LTDMan's '87 LTD Crown Vic LX

[LTDMan83]

This is gonna be my Ongoing Project update thread for my Box.

It's been taken off the road as my DD duty machine, and now is in full-on Restoration/Modification mode, to become my new Street Cruiser/Show Car, and probably a little of a Drag Car as well. We have a new public 1/4mi track being built here only 15mi away from my house, so it's gonna be hard to resist going at least once a month, before & after the engine swap.

I'm about 60% of the way done with this Beautiful 80's Beast, but since it is no longer my DD, and I have been working in silence for about the past 2yrs, I figured I would go ahead and start documenting my current and future progress here. No cardomain or supermotors account for me, this is a GMN exclusive Box for now.

Let it first be said, that I have done all the Work on and to this car completely by myself, Drivetrain/Body/Electrical & Interior. The only help I have had from other people is during the removal/install of the Large items, like the Hood/Trunklid and Doors, and the re-building of the AOD which my dad helped with, everything else has been 100% all me. I take a certain amount of pride in Fixing/Maintaining my own Rides, and I can guarantee you that I will never give up on her no matter what Breaks or goes wrong.

I love this car like no other I've ever had, or lain eyes upon, and it always has had a certain positive Aura about it to me. I would never even consider selling it, or trading it off to anyone. I'll have this Car for the rest of my Life, and assuming it survives other drivers throughout the years, I will probibly pass it on to my future Son or Daughter, or some other future Box Panther lover, before I die or get too old to enjoy it.

For those of you who don't know, I'm a Bodyman at heart and by trade, and I work at a pretty reputable bodyshop, with some very knowledgeable and intelligent mangs (10X more knowledgeable than myself), and I can get discounts on some Very Expensive Paints, and bodyshop tools/equipment. I also from time to time, do rust/panel repair on peoples cars/trucks in my Backyard, doesn't matter to me what kind of vehicle it is, only that the Money is green . I love doing bodywork in general, and after my Box was Hit in the Back by another driver early last year, I have spent probibly 200+ hours thus far on Restoring it back to Better than Original. I now have a perfectly straight and well aligned body, as well as a 99.5% Rust Free Car, to show for my efforts though. Which is more than I could say for the car when it was mint Factory Original, not that Ford was trying to make perfect Show Cars outta these though, they were just trying to get them built and out the door. As a result there are a lot of Factory Errors, and little unique things individual factory workers did to save time, on all these cars from the Factory. Many things to be improved on.........that's where I come in.


Current & Future Projects:


- Complete Body Overhaul w/ Rear PS QP Metal & Filler Work (Now In Progress: 75% Done)

- Complete Jamb and Interior Metal Painting (1K Flat Black Enamel) (Now In Progress)

- Gloss Black (with Light Metalflake) or Deep Wedgewood Blue (Ghosted with Dark Blue Candy) Paintjob (After ALL Bodywork is done)

- 3.55 Trac-Loc installed into my OE rear end, or a K-Code from a Box Towny.

- 96-99 Exploder/Mountaineer EFI 302 HO engine swap (Have a buddy with his own private shop ready to help me stab it in, just need to find a low mileage engine.)

- Re-building Exhaust setup with No Cats, 2.5in custom Downpipes/X-Pipe, and mandrel bent over-axle pieces. (Stock Logs are staying :P ,and are gonna be Painted, or I may get teh 90 Lincoln Logs.)

- A few different Body & Chassis Bracing Mods to come.

- Too many small mods to name them all.........Stay Tuned.



This will be my one and only box to Restore and Mod the crap out of, for the foreseeable Future, (My next project is going to be a 60's model LTD, or if the Ford God's are willing a 60's Continental) so enjoy the Box Repair & Modifications while they last!


I'm always working on or modifying something, I have a few things going on right now for the Box, and will have the 1st of the pics/descriptions posted up soon.

Feel free to respond at anytime with any Questions, Comments, or Random Thread-Jacking you may have. Peace out.




Here are a few of the old pics of the car for those of you who have not seen any of it yet. More New Pics coming soon.

[gabegt90]

mang the paint shines I love the Lincoln turbines looks like it was made to have turbines on.
one thing I notice about your house is your roof line funny how it just slopes down toward the back of the house

[LTDMan83]

Insomnia....too bad I don't have a lighted garage to work in.

mang the paint shines I love the Lincoln turbines looks like it was made to have turbines on.

She didn't shine like that when I first got her. I repaired the Original paint and Re-Cleared the hood myself. The rest of the paint I buffed out to a decent shine. The original paint looked good until she got hit in the back, the paint since then has been a patchwork of cheap Off-White Beige and Primer. I decided shortly after that, that I didn't like beige at all. Although it is one of the few cars out there that can pull it off.

I love my Turbines! I wanna get them completely professionally restored sometime in the future, like Dereck did on his Towncar, but with Black on the insides of the Fins. Turbines and HPP's are some of the very few Rim's that look good to me on these cars.

one thing I notice about your house is your roof line funny how it just slopes down toward the back of the house

That slope on the house is actually just on the end there, it's a 10x7 storage room someone added onto the house, and they just extended the existing roof line out. It's a 3 bedroom Brick House w/ White Vinyl on the outside. I just rent the place, I wish it was a little larger, but it beats the crap out of having to live in a apartment. I thank god everyday I'm not stuck in Apartment Hell, with 100's of non-English speaking messicans, like some of my buddys. (No offense to our Latin friends here )

[packman]

I said it before and I'll say it again, that is a beautiful car, even more so when you get the work finished. When I commute to work or drive around I always see a box out there; these cars are way underrated. That is why I put so much time in my mom's ride. Your car is one such car (among many examples on this site) that will get people to say "I didn't know you could do that with these cars!" Keep us updated mang.



