kishy's 1988 Town Car

[DerekTheGreat]

Your friend plans to fix that up but is storing it without a cover? If the paint & top were shot I wouldn't care, but that thing is pretty nice. Advise him to pick up a fitted California Car Cover for it for less than < $300 USD. Or, if he really want to be cheap, just get a tarp and some bricks. But the CCC would end up saving him more than the purchase price over the long run.

[kishy]

Your friend plans to fix that up but is storing it without a cover? If the paint & top were shot I wouldn't care, but that thing is pretty nice. Advise him to pick up a fitted California Car Cover for it for less than < $300 USD. Or, if he really want to be cheap, just get a tarp and some bricks. But the CCC would end up saving him more than the purchase price over the long run.

I may have given the wrong impression. My friend is not doing anything with the car, he's just letting me use his yard and enabling and encouraging my bad decisions. This was supposed to be a parts car, but he said he'd store it for me if I'd fix it, and that he'd help me fix it...but that project is entirely directed by me.

I've given some thought to a car cover and am intending to put one on it, but it needs the new bumper before that can happen, otherwise it'll just slice right through it.

[jaywish]

When it comes to semi or long term outdoor car coverings, or covering anything really, one of the keys to long tarp life is padding the corners or any protrusion.

[DerekTheGreat]

Yeah, just pad where it goes over the bumper. Get that cover on there ASAP and protect your investment.

[kishy]

...
So, the parts list already acquired looks like:

• ...
• Rear bumper: failure due to aluminum corrosion. If a big bumper swap comes to fruition, I have a good set of bumpers and fillers to facilitate that.
• ...

...

While I have a set of big bumpers for this car, and I think my preference will be to go that direction, I did find a decent condition skinny bumper in July, noted in the junkyard thread. This bumper has been living in my friend's truck since then, and I've finally been able to reconnect with it.

Externally, the bumper looks great, but there is some "rust jacking" (except it's all aluminum galvanic corrosion, triggered by steel fasteners) at some points between the inner and outer parts of the bumper. Yesterday, I pulled the two halves apart and studied the condition of things.

The facebar/outer section is very nice and will go on the 88. Since storage space is not unlimited, this will likely happen some time before the quarter panel repair, so the old one can go as scrap and take up less room.

Unfortunately, and also unsurprisingly as it's typical, the backbar/inner section is pretty rough. It can be cleaned up to be just fine at the points where it bolts together with the outer section, but it is going to require reinforcement at the points where it attaches to the bumper shocks. This is to be expected with aluminum parts left in contact with steel parts, especially when they get hit with salty road splash, but it's always annoying when it is found.

New hardware will be used, and for now the bumper is remaining in pieces until it's time to move forward. Stainless U-nuts and bolts will probably be the right long term solution, of course I could also just grease all the hardware contact points on the aluminum.














For the sake of completeness I will also note that earlier this month, I did source the quarter section of a fairly rust-free junkyard '83 Town Car, also noted in the junkyard thread. That quarter section remains in my trailer at this time, with no work of any type having been done to it. There is no intent at this time to begin the body work in 2022, but it definitely feels more "within reach" to have acquired all the needed pieces.

Speaking of needed pieces, I also harvested the driver side nylon fuel line (from steel line to fuel tank) from that 83. There is a fuel leak on the 88 believed to be that line.

I noticed on a shelf in my garage that I can't reach at the moment (there's a pile of exhaust pipes in the way), a pair of 85-88 front turn signals that I pulled back in 2014 or thereabouts. So that's taken care of as well.

I can't actually think of anything else that this needs that isn't on-hand now, besides hood lift supports. It has the aluminum hood so one of my pairs of take-offs from the 84 (steel hood) might be good enough for it. It will need the usual under-hood efforts before it sees the road again re: oil and coolant leaks, but at this point that's just standard stuff when you buy any small block Ford.

[friskyfrankie]

So, when the local auto parts store is out of stock, do they call you? Cool that you have all these "goodies" for parts swaps.

[kishy]

So, when the local auto parts store is out of stock, do they call you? Cool that you have all these "goodies" for parts swaps.

LOL. I know that's tongue-in-cheek, but friends who are employees at auto parts stores have actually referred people at their counter to me for Panther stuff.

Let's be real. It's hoarding. Focused and purposeful hoarding, but still. My garage is a disaster. Getting better though as I'm finally getting some of the items other people want into boxes and out the door.

My two significant hobbies are computers (hardware-focused, preference towards retro/vintage) and cars (if that wasn't apparent). I have an obscene amount of bits and pieces related to each of these hobbies. It is all legitimately useful stuff that is being kept for a sane and logical purpose with a roadmap for how and when it will be useful, but it greatly exceeds what one person should ever own in terms of material possessions.

I am not a hoarder in any other sense of the word so I suppose as long as the stuff is attached to the hobbies, it isn't actually a problem.

I did not own any Lincoln, nor had I previously, at the time I pulled those front turn signals. I can't explain the thought process behind pulling them when I did, but clearly I had some foresight.

[WagonMan]

I'm still waiting for the tripminder. WagonMan

[friskyfrankie]

When the need exist, it is better to have than not have. Many of these parts are difficult to find so I wouldn't be beating myself up if I were you. Now if you can turn the extras into a profit, that's "gravy"! As an aside, yes I was joking (but just barely - it was meant as a good thing).

