LTDMan's '87 Ford LTD Crown Victoria LX (The Blue Beast) *DUW*

[LTDMan83]

Dash Swapage is Complete!

First off let me say, that this car has Officially begun Eating my tools. It has all ready devoured 3 Craftsman sockets, and a 1/4in bit adapter w/ bit, all gone into the void.

I have the day off today, but no work can be done today, because its gonna be raining all day long.

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Now for the bulk of the dash swap project. Fatnasty was right, NOTHING wants to line up correctly after the new dash goes in. I still have quite a bit of alignment work to do in here, before all is said and done.




Everything buttoned up under the dash, ready for the outer dash to be installed.




Went ahead and installed my 4in Rockford Fosgate 2-way speakers, while I had the chance. No problems with the mounting depth at all, plenty of clearance between the vent. I still need to Dynamat the Sheet metal portion of the dash, Future Project.




Brown Outer Dash Piece installed. Biggest PITA of the whole process. Piece was cracked above the PS inner vent hole beforehand, cheap and old plastic is to blame.




All Dash Instruments, Glovebox, and ashtray Installed.




Steering Column / Trim and Fuse panel cover installed. I had to re-use the Fuse Panel cover from the Blue interior, because the Power Antenna fuse panel cover is unique and I didn't want to just cut a hole into the brown one, as it wouldn't look factory. I will be color match dyeing this piece Brown, to match the rest of the dash.




All Dash Trim Installed. The Brown Dash Pad is cracked above the speaker holes on each side. I'm planning on having it re-covered with Brown Hard Textured Leather, so it will hold up better over time. Had to re-use the dash trim part that covers the speedo area (even though it has a different vent), because the mint piece that I had was Warped and would not fit the dash correctly. Gonna get a better condition piece, with the correct vent, the next time I hit up the Yard.




The Mint PS Piece I had fit Perfectly, and it is very Nice!




After a very quick Shine job, w/ Turtle Wax platinum shine protectant.










Still some work and tweaking to do on the Dash, but the Bulk of the Dash Swap Project is now over. THANK GOD. :lol:




Next up, I'm gonna be stripping the rest of the Blue Interior out of this car, and checking out the condition of the floorpans from the inside, as well as doing any resto work that needs to be done to them, and any other sheet metal in the interior of the car.


Stay Tuned.

[86VickyLX]

Wow, after that, swapping everything else will be a cake walk. One thing I did notice was that you still have the blue cover under the steering column.

[p71towny]

Looks damn good. And as far as eating tools, that bothers me to no end. I took the fender off of my vic cause a WD40 straw fell down there and I wouldn't stop until it was found.

[Dave84]

u can swap that vent over easy, just need a flathead scewdriver to pry the 2 little tabs over and it will pop right out.. lookin good tho

[gabegt90]

looks great Brandon coming along nicely

[gadget73]

Hope you also used the oppertunity to install a new heater core and make sure your air plenum parts were all working properly while the dashboard was out. I like brown interior, but those dashboards suck to mess with. You're more determined than I am.

[LTDMan83]

Thanks Guys, I appriciate it.

Wow, after that, swapping everything else will be a cake walk. One thing I did notice was that you still have the blue cover under the steering column.

Hehe, yea everything else in the Interior will be a breeze in comparison. I re-used the Blue fuse panel cover because the Brown Interior car didn't have a power antenna, and as such did not have the hole in the panel cover. I didn't want to cut a hole for it in the Brown piece because it wouldn't have looked factory. The panel cover for the Power Ant, has a picture frame type border molded into the plastic surrounding the hole, so that it doesn't just look like a hole cut into plastic. I'm gonna be dying the Blue PA piece Brown, to match the rest of the dash.

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The 3 sockets I lost were in the engine bay, so I will probibly find them once I start tearing things down. The 1/4in bit adapter went down the windshield defrost vent, so it is somewhere inside the plenum box. It bothers me though, as I have never lost any tools while working on any car, ever. Nor have I ever had this many sockets unexpectedly slip off the end of my ratchets, while working. Seems awfully strange....

I did verify that the Plenum Blend door parts, and the Blower motor were all working while I had the dash off, but unfortunately I did not have the Money as of then to afford the Genuine Ford Heater Core from the stealership that I wanted ($125+tax), so it will have to wait until sometime in the future. Wasn't willing to settle for the elcheepo unit Advance had, as I had heard bad things from people on here about the cores "Ballooning" at high rpms. HC R&R will probibly be one of the last things I will do to the car, as the R-134a AC will have to come first.

Gonna try and find a Nicer trim piece for the speedo as well, but if I can't then I will just swap the correct Vent into that piece.

[packman]

Whoa!!!!!! That dash re-install is friggin clean!!!! What did you do about the cover that goes underneath the dash? The stock foam cover in my mom's car fell off. I've been thinking about replacing it, but I would have to learn how to upholster.

After I did the valve cover replacement on the CV, I had tools and sockets falling off or out of the car for at least a week afterwards lol.

