Noob in SoCal

[knucklehead0202]

So I've been a panther and Ford lover forever, have owned my '98 crown vic for about 6 years, and am now looking into getting a box vic or grand marquis. Going to look at a few next weekend and will inform on what I find.

Thus far my '98 still wears a lousy paintjob, a sagging headliner, and a custom exhaust system. It's an ugly beater but has been a great car to me and I still love it, just wanna get back into a 5.0 and can't justify a mustang right now. Been a member on CVN for several years but it seems to have died or something so I'm hoping to find a good home here. Glad to meet you all and hopefully learn more and more about these awesome panthers.

knuckle

[L1011tristar17]

Welcome! Which part of socal are you from? I grew up in Lakewood and Whittier.

[VicCrownVic]

Welcome!

Hopefully things at CVN improve, but if you're looking for a box panther this will still be the place to be for all things box panther related. If you don't end up getting a box you're still welcome here.

[knucklehead0202]

Thanks guys. Tristar I live in Whittier and work in Bellflower, lol, small world. Far as panthers go, I think I'm committed to getting a box at this point, just a matter of finding the right one. There's a nice '85 in Lakewood for cheap but I'm not sure I want to hassle with a cfi car. I will be doing mods to it but they'll be on an extremely limited budget and also a limited timeframe; as in I have to be able to do whatever I'm doing between Friday after work and Monday before work, because this is going to be my daily driver. I'm also not a professional mechanic and know my limitations, but I intend to tackle some things I wouldn't have considered before. I was much more daring and adventurous when I was younger, but much less patient, so I tend to do a better job of things now. Anyhow, enough of my rambling, happy to be here and look forward to learning, growing, and sharing with you all.

[79lincolnlover]

Welcome! We like to see pics around here, so don't be scared to post some of your '98.

[knucklehead0202]

I'll get some pics up soon. My '98 is ugly, still in black-and-white but she's a runner. Got snubbed on 2 cars today but I plan to look at one on sunday. Will report.

[Mainemantom]

Welcome to the forum. I spent many years in Ca. At least you have plenty of rust free choices to pick from. Junk yards to get parts from, cheap labor and can use your car every month out of the year BUT you have the smog regulations and lack of water !
Is your 98 a former patrol car ?

[VicCrownVic]

I'll get some pics up soon. My '98 is ugly, still in black-and-white but she's a runner. Got snubbed on 2 cars today but I plan to look at one on sunday. Will report.

Surely it can't be as bad as my 91, especially since you're in SoCal. where things don't rust like it's a competition.

[Kay-Tar]

Welcome to the site.

[knucklehead0202]

Yeah my turkey is a former Orange County Sherriff sergeant's car, slick top. It's not rusty or anything but they halfass painted the doors black and the paint is chipping off, roof is still white and there's cutouts for the spotlights that aren't there. The powder coat on the wheels is almost gone so they're black/rusty-ish. I'm badly in need of new tires because they're brown, hard, and damn-near bald, kinda like my head, lol. On the fence of selling it once I get my box because for all it's shittyness, this car has been tough and dead reliable. Just not much fun. I dunno, going down south a ways in the morning to check out a nice-looking '87. Gray with gray interior, looks clean. Has one dent in the rear quarter that I reckon could be easily paintless dent removed, but otherwise completely straight. Hair over 100k, which is honest mileage and I'd actually prefer it to some of the super-low mileage cars I've seen because they'd properly fall apart getting driven every day like I drive things.

Anyhow, if I get this sucker tomorrow i'll take some pics of it next to my current ride. Really should get an exhaust vid of the '98 though. For being pretty much stock, it sounds tough. After experimenting with a few different setups, I currently run stock manifolds and downpipes with stock cats(California sucks)after cat flanges it's cut off and 2-1/4" with an x-pipe, 9" long glasspacks, and 2-1/4" back over the axles to 3.5" black slash-cut tips. Fairly docile at idle, a little drone/grumble at low throttle, growly at part throttle and ROAR at WOT! Sounds a hell of a lot faster than it goes but the 4r70 is a badass tranny and with my bald-ass tires it usually will spin a bit on the 1-2 shift. Scares the shit out of ricers and posers, which is fairly entertaining. They don't realize it's actually pretty slow. Oh well, i'll report my findings tomorrow, hopefully this is the one guys.

[Hearsesrock427]

From what I recall, you plan on modifying whatever box you end up buying. Turning into a bit of a hot rod, a sleeper of sorts. So I'll echo what others have said, just in shorter form: Do not make a project car your daily driver. Last thing you want to do is be forced to do either a modification of a piece of maintenance under the gun before work the next day (can and does happen, ask slack, gadget73, pantera77, etc.). If your '98 is well maintained and reliable, then all the more reason to keep it as your DD.

The '87 may seem to be in good shape, but you'd also be surprised how neglected these cars are. It's not uncommon to see them running original coolant, brake fluid, and transmission fluid after 100,000 miles. That's more than three times the reccomended interval for the normal duty cycle. So I just assume the car's been neglected from day one, unless otherwise proven wrong. Odds are in favor of neglect..... especially with vehicles with a bulletproof reliability reputation. Many people just think they can change the oil periodically and call it a day.

Either way, I like how that '87 sounds. I have yet to see a grey pre '88 Grand Marquis in person..... the fact you're going to hopefully be owning one makes me extremely jealous.

[knucklehead0202]

Yessir. My plans for this car run up to/including a sort of resto-mod I guess you could call it. Unlike my projects of yesteryear, however, I intend to do this in a more modular fashion. I may some little mods here and there, but nothing more than can be managed in an afternoon. Far as drivetrain is concerned, I may just have the trans gone through before I even start driving it, just to save that heartache later. I'll lightly mod the engine but intend to just replace it down the road a ways. I also intend to get a full service on this puppy soon as I get it. This one's a crown vic not a grand marquis unfortunately but it's better than nothing.

Will find out in a few hours and inform!

[knucklehead0202]

So I've posted in a few spots but i'll throw them on here as well. Here's my '90 LTD CV cleaned up a bit, with before and after new wheels/tires.


I suck at pictures so give me a little time to get more/better pics, it's a slow learning curve with me and the smartphone. It's actually easier for me than the digital camera was though, ugh. Anyhow, so far I've done a new cap/rotor, cleaned the IAC(still have crappy idle) O2 sensors needed to pass smog, went to change plugs and they were damn-near new, air filter, KYB gas-adjusts all way around, cleaned the interior(it was gross), and fixed a small coolant leak. The IAC was grungy as hell and I cleaned it real good but the car still idles shitty sometimes. I've got a new IAC on order from Rock Auto but I'm starting to think I might have a vacuum leak. The smog guy said he didn't think it had one, and he's pretty good, but the car actually stalled on me at a light yesterday so I'm a bit worried. It also still does the surging when cold and in gear. Any ideas?

I'll try to keep current with info and pics on this thing, but I reckon it'll be slow-going. I've almost blown my car budget for now and have to worry about the real bills. Once I'm sure this car is ok i'll probably sell the '98 to offset some of the costs but we'll see. Thanks for looking/listening folks. I couldn't do this without you...
adam