be something I wanna do

[FatNasty]

The fusebox location is perfect, sits square with the battery. Wish I had a pic of it in a 90TC. As for the brake lines, I'm re-doing them and ditching the stock proportioning valve.

[87gtVIC]

So the brake lines will fit perfectly then!

[gadget73]

Cool. I found that the 90 inner fender doesnt have as many mounts as the stocker. Not sure how the GM ones are, but on a Towncar, it has those push rivet things all around the inner wheelwell. The 90 doesn't have them. It actually has a slight gap between the edge of the inner fender and the actual fender, makes it look like its sitting in toward the engine just a smidge. It does have a wire channel of sorts in that location though, so it will allow me to tuck the wiring to the fusebox instead of the stock system where everything just lays there.

[FatNasty]

Got the rotors off as well as the drivers side fender well. Drivers side was easy compared to the passenger side. The metal battery tray and charcoal canister assembly did not want to move. nut broke on a couple of them, so had to weld them in place to get the bolts out. Another one on the battery tray I had to cut and drill out, ugh. I'll clean up and undercoat those parts before putting them back. Thought about ditching the evap system all together but don't want to end up with a gas smell. Maybe i'll find a better way to route everything.

Did lots of dirt and grease removal from the upper control arm and frame on the passenger side, then hit it with a wire wheel on the angle grinder. After that some rubberized undercoating. Looks wwaaay nicer now, quite pleased with that stuff.

Cool. I found that the 90 inner fender doesnt have as many mounts as the stocker. Not sure how the GM ones are, but on a Towncar, it has those push rivet things all around the inner wheelwell. The 90 doesn't have them. It actually has a slight gap between the edge of the inner fender and the actual fender, makes it look like its sitting in toward the engine just a smidge. It does have a wire channel of sorts in that location though, so it will allow me to tuck the wiring to the fusebox instead of the stock system where everything just lays there.

yeah, noticed the 90 is different like that. That gap might be very useful for wire tucking purposes. I do like those push rivet things though, they held everything nice and tight.

[FatNasty]

Finished all the brake lines except the pieces right under the master cylinder. Got the line to the front passenger side all bent and routed correctly where it meets up to a tee from the drivers side, then will go up to the MC. I decided not to replace that line that goes all the way from front to back. Its like 9 feet of line routed all over and there wasn't a spec of rust or any other problems with the existing one. I wish I had decided to save it earlier so i didn't hack up the existing flare at the prop. valve. So I had to reflare the line while it was in the car, and that is not a nice spot to have to make a new flare. Spent like an hour crammed in the wheel well and got a perfect flare only to find I had forgotten to put the tube nut on Next flare went a bit quicker luckily. Also redid the 2 rear lines, which weren't that old, but they had a lot of extra bends in them since they weren't the correct length originally. 9 double flares so far, not counting screw ups, imperfect ones, or practice flares. My hands are killing me...

Also took off the rear brakes, weren't really worn at all. I was hoping to see a little too much wear from dragging due to the stock prop valve, which would explain my low mpg's. doesn't look like thats the culprit though. New pads anyways, yay for wear warranty's.

[87gtVIC]

I love this picture


And great work with the undercoating. looks good. Unfortunately I can say I have done the flare fuck up before to. You get a nice perfect flare but forget to slide on the tube nut.