1986 LTD Wagon preparing for Dutch roads!

It has been a while but I'm back (again). As posted earlier
I bought a '86 LTD Wagon in February this year.
It was located in Pachecco CA and it took 2 months to get it
here in The Netherlands.
Because of its Californian history it is rust free and in a very
good shape.

Cars in my country will reach the road-tax free age at 25 years.
Mine will be that age in August 2011. I will use that time to prepare
my future daily driver for the typical bad weather here in Holland.
Doing so will also save me from paying around 100 euro's a month
for only having the car, not even driving it. Road tax it is called......

Well, enough typing. You will find some pictures about several
things I'm busy with, not neccessarily in logical order .

Here some pictures of mine:




And here's one I spotted in Leiden, The Netherlands.
It's a former hearse:



Oké, the minor things I've done. I work at a Dutch
truckdealer so enough space to work at the LTD.
Sometimes I drive to my work with my wife's car, a 2003 Miata
also imported from California. Looks funny:



Preparing the insides of the doors. They are rust free
and I will keep it this way by protecting it with something
that's produced for that way. I don't know the english
word for it. In Dutch i't called "holle ruimten beschermer" .
So use Google's translate if you want....

Also, the power window motor of the passengersdoor
on the right was broken. To take it out of the door
I had to drill holes (???) in the door in order to reach
the 3 bolts. The door has lots of holes in it when produced
so why not 3 more ?? Anyway....


Opening the motor gave a lot of dirt. On Ebay I bought a
repair kit. And here I have a question. Does somebody know
if I placed the three bushings the right way in the motor?
Here is only one placed....



Meanwhile, I cover the doors with some plastic hopefully to keep
water from soaking into my doorpanels in the future:



Today I bought a NOS RH outside mirror for my car, also on Ebay.
It takes about 2 weeks to get it here.
I also will install a back up camera because my
wife wants so. She is the boss so I agree....

Well, thats it for now. Hopefully anybody knows about the
bushings.

 

Never had to repair mine, but I have repaired others and that does look right. If its of any use to you, the 1978 to 1990 Ford window motors share the same parts. My new motors came from a 1989 Mercury.

 

I can't help you with that bushing question, Marc. But...that sure is a nice looking wagon you have there. Looks very clean.

 

Nice wagon! It sure looks rust free!

Yea, that is where the bushings go. To save money, instead of buying bushings, you can use nuts or ball bearings from the hardware store that are the same size around. Make sure that you liberally grease everything before you put the motor back together, and you should be set for many years to come. Rebuilding the old ones usually seem to last longer than the new aftermarket ones from the auto parts stores.

 

Thank you all for the kind words and
the technical information!

The bushings were only € 10,- per 6 including
shipping costs but I will remember the nut or
ball bearings trick if needed in the future.

Thanks!

 

I know this car !
We still have ours.
Have a nice day!

Tom,
The Hague
The Netherlands Europe

 

I know Tom!

When mine is ready I'll come over to you
to show it in real!

Did you know about the black one in Leiden ?

It's starting to become a big LTD family, haha!

See you!

 

Beautiful Country Squire, Marc!

That picture showing the CS and the Miata could have been taken in California. I didn't realize the Miata wasn't sold in Europe.

Had a thought while I was reading your thread. We have quite a few members here that have US cars in Europe. It's a shame that the US gub'ment makes it practically impossible to import a used European vehicle to the US. There are some very interesting wagons over there that we just don't see. I'm mostly thinking of Citroen and Peugeot.

 

My 85 Ford Country Squire, has the manual windows, I wished it had power windows sometimes....

 

Thanks Krash Kadillak!

The Miata isn’t sold in Europe. That means not this “luxury model” with cruise control and
airco f.i. The first models (NA) didn’t even have power steering !! Here in Europe the
Miata is called MX5 as you probably know.
The one on the picture comes from California. It is very simple to get a car over here and
get it on Dutch license plates. Normally we only have to change sealed beams headlights
into “the normal” ones. Cars from CA are also “clean” enough for our roads. Thanks to CA environment regulations!

I agree with you regarding the European stationwagons! You don’t see them here very
often anymore. The bautiful Citroen DS :


His younger brother, CX:


Or this one, 504 from Peugeot. They used to go to Africa from Europe in the late ‘80s:


And what do you think about this. Buy it now price is about 100 times more
than the new price, haha! :

 

I just had to repair my real window motor as well this past week.....and I used bushings from a late model mustang window motor....they are the same guts and a little beefier.....there was only one minor modification I had to make and that was trim the base a little where the bushing sits on. other than that it was a simple repair......(rear window motor was for my 72 SQ )
By the way very nice looking wagon!!!!

 

Thanks Dragonsquire!

It's nice to do jobs like this. Personally it gives me more satisfaction
to repair things than changing in for new ones.
I once started to repair the tranny of my '77 Caprice.
That didn't work, haha. To little knowledge I'm afraid.
That part I changed for another one.




The '70 you have looks very nice for what I can see of
it on the small picture. It was a good year 1970.... o whow....
means I'm 40 already.....

 

lol Hey Marc Nice car you have there......and thanks I like the 70 as well I also have a 1972 CS that I'm working on right now....

 

His younger brother, CX:


I love the steering wheel in this car and seeing Jeremy Clarkson make a foolery of himself on top gear with his mobile home he made out of this car.

 

I am looking forward to see the wagon! You are !