My 1987 Two Door Crown Victoria AKA THE BROWN BLOB

[mitymerc]

I love the lights on the MegaMerc doors, feel much safer getting in or out in the dark. Much more visible. I think I have a set squirrled away somewhere for use on the blue car. (Some day) LOL

[87gtVIC]

Trouble I will have is the decision on what to do to the finish of the trims. They are in Mercury wood grain and wont match the Vics dash. May spray them black (not too happy about that choice) or the same silver trim paint I may use on the two thin lines within my door pull straps.

There is also the electrical aspect of the install. Gots to find me some powers that come on with the door switch as well as when one turns the headlamp switch all the way to the left(?).




Today I pulled the secondary oil catch can that was intended to separate oil between the valve cover and the throttle body. Many miles and no oil made me remove it. Stock hard lines went back into place.

Added some coolant as it was below the full cool mark, as well as check the engine oil and the transmission fluid level once she was running.

Played with binary editor a bit and then video taped all of the settings I have on my radio (there are a lot of custom choices) so if I ever loose power or need to disconnect the battery I will easily restore the settings to where I like them.


Planning on welding in nuts and getting some fancy bolts to hold the door jamb plastic sill plates down. The self tappers are all worn out.

Grind areas (4 on each side) tack in the nuts and trim the underside of the plastic sill plate to compensate for the nuts thickness and I will be in business. Tiny details that bother me.

[gadget73]

Tap off the under-dash light bulb. They come on with the door open and with the manual dome light position on the headlight switch.


Rivet nuts are the answer to the door sill problem. They go in more or less like pop rivets, but leave you a tapped hole for a machine screw. No welding required.

[87gtVIC]

Yay more wire to sneak in between the doors and body! That is always a fun job....


Come to think of it I have an set of extra speaker wire ran into the doors. I guess if you get technical I would have two extra sets. Stock, first head unit install with fresh wire and the current combo with speaker wires coming off the aftermarket amp in the trunk. Looks like I will be good to go should proceed with the project.

Good idea on the rivnuts. Wonder if the head of the tool would fit in the required area?

I have a complete set of eight bolts with accompanying nuts ready for the original plan. The bolts I have fit perfectly in the door sill trim. If work has the appropriate rivnuts to fit these threads (10x32) which is pretty common I may venture down that path. Gotta see what the terrain looks like under the sill plates. If the fasteners happen to land in some funky transition I may have to go back to welding. The factory did use self tappers after all AND the sill plates have THICK plastic guides that the fasteners ride in. Anything is possible.

[gadget73]

You can make your own install tool, just need a piece of metal with a hole in it to hold the rivnut in position and an allen key screw to tighten against it. The allen key screws are hardened and won't strip out before the rivet compresses.

[His Royal Ghostliness]

Yay more wire to sneak in between the doors and body! That is always a fun job....

Wait, you got the shit-type harness that has no connectors in the A-pillars, right? Yeah, those are a bitch. On the flip side you are only adding a single wire pwr door, ground the lights to the doors themselves (which are grounded thru the harnesses) and then use LEDs. I recently had to add 5 wires in one door (3 for power mirror, two for mirror deice that I don't yet have) and 6 in the other (4 mirror and again 2 deice), and on top of that I had to splice two boots into one and do it waterproof-like too. Talk about fun...

[gadget73]

I don't think those existed until the 90s.

You don't have the small lights on the back edge of the door panel do you? Those are wired into the same circuit.

[His Royal Ghostliness]

I actually thought of adding such lights to my doors as well. Gave up on that idea, mostly cause by the time I thought of it I already had the harnesses done with all the other extra wires. Gonna use some cheap LED's under the body to light the entire area instead, already got them even, just not installed yet. Project for another time I guess, since if I wanna do it right I have to separate the driver and passenger side door jamb switches from one another via diodes.

Edit: Gadget, yeah I think you're right that no boxes got the disconnect-able front door harnesses. Which never really made sense to me since the trucks did have them at least starting in '87 (possibly before that as well, not sure) and they way they solved the lack of enough pins per connector for everything is by just using more connectors - for example the power mirrors have their own connectors, IIRC the speakers do as well, since not every vehicle got every power option available they just made things somewhat modular.

