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The Colon aka Lady Starstruck --> 1988 Colony Park by bnw

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    #16
    Originally posted by Tiggie View Post
    Either style you have, it looks like part of the base may still be in the socket.
    That is why it looks so funny.
    ~David~

    My 1987 Crown Victoria Coupe: The Brown Blob
    My 2004 Mercedes Benz E320:The Benz

    Originally posted by ootdega
    My life is a long series of "nevermind" and "I guess not."

    Originally posted by DerekTheGreat
    But, that's just coming from me, this site's biggest pessimist. Best of luck

    Originally posted by gadget73
    my car starts and it has AC. Yours doesn't start and it has no AC. Seems obvious to me.




    Comment


      #17
      Originally posted by 87gtVIC View Post
      Removing the turbine caps always sucked.
      Thank you for all the links! I was able to deal with the caps in a proper way... the story is presented somewhere below.


      Originally posted by 87gtVIC View Post
      What part of the car is that bulb out of?
      Originally posted by Tiggie View Post
      The cornering light bulb can be a US 1156 (round base) or 3156 (wedge base). My 88 had the round base. Either style you have, it looks like part of the base may still be in the socket. The 3156 crosses to a P27W from what I see.
      That one comes from this fancy light:



      I don't like the theory that something is missing from the bulb, but... ehh, it's Lady Starstruck, isn't it?

      So, let's brag about the wheels. Having read the posts, I knew that it is not going to be an easy thing. First of all, I took a look under the right cover to see if there is any sign of the tire iron. It wasn't there. Crap. I only found the large jack (which, I suppose, is lacking the stand). So, I made a makeshift set of tools:



      The hub uninstaller is made of a tire iron from Volvo 760, with an extender from a broken wheel wrench. The yellowish thing is a pack of recyclable garbage bags (each month you get a set of yellow (plastic+metal), blue (paper), and green (glass), and they are picked for free). The laundry basket is used as a net which prevents the hub cap from killing some random pedestrians.
      So, all is set...



      ... and done!



      The first one was the worst, the latter ones went without a problem. Seems like someone has already bruised them a bit before, anyway. The cap was gone, and I could take a look at the screws:



      Ouch! That is not a typical nut. The previous owner didn't say anything about these maggots... I started looking for the adapter, and finally found it, in a small cardboard box with a spare Chinese xenon filament inside:



      It looks like it has seen better days. Also, a detailed inspection has revealed that the original wheel wrench/tire iron is still there:



      This one is also worn off... fortunately, the part which is used to screw/uncscrew is still working. I might want to de-rust and give it a nice Hammerite finish later on, anyway. So, I rolled the wheels out of the garage:



      Nothing really superb, but they have proper white-walls (Cooper tires), which should survive till the end of this winter. Their ET is somewhat different than that of the turbines, but given the more narrow build, and more narrow tire, they should fit under the fender arches well. I got the front left wheel down, and did a quick inspection of the suspension and underbelly:







      So, here we are, where the corrosion strikes. It is painted over from the underside, so you can't actually see what is happening unless you take the wheel out, or squeeze somehow inside the wheel arch with the car still on. Nevertheless: as far as I have noticed, older Fords are either after a frame+belly refurbishment, or have already been recycled. Let's just hope the tinsmith is not going to force me to sell a kidney. Or two of them. It looks like there is still a lot of "meat" out there, but... let's not speculate.

      Unfortunately I am not going to show you the photos of the car placed on the new wheels. Why? Because they don't fit O_O Apparently, the central locking hole is some 2/3 millimetres too small in them. Not fairly sure, if my CP is somehow special, or in general the CV/MGM have a bit larger central holes than dunno, Rancheros? Or whatever the rims come from. I am going to grab the caliper and see how much exactly; then I will call the mechanical department in my workplace and ask politely if they could do me a favour in their spare time... I heard mixed reviews of enlargement of the central o r i f i c e (hey, the car is named colon, after all) in steel rims, but have been using a light trailer with a modified steel rim (it was the spare one, actually), and it was kinda ok. And I was definitely not driving very slowly with it, so... let's see what the technicians say.

      Maybe one better thing, I have noticed that my 760 sedan has a Ford battery inside (it used to have a Renault/Nissan one, which was moreover ok, as it is powered by a Française de mécanique PRV engine, but that one got a dead cell and has only been as a source of power for the electrical fences). I'm gonna get a proper Volvo one there, so I made a quick switch, and here we are:



      And I DEFINITELY need to dismantle this bar and re-paint it.