Packman

[LTDMan83]

I said it before and I'll say it again, that is a beautiful car, even more so when you get the work finished. When I commute to work or drive around I always see a box out there; these cars are way underrated. That is why I put so much time in my mom's ride. Your car is one such car (among many examples on this site) that will get people to say "I didn't know you could do that with these cars!" Keep us updated mang.



Packman

Thanks Mang.

I feel the same way about these cars, and I'm hoping with some slick mods, a nice paintjob, and a little more TQ, maybe I can contribute to getting more people into these cars.

[LTDMan83]

Here was the last engine mod. Dual Heater Pipes from an 86 Marquis. Inspired by a ECT sensor broken off and lodged in the HH lower intake coolant piece. Happened while disassembling the top end during the lower intake gasket replacement that I did back in Sept.07. I think it cleaned up the engine bay a bit by getting rid of the HH's running along the bottom side of the upper intake.

Question: Anyone know if I can still use the 86 Dual Heater pipes with the 96-99 Exploder Lower Intake?

Edit: Also the front hose which goes to the waterpump is slightly kinked. Advance claims to not be able to find the Molded Hose which is supposed to go there. Anyone know of a solution, or a place to find the correct molded hose?

[LTDMan83]

Jamb Painting has Begun.

Finished Painting the Core Support and the new Decklid's interior metal today. The core support was getting pretty rough, so I figured it was time to go ahead and get it done. The decklid is still curing, so I don't wanna touch it, I will have pics of it in a few days when I get ready to swap in my lock cylinder that I have the key for.

Here is the Core Support, it was pretty rough before, so I had to take it down almost completely with some 220g, and then Painted Flat Black with a 1K Enamel which is Very Durable. I'm gonna be using this same Enamel on all the Jambs, because of its durability and resistance to chipping. It also has excellent Self-Leveling characteristics, and will cover up most scratches & imperfections. I used my el-cheepo conventional cloud maker to lay down the FB, and It came out pretty good, with no areas that need to be wet-sanded.

[86VickyLX]

Also the front hose which goes to the waterpump is slightly kinked. Advance claims to not be able to find the Molded Hose which is supposed to go there. Anyone know of a solution, or a place to find the correct molded hose?

Which hose? The top one (not the radiator hose)? If the tag is still on my hose, I can tell you the number. I'll look tomorrow.

[LTDMan83]

Which hose? The top one (not the radiator hose)? If the tag is still on my hose, I can tell you the number. I'll look tomorrow.

The hose which goes from the Water Pump to the Lower Heater Pipe.

[LTDMan83]

Here's my Painting Rig I use at home, and sometimes at customers houses, as it is just the right size to fit in my trunk, and be a mobile paint rig.

A Kobalt 26gal 1.5hp 6.0cfm @ 40psi Air Compressor, running a Standard el cheepo Conventional cloud maker. I use it for Jamb Painting and Primer applications, and also people who want low-end paintjobs done on their vehicle, at their house. It lays down Enamel & Urethanes pretty good, but doesn't do so hot with lacquers. I will be getting a sweet, low-air HVLP which runs on 5.0cfm @ 40psi, as soon as my government tax bribe money gets here. I will be using it to paint the exterior of my car.

[LTDMan83]

Which hose? The top one (not the radiator hose)? If the tag is still on my hose, I can tell you the number. I'll look tomorrow.

NM, mang. I found a good solution.

Linky

[Lincolnmania]

friggin awesome! come visit so we can hold you hostage......toms vic needs paint, gadgets lincoln davids superlincoln, my lincoln, etc
excellent work mang!

[LTDMan83]

Thx scott, I appreciate the props.

If I could get away from my job for a week or so without them firing me, I'd love to come up to PA, for a Workucation, and do some Bodywork/Painting for you guys!

I'm still gonna try and make it to SF, but it's still up in the air at this point.

[zwack88]

I cant wait to see this build up. Should look awesome when done.

[P72Ford]

This is a sharp looking car, and the list of furture mods, as well as the current mods are very tasteful. I look forward to seeing progress on this car, as it appears that you always strive for the utmost in quality when it comes to your LTD.

Also, thats a decent compressor set up.

Whenever I've painted anything, I use the setup that my old man has at his shop. He has a 120 gallon Emqlo compressor that makes enough wind for any type of painting (I'm not sure of the exact specs; but he's had it a long time). It does occasionally run out of steam when using constant pressure (sometimes when using the DA for extended periods of time, sandblasting, etc). We use the compressor for other things, but we have a seperate cicuit dedicated for painting purposes. Thats where the major regulator and filter are. We also use an in line dessicant "snake" from DeVilbiss. I use a water filter before the pressure regulator on the gun too. The gun I use most often is a mid range DeVilbiss gravity fed (HVLP); it actually belongs to my half brother; but it's a "community" gun. We also have an assortment of other generic gravity feeds (with different tips), and two conventional Binks guns (which my Dad likes to use). We have a decent setup, but we still can't make anything come out really well. My half brother is the best of the bunch, but has been out of it for so long that he's pretty rusty. he used to be really good, and with practice and patience, he could get back into it rather easily.