My Ma's 1986 Crown Victoria LX

[packman]

I bought this car for my ma four years ago as a B-Day present to replace her Delta 88. The car remained stock up until last summer when I realized that her car is nice car and that it isn't a dime a dozen Mustang or Camaro. It has 17x7 American Racing Ansen A69 Sprint wheels on Kumho P225 45R17 on all corners. I converted the 2" single exhaust over to a 2.5 dual exhaust last April. The exhaust consists of BBK Mustang shorties, BBK H-pipe with hi-flo cats, cutouts after the h-pipe, part of a 96 Impala exhaust that a buddy of mine couldn't get to fit with his "donk rimz", custom bent tails, and Summit welded turbo muffs. That is really all the mods that I have done to the car.........for now. I am going to install the Speedway springs and see what happens in a month or so. I plan on getting the car painted next spring (after the pollen falls from the trees) and with any luck I'll start the Lightning engine build next year. This is not my car even though I am doing the work on it. It actually is my ma's car and after stepping into her first muscle car four years ago (67 Chevelle), she has wanted something like it ever since. I will do my best to get there.


Packman

[P72Ford]

I like it; especially the wheels. I opted for the 15" size, as I am fond of a little more sidewall. Good luck with future mods.

[89LincolnTWNcar]

Those wheels are awesome! They change the whole look of the car.

[86VickyLX]

The car looks awesome. You have done a lot IMO. Have your mom take care of it. And when you're done, come visit me in Haddon Township lol. I'd love to see the car in person. Btw Packman, thanks for making this, I appreciate it.

[packman]

Thanx for the compliments mangs. Yeah I agree with you P72Ford; ever since the day I put the tires on the wheels I felt that they were a bit too low profile for my taste. When I install the new springs I might end up getting P245 45R17s or P250s for the CV if the car sits too low. This will also fill the wheel well up a bit more, which is the kind of look that I prefer as well. After seeing some 26" wheels in person, I realized that the 17s seem kind of small and that I can probably fit a lot more tire under there. To be honest I was originally planning on getting the chrome 2003 Cobra wheels from Detroit Wheel, but they had way too much backspacing and I didn't feel comfortable putting more than 1" of wheel spacing to get them under there.

My mom has always been into hot rodding; or at least when she was a kid, she liked the then new muscle cars that she would see advertised in the mags. It is because of her that I can do this sort of thing; because if it were left up to my father, he would tell me to just sit down and leave it alone. My dad has just forgotten what it was like; it is up to me and my mom to remind him again of what hot rodding is about. She was mad that I let the Malibu go, but she will understand when I get her car fixed up.

The kid that I bought this car from is a Panther fan as well. I don't know if he joined GMN yet, but he has a cherry 89 GM and he wants to get another box CV to hot rod. I'll see if I can catch up with him and get him to join up.

I have some more pics of the dual install and I think a fuzzy pic of my father's home-made copper air tube for the air pump and cats. Without my dad's help, I would still have the car up in the air to this day trying to figure everything out lol.



Packman

[packman]

Here a re a couple of more pics of things that I have installed on the CV. The wide whites are my winter tires for the CV because I don't think the aluminum wheels like salt and whatever other crap they throw down here. The other pic is of the cut-outs which are actually plumber's cut-offs or blastgates that are used for water pipes. They weren't meant for exhaust systems so they leaked quite a bit at first. Then I took them apart and my father shaped new gates (or the door part that you pull on, you'll see one day when I make it to Scottfest) out of a thicker guage steel. They are quiet when closed now and I can open them up a lot easier for my mom when she wants loud days.


Packman

[gadget73]

Looks good, body appears to be straight and it looks solid. I like that H pipe too, it looks to fit better than mine. The cats on my X pipe are real close to the tranny pan.

[packman]

I was going to go out there and get an extra capacity trans pan for the AOD with a drain plug, but I think I might wait for another year and see. For now I take the car to a trans shop in the next town over and have them service the trans. They are probably going to complain a little about changing the fluid with the H-pipe in close proximity, but I know that they have seen worse. I would do it myself, but it is too messy for me to do that in the driveway. The only problem that I have with the BBK set up is that it hangs a little too low to the ground. I am also looking around for a place to paint the exhaust and put rust converter on the under side of the car until I can get it undercoated. If it is at all possible I would like to find a place that will let me rent the shop space and I do all of the work. That would be sweet.


Packman

[P72Ford]

Make sure they drain the torque converter when they service the trans. or else you'll only get 4 or 5 new quarts. Need to get all that old junk out IMO. If they do flushes, make sure they change the filter too. My dad asked a local shop that flushes if they'd change the filter when they flush the trans. It seems like a no brainer, but they said no, they don't change the filter when the flush it!

[Tiggie]

That color rocks my life.

[Dave84]

Nice.

[86VickyLX]

That color rocks my life.

X2

[packman]

That color rocks my life.

The kid that I bought the car from told me that it is a Maaco paint job, done some time before he got the car. When I get the car painted, it won't be too far from that except with a little extra metal flake, if I can get that done. The paint is flaking off in some spots and there is a little rot along the edge of the trunk lid. I will spray some rust converter on the flaky spots and hopefully be able to have enough dough to get the car done next spring.


Packman

[packman]

Current pics of the CV not including the sig pic. The wide whites are the winter setup that I will change over in December.







This is my shopcat. She makes sure that I do a proper job.





Packman

[P72Ford]

The interior looks nice and clean man. The seats aren't even faded; the back seat passenger seems to be enjoying them... Very nice.