      I am going to drive a bit tomorrow, I need to bring the recyclables from the dacha to my home in Kraków (we don't have a signed agreement with the municipal services there), and the amount of bags is quite large. The winter pasture season started some 3 weeks ago, and we already have a lot of plastic foil used for haylage (hope that this is the right word... you know, sauerkraut/pickle hay, lol) packaging. So I guess I am going to put the NightBreakers on, and maybe check if there is any voltage on the parking lights. The non-detection from the last attempt might have been due to the autolamp turned on while it was quite sunny. Also, I might already be able to drop the wheels at the techs' office.

      Comment


        #18
        No problem. Nice set up on catching the caps.
        ~David~

        My 1987 Crown Victoria Coupe: The Brown Blob
        My 2004 Mercedes Benz E320:The Benz

        Originally posted by ootdega
        My life is a long series of "nevermind" and "I guess not."

        Originally posted by DerekTheGreat
        But, that's just coming from me, this site's biggest pessimist. Best of luck

        Originally posted by gadget73
        my car starts and it has AC. Yours doesn't start and it has no AC. Seems obvious to me.




        Comment


          #19
          hubcap removal tool works wonders for getting those center caps off. Also with the rubber mallet built into it, helps with reinstalling as well.
          Something like this:
          https://www.amazon.com/Steelman-7503...dp/B00GWFOSBY/

          Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. -- Albert Einstein
          rides: 93 Crown Vic LX (The Red Velvet Cake), 2000 Crown Vic base model (Sandy), 2003 Expedition (the vacation beast)
          Originally posted by gadget73
          ... and it should all work like magic and unicorns and stuff.
          Originally posted by dmccaig
          Overhead, some poor bastards are flying in airplanes.

          Comment


            #20
            In the picture of the front brake rotor, doesn't it look like the brake hose has a rub mark on it?
            WagonMan
            89 Colony Park
            90 Colony Park
            70 HEMI Daytona Convertible

            Comment


              #21
              Originally posted by 87gtVIC View Post
              No problem. Nice set up on catching the caps.
              Thanks! I expected the hub cap to be able to blast the basket a couple of feet back (according to what I read in those threads!), so it was a nice relief to see that no unforeseen consequences took place.

              Originally posted by sly View Post
              hubcap removal tool works wonders for getting those center caps off. Also with the rubber mallet built into it, helps with reinstalling as well.
              Something like this:
              https://www.amazon.com/Steelman-7503...dp/B00GWFOSBY/
              I wonder if the shipping costs would kill me straight away, or not Speaking of reinstalling, I guess I will use a tinsmith's rubber hammer. Have two of them, the small one, and that big white one, I guess it is used for larger bumps.

              Originally posted by WagonMan View Post
              In the picture of the front brake rotor, doesn't it look like the brake hose has a rub mark on it?
              WagonMan
              Humm, I believe it is a place where a bit of sweat has dropped, or it was just touched by me while inspecting the rusted longeron. I don't see any problems with braking so far, so let's hope this was the cause...

              In the meantime. Monday and Tuesday were both maniac, but some new info has been gathered. First and foremost, I was able to find a vulcaniser, who knows an elderly turner (who, btw, works as a teacher at a tech middle school), who does some small side-jobs in his free time. The total cost of getting the steel rims done is some 15$ per rim. Dunno if this is the best idea, but I don't have any other sensible option. The only other wheels I can get are either 16' aluminium ones from a Town Car stretch, 90's model, for 200$ + shipping (probably some additional 50-70$), or mesh aluminium 16' alloys from a Crown Vic. They are also far from my home... and I don't have the slightest idea whether they are going to fit. Might as well have a different size of the central o r i f i c e ... BTW, it took me some TWO HOURS to find anyone who could do the job. Nobody else was eager to get the stuff done, which is a bad prognosis. In a couple of years, all these old professionals will likely be just another tomb in the graveyard, and the new ones are more into doing easy and clean stuff.

