'87 Mercury wagon in Michigan

Discussion in 'The Welcome Wagon' started by 1987cp, May 20, 2008.

  1. 1987cp

    1987cp Liftgate!!

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    Update on this wagon:

    This past summer, I ended up borrowing the engine out of this car to toss in my DD Crown Victoria. Oddly, the same engine, with the same model transmission and the same rearend ratio, ended up calibrated like 5 stages leaner!

    My original thought had been to use this engine in the Vic only until I made a couple more upgrades to that car's original 351 (hopefully including a roller camshaft!), but I'm working on a deal to toss a set of ported heads on the wagon's 5.0, which may make me quite happy with it in the Vic.

    Meanwhile, I've wondered a lot what to do with the wagon. The thing's really quite rough cosmetically, with a few annoying rustholes here and there, and the heat barely works and the interior is a complete hodgepodge. Also, while it drives pretty straight, a slight drift the alignment guy couldn't get rid of seems to suggest I may have a tweaked framerail from the collision I was in in 2004. One cursory attempt to sell the thing turned up little but abuse from a group of guys who, on pressing me for a price, thought I actually expected someone to fork over $1500 for a partly beat-to-death vehicle. A contact I made locally turned out to be a demolition racer, and while I thought momentarily about selling to him, I ended up turning him down. No sense destroying the rest of the car just because I'm not driving it right now, and it's not like it's costing me anything other than garage space to hang onto it.

    My current thought is that I may move ahead with my old plan from 2005 to put a 351 in the wagon, in the form of the engine pulled from my Vic. It's a decent engine, having been align-honed and torque-plate-honed, and if I upgrade the heads on the 5.0 I can consider porting the GT40 heads currently on that engine. In that case, the 351's projected 400-plus lb-ft of torque might be better employed in the heavier station wagon with big tires than in the lighter sedan with 235mm tires, where even in its current state it seem to mostly lead to traction problems.

    Another reason to hang onto the wagon at this point is that I have a notion of using it to practice rust-hole repair and dent repair, and, though it's unlikely to actually happen, I'd like to attempt some sort of liftgate conversion to make the rear of the car much more convenient to actually use.
     
  2. Stormin' Norman

    Stormin' Norman Well-Known Member

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    Might as well use the wagon for your experiments and a daily driver. Michigan roadsalt is cruel to old rust.:D
     
  3. Taranau

    Taranau Well-Known Member

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    :Welcome: to the wagon train...I've been over to GrandMarq.net too...There's a bit more interaction here,I think...
     
  4. 1987cp

    1987cp Liftgate!!

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    Yeah, that's for sure. I kind of hate driving any car here in the winter. The salt is especially nice, since instead of packed snow you have mud-like slush that's difficult to get any traction on. But, I suppose I'll never convince the locals of that, considering how whenever people in similar areas crash in icy parking lots due to their own idiocy they blame the parking lot owner for not putting down salt.

    I'm actually working on a deal that might give me partial access to more (and larger) garage space .... don't know if that will work out, though.


    Quite possibly. A lot of different forums have their strong points, such as the hardcore engine tech at SBFTech.com, and the crazy whale-Vic following at CrownVic.net. I do like the atmosphere here rather well, though. :2_thumbs_up_-_anima
     
    Last edited: Oct 16, 2009
  5. 1987cp

    1987cp Liftgate!!

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    I just remembered (again) - someone, I think on this forum, posted a link to another forum where guys post about custom bodywork they've done. Can't remember where that was, though. Might not hurt to start reading up on stuff, even if the tailgate project never takes off.
     
  6. Stormin' Norman

    Stormin' Norman Well-Known Member

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  7. 1987cp

    1987cp Liftgate!!

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    No idea, but that site sure looks educational. Thanks!
     
  8. Stormin' Norman

    Stormin' Norman Well-Known Member

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