VicCrownVic's 1998 Mercury Grand Marquis LS

[Arquemann]

Snow blows in weird ways for sure.


There's an Audi in this pic.

Has anyone here have had a starter freeze? Fun times.
Some time ago, a friend's Scania had the tractor flap freeze open, it spewed out chunks of ice and snow for minutes after starting it the next morning.
Remember to cover up your hood stacks and hater pipes lol

[VicCrownVic]

Nice, reminds me of my time spent in the UP (Michigan's Upper Peninsula) in the mid 2000s. Every so often throughout the winter we had to move our cars from our assigned parking lot so the university could clear the snow (big drifts like your picture). Lots of snow up in Houghton, MI. There was a time when we returned from spring break in Mid-March and received 34 inches of snow that night. The earliest we got a meaningful amount of snow was 10 inches on September 10th. No frozen starters, frozen doors a couple times, but fun times with my '89 MGM.

[Tiggie]

It looks so 1980's Fox Mercury Capri-ish. I still dig the steel wheels. I think I'd run those all year.

[packman]

The last pic on page 9: MGM fastback?

When my coworkers had to travel to our Albany lab; they would have to go out and dig their cars out every hour or two during the snowstorm(s). Otherwise, if you let them go for more than that, they would be snowed in for a long time.

[VicCrownVic]

I've owned this car for one year now. Bought it on 2/29/2020.

I've put a ton of miles on, 13,557 miles exactly.
A couple of trips out to Grand1's place, 75 miles one way.
A 1,248 mile round trip last month.
Lots of running around, and not splitting mileage between two cars like I used to. I didn't track it but The Scab very well could have been under 1k miles in the past year.

It's been a fun year.
Installed PI intake.
Rear sedan cargo coils and air shocks.
'03+ EATC vacuum actuator assembly with new o-rings.
Black window/lock switches to replace blah gray.
Undercoated to take on winter.
'03+ cupholder ashtray.
Lots of cleaning inside and out.
Oh, I also no longer have an intermittent battery light. Replaced the Alternator when I installed the cupholder ashtray (found a clean alternator the JY for $20) and haven't had the battery light on once other than the normal key-on self check.


Getting hitched (class III Curt) this year which means I should probably install a trans cooler (open to suggestions). I doubt I'll be hauling more than an empty car dolly.
Trailer wiring will be added, module and install kit are on the way.
Aluminum driveshaft will be installed at some point now that I have everything I need (new u-joints and zone-offroad spacer.)

[DerekTheGreat]

Curt hitch, nice choice.

[87gtVIC]

Nice to hear. Never know what you are getting into when purchasing a new to your vehicle. Glad the past year has been kind to you.

[VicCrownVic]

I installed the hitch toady while visiting in-laws. Class III Curt 13707.

I was going to install it yesterday assuming there were already holes in the frame to mount a hitch, found there were not and did not have a 5/8" drill bit.
Had I opened the hardware bag to read the instruction sheet inside, I would have known that I needed to drill holes, but I didn't want to lose any of the hardware so left the bag sealed.

I picked up a 2 pack of step drill bits and made pretty easy work of drilling the holes, at least after getting past the first step on the bit.

The hardest part of the whole ordeal was putting the hitch in place and using it as a template to mark where the holes should go (this is how the instructions say to do it). After that the rest was as easy as I had initially imagined this install being.

[DerekTheGreat]

Pretty much invisible, what I like about my Curt hitch.

[VicCrownVic]

I was hoping I would get a chance to use the hitch today to transport my uncle's empty car dolly back to my parents' place after a friend borrowed it. I've towed that dolly a few times with The Scab and had no problems. Turns out the vehicle my friend was interested in, for the Detroit Gambler 500, no longer has a properly functioning transmission. We're pretty certain dad dinked the trans trying to move it from where it has sat the last 5 years. Fluid was a bit low, and forward clutch seems to be self welded in a way that makes every gear a forward gear. Reverse just cancels it out and goes nowhere, but it will drive even in neutral. Friend decided to pass, but before dad killed the trans it would have been a perfect Gambler 500 vehicle.