              Got the car for a ride today, and the lightning went nuts again. I gradually lost the low beams, then lost the high ones, and finally, cluster lightning. Turning the autolamp on/off, or fiddling with the lights' operating knob did nothing, and I was forced to plug the auxiliary power in. I guess I need to search the forums in order to see which parts are used and then try to check them. One thing I noticed later is, that the high beams tend to die out and then reanimate with no apparent reason. Is there any irradiance sensor, that would force them to switch off when another source of light (eg. another car) is discovered? If I try to pull the knob as far as possible, they stay online. So maybe a knob error? But if it is so, then the autolamp would be enough to have the low beams working while driving in the dark. Which is apparently not the case. Plus, follow-me-home is dead again.

              Today was a pick-up-a-part-day. Apart from non-Volvo stuff, I got these nice things:




              A CP beak, with a complete passenger's headlight (and a part of the driver's one), three... four? bumpers, and some less useable/sensible stuff. Bumpers and the beak were offered for 150$, but we settled at 100$ for that. My parents were to pick the parts (the owner lives some 200km from my home, but they pass that city when en route to Warsaw), but as the beak wouldn't fit into their A8 the final decision was made that he is going to haul them to Kraków while visiting a friend. He brought some other parts, mostly for LTDs, and I finally paid him 125 $ for all the stuff. I am quite glad how it turned out, I think I can trade these extra parts for MGM ones, or, in the worst case, some of them can be easily repainted and used in my CP. He might have some other CS/CP stuff, but small enough so it can be picked at his place.

              The plan for now is to finally find some time to get the bulbs replaced. And unload the stuff somewhere, too... The bumpers have nice plastic add-on strips, and one of them is missing in my car. Also, the from teeth were dented so someone could install a long licence plate. Replacing them would also be of interest. I should get a working set of used catalysers and a tailgate window motor soon, too.

              Comment


                #22
                Originally posted by bnw View Post
                I wonder if the shipping costs would kill me straight away, or not Speaking of reinstalling, I guess I will use a tinsmith's rubber hammer. Have two of them, the small one, and that big white one, I guess it is used for larger bumps.
                I imagine you could find one a little more local to you. Posted that so you could see what it is and what it's called and see if you can find that more reasonably near you. I see it in many tire shops around here, so I imagine there's at least hubcap removal tools similar to that in your area of the world as well.

                Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. -- Albert Einstein
                rides: 93 Crown Vic LX (The Red Velvet Cake), 2000 Crown Vic base model (Sandy), 2003 Expedition (the vacation beast)
                Originally posted by gadget73
                ... and it should all work like magic and unicorns and stuff.
                Originally posted by dmccaig
                Overhead, some poor bastards are flying in airplanes.

                Comment


                  #23
                  Originally posted by sly View Post
                  I imagine you could find one a little more local to you. Posted that so you could see what it is and what it's called and see if you can find that more reasonably near you. I see it in many tire shops around here, so I imagine there's at least hubcap removal tools similar to that in your area of the world as well.
                  Ok, sounds reasonable - thanks Some amcar shops could have them, possibly. Most of the EUDM cars have a different styling of the rims and caps, so these are not really typical tools for a tyre garage.

                  Some news - let's go. I am picking the wheels up tomorrow. The tyre garage agreed to install them back, so I won't have to spend my time trying to do this on my own, especially as I am not certain whether I have any sensible car jack at hand. Those which I use are not certified for such a heavy car, actually. I would like to get chrome covers for them, but that might be quite a problem here.

                  I have already stored all the parts I bought. Some of them are nice, some of them... I am pretty sure you wouldn't bat an eye on them in a pick'n'pull But getting parts for an USDM car in Europe is not that easy, especially those larger ones... Here's what I finally got:

                  Passenger's mirror, with a damaged stand. Still, has a nice glass, and the cables are unsnatched.


                  Country Squire rear lamp. I will trade to trade it for a Colony Park one.


                  Steering wheels. The newer one is a complete crap (not sure about the electrical part), the older one might not be a beauty, but has an undamaged "socket" for the cruise control buttons - hopefully I can transfer it into mine.



                  Three CP/CS rear bumpers. In different states of neglect...


                  But they have nice plastic covers, like the one that was missing from my car:



                  CV dashboard panels. Nothing superb, trade items.


                  Burgundy tailgate panel. Can be painted and used for mine CP.


                  A nearly complete beak for a MGM. Partially dismantled, but most of the parts can be re-used after some repairs



                  Front bumper.... older Crown Vic?



                  Burgundy door panels. Trade items, I guess.


