kishy's 1991 Grand Marquis

[kishy]

This car has been sitting in my driveway, occasionally being ran up to temperature and moved around subtly, but overall sitting since the stickers expired in 2017.

Well, seems my good relationship with the city bylaw people has maybe come to an end, probably thanks to a complaining neighbour. In fairness, I probably had it coming, and the items they've ordered me to correct/improve are realistic. One of those was that this car's stickers are long expired, and they don't allow "inoperable" motor vehicles to be parked in view of the street (or something like that), and lack of stickers is assumed to mean it's inoperable.

This prompted me to renew the stickers on it today, which was relatively pain-free to do, but mildly annoying. Sometime next month the province is changing how it handles plate renewals and is getting rid of the fee, and I believe the sticker entirely. But renewal will still be required, and I suspect the part they haven't announced yet is something like an annual safety inspection...which is why I sprang for 2-year renewals on the 3 vehicles I had to bring up-to-date. Hopefully kick that can a little further down the road. The fees are being refunded in a month or so anyway (they're going back to 2020 for the refunds), so my reasoning was to get stickers dated as far down the road as possible in case some sort of mandatory inspection comes into effect for the next renewal thereafter.

A perk of having valid stickers and insurance, of course, is that it's road legal at the moment. I checked fluids, tossed a battery in, and took it for a drive. Put some gas in and drove it some more. I miss this car and look forward to having the time to give it what it needs.

Salt exposure tonight is pretty much a non-issue; the car is reasonably well undercoated and oil sprayed. The rust it already has is already beyond simple sanding and repainting, so it really didn't concern me too much.

[GM_Guy]

That is my fear as well, we finally got rid of e-test and we potentially face some b.s. safety inspection.

[friskyfrankie]

That is my fear as well, we finally got rid of e-test and we potentially face some b.s. safety inspection.

Never know what the future holds for we classic car owners but the best odds are that any new rules will be worse than the last set of rules. I'd like to know who the hell, in both our countries, decided to elect the truly mentally ill to lead us?

[gadget73]

I suppose I'm the usual oddity in that I like safety inspections. I don't give a shit about other people, I'm just enough of a selfish prick that I don't want their garbage cars with bald tires and no brakes to run into me.

NJ did away with them probably 10 years ago and the heaps of shit on the road that I see on a regular basis scare me.

[Kodachrome Wolf]

I suppose I'm the usual oddity in that I like safety inspections. I don't give a shit about other people, I'm just enough of a selfish prick that I don't want their garbage cars with bald tires and no brakes to run into me.

NJ did away with them probably 10 years ago and the heaps of shit on the road that I see on a regular basis scare me.

Yeah, I wouldn't mind a basic safety inspection just to ensure the lights are working properly, the tires aren't bald, and it's not about to fly apart if it gets above 27 MPH. Doesn't need to go much further though. I've seen plenty cars with burnt lamps and DIY drag slicks.

AFAIK Georgia had inspections until the mid 1980s. I know only emission tests exist still in the three metro Atlanta counties since there's so many cars up there. Everywhere else is free game.

[Mainemantom]

I actually like vehicle inspections for legitimate safety reasons. I do NOT like the inconsistency of the inspectors. I watched and heard two inspectors last October when I brought in the Subaru for inspection. One guy said " This car is really clean but I will look until I can fail it." Nothing was found, so they past it. My older cars are older than many inspectors. They have failed the car, then I go out and prove that the item works. I also do not like the inability to have any recourse with improper inspections or repairs. I know my cars and maintain them well. In Maine, if a car displays antique plates, no inspection is required. The 96 CVPI will be getting antique plates this year. Everything else except the Subaru has antiques plates so no inspections except by me.

[Tiggie]

I'm also a fan of safety inspections. We still have them here, due annually. Some shops are more picky than others, but the 88 never failed for lack of a smog pump. It did fail for rust holes in the floorboard, but that was 100% fair.

Been using one shop for about five years now and we are on pretty good terms. Doesn't nitpick and lets me drive the vehicle in the bay.

[gadget73]

there is definite potential for abuse with private inspection. The NJ state safety was a quick shake of the front end, tread depth, horn, wipers, lights, and a functional brake check on a skid pad thing. Accelerate to 5, hit the brakes when the light comes on and the gauge shows if all 4 are working. The whole process took about 15 minutes. Not in depth by any means but a basic check that would indicate if the car seemed likely to be a serious danger on the roads. there wasn't a lot of incentive to fail the car because they made no money on repairs.

[jaywish]

Actually sounds reasonable.

[GM_Guy]

Can't say I'm concerned about the cars around me. I have a bigger issue with having to drag every car in for an inspection even if it is hardly driven, and then some bufoon at the test place that thinks every door hardly moves and slams the thing so hard you think the windows will fall out, shit of that nature. Too many disgruntled people working in the industry, and somehow they end up being the referees on things like this.

