My 1987 Mercury Grand Marquis

[VicCrownVic]

The Scab has never been a winter driver. I bought it in... **checks RR thread for exact year** 2016, and it has always lived outside. The body is not much worse than it was when I bought it 9 years ago. It's amazing how just keeping it out of the winter crap has benefited it.
5 winters so far with the '98 and Krown has kept it looking pretty good. I have no doubt it would be turning into a rotbox at this point had I not applied that preventative measure annually.

[DerekTheGreat]

Without salt, it will hold up far better and longer. The water will get to it eventually. A friend restored a 1970 Road Runner, it was immaculate, plum crazy purple. They like to rot out right around the rear window corners. Sure enough, his had a huge herpie blister on the driver's side after said restoration. Car doesn't see salt and only gets caught in the rain, yet there that blister was like a giant middle finger to the face.

Fluid Film does smell terrible, good god. I went in the garage yesterday to do that diagnostic work on my Lincoln (the week before I put a new fuel pump in it and drenched the tank & surrounding areas with FF) and it was 10 fold worse in a confined space. Guessing since that thing is seldomly driven that smell will hang for a while. Worth it though. Surprisingly, the rest of the underside still looks a bit oily. It hasn't been Krown'd since it left DD status behind it, so some seven years ago.

[slack]

Thanks. For winging it the first time using the 'right' stuff (instead of using lasagna trays and caulk like on the CV LOL) I'm pretty happy with how it came out. It definitely looks much less ratty than it did. I wish I had taken some more before pics to give a better before/after. The car doesn't get driven in the winter so it doesn't really see salt and stuff but it is stored outside so it still sees the day to day weather.

As for oiling... strongly agree! A year ago or so I bought like two dozen cans of Fluid Film. I spray it everywhere I can. For the underside of the car, I sprayed rust converter, then POR15'd it then Eastwood internal frame coating and finally covered in fluid film. I also sprayed Fluid Film inside the doors and a bunch of other areas as well. Really great stuff (even if it does smell terrible).

[DerekTheGreat]

Better than before until it comes back looking like a raging case of herpes covered in spray paint. I advocate oiling everywhere possible to thwart corrosion, let it take over the edges and seams as it undoubtably will do while taking the time saved to do other more important things, like shots and leisure time.

[87GrandMarq]

It seems like pretty much every box panther I’ve seen has some rust on the underside of the trunk lid. My 87 is the same way but it’s not all the way through like yours. It is looking good though.

[87gtVIC]

Better than before is still better. Taking care of eyesores like those does wonders on how you feel about the car. I am sure you feel a whole lot better daily driving it now.

[Tiggie]

No bondo hate here on a daily driver. On a show car, sure let's do it "right" with metal and make it as best we can. But on a daily, what you did was fine. Seal the back side really well and be sure it's fully coated on the outside and it will last a while. It will come back but it looks better for a while. Can't stop the rust bug. Have seen many of these repairs in the junkyard, and they served their purpose while the car was on the road.

[DerekTheGreat]

I hate to say it but, if continually exposed to salt & moisture, the rust will come back with extreme prejudice and in short order. I first saw it when my dad had rust "repaired" on his Mark VII. Only took two Michigan winters before you could see the bubbles under whatever filler they used. Coatings are only as effective as the cleaning process under them. From what I've seen and tested, it doesn't get better than the factory applied pretreatment and paint system. This is why I would never "fix" rust on a daily driver and instead use & recommend Krown & Fluid film to seal & repel moisture. I had a picture I wanted to attach, but can't find it. Was a GMT400 truck that someone had put patch panels on over the rear wheels. Paint was shiny and pretty, but the areas where they had welded and mudded over were bubbling hardcore, looked like plate tectonics in automotive form. I'm sure by now rust jacking has popped the paint & mud off and those areas look like full blown automotive gangrene.

[sly]

Not bad. Definitely better than anything I would have done.

[slack]

Hi All, looooong time since I've updated this thread (almost 3 years)!

The car's been great daily driver (knock on wood) for this whole time. No real issues have popped up but some body rust is starting to creep to a point I'm not happy about.

Before getting into rust repair, I also had to replace the driver's window motor. I grabbed one from my 89 CV. Originally I was thinking of replacing it as it only has 2/3 of the mounting bolts but it's so much quicker up/down I'm going to keep it. (Link to thread for completeness sake: https://www.grandmarq.net/vb/forum/t...n-87-and-88-91)

Also link to the thread regarding getting replacement trunk lip trim clips: https://www.grandmarq.net/vb/forum/t...ing-trim-clips

And finally, I fixed my hub cap center caps so I finally have a full set. Related link: https://www.grandmarq.net/vb/forum/t...ter-cap-repair

One other 'repair' I've done this past few weeks was that sometimes the idle would be a bit dodgy at start up. I had replaced the IAC a while ago (I think it's mentioned in this this thread) and it helped but never fully fixed it. When I had the hood up, I noticed that the vacuum lines to the emissions stuff on the passenger fender were disconnected. I reconnected those and also popped open the top of..I forget what the name of it is... that they plug into and vacuumed out the insides as it was caked solid. Right now, I'm without the little filter that's under there so I guess I should get another one but it seemed to fix the idle... or at least made it better.