                  I have also got a tailgate window motor, a headlight switch (I hope that it is the same as in mine, it has a black knob instead of a chrome one), and I was to get catalytic converters, but it turned out they were "accidentally sold". F**k. There is also one other "nice" thing about the lights: I have installed the front parking bulbs, and they seemed to work. I took a car for a ride, and after some 10 minutes, I saw a freaking smoke coming out from the steering column's cover O_O. Quickly unplugged the lights, and everything went back to normal. So I guess that someone has screwed the EU headlight installation totally. G r e a t .

                  I am intending to replace the headlight switch and the tailgate motor during the weekend. I hope I got the right parts...

                  Comment


                    #24
                    Front bumper looks like the 88 to 91 style.


                    Good luck with the electrical fun. Likely need new plugs at the column and at the headlight switch. They can melt....
                    ~David~

                    My 1987 Crown Victoria Coupe: The Brown Blob
                    My 2004 Mercedes Benz E320:The Benz

                    Originally posted by ootdega
                    My life is a long series of "nevermind" and "I guess not."

                    Originally posted by DerekTheGreat
                    But, that's just coming from me, this site's biggest pessimist. Best of luck

                    Originally posted by gadget73
                    my car starts and it has AC. Yours doesn't start and it has no AC. Seems obvious to me.




                    Comment


                      #25
                      Been a while since the last update, let's roll with da coal.

                      First of all, I got the tyres ready. The vulcaniser turned out to be a really cool person, who previously owned a F250 himself. The rims were prepared very well by the turner, and he managed to install them with no large problems. The rear ones might need some some small adjustment, as the brake drums have a small conic part near the central o r i f i c e, and the rims were "turned" plain. But I guess it's not much of a problem - so far, the wheels run quite well. Here's a photo how it looks now:




                      I will certainly need some bigger tyres for the next winter, but 225/70/14 should already do the trick. And I need to find steel caps. Maybe these: https://allegrolokalnie.pl/oferta/ko...e-ford-lata-70 could fit, but I am not sure about that.

                      I decided to try two different repairs this evening - and both of the failed, lol. The first one was to repair the tailgate motor. I got a working replacement one, and started unscrewing the old engine. It turns out that I was able to manipulate the upper screws with a size 8 wrench. Not much, some 15 degrees at once. I got myself a stash of eights, some with a leather strap so they can be easily recovered when they fall inside the tailgate:



                      Unfortunately, it wasn't possible to do the same with the lower screw, so I decided to follow the forum instruction and drill a hole. The first one is an inspection hole, the other one - the actual, large one (round 11-12mm of diameter?). Interestingly, the tailgate is coated with a huuuge amount of putty. Dunno why.



                      Nevertheless, I painted the lower section of the gate black, as it was already a bit worn off, and found a nice thingy to close the hole.



                      Finally, the engine was down on the ground. But the new one, apart from working, looks the same....



                      So I cleaned it a bit, and painted the drum body so it does not rust more. Also, I dipped that mofo in a graphite grease.



                      But it did not work well. Once installed, the engine fails to move the window. I am guessing that it is stuck... any thoughts how to easily dismantle/fix it?

                      Moving on to the second problem. The headlight switch! I got a replacement one, but it came from a different model - I guess that an earlier CV?



                      So I build one out of two. I used "mine" autolamp switch and a body of the one from the donor car.



                      It works b e t t e r. I mean, I can control lights, and put them into operation wherever I want. Still, the problems are:

                      -> weird sounds coming from the centre console - I guess there is some relay breaking down?
                      -> high beams disengage randomly;
                      -> autolamp tends to switch the lamps off "just because", this is accompanied by the aforementioned weird noise;
                      -> and the biggest problem: something is stealing the power somewhere, I have some 8V on the headlight bulbs, and the light switch heats miserably.

                      I gave up on that - I am not an electrician, and I don't really have that much time to mess up with the issue. Also, I want to have the thing working safely, and able to pass the MOT. Made a few calls - and found an electrician, who did a lot of older US cars down in the 90s. He expects to have it fixed tomorrow. Let's see if this is doable...


                      Originally posted by 87gtVIC View Post

                      Good luck with the electrical fun. Likely need new plugs at the column and at the headlight switch. They can melt....
                      They actually did. Here's a proof:

                      Comment


                        #26
                        Tailgate windows are really heavy for that motor, so everything has to move freely without binding. If the motor runs with a 12V source, just be sure the window is free and it should function. I drilled my tailgate the same way in my 88. It’s not pretty but it works. I plan to try to avoid that on my 90.

