My '80 Ford LTD 2-Door Slicktop

[1987cp]

Looking exciting!

Probably want to hang onto as many of the interior parts as you have room for ... good "tudor" stuff seems to be getting very hard to find! For example, my '81's full bench was scuffed through in spots and the seatback leaning weird, and the d/s doorpanel is ripped.

[Midnight Drifter]

I want your side mirrors. NOW.


...wait, did they even offer a passenger mirror for those years?

My side mirrors are effin' useless...

[86VickyLX]

I want your side mirrors. NOW.


...wait, did they even offer a passenger mirror for those years?

My side mirrors are effin' useless...

Have fun with that. You need different glass. Finding those mirrors in good condition? Next to impossible. Yes some models do have a passenger side mirror.
I wouldn't want them for the reason of changing the glass (getting rid of vent windows), and them being manual mirrors, requiring me to run cables through the car. No thanks.

[LTDMan83]

Probably want to hang onto as many of the interior parts as you have room for ... good "tudor" stuff seems to be getting very hard to find! For example, my '81's full bench was scuffed through in spots and the seatback leaning weird, and the d/s doorpanel is ripped.

The only thing "Tudor" specific that I'm getting rid of is the Front Bench. I'd probably have to hang onto it for another 20-30 years before someone would come along wanting to restore one of these cars to 100% original. By that time it wouldn't be in the best shape anyway, so its probably best to chunk it out now. If I had a mass amount of storage space then I would horde parts, but as of now my storage space is at a premium, so I only keep the things that really matter or have value to me.

I want your side mirrors. NOW.


...wait, did they even offer a passenger mirror for those years?

My side mirrors are effin' useless...

Believe me I know. I drove around for years with the standard mirrors, damn near useless for sure. Couldn't believe how much better these where the first time I actually drove this car on the road. The drawback? If someone ever breaks one of my windows, it is gonna be damn near impossible to find a replacement.


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Very glad this car doesn't have vent windows, saves me quite alot of work. Vent windows are an abomination of good taste, imo, and will always be deleted from any of my vehicles. The only good vent windows are the power ones on my Lincoln, and even those take away from the cars look significantly. But at least are powered, and can be fully rolled down, so I can let that slide.

[Midnight Drifter]

Have fun with that. You need different glass. Finding those mirrors in good condition? Next to impossible. Yes some models do have a passenger side mirror.
I wouldn't want them for the reason of changing the glass (getting rid of vent windows), and them being manual mirrors, requiring me to run cables through the car. No thanks.

Here I was thinking they were the simple 'push to adjust' mirrors, like on my Tacoma.

[1987cp]

Getting rid of vent windows isnt' the problem, the problem is getting windows (or vent window assemblies, if equipped) with clearance for the proper style of mirror.

Both '79 and '80 could be had with p/s mirrors, though apparently some idiot thought they shouldn't be standard. I tried driving my wagon once or twice without the p/s mirror installed, and it was awful!

I've often hypothesized that Fox-body mirrors might be able to be made to work, but no luck so far verifying that ....

[LTDMan83]

1st Update

Been doing some work on her the past week, and here's what I have accomplished on this car thus far. Haven't even had the car 2 weeks yet, and have already started restoring it, lol! All this work is done in my back yard, in my spare time, with tools and supplies that anyone can buy and use. Nothing about restoring a car is hard, imo, just takes dedication, and is time/money consuming. As the old resto-rednecks with their fairly nice old chevys around here say, "It ain't Rocket Surgery" Money/Time is the only thing that has personally held me back all these years, but no more!!!




Replaced both the Trunklid and the Rear Bumper, with nice Rust-Free pieces.



Pulled off the Bumper, and decided to replace the Bumper Shocks as well, since they where crusty. Damn things wouldn't come out until a slide hammer forced them to.






Nice Bumper Shocks Installed.






'79 LTD Landau smooth rear bumper. You can see how clean and rust-free the inside is in this pic.






Installed.





Nice Trunk Lid and Lock Cylinder w/ Key installed. Ben (Tiggie), your old trunk lid has returned yet again! lol.















The floorpans after around 2 hours of work, removing all the old Tar Mats from the floor and other areas (around 30lbs of Tar Mat), and poking/scraping the rust areas to make sure there still solid, which they are. Nice floorpan though! Usually there is always rust in the front sections next to the body plugs. Will be fixing the rust, and Por15'ing the entire floor next.















The worst area of Rust on the floorpan. Still just surface, and easily fixable.






