VicCrownVic's 1991 Mercury Grand Marquis LS "The Scab"

[DerekTheGreat]

The only time my '88 gets any love is when Ashley drives it.

[Tiggie]

All kinds of compliments from people passing by. This car is not even in that great of shape, LOL.

Box love is growing. I miss the comments from daily driving the box. Just think, we've been ahead of the curve for 20 years. For once in my life haha.

[87gtVIC]

They are just becoming so uncommon on the road people are happy to see them. I smile a bit whenever I see any older vehicle on the road.

[VicCrownVic]

I took this car to meet up with ComputerFreek to give him some '88-'91 trim clips.
It looks like my temporary fix for the oil dipstick is holding since there are no new oil spots on my driveway. That gives me some time to install the new one or get the good one from one of my other engines which is the route I would rather go since the new one does not have a mounting tab that I remember.

All kinds of compliments from people passing by. This car is not even in that great of shape, LOL.

[VicCrownVic]

Wife and daughter are out of town with my mom and sister for the weekend. Since I am watching the nephew I decided to pass the time by heading up to my parents' house and work on the cars a little. Yesterday was the '98, today was The Scab's turn. Broke my T50 impact bit trying to get the left rear seatbelt unbolted so I can replace the left rear C-pillar sail panel.
Successfully plugged a slow leak in the right rear tire.
I also figured out what is causing oil spots in my driveway. Turns out my oil dipstick tube is quite loose. As a temporary fix I pulled the tube and put some black RTV around it. I actually have a new dipstick tube in my shed, so I'll have to compare it to the original and see if the dipstick is the right length.

[DerekTheGreat]

No no no, that's too cushy, has leather interior and powah windahs for chrissakes. You need a real truck, the kind which has a bed that never needs to be made.

[VicCrownVic]

Half of them are parts cars. I have a truck that I have all kinds of parts to get it going again. I think you've seen it, LOL. (Seen it every day for a while now.)

[DerekTheGreat]

You've got too many cars. Time to get a truck as a back-up, they're really versatile and come in handy when you least expect. I've got one that needs work, you can have it for $200

[VicCrownVic]

Nice and dry day today, so I took this car to the store this evening. Roughly 5 mile round trip. Talk about wind noise. There is a chunk of weather strip missing on the driver door, and a hole in the windshield seal that has been there since before I bought the car. Exhaust sounds louder than I remember, or maybe I'm just used to the '98.

I topped off the gas and didn't even forget to hit my fuel door popper before I got out. Yet in the '98 I somehow still reach for the radio in the lower position that I'm used to in boxes.

I've got some stuff I'd like to do with this car but not sure that I will get to any of it this year. I guess it depends on how a few other things that are higher priority work out. Most likely The Scab will just be backup this year.

[VicCrownVic]

Yep, pushpin Christmas tree clips like the door panel clips but bigger. I'll try to get a pic of them next time.

I noticed that too, in addition to orientation difference, the front bracket is cut different like Dave said.

I actually broke my old T50 bit getting these panels from the JY which prompted me to buy the impact bit. Come to think of it the bolt that broke that bit was also the driver side bolt. Must be something in the design/location that makes that bolt more prone to get stuck. P side came out fine, but I ended up cutting the D side seat belt at the JY. I hate to destroy things in the process, but these panels are in a color I don't see often in the JY.

[Tiggie]

Impact is your friend on those. When putting the shoulder harnesses in my 88, I tried the breaker bar. I broke the bit after putting about two feet of extension on it. My impact wouldn’t touch it. Borrowed a friends impact from his work and it was out in 5 seconds. The right tool for the job makes all the difference!

[87gtVIC]

At first glance I would have said it was just a manufacturing defect....adhering the piece in the wrong direction. But giving it another look suggests otherwise giving that the bracket has a deeper cut into. I get the orientation part of it as well. Makes one able to slide the piece out easier.


Do these slide into grooves on a plastic push pin?

[VicCrownVic]

I scored some C-pillar sail panels about a year ago and finally decided to try installing them today. Since I was going through my shed and I saw them I guess I felt motivated to finally do something with them.
The replacements came from a 1990 MGM. They aren't mint, but they are much better than what they are replacing.

Passenger side before:

Passenger side after (but before I aligned it better):


Driver side seatbelt was not budging. The belt has to be unbolted at the bottom and fed through the panel. I have 1/2" drive T50 impact bit that was not making any progress on my breaker bar. In fact the teeth of the bit were shifting.
I sprayed the bolt with some liquid wrench, top and underside, still nothing. Tried hammering on it as well. I'll keep spraying it whenever I can and if I still can't get it I'll have to visit someone with an impact.
So the driver side did not get changed.


The PO painted the bare spots on both panels and did a decent job matching the fabric color. There was a lot more fabric on these panels when I got them. The original owner (PO's grandmother) took the car to Arizona each year. I think the AZ sun and heat did these panels in.

Something interesting I found, there seems to be a difference in the orientation of the brackets on the backside of the panel. The '90 brackets are mounted to the panel in opposing directions while the '91 brackets are mounted in the same direction which made the '91 panels much easier to remove than the '90 JY panels.
('90 left, '91 right):

[87gtVIC]

Good load.

[VicCrownVic]

Rare picture of "the bad side." I decided to get some mulch today. The old mulch was looking really tired in my flower bed and around my two trees.

I fit 20 cubic feet of mulch in the trunk no problem. Two spare tires and a few other things in there as well.

Picture with 20 cubic feet of mulch:


Picture after unloading all the mulch:


I didn't get the exact same perspective, but it looks like in the picture with the mulch in the trunk the rear is sitting a little lower. Not bad for stock 30 year old springs and Monroe Max Air shocks in the rear.