[DerekTheGreat]

Yay more wire to sneak in between the doors and body! That is always a fun job....

I did exactly what gadget suggested with my '85 as it didn't have the cool door lights. IIRC I did not have to tap power for the driver's side door, the connector was there. Was also there for passenger side but no power was going to it so I tapped off the floor light.

[packman]

A while back the drivers side door lock actuator was starting to go limp in one direction. I think it locked up fine but will not unlock under its own power. Scanned the ebays some for a replacement (as the one in there was a used unit my father had on hand and made to fit from another vehicle) and happened upon a set of NOS actuators for a reasonable price. Even if all that was needed was a bit of lubrication I will not feel bad.


They are on their way to me now. I really do hate removing the door panels on this car. Its not that it is difficult or anything, its the poor condition of the door panels backers. Makes me sad. While the door panels are off I think I will install my two door grand marquis under armrest lights as well as paint in the two silver accents on my door panel pull straps/handles.

That's the reason why my CV door interior looks so ratty. After the 3rd window motor replacement, they just fell apart. About the door lock actuators; are they all the same for CV/MGM 79-91? I haven't been to my junkyard in a while; I am hoping the next time I go, the '91 MGM will still be there for harvesting. I have quite the list of things to get.

Packman

[gadget73]

If the backs of those panels are just pressboard, you can make new ones. I'm pretty much dicked, my door panel cores are molded plastic, not anything flat and easily reproduced.

[His Royal Ghostliness]

That plastic doesn't really wear tho, or suck in moisture and get soft. The only real danger with them is if someone didn't use the proper tool for the Christmas tree pins when removing the panels for window motor service or lock solenoid replacement. Tho I gotta say I'm surprised that those early-'80s panels are plastic-backed, you usually get that on the early '90s, that's how the Mk VII panels are at least, and with them I absolutely love the plastic and hate the press-board.

[Giraffe]

There's a guy on stangnet who is in the process of restoring an '83 Mustang t-top coupe. He just finished redoing his door panels and actually restored them completely.

The part where he did the door panels is here (finished product is on page 77): http://www.stangnet.com/mustang-foru...7#post-9023396

The whole thread is worth a read. This guy is incredible. He's restoring just about everything; most things that people would just throw away and find good used parts or repros.

[87gtVIC]

Wait, you got the shit-type harness that has no connectors in the A-pillars, right? Yeah, those are a bitch. On the flip side you are only adding a single wire pwr door, ground the lights to the doors themselves (which are grounded thru the harnesses) and then use LEDs. I recently had to add 5 wires in one door (3 for power mirror, two for mirror deice that I don't yet have) and 6 in the other (4 mirror and again 2 deice), and on top of that I had to splice two boots into one and do it waterproof-like too. Talk about fun...

No easily removable connectors for these doors.

I don't think those existed until the 90s.

You don't have the small lights on the back edge of the door panel do you? Those are wired into the same circuit.

No other lights on the doors.

That's the reason why my CV door interior looks so ratty. After the 3rd window motor replacement, they just fell apart. About the door lock actuators; are they all the same for CV/MGM 79-91? I haven't been to my junkyard in a while; I am hoping the next time I go, the '91 MGM will still be there for harvesting. I have quite the list of things to get.

Packman

I think they are. Front are different from rears though IIRC. IN reality you can make anything work. Just about mounting it in the correct location and having the proper armature to connect up to the other bits.

There's a guy on stangnet who is in the process of restoring an '83 Mustang t-top coupe. He just finished redoing his door panels and actually restored them completely.

The part where he did the door panels is here (finished product is on page 77): http://www.stangnet.com/mustang-foru...7#post-9023396

The whole thread is worth a read. This guy is incredible. He's restoring just about everything; most things that people would just throw away and find good used parts or repros.

Seen this over on four eyed pride. I am scared to try it out on these panels. I cannot just purchase new skins like he could if he ended up needing to.

[gadget73]

The lock motors are all the same, only the rods differ. They aren't hard to change either, just don't lose the little balls.

If your door panels are mostly OK but ragged around the tree holes, you can probably epoxy some fiberglass mat around the weak points to reinforce it. Won't bring them back if totally trashed but it will help keep them from crumbling.