                        I think I would wire in a new connector, get a new Motorcraft switch, and try that. Does sound like your Autolanp relay is on its way out. If I recall correctly, the autolanp relay is unique in the connector, but can be replaced with some wiring changes by a more generic relay. Maybe someone else will chime in there to confirm the details. It would also be a good idea to consider the relay modification to the headlights.

                        Here’s a thread on the auto lamp relay: http://www.grandmarq.net/vb/showthre...lamp-Funkiness
                        1990 Country Squire - weekend cruiser, next project
                        1988 Crown Vic LTD Wagon - waiting in the wings

                        GMN Box Panther History
                        Box Panther Horsepower and Torque Ratings
                        Box Panther Production Numbers

                        Comment


                          #27
                          Ok - let's sum up the last findings...

                          --> most of the electrical installation was a total crap. The electricians spent 1.5 days cutting unnecessary cables, removing broken parts, installing new ones...
                          --> they found no standard autolamp relay, but there is a "standard" 5-pin Ford relay under the dash that seemingly steers the autolamp unit - not a 6-pin relay I expect to find there...
                          --> as for now, I have the rear lights working well, but the fronts switch on and off randomly; I need the car asap, so they are planning to do a "fixed lights on ignition" workaround for a while, and return to the fight after the holidays;
                          --> emergency blinkers were using a relay/steering unit from a Fiat 126p O_O;
                          --> found a nice tinsmith nearby, he is willing to see the car and maybe finds time to fix the undercarriage, but before I can visit him, I need to have working lights...

                          Also, I am totally stuck with the instrument cluster - I see that the "pusher" mechanism for the shift position gauge is broken, but something prevents me from dismantiling it. Is there any kind of blockade I have to get rid off before dismantling it? Apart from the screws?

                          And some last question. Look here, please:
                          https://i.ibb.co/jZzbDs2/IMG-20201115-1248501.jpg

                          If you look to the right (in the direction of the windshield) of the coolant tank, there is something looking like a small air compressor. It was unplugged; when I plug it in, it wobbles and compresses air... but why? is this a part of the auto-levelling rear suspension, or something else?

                          Comment


                            #28
                            That is the compressor for the load leveling suspension. It usually feeds a set of air shocks (not air springs like the '92+ cars) at the rear suspension. If your shocks in the back look like normal gas-charged ones, its likely someone removed the load leveling type. The load leveling suspension on these cars is about as basic as they come, and the fact yours is still alive means you could ideally fix it back to stock if you really felt like it.

                            Also, wobbly compressor means the isolator mounts are probably shot. You can still order them and install them on the bracket that holds the compressor. It's not super difficult to do.


                            My Cars:
                            -1964 Comet 202 (116K Miles) - Long Term Project
                            -1986 Dodge D-150 Royale SE (112K Miles) - Slowly Getting Put Back Together
                            -1987 Grand Marquis Colony Park LS (325K Miles) - April 2017 + September 2019 POTM Winner
                            -1997 Grand Marquis LS (240K Miles) - The Daily Workhorse & March 2015 + January 2019 POTM Winner

                            Comment


                              #29
                              Thanks! The mounts are indeed totally broken down. Are the rear air shocks still in stock?

                              EDIT: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Monroe-Rear...IAAOSwkUJf0WRM wow, they are quite cheap!

                              Also, how much time does it take to level the arse up? I might want to try to see what happens if the compressor is set on, maybe it will pump them up?
                              Last edited by bnw; 12-21-2020, 05:49 PM.

                              Comment


                                #30
                                FYI: The autolamp relay is a do-not-disturb item. The 6th pin is coming out of the back of the relay housing and is soldered to the metal clip the relay is mounted to. It is a true 2 pole single throw (dual in/out single coil) relay in a 5-pin + 1 package. Very much made of unobtanium now. The wire out the back is fragile.

                                You can see the wire sticking out of this picture attached. The part number as well. E3AB-14A672-B1A/8AB
                                I think this was one out of the 88 Grand Marquis I used to have.
                                Attached Files

                                Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. -- Albert Einstein
                                rides: 93 Crown Vic LX (The Red Velvet Cake), 2000 Crown Vic base model (Sandy), 2003 Expedition (the vacation beast)
                                Originally posted by gadget73
                                ... and it should all work like magic and unicorns and stuff.
                                Originally posted by dmccaig
                                Overhead, some poor bastards are flying in airplanes.

                                Comment

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