[LTDMan83]

Whoa!!!!!! That dash re-install is friggin clean!!!! What did you do about the cover that goes underneath the dash?

Thanks Mang! I was waiting for someone to ask about those under dash covers. I actually got a set of the better late model ones with the car, courtesy of Ben (Tiggie). The late model ones hold up a little better because of actually being upholstered with the fuzzy stuff that speaker boxes are usually covered in, rather than just being pressed fiber, like the earlier ones.

[LTDMan83]

Interior Restoration has begun.

The project starts to get interesting at this point.


I waited until after a Major rain storm before I gutted the rest of the Interior, so that I could see exactly which areas water had been leaking into. It really paid off, as I found every single place water could leak into. Only 3 small problem areas in the Floorpans as well, which is not bad at all! Lots of pics, so I reduced the quality some to save bandwidth.


First look at the Interior sheetmetal, not bad, only a couple of problem areas that I can see.










Shot of the Interior of the roof. I like this angle shot, as it shows the Massive size of the roof. Stuck my hand through the interior hole in the C-Pillars, felt around and Tapped on the Roof Seams on both sides, and both sides feel Very Solid. Which is a good positive sign for what is lurking under the Vinyl Top.




First of the Interior Leaks found inside the PS B-Pillar. Not Good, as I have no Idea where this could be coming from. Unless the B-pillar has a hole under the Vinyl.




Damage from the constant water leakage, behind the PS rear door Inner Hinge Bracket. It's still wet, but doesn't look good. This area may need to be replaced, but I won't know for sure until I pull the door, and hinges/inner bracket off, and then poke and prod the area for holes.




Water is also leaking from the B-pillar area, and into the PS front seat rear crossmember. No rust at all though, Thank God!




DS B-Pillar was Dry and Rust Free!






First of the Floorpan problem areas, in the PS Floorpan around the Bodyplug were no Tar was present from the Factory, to seal the metal. I bet there will be a small hole here by the Time I'm done Picking at it.




The DS Floorpan Bodyplug area was not as bad. Shouldn't be any holes here.




Only slight surface rust on the DS Rear Floorpan and Crossmember. The tar mat was soaked though, and peeled off like dough stuck to a wet surface. No rust under the Tar.




Random Piece of Painted Molten Metal, found in the PS rear floorpan. Doesn't look to be from anywhere inside here. Sure was a nice color though (Dark Blue Metallic). Made be reflect upon how strange it was that I ended up getting a Box that was already painted the exact same color that I was planning on painting it anyway after I got it. Doesn't save me any work though, as Everything will be getting Re-Painted.








Next Up, I'm gonna be stripping the tar mats completely off the Floorpans, and starting the Restoration on all the Interior sheet metal. As well as Finding, and Stopping all of the the leak points in the Interior. I'm sure the Interior will smell better after I'm done as well, with Dynamat installed, instead of the Tar Mats constantly adding their nasty Crude Oil smell to the Interior.



Bringing this beast back to life, is one of the best and most fun projects I have ever had the pleasure of undertaking, sometimes it doesn't even feel like it's my project or car at all, and like I'm just working on it for someone else. But I believe that it's all the work, and heart and soul that you put into it over time, that makes it yours anyway, and I'm taking it from POS to Jewel, one step at a time. Stay Tuned...

[87DeuceVic]

Thats cool seeing the interior all gutted. Looks like your going strong mang, keep it up, cant wait to see her when shes done

[86VickyLX]

Wow mang!! How was this as compared to the dash swap?

[LTDMan83]

Very Easy in comparison to the dash swap. The dash has more screws/bolts in it than the entire rest of the Interior and Trunk combined. Swapping the interior is pretty straight forward and easy. I like to get the hardest things done first when I'm working, which is why I wanted to get the dash swapped before messing with anything else.

Now, I'm working on getting teh Tar Mats scraped off of the floorpans. The mats on the front floorpans/tranny hump are a Bitch and a Half to get scraped off.

[Tiggie]

God I'm glad I sold that car to you! You're actually fixing it up! I'm freggin' excited! And I swear I'm gonna mail you a trunk key shortly!

My wagon didn't have any of that tar or insulation, just rust . That drivers side rear floor pan hadn't been leaking that long... or so I thought. It really wasn't that bad of a car when I got it, but it went downhill sitting all the time.

Good luck mang, I hope you get that starting issue sorted out. I'm subscribing to this thread!

[LTDMan83]

Thanks Ben!

Definitely stay tuned mang, I want this to be the first car that I Fully Overhaul myself, even planning on doing the Bodymounts.

It would be nice to have a trunk key, if the key fits the trunk, it shouldn't be to far off from the door locks. I'm hoping I can take the nice Illuminated Entry lock cylinders and the trunk key, to a locksmith, and have him make me some correct keys for them. I really like those Square IE lock cylinders way better than the cheap looking round ones.

After going over the interior floorpans completely, there is only one small hole, about 1/2in L/W near the PS body plug, which is not bad at all.

I just changed the starter today, so now she cranks like she should.

More progress and pics coming soon!