1997 Mercury Grand Marquis LS

[Kodachrome Wolf]

So way back in late 2012, I inflicted some damage on my car when I clipped the garage door frame. It put a small dent in the door and messed up the door moulding, knocking off the small dogleg piece and bending back the door trim.



Well between then and now I had gotten a trim piece and attached it to the door. However, I had little experience with automotive paint at the time, and attempted to spray the trim with Duplicolor without any primer, nor any clear coat when I finished. The result was the piece was too dark and not too long later, the paint started to chip off, showing the light blue color of the original piece. On top of the paint being shitty, the chrome insert had a crack form on it, which resulted in some of it de-laminating and turning gray. All in all, it was terrible.

Well, I finally got motivated to fix it. It's not paint shop perfect, but it's still a heck of a lot better than what was originally on, and I've actually put both pieces on to finalize this area. In the case of this job, I started with a Duplicolor Base White Primer, then used Duplicolor Primer Sealer, followed that with the Toreador Red, and finally used Krylon Acrylic clear coat. After it dried for 24 hours, I was impressed with the finish as it was, even though a gentle wet sanding will be sometime in the future.

Replacement on top, replacement for the replacement on bottom:


Attached:


I've got to do some minor adjustments since it looks like it may be sitting a touch low towards the B-Pillar, but it does look considerably better. There's some spots on the chrome where the paint got under the tape, but I've already cleaned a few places on it. Overall, I'm much more pleased with how it looks now than it did.

[Chuck Norris]

I am very impressed with your car and the work you have done on it. I was just killing time this evening and decided to read your thread from beginning to current. Not disappointed.

[Tiggie]

Looks much better!

[Kodachrome Wolf]

Changed the spark plugs and installed new wires. All the plugs were torqued down appropriately to 180 LB/IN (15 FT/LB).

I wound up with an odd ball plug after RockAuto told me that the 8 APP764s I ordered didn't all exist, just one. I decided to keep that one and replace the others with the APP104, the successor to the APP764s. I did photograph the differences between the APP104 (left) and APP764 (right):


Both are Double Platinum plugs, however the APP104s are finewire style versus the older APP764. The most glaring difference is the full thread versus half thread setup. Most of this information is moot anyhow, since the APP764 and Motorcraft variants have been out of production and the APP104 is the direct replacement for it. I was aware of the APP764s being the half thread style ahead of time, which was also the reason I wanted to get them, considering that my engine only uses that little amount of threads anyhow. Both the of the plugs seat at about the same place once mounted, so there's no issue with using either.

Also, after doing the tune up, the car no longer pings at WOT! It probably didn't help that the driver's side front plug had a .080+ gap on it. The electrode had deteriorated severely. None of the other plugs were this bad and still had generally intact electrodes.


Another point to be made is that when I got plugs for this car a few years ago, I installed Platinum plugs versus Double Platinum ones. Hopefully the new ones will hold up better with the waste spark setup.

Also, made a 0-60 run at WOT. So much nicer to not have the pinging issue. Maybe I can try using regular gasoline again, too.

[sly]

wow. The single plat looks like a copper plug now.

[Kodachrome Wolf]

Finally have the exhaust the way I want it: Duals and quiet.


Took the car to a local exhaust shop and in about 30 minutes they had got the system welded up nicely. The only thing you can't see is the hanger on the right side right behind the muffler.

The old Thrush muffler that was originally on the left side would drone around the 2000 RPM area and it was still noticeable even at 1200-1500 RPM. It sounded bad, inside and out. With essentially a factory setup, everything is quiet, just the way I like it.

[Chuck Norris]

Why does it look so... Old? Did you yank the parts off of a wrecker-yard car? I am not trying to be critical, as that is exactly what I plan to do in the future, just curiosity. I am actually a huge fan of your car!

[Kodachrome Wolf]

Why does it look so... Old? Did you yank the parts off of a wrecker-yard car? I am not trying to be critical, as that is exactly what I plan to do in the future, just curiosity. I am actually a huge fan of your car!

