"Vicky"-1987 Ford LTD Crown Victoria

[hemihotrod402]

get some tints on the glass. looking good. i also second the second panther idea. it will save that nice car

I've been scouring craigslist for 2 days now lol. All of them I have found need way too much work, asking way to much, or E all of the above. I kind of wish Rustyrodder would sign in, his would be perfect.

I'm debating on what to do with the tint, we're only allowed 50% on the front windows, so it will most likely be 50% on the front, and probably 25 or 15 in the back, so it doesn't look too screwed up.

[hemihotrod402]

Wow its been a while.

A couple of updates.

I got fender and frame braces, and had them installed for a while. Today was a nice day so I decided to pull them, sandblast, and paint them, and waiting on that paint to dry. Pics later.

Anyway the bad story is I have had almost every major component go out in the cooling system all in about a week's time.

I was driving over to this girl's house and were going to see a movie. I get 2 blocks away from her house and the check engine light comes on. Fan-Fucking-tastic. I turn down the radio and here somthing steaming. Even more Fan-Fucking-tastic. I nurse the car to her house and get out and find that it is puking antifreeze all over her driveway. So I pop the hood and find that the radiator hose had developed a bulge so big it got against the A/C compressor and wore a hole in it. So the entire engine bay was covered with antifreeze, and so were my front 2 wheels

That was sunday, fast forward to wednesday, and I'm on my way to school. I'm sitting at a stoplight (with a new radiator hose) and that familiar smell of antifreeze comes pouring in. And I notice steam coming out from the grill. Fan-Fucking-Tastic. Pull into the parking lot and discover that I have blown a heater hose the goes into the heater core.

Fast-forward to Friday, and My dad and I are replacing every single hose in that engine because apparently they are ALL ORIGINAL . We get that done, flush out the system, etc. And let it sit. I come out the next morning to find a puddle of antifreeze AGAIN under the car, only this time it was still dripping. Guess what? Water Pump. Goes and gets a water pump, start taking the old (original) one off, and we break off one of the bolts. We get that straightned out and everything is no back to normal.....I am waiting for the radiator to go. It's original too.
Just for the record, you can get 99,000 miles on original hoses (it rolled over to 99,000 on my to before the rad hose blew)

[sly]

got over 100K miles on the original hoses on my 88. Replaced them before they blew though.

[hemihotrod402]

got over 100K miles on the original hoses on my 88. Replaced them before they blew though.

lmao I wasn't as lucky I gues...although I was pushing the car a lot on the way there. I was running behind; I was supposed to be there at 1:30, and it takes about 20 minutes to get there with traffic, and she gets pissed when I'm late. I left at 1:15, made it at 1:28, and that's after coasting 2 blocks lol

well I would have pictures, but the camera died, we are out of batteries

[79lincolnlover]

Did you make it to the movies?

[hemihotrod402]

Did you make it to the movies?

matter of fact lol.

She was pissed though because I was going to let her drive my car (she loves the thing). But we took her car and went to the movie, and thank god my dad happened to be in the same city lol. I texted him and he had it fixed in her driveway before we got back...I just had to clean up the mess so her parents didn't find out about it lol.

[chitownvic]

You let a girl drive your car.... She must really be something Haha

[hemihotrod402]

Got pictures of my newly installed braces!






And pictures I just took for the POTM

[87gtVIC]

Lookin' great Andrew. Were you able to just ratchet in the bolts for the underframe braces?

OH and I just spyed with my little eye the fuse holder for the headlights.

[hemihotrod402]

Lookin' great Andrew. Were you able to just ratchet in the bolts for the underframe braces?

OH and I just spyed with my little eye the fuse holder for the headlights.

Thanks!

Yep, 3/8 drive socket. It was a royal pain to do it the first time. I just threw them on because we were out of paint and I couldn't wait. When I yanked them again to sandblast them and paint them, they went in like butter lol.

Oh and yep, that's the fuse holder. Thanks again!

[hemihotrod402]

Well, I get to pull the upper intake off again, Valve cover gasket is leaking

[87gtVIC]

One trick my father taught me is to purchase the steel lined/rubber valve cover gaskets and put silicone on all of the valve cover bolt threads. Never will leak on you that way.

[Georges86]

One trick my father taught me is to purchase the steel lined/rubber valve cover gaskets and put silicone on all of the valve cover bolt threads. Never will leak on you that way.

The exact same thing a 45+ year mechanic told me that I hang around with. Works for sure


George

[hemihotrod402]

We did that.....here's the story. This goes back to when I put the new valve covers on.

When we found that the filler neck wouldn't clear the upper intake, we had already glued the gasket on that valve cover. So we quickly tried to put it on the stock valve cover, and bolted it down. Its the gasket itself, the one on the ford racing valve cover still seals like new.

We have some gaskets laying around in the garage, I'll swap them tomorrow.

[johnunit]

STOP POSTING PICTURES OF YOUR CAR DAMMIT. you're gonna make me have to save up for '79 trim parts and 17 inch rims. lookin good.