Anyway, on with the rust repair... or I should say my first real run in with giving bondo a try. I know people don't really like bondo but the unfortunate truth of this car is that it has a good amount of hidden rust on the body and is still sort of a $500 'beater'. So, I'm trying to make it the best I can without breaking the bank (and hopefully buy some more time on the rusty panels as well).

I wish I had taken some before pics. There was basically heavy bubbling along the trunk lip, rust on the bottom half of the passenger's side door, passenger's side wheel well, and the ditch light. The passenger's side rear quarter panel corner actually looked 'okay' from the outside but then I poked it and the screw driver when right through. I ended up taking a wheel and grinding and grinding and the whole just got bigger. The whole section was basically held together by por15 on the inside and paint on the outside. The before pic I have here is actually decently smaller than the final hole when all rust was grinded out.


It's amazing how many extra holes appeared that didn't even show until the paint was removed...

Rear of this car was hit on the driver's side at some point and repainted. The trunk looks like it must have came from a silver car after taking the trim off...






For the quarter panel hole, I used one of those mesh patches to fill the hole before using the body filler.


After pic for the ditch light. No filler needed here, just grinding down rust and repainting:


My bumper is also trashed...and has been since forever. Sprayed the inside with some more rust converter and paint and fluid film and decided to "attempt" to throw some bumper tape on it. It wasn't really sticky so I needed to spray some industrial spray adhesive first which caused it to be extra sticky and then didn't place 100% smooth.. Oh well. At a distance it looks better than it did previously. Up close? trash but it's something...





And some more after pics. The paint is the same that I tested earlier in this thread. It's not an exact match but close enough...









All in all, I'm pretty happy with how it came out. It's definitely not pretty up close but from a distance it looks okay. How long will it last for? I'm not sure.. if the filler on the fender and trunk end up needing to be redone in a year, I don't think it would surprise me even though I took off as much rust as I could find.

[GM_Guy]

SEM makes various colors, high build in white, beige, black, gray, rose; https://www.autobodytoolmart.com/pro...-primer-sealer
https://www.amazon.com/SEM-High-Buil...073T7KXGV?th=1

https://www.duplicolor.com/product/sandable-primer/

[gadget73]

I could swear I've seen tan primer before. Might work as an intermediate.

[87gtVIC]

Using some gray primer on scuffed up por 15 may help you with the coverage of the runny paint. Black is tough to cover up with any color other than black.

I think it will work out well for you. Color looks nice and close.

[slack]

The car sees rain but doesn't see salt. I stop driving the this car and the LTD once the first snowfall happens.

Thanks for all the tips on getting the molding off. I did a half-ass attempt at getting the wheel molding off just to see if there was any hope there. Well, one screw turned. The rest didn't want to budge. I'm hoping this weekend I'll have some time to actually take the wheel off and try to get in there with a good bit at the right angle.

double wrench the drain plug if you're worried about it. Big wrench to keep the non-removable part from moving, small wrench to pull the plug.

Thanks. I'll be sure to give that a try when the time comes.

Where’d you get the paint from? I have some rust spots that need to be addressed as well. I’ve used the same rattle can you used in the trunk but it doesn’t quite match the sun faded paint on my hood.

Just out of curiousity, how come you didn’t go with an aftermarket deep pan? I have one sitting on a shelf ready to go.

I got a few cans from Automotive Touchup. I've had okay luck with them in the past. I used them to paint the hood and header panel of my CV and the header panel of the LTD. The paint match isn't 100% but it's close enough for a beater/daily driver I suppose. It would probably match better without the paint fade from age and sun.

I did some test areas to see how it would match up. I sprayed over some POR15 spots to see if it would actually stick to it or not.

Door hinge area before with some POR15 slapped on the week before for testing over:


After: You can see how the new paint is a bit darker. This spot didn't come out great and I over sprayed on the rubber. (Did the same on the driver's side.. that's what I get for trying to rush things during a lunch break)


Driver's side door bottom. This whole bottom section from the door lock actuator nut down was black POR15. This side looked much better. Maybe because by then I had shaken the can some more?


Driver's side hinge:


I sprayed the first lip section here on the left :


This spot also had some POR15 on the whole section from the molding to the filler. still needs to be sanded down and redone and stuff but I wanted to see a spot on the outside of the car that wasn't too obvious:




Then some trunk spots: Again, you can see a little bit where the new paint is a bit darker


Though this spot blended in almost perfect (the horizontal "o"s in the middle)


All in all, I think it's good enough to go forward with these colors for my touch up spots. It won't be perfect but it will hopefully look a little bit better than it did. One thing I'm not crazy about is the paint seems super thin and runny so you have to be really careful not to be too heavy. I don't remember that from previous orders. Maybe it was and I just don't remember though.

[DerekTheGreat]

If the car will continue to see rain/salt, I vote to leave it. Keep in mind that the level of "rust protection" offered by a coating is only as good as said coating's adhesion to the substrate. Nothing currently available will match the level of protection offered by the factory. Translation- you will see rot reemerge within four years or less. Start spraying the underside, inside doors/panels and wheel lips with Fluid Film or Krown T40.