It looks old since it's wrecker-yard parts, but the great news is that the pipes and such are stainless steel, so it might not look 100% but it lasts a long time. Junkyard duals are the cheapest yet probably most useful thing to do on a generally stock Panther. Breaths a lot better compared to the single pipe setup as the Y-pipe is really restrictive.

Here's Chevyguy's comparison shots of a single compared to dual system that can be used on our cars.




On my car, the right side stuff is all OE, the left side is the addition. The muffler is from an '07, and the H-Pipe and tailpipe are from a '95. I was attempting to use a '07 H-Pipe and the full muffler and tailpipe assembly, but found while it was very similar to the older setups, just enough changed to prevent proper fitment on an older car, so I wound up reusing my old stuff again.

IIRC, the break down on the '92+ cars for duals works like this:
'92-'94 are the same
'95-'97 are the same
'98-'02 are the same
'03-'11 are the same

Someone will probably have better info, but that's about what I remember.

[DerekTheGreat]

I like quiet. I may end up shelving my Walker Turbos in favor of OE.

[Chuck Norris]

Since the likelyhood is that my next Panther will be single exhaust, I may be doing something quite similar in the future. I have no plans for heavy performance mods on the car I am hoping to buy, but I would like it to breathe better. Thanks for the info.

[Kodachrome Wolf]

I got my subwoofer enclosure today. For a while, I swore that there must have been a different variant since the bolts closest to the seat back fit, but the rear was left hanging in neutral space. WTF? I consulted the shop manual, and there's only one enclosure for CV/GMQ, but two different brackets between the cars!

I happen to have neither, and ordering the part through Ford would be almost $40.

I instead opted to make a terrible yet functional bracket out of a RCU bracket I had laying around.



Luckily, you can barely see it when the unit is mounted in the trunk. It does its job the way it should, so I can't really complain, and I'm trying to limit how much I spend on this retrofit. On top of running into this issue, the NOS subwoofer is around 20 years old. It sounded great for about five minutes before the foam disintegrated and the subwoofer became next to useless. Argh. Ordered a cheap 6.5" sub for $20 from Amazon.

Besides getting to test fit the enclosure, I did get the JBL RCU installed and the rear deck JBL speakers mounted. The JBL head unit is now fully functional as the DSP button only works with a JBL RCU. The high and mid level audio has been greatly improved, and I know the lows will be improved once I get the subwoofer back in. As far as extra wiring went, I just had to add a plug for the power and ground input for the subwoofer; everything else was already in place.

I'm also respraying the door trim I redid a few weeks ago. The acrylic clear coat never cured properly and has remained tacky. I'm using enamel clear coat this time to see if that rectifies the issue.

[sly]

I have one of the brackets (and I'm not using it). And if that spacing is correct, the one I have just might work. If you can measure the offsets, I'll measure up mine and if it'll fit, send it your way.

[sly]

the one I have is 2 inch offset sideways and back. Looks to be a dead ringer for those brackets you've got set up.

[Kodachrome Wolf]

the one I have is 2 inch offset sideways and back. Looks to be a dead ringer for those brackets you've got set up.

Did it come off a Crown Vic or Grand Marq? The Ford service manual lists two different brackets for the different cars. From what I'm getting with a tape measure, from the lower bolt on the enclosure to the upper hole that mounts to the parcel shelf, it's offset 3" and sideways and back.

[sly]

I don't know. I got it from HiFiMerc. He pulled it from a 92 touring sedan, so I'm assuming CV. Since the bolts are on the bracket for mounting to the rear deck, you could just drill new holes if it doesn't fit. I know the 93 deck is dead in line with the offset actually towards the trunk and not the cabin instead of with an offset tot he side and towards the cabin. Diagonally it would be about 3 inches, but it's (staring into the trunk) 2 inches to the right and then 2 inches towards the cabin, center on center.