The factory went apeshit with the upholstery glue on the roof.






Here's the pile of Insulation that I removed from the car, next to the old nasty carpet, which fell apart when I pulled it out. Probably around 20lbs of insulation there.






Door Jamb Rust Areas. All just surface for the most part, DS jamb seam is the worst and is slightly pitted, but still fixable with a little work.















Here it is after Wire-Brushing, Grinding, Sand Blasting, and then finally converting the microscopic bits of rust left inside of the pits (which is what would cause it to come back otherwise), before coating it with Por15. The Por looks messy I know, but the only point here for now is to fill the exposed bare metal seams and cover the fixed areas completely, the runs and excess around the edges will be sanded back off when prepping the jambs for paint, takes all of 2-3 minutes when using air tools. With the door seams filled with Por15, there is no need for a seam sealer to be used again, which is what caused this area to rust in the first place. Fixed a couple areas under the weather stripping as well, that are not pictured. Makes me feel better, knowing that she is not just sitting there still rusting fast away in those places. Should last another 30 years or more, depending on how the car is used, and where it is stored of course.

















More coming Soon.

Stay Tuned.

[sly]

very nice progress. some of the usual suspects for rust... but that things in really good shape.

[marquisman]

nice progress. all you need to do now is change the dash to a red one.

[Brandon]

Good work

[LTDMan83]

Thanks guys. Por15'ing the floor next, takes around 2 hours of hand sanding to get all those contours in the floorpan perfectly prepped for the Por. That's One thing about Por15, if the prep isn't immaculate, Por15 peals off like a cheap sticker. As long as you do your prep work correctly, Por15 bonds permanently, and is hard to even sand back off afterward, much harder than a standard urethane or enamel paint. I've did it many a time though, so I know the gig well.

nice progress. all you need to do now is change the dash to a red one.

I'm gonna paint the stock dash, rather than try and search for a Red dash which will be hard to find in nice shape. Easier painting all those parts than it is swapping dashes anyway. Ask me how I know...:smirk:

[1987cp]

Smooth rear bumper FTW! That's only the second one I've seen. Looks nicer than mine, which has a little vertical crease in the middle somewheres.


Looks like you have a spectacular starting point with the body! Any rust is annoying, but surface-only is far less annoying than what I usually have to look at.

[LTDMan83]

Today I found rust inside both doors which is gonna require the entire door to be taken apart, and de-skinned to fix properly. I can't accept anything less than a 100% perfect fix when it comes to fixing things, especially when it comes to bodywork and rust, so all that work was for nothing...

This shit can be sooo frustrating sometimes.....

[1987cp]

Fancy! I'd like to be able to be picky about my stuff. I'm thrilled if the windows wind up, the doors close properly and don't leak too much, and I have something resembling metal over most of the floor area.

[LTDMan83]

2nd Update

Still been hard at work, when I get the time.





Re-rustified and then Por15'd the floor. Kept the factory e-coat everywhere it was still good, and just scuffed it up for tooth. It will all be covered up by carpet soon. Should help the floorpan to last alot longer. Will continue to work on stopping all the water leak points into the car as well.


















Bought a nice '89 CVPI 140mph speedo from mcninetyone.









Installed, and fully hooked up. The shift indicator collar broke into 5 pieces when I tried to install it, I still managed to get it to work anyway by using a zip tie. Would like to find a NOS shift indicator.









Dash cleaned up and re-installed. Whoever took the dash off to do the heater core in the past put most of the dash screws back in all the wrong places, and left a few out in key dash bracing areas. I had to spend quite abit of time rearranging all the screws back to their stock configuration, which I've pretty much memorized by now. The original dash pad was almost cracked completely in half at the section where the center speaker hole was, so I installed the much better dash pad from the mercury, still cracked up on top, but a good base to have recovered, unlike the stock piece. The entire dash will be painted Black in the near future, for anyone who is wondering. I also deleted the Clock, Radio, and HVAC Controls, since none of the above will be needed in this car, and made my own Delete Plates out of 16ga Stainless, which I then painted matte black. Will be a place to mount gauges to fully monitor the beast that will be under the hood in the future. :evil:

















Next up for this car, I will be pulling off the entire Front Clip, fixing all the rust I find, re-aligning the doors, and replacing the Core Support with the nice rust-free/unbent piece from the Mercury. That's it for now though, she's a good base to start from, and I have alot of plans brewing in my head right now for what I wanna make happen, but I'm gonna shelve this project for a couple months or so, as my MKVI is calling...begging for the road again...