And knowing our luck, they do away with the plate sticker and end up going with an ugly ass window sticker.

[TecNickal]

I still remember seeing this car in your driveway. Can't say I've seen a nicer interior before for a car of this age. Even with the rust, it's still a beautiful car.

[kishy]

Today marks my 10 year anniversary with this car. I have no immediate plans for it; its status remains unchanged, needing some body work, exhaust work, and maybe an engine (the classic lopo idle problem).

If I could find a car cover that would actually stay attached to the car and last more than a few months I'd be a bit happier, but that doesn't seem to be a product anyone makes.

[friskyfrankie]

Today marks my 10 year anniversary with this car. I have no immediate plans for it; its status remains unchanged, needing some body work, exhaust work, and maybe an engine (the classic lopo idle problem).

If I could find a car cover that would actually stay attached to the car and last more than a few months I'd be a bit happier, but that doesn't seem to be a product anyone makes.

Haven't found a car cover "worth it's salt" yet! They all suck, blow off after they stretch a few months or leach chemicals that screw up your paint. If someone finds a good one (say, under $300) I'd like to know. To me, they are more grief than they are worth!

[Mainemantom]

The best car covers I have found at a reasonable cost was sold on Ebay. It was advertised as having like 10 layers. Soft inside lining. Good for outside use. It is a heavy almost waterproof cover with sealed seams. I have had two of them for about 14 years. The trick to making them last and stay on is to tie each side down with bungie cords. They were not an exact fit cover however pretty close. Cost was about $169 or so.
I only use the covers a couple of months out of the year when the leaves/pine needles fall. Never use them inside the garages.
The easiest cover to use is a Genuine Subaru cover for the Outback. Allot thinner but it is on or off in about 3 minutes. It has lasted five years and is elastic around the front and back. Has a tie down in the center for underneath.
I don't think any cover is made to handle a strong wind.

[kishy]

Well, what have we here? Work being done on my '91? Bizarre!

From WAYWO recently:





This car has a power steering fluid leak of incredible proportions. It has completely emptied itself onto my driveway, to the point that it no longer has any assist and has even stopped whining now. Just nothing. I had sort of figured this would likely be a failure of the output shaft seal on the steering gear, but wanted to put eyes on it to be sure. Since winter keeps leaving and coming back, sometimes both within a single day, I put the car inside.


(fluid on the floor is coolant from the Town Car, not from this car)

Achievements for the day include:

- Removal of superfluous horns (one pair of Fiamm air horns and one set of four Delco-Remy Cadillac horns) and associated wiring.
All of these horns have ceased functioning correctly, probably due to water ingress, and therefore only serve as clutter.
Plus, 10-years-ago-me didn't take nearly the care that today-me takes when wiring things up, and this looked awful.

I did leave the pair of wires in place which go to a toggle switch inside, the purpose of which was to enable/disable the horns over and above the stock ones. These wires may be able to serve another purpose.

- Removal of the long-unused 2G alternator pigtail. The connector at the frame rail fell apart as soon as I touched it, which supports that 3G swapping it (10 years ago, I suppose) was the right choice. The wiring had remained in place, and connected at the starter relay, because I did not understand why the alternator would not charge with it disconnected. Since I now do understand that, I altered the wiring appropriately:
-- The yellow 'A' wire has simply been looped back to the output stud.
-- The white 'S' stator wire previously had a crimp butt connector attaching its 1-wire pigtail, which has now been replaced with solder and heat-shrink tubing.
-- The green+red stripe 'I' wire has been extracted from the old 2G pigtail and now connected in a way that bypasses its original connector, and has had heat shrink added for most of its length to protect it since it's not inside any of the harness loom anymore.

The former 2G charge cable that runs across the front of the engine bay will remain for now, as extracting it looks a little challenging, and I'm not sure what else may be in the same wire loom. It is now disconnected at both ends.





- Removal of the front license plate cover, which is severely UV-degraded. It has served a purpose, though: most Ontario B-letter plates have had their paint peel off long ago by this point, but the ones in this car seem to be doing alright, with some minor faults.



- This very much needs new battery terminals, which I should be able to address with items I have on-hand.





- Quick undercar inspection shows more rust than I'd like, but still far less than the average 1991 vehicle (or even 2001, or 2011 for that matter). It will need brake lines, as I used plain steel for the ones that I've touched previously, and they look shockingly rusty for being approximately 10 years old and having sat for around half of that. Also, it seems like the power steering pump definitely leaks, but how much the box/gear leaks is not as apparent and I'm thinking it maybe doesn't (at least no more than any of my others).