Newbie from the UK! Be gentle..

[sutty2006]

Hi everyone! Finally found a forum for the mercury! My names Steve and I live in the UK (the land of rain and dullness) and I am a truck mechanic by trade, so swinging a hammer at stuff isnt a problem!

I bought a 1989 Grand marquis LS in 2010 and its a great car! Fuel is expensive here but Id rather drive this gas guzzler than a toyota hybrid!

I have many other projects, of which I'll post up pictures once I find an image hosting website that works!



Enjoy!

[BuffaloRider]

Welcome to the site! Looking good man, tell those little cars "get out the way!" I can't tell if it's black or a really dark blue. Is she you're daily driver?

[Dereck]

Hi Sutty2006

A warm welcome from a southern softy down in Burnham-On-Sea, Somerset. Gas is made to be burnt so burn as much as you can

Shame you didn't join last month as one of my cars was Panther of the month

Regards

Dereck

[VicCrownVic]

Welcome!
Nice looking car you have there, I wish my cars looked that good.
There are at least 2 other members on here from the UK that are online regularly.

Edit: as you can see Dereck is one that I was thinking of. When you get a chance checkout andyfanshawe's meticulous work, it's quite impressive.

...
I bought a 1989 Grand marquis LS in 2010 and its a great car! Fuel is expensive here but Id rather drive this gas guzzler than a toyota hybrid! ...

Where I'm from, about 22miles/35km north of Detroit, this is pretty common to hear, but even in the state of Michigan the farther from Detroit I get the more imports I see.

[sutty2006]

Thanks for the warm welcomes so far!

I used to use it daily, when I worked 1.5 miles from my house! I tried using it every day when I changed jobs but each day used £20 of fuel.... so I use a diesel mondeo instead, and use the Mercury for going out in, when I feel like it

I think the colour is called Twilight Blue.... as Ive recently had some body work done, too keep that rust away!



I do a lot of local shows with this car, it usually gets parked next to something small......



As part of a local car club, we tend to meet up before a show...so we can all go together





dereck, nice to see someone else from the UK!

[sutty2006]

This is another project I have. Its a 1987 Opel Manta. I bought this back in 2007 before it got scrapped. Its been through a lot of work, including 2 engine changes! It now has a 2.0 16valve engine fitted on standard injection system. (I wanted to keep it on carbs but they are getting hard to find, especially the right set up).





Last dyno run saw 147 Bhp, but at the time it was running badly... Ive yet to take it for another run, but by the improvements over last time I recon it will see 160 Bhp easily. Not bad for something that was going to be scrapped!

[miamibob]

Welcome to the site!! Opels are cool cars. Had an Opel Cadette B (1.1L) 4 Speed several years ago that a friend "dumped" on me for less than $200. It had great gas mileage and ran forever until an idiot totaled it. It was a 1971 model and copper colored. Got a photo of it someplace and will post it if/when I find it. Thanks for keeping that Merc "alive" "across the pond", as they say!! Bobby

[miamibob]

Make that Kadett...

[Mr.Blue]

Welcome to the site! Cool cars...........I'm a big fan of the show "Wheeler Dealers"........i chuckle everytime Ed says "aluminum" lol............

[marquisman]

Nice car. After reading this tread, I keep thinking about that old top gear episode, where Clarkson talks about importing American iron to the UK. They showed F series trucks and some '88-'89 grand marquis'

[79lincolnlover]

Welcome! It's good to see more Panther rep in the UK

[purplebomb302]

Welcome!

Welcome to the site! Cool cars...........I'm a big fan of the show "Wheeler Dealers"........i chuckle everytime Ed says "aluminum" lol............

I love that show!

[Piece-it pete]

Howdy!

Nice car. After reading this tread, I keep thinking about that old top gear episode, where Clarkson talks about importing American iron to the UK. They showed F series trucks and some '88-'89 grand marquis'

I saw that. $500 to ship them from FL to the UK? No wonder folks did it.

Pete

[Dereck]

Hi Piece-it pete

I saw that. $500 to ship them from FL to the UK?

It used to be but I dare say it has gone up a little by now, also there are a whole load of dock charges to pay when it arrives here last time I imported a car those charges amounted to another $800 and then dont forget the HMRC (our equivalent to your IRS) want 30% in import taxes.

Regards

Dereck

[sutty2006]

Yeah Its not cheep to import from the US, There are companies that will do the whole thing for you, from picking the car up, to delivering it to your door. Id say around £2000 is the kind of money (sorry, not sure what the exchange rate is!) to do it.

I plan on coming over, maybe next year, to source some hard to find parts and hopefully go to some car shows/meets and things like that. My dream is to fly there and buy a car.... use it for a few weeks then ship it home or sell it on! Not that good at organising though, hahaha!