Steve'87's Grand Marquis 2-door

[Steve'87]

Been putting this off because I haven't had a chance to get any better pictures of the car. I've had the interior torn apart, and then every time I wash the car it rains, then looks worse then it did before I washed it.

1987 Grand Marquis LS 2-door, 5.0L stock (for now), 81,xxx miles.
Came most of the options except for the Tripminder, which I have added, and the Auto Lamps, which I am debating. I have swapped the headrests, Tripminder, and under dash covers from an '89 CV parts car I have. I have added a stereo, ham radio, and working on adding gauges. Some of the things I'd like to do to it include HO motor swap, dual exhaust, 3G alternator upgrade, wheels and tires, PI springs and sway bars, body work and someday paint it black, to name a few.

As it looked when I first got it.










And after some work, mostly interior so far...

[marquisman]

you got your self a real beauty there bro! i like the CB set up too

[Steve'87]

you got your self a real beauty there bro! i like the CB set up too

Thanks! That's a real stunning 2-door you have, great job.

My old girl is not without flaws, in fact it has a dent in the rear driver's quarter almost just like GMGT had. Looks like someone pulled it out a little, but it needs fixed right. Bodywork is not my thing, if I tried I would probably make it worse. But over all I love this car, and the price was right, $800.













I don't understand why people set boxes on the hood, trunk, or roof, and then slide them off....

[Steve'87]

Ham Radio

The radio is a Kenwood TM-733A 2-meter/70-centimeter dual bander/dual receiver, remote mountable faceplate. The faceplate is mounted on the dash, and the body of the radio is mounted in the trunk, up under the rear deck out of site. This has the added benefit of theft prevention, as well as very short coax run from the antenna on the trunk lid to the radio, for low loss on UHF. Since the factory speaker wiring originates in the trunk, and I opted to not use the dash speakers for my stereo, I used them for this radio, right speaker for the right receiver, left for the left receiver. Antenna is a Kenwood MA-700 dual band. I also have a huge Diamond high gain dual band antenna, but this thing is too much for the trunk lid to handle without flexing.

[Steve'87]

Stereo

The stereo is a mixed system. The deck is a Pioneer MP3/CD/AM/FM deck. Front door speakers are Pioneer 5-1/4" 2 ways that are direct wired to the deck.
Rear speakers are Kenwood 6x9 3-ways that are driven by a 350 watt 2-channel Kenwood amp in the trunk. Yet to be added is my MTX 450 Watt amp and Kenwood 12" sub. I am going to set it up so the sub box can be either in the back seat or in the trunk. The box is a rather large ported box that takes up half the back seat. I need to put new carpet on the box yet, and I'll need to upgrade the alternator and factory wiring, as this system has killed a few alternators in previous cars. Power is supplied to the trunk via 4 gauge power wire running straight down the passenger side of the car. I don't have much for pictures yet, as I'm not done installing/mounting the amps and cleaning up the wires.

Notice the size of the power cable right next to the OEM battery cable? Sad. Going to replace the battery cables with 4 gauge at least.





The amp is not mounted yet, wires are still a mess.


Going for low-key, don't want to advertise too much. IF I had a 4 channel amp, I would have wired all 4 speakers to the amp using the factory wires, since they all run back to the trunk in proper pairs.

[Steve'87]

CV Lights

So, what to do with a set of CV turn signal lenses? Not worth selling, don't want to throw them away, oh what the heck, wire them up.

Behind the grille of course. Actually, they fit perfect back there.


Normal running light mode.


Daytime running light mode, or?

[85crownHPP]

I like it! lol.
Sequential turn signals for the front maybe?

[LTD86]

Sequential turn signals for the front maybe?

This!

Grand Marquis Night Rider? lol

[monterey1962]

So, what to do with a set of CV turn signal lenses? Not worth selling, don't want to throw them away, oh what the heck, wire them up.

Behind the grille of course. Actually, they fit perfect back there.

That idea is freakin' awesome! Do you have a pic of how you mounted them from the back side?

[Brown_Muscle]

looks sick! I agree, go full out and make them sequential, or have some sort of flashing pattern!

[Steve'87]

I like it! lol.
Sequential turn signals for the front maybe?

looks sick! I agree, go full out and make them sequential, or have some sort of flashing pattern!

That idea is freakin' awesome! Do you have a pic of how you mounted them from the back side?

Well thanks. First off, sequential turn signals would be possible, however, like the inner most tail light bulbs on the MGM rear, the outer most bulbs on these CV lenses are a single filament 906 bulb. You would have to cut the socket opening to accept another 1157 or 3157 socket. But it is doable. Also keep in mind that the 3157's (because these lenses came off an '89 CV) are to the center



Mounting them is really easy, but a tad tricky to explain. I didn't take pictures while I did it because the camera died. Anyways, the two lenses attach to each other. Take the screw and retainer clip out of one, and use the screw of the other one to attach to the first. Tighten the screw with a needle nose.



The outer ends of the lenses attach to the inside surface of the front fascia. Line up the lenses, mark a spot and drill a hole on each side.


The hole and screw are covered by the headlight bezel.


This winds up being quite sturdy, but if you wanted, you could put a metal bracket in between the lenses to hold them up, but they really don't move much.
Notice the angle of the lenses matches the angle of the grille.


After that is wiring, which is up to you. I pulled the sockets off the '89 CV, and for now have it just wired to run the marker lights, but I'm toying with different ideas. I replaced the 3157's with 4157's. A 4157 has a brighter "high" filament, and is designed for daytime running light use as well as the usual "stop, tail, turn". I'm thinking of wiring them so that when the turn signal is used, the outer 906 bulb alternates with the oem bulb on that side. (I forget what that blinker mod is called that people do to their Vic's.) And the inner marker bulbs just stay on to avoid confusion. The inner high filaments would be wired to run as DRL's, until the markers and/or headlights were turned on. I don't know if that made sense, I'll have to make a short video to post when I get it done.



With just the center "DRL" lights on, and before switching to the brighter 4157's

[chitownvic]

Sweet G Marq and Awesome idea

[monterey1962]

Thanks for the info. I'm gonna have to see what fitment is like behind the grill on my '88 GM.

[Brandon]

That's cool man! I've never thought about using those lenses to put behind the grill. I just figured it probably wouldnt work. But that's neat man!

[watchdog]

That is a cool idea. Never would have thought of that.