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My '87

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    My '87

    My 1987 LTD Crown Victoria LX was purchased from Alton-Blakely Ford in Somerset, KY with no remarkable options except for the 3.27:1 rear end (I presume this was for driving in the mountains). I have no idea who the original owner was, or what it went through, but ten years later it belonged to an older gentleman in Florida who used it as his winter car. When this man passed away my grandfather bought the car from his widow, and drove it for a short time period. The car was originally painted Dark Shadow Metallic Blue, but the previous owner had kept a car cover on it during the summer that he didn't tighten down well. As a result of wind blowing on the car cover it sanded away most of the paint, exposing that beautiful pink primer that Ford used on the 80's panthers. Shortly after my grandfather had gotten the car, in 1987, he found a good deal on a 1990 Crown Vic LX, so he bought that and sold the '87 to my dad for $800. Not bad for a car that only had 69,000 miles on it.

    My dad drove the car for a year, while I learned how to drive on it, and in 1998 I turned 16 and took my driver's test in the car. I knocked over a couple cones while parallel parking but the man administering the test said "oh it's no big deal, you'll never have to park a car this huge anyway". Little did he know that this car would become mine. I bought a Pioneer tape deck, three pairs of speakers (door, dash, rear), and two Pioneer 12" subs powered by a Rockford Fosgate amp. I drove the car like this all throughout high school and generally had a lot of good times with it. Eventually I upgraded the stereo with a much better Pioneer CD playing head unit, Cerwin Vega door and rear speakers, and Alpine dash speakers. I removed all of the factory speaker wiring and ran all new 12 ga. speaker wire.

    When I got the car it came with a pair of fog lights, which got smashed off on a snow bank the second winter I had it. I went and bought a new pair, which got smashed off on another snow bank the following winter. That's when I decided not to get any more foglights (or at least not mount them under the bumper). The stereo and fog lamps proved to be too much for the original 65 amp alternator to handle, and that burned out on a long road trip almost leaving me stranded. To date I have had 6 alternators in that car, although my most recent which is the 135 amp 3AG seems to have fixed all of my issues.

    Shortly after graduating high school I used some money I had to have a pop-up sunroof installed, as well as a dual exhaust system with Flow mufflers. I drove the car like this until the summer of 2002 when it started to burn massive amounts of oil. I considered getting rid of the car entirely, and using the $2500 that I had to buy another beater. I couldn't bear to part with the sunroof though, so I decided to keep the car and rebuild the engine myself. Prior to this I had never so much as changed the oil in a car, but one day I pulled it into the back yard and just started taking things apart. By the end of the summer I had built an HO motor with 10.1:1 forged pistons, E303 cam, 1.6 Roller Rockers, mildly ported E7 heads, shorty headers, and no emissions equipment whatsoever. I worked for Ford at the time and a friend of mine in the SVT program managed to get a prototype '03 Cobra exhaust system which I modified to fit onto my car, and I ran the tailpipes out the side in front of the rear wheels.

    The following spring I had a custom AOD built with a wide ratio gear kit, A-servo, solid input shaft, custom Art Carr torque converter, B&M Transpak, and some other minor modifications. After that I got the Bullitt wheels and some Michelin Pilot Sport A/S tires for it, which made it drive much better. The paint was in very poor condition by that time, so I had it repainted. The guy who painted it for me used epoxy primer to seal against rust, and gave it several coats of the beautiful Sonic Blue color that was so popular on the Cobra at the time. I also added a hood tach from a '69 Pontiac GTO at that time.

    The car was not running very well, even though I had done a MAF conversion, so I took it in to have it chipped and dyno tuned. With the new chip it runs much better, and I now know that the car makes approx 250hp and 300ftlbs at the crank.

    Last winter I started having problems with my front suspension, so I replaced all of it, along with the braking system. I now have have the 98+ big brakes (12.4" rotors with dual piston calipers). I have all polurethane bushings (even the control arms) and am using police upper control arms. I got some Moog springs and some KYB shocks, and I must say that the front end is much tighter now and the car stops on a dime.

    Here are some pics from last fall, shortly before I did the suspension and brake job:

    Last edited by Blaze86Vic; 05-22-2006, 01:40 PM.

    #2
    Wow that thing is nice looking...

    You need a little cosmetic stuff for that front end, like gunmetal inserts on the grille, and of course, snag a set of clear lenses if you can findem!!!
    1983 Grand Marquis 2Dr Sedan "Mercules"
    Tremec TKO conversion, hydraulic clutch, HURST equipped!

    Comment


      #3
      Beautifully-done.
      Where are you located?
      2011 Mustang GT Premium, MT82, Kona/Saddle, HIDs, 3.73s, 19s, hood/side stripes, UPR 1.5" springs with adjustable panhard bar, and UMI solid LCAs and relocation brackets.
      1992 Explorer Eddie Bauer, slight lift, 34s, and A/C...
      1979 Bronco Custom, 351M/C6/NP205, 4" lift, 35s, lots of fender trimming.

      Comment


        #4
        Originally posted by Freshmeat
        Beautifully-done.
        Where are you located?
        Heh, guess I never did fill out my profile on here. Anyway, I live in Detroit, and thanks for the compliment.