Trailer wiring harness is all ready to be installed. I'll get to installing that someday.

The last of 4 gauges arrived today, so I can now complete my gauge pod setup. Also something I'll get to installing someday.

Here's my complete bench test with an old atx power supply, a circuit I built to make the tach do something, trans temp sending unit sitting next to an old running laptop exhaust fan, and removed the pressure gauge from my pancake (1 gallon maybe) air compressor and installed the oil pressure sending unit in its place.


The color difference actually is not at all noticeable in person, the cell phone camera just has a hard time accurately picking up the middle two gauges making them look washed out. As seen in the picture below, before I hooked up the oil pressure sending unit to the compressor, the word VOLTS is much closer to the shade of green that it looks in person which matches the outer two gauges pretty well.


I was worried that the gauges would look horribly mismatched especially since they are from different manufacturers. The inner two (trans temp and volts) are Intellitronix gauges, while the outer two (tach and oil pressure are unbranded (although they say Bezel on them) eBay gauges. They really do match very well if you see them in person.

The pod itself is an Autometer Gauge Works 18018. They also have a 2 and a 3 spot pod available. Credit for the idea goes to gtracer95: http://www.grandmarq.net/vb/showthre...-are-some-pics

It will probably sit on top of my monitor on the Lego platform until I get around to putting it in the car. I'll probably just run the wires to the driver side kick panel and then it will be another while before I actually connect the wires to where they should go. Still need to get a tach adapter and haven't put much thought into installing the oil pressure sending unit or trans temp sending unit.

[VicCrownVic]

Pulled the summer wheels/tires out of the shed and washed the backsides. Lots of brake dust and some overspray from the undercoating some previous owner had applied. I didn't make much of an effort to get the undercoating off, maybe next season. Might swap those on this weekend and put the winter wheels/tires in the shed for the season.

Before:

After:


Was hoping to have some bullet connector terminals in hand by now, but those seem to be taking their time getting here. Once I have those I will put my gauge pod in place and run all the wires down to the drive side kick panel. Also still waiting on my tach adapter that I ordered at the same time. Still haven't put any thought into how/where the oil pressure sending unit will mount. So initial install of the gauge pod will probably only have the voltage gauge working until I get around to hooking up the rest.

[DerekTheGreat]

Not sure what you used but, Dawn works wonders at removing grease & grime. What I'm going to use to remove all the Fluid Film I sprayed over my fender lips and stuff.

[VicCrownVic]

Dawn is good stuff, I used some Purple Power I had sitting in the shed. That undercoating that was put on by some previous owner is really stuck on there. Since it's on the backside of the wheels I wasn't too motivated to put more effort into it.

I managed to get my power wire ran through the firewall up to the battery. I temporarily connected it to the battery and to the trailer light module, then tested it out with dad's magnetic lights. I was able to set the magnetic lights on the cloth top without fear of scratching paint, faced them toward me and was able to operate turn signals, brakes, running lights, and hazards and quickly see the lights working.
I disconnected the power wire from the battery and the module since the permanent setup will have a fuse and a connector to easily disconnect the module. I should have videoed the lights but it was starting to rain so I was trying to get everything put away in case it rained hard (it never did though.)

Before I did that I swapped the summer wheels and tires on. Much quieter ride since the font winter tires wore a bit strangely (cupping) on The Ice Car. Since I did the wheel swap earlier before the threat of rain I did get a couple pictures with the stock wheels back on. Photobombed by a corvette.

[87gtVIC]

Those wheels look fantastic. Cleaned up real well too. When I first purchased my HPPs they were god awful. Ive used brillo pads to help clean the backsides. Worked quite well.

Hows the vette handle the dirt?

[VicCrownVic]

Lol, my nephew, (wife's side) is 8 and lived with us since 6 months, is the owner of the Corvette. He was talking to my brother about his plans to modify it. He was telling my brother about some burnout tires he wanted to get from Amazon . Guess I'll have to teach him burnout tires are supposed to be old used tires. He must have picked that idea up from YouTube. He was driving it all over so it must have handled ok.