[gadget73]

I'm in a similar boat, lots of this and that around. I wish I didn't have to keep it around, but when you can't get it elsewhere I don't want to be SOL. If I could just go to the parts store and get what I want, my garage wouldn't have shelves of just random things I've found for a good price here or there and grabbed just in case I need it.

[kishy]

One of those "update without an update" type of posts.

The friend who has been providing me space to store this car has been experiencing difficulties with neighbours complaining to the municipality about the cars on his property. Any reasonable "car person" can see the value in each, but not everyone is so-afflicted. They live fairly "out in the country" but due to some stupid aspects of how Ontario works, the bylaws of a distantly-nearby municipality that they technically fall within apply to them. In theory, no complaint = no enforcement = the bylaw doesn't matter, but someone called.

Friend has been working hard to satisfy the requirements of the town people (which has, in as many cases as possible, involved getting vehicles back into roadworthy condition, plated, and visibly no longer just rotting), and we've arrived at the stage where the Lincoln must go. In parallel with his efforts, I've been working on emptying my garage of the stuff that has kept it limited to only holding one car instead of the two it clearly should fit. I'm not done yet, but I'm far enough along that I can take the Lincoln.



(nose-in, and tight to the wall is the plan)

Yesterday afternoon, I went out to his place to get it onto his trailer and to my house. The plan was to get it running (with the expectation that all it would need is a battery), and drive it onto the trailer under its own power (with the understanding that all it would need is the tires aired up). Strap it down, hit the road, unload at my house and drive it into the garage under its own power.

Setbacks have occurred.

2022 August (edited down to relevant items only):

• Tires: both front were totally flat. Driver front (full size spare) held air for the evening. Passenger front lost all its air in an hour or so. Driver rear took a little air but was otherwise inflated; this tire was ruined by contact with the quarter panel anyway. Passenger rear seems healthyish.
• Battery was totally dead. Car started, somewhat reluctantly, with a lithium booster pack. Idle quality is OK but not great.
• Discovered the fuel return line seems to have a minor, but definitely present leak in the over-axle area, where the main collision damage is. Not really surprising. Not sure what exactly is causing the leak; it may be that the quick-connect is cracked, because I can't think of what else it would be. Did not inspect closely. Fuel lines aren't a hard thing to fix so I'm not stressing about it.
• Brought battery home to put it on a charger and hopefully prevent it becoming useless, but maybe I've waited too long.

3 of 4 tires still had air in them, from that time.
The front right was completely flat, and although is not de-beaded, it does not build pressure. I'm guessing the valve stem is torn or the tire has a critical failure. The spare is already in use, so we had no wheel/tire readily accessible to aid the car in rolling.

The battery turned out to be a good one, after I brought it home, charged it, and put it into service for varying vehicles. It ended up being the battery in the 91 MGM for my road trip last year. With a fresh charge, it went back out to the 88 yesterday. What I hadn't accounted for was the starter relay deciding not to work, so a brass mallet was used to short the contacts. It cranked and started without a fuss.

Moving under its own power proved to be an issue. The tires were frozen to the ground, and with an open diff, only one of the 4 broke free with the gas pedal. We ended up hooking it to a D-ring on the trailer and pulling it forward a couple feet to free it up. But, it still wouldn't drive up the trailer because it couldn't get traction, and I'm sure the flat tire up front wasn't helping. Then, it ran out of gas. We took a gas can to a gas station, but when we came back, I was reminded that the collision damage prevents the use of the fuel filler neck. We had to get creative.

Creative turned out to be a Tesla Model S pulling a tow strap through one of the D-rings at the front of the trailer to yank the Lincoln onto the trailer. Sort of insane, but it worked.



The setbacks burned so much time that we ended up just putting the truck and trailer at same friend's work, where the city won't bother him, and we'll continue this project in a day or two.

Given that it no longer runs, our plan is going to be something like:

• Change the front right tire while the car is on the trailer and air up the others to a nice high number for lowest rolling resistance.
• Unload the car on the street.
• Pull the car up my driveway with the Ranger, to the point that the car reaches the level part of my driveway. This will trap the Ranger in the back yard until the 88 has continued into the garage.
• Push the 88 by hand into the garage, or if it doesn't want to roll by hand, use another vehicle to push it the rest of the way in.

Once it's inside, I'll deal with the issues that have caused it to become disabled. e.g. the return line fuel leak which emptied the tank and the quarter panel blocking the fuel cap from being removed - which will also prevent the tank dropping. Some amount of dent pulling will probably need to happen.

So yeah, that's where we sit currently.

[sly]

Woof... too much fun on all accounts.

[GM_Guy]

The f'in karens always gotta stick their nose where it doesn't belong.

[Mainemantom]

So many set backs are frustrating. Wishing justice on the people to harm others by not minding their own business.

[DerekTheGreat]

...My two significant hobbies are computers (hardware-focused, preference towards retro/vintage) and cars (if that wasn't apparent).

I've got an old lap top you might be interested in. It works and has lots of stuff on it, IBM something from the 90's. I'd have to check, but I was looking to sell it along with all of my other audio stuff I'm no longer using. eBay is a PITA and I've been too busy enjoying other things to stop and do all that.