        Comment


          #5
          I remember seeing your car back on CVN a few times. I thought the hood tach was awesome, you even had a video of it up. Nice work.
          -Matt
          1968 Fairlane 500 - 1998 Camaro Z/28

          Comment


            #6
            I remember your car before paint, heh. It looks great dude.
            '89 Ford LTD Crown Vic - '92 Ford F-150 Custom -
            '95 Ford Bronco XL -

            sigpic :rebel:

            Comment


              #7
              Awesome car!

              Comment


                #8
                Nice. Whats that hood tach from? I know I've seen one on some vintage muscle car but can't place it right now. Some Pontiac product comes to mind, but I can't swear on that.
                86 Lincoln Town Car (Galactica).
                5.0 HO, CompCams XE258,Scorpion 1.72 roller rockers, 3.55 K code rear, tow package, BHPerformance ported E7 heads, Tmoss Explorer intake, 65mm throttle body, Hedman 1 5/8" headers, 2.5" dual exhaust, ASP underdrive pulley

                91 Lincoln Mark VII LSC grandpa spec white and cranberry

                1984 Lincoln Continental TurboDiesel - rolls coal

                Originally posted by phayzer5
                I drive a Lincoln. I can't be bothered to shift like the peasants and rabble rousers

                Comment


                  #9
                  Originally posted by gadget73
                  Nice. Whats that hood tach from? I know I've seen one on some vintage muscle car but can't place it right now. Some Pontiac product comes to mind, but I can't swear on that.
                  69-71 GTO's had them
                  Nick
                  88 Colony Park LS
                  G-pa's old car, but he's cruisin around heaven in his 69 wagon now
                  Future plans:Semi HO conversion, or Explorer motor swap, shift kit, PI springs and sway bars, KYB-GR2 shocks

                  Comment


                    #10
                    lookin good mang

                    1986 lincoln towncar signature series. 5.0 HO with thumper performance ported e7 heads, 1.7 roller rockers, warm air intake, 65mm throttle body, 1/2" intake spacer, ported intakes, 3.73 rear with trac lock, 98-02 front brake conversion, 92-97 rear disc conversion, 1" rear swaybar, 1 3/16" front swaybar, 16" wheels and tires, loud ass stereo system, badass cb, best time to date 15.94 at 87 mph. lots of mods in the works 221.8 rwhp 278 rwt
                    2006 Lincoln Town Car Signature. Stock for now
                    1989 Ford F-250 4x4 much much more to come, sefi converted so far.
                    1986 Toyota pickup with LSC wheels and 225/60/16 tires.
                    2008 Hyundai Elantra future Revcon toad
                    1987 TriBurner and 1986 Alaska stokers keeping me warm. (and some pesky oil heat)

                    please be patient, rebuilding an empire!

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Originally posted by gadget73
                      Nice. Whats that hood tach from? I know I've seen one on some vintage muscle car but can't place it right now. Some Pontiac product comes to mind, but I can't swear on that.
                      It's a reproduction part for the 1969 Pontiac GTO. I wanted a Ford hood tach, which was available on the Super CobraJet Mustang, but nobody makes reproductions and the only original I could find was weatherbeaten as hell and was selling for $400+

                      Comment


                        #12
                        I'm lovin that car man. Nice work.
                        Nick
                        88 Colony Park LS
                        G-pa's old car, but he's cruisin around heaven in his 69 wagon now
                        Future plans:Semi HO conversion, or Explorer motor swap, shift kit, PI springs and sway bars, KYB-GR2 shocks

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Ah yes, I love that blue. we need engine pics!!!
                          Pete ::::>>> resident LED addict and CFI defector LED bulb replacements
                          'LTD HPP' 85 Vic (my rusty baby) '06 Honda Reflex 250cc 'Baileys' 91 Vic (faded cream puff) ClifFord 'ODB' 88 P72 (SOLD) '77 LTDII (RIP)
                          sigpic
                          85HPP's most noteworthy mods: CFI to SEFI conversion w/HO upperstuff headers & flowmasters P71 airbox Towncar seats LED dash light-show center console w/5 gauge package LED 3rd brake light 3G alternator mini starter washer/coolant bottle upgrade Towncar power trunk pull underhood fuse/relay box 16" HPP wheels - police swaybars w/poly rubbers - budget Alpine driven 10 speaker stereo

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Originally posted by Freshmeat
                            Beautifully-done.
                            Where are you located?
                            We go to the same school, well, at least used to, until he decided it's time for him to graduate, lol And yes, the car is awesome, looks even better in person than on the pics

                            SVT87, as I said at LeAnn's get-together last Friday, a pair of TRW CC819 springs will take care of the rear sag, although seing how high your front end is I'd suggest cutting off like half a coil from the front springs too. Also about those flow restrictors for the heater core, I was looking at my coolant temp. sensor housing, and seems like we have to either make some custom ones, or have Ray weld us some kind of a reducer in the hose-fitting end of the darn thing... Second one will probably be easier, I might try it next week or so, depending on time availability.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Originally posted by 85crownHPP*
                              Ah yes, I love that blue. we need engine pics!!!
                              Trust me, you'd rather not see it. Let's just say that I spend all my money on engine internals, and nothing on dress-up.

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