Comming soon to the Restoration Forum

Well done. Feeling artsy now, huh?

How long did it take? Garage of course.

 

With all the sanding and disassembly about 10 hours.

 

Prepping and taping is the time-burner for sure. You guys must get a good price on Krylon Spray bombs. We're at $8 for a can.

 

$2.97 per can at Wal-Mart.

 

:banghead3: What a rip! Beyond words. :banghead3:

 

Sun visors

I gave up on the sun visors. In the trash they went. So, I canabalized the ones from the 86 Tbird and mounted them. What a difference.

1. They are bigger. This is a good thing in sun country.
2. They have supports towards the center. This is also a good thing. They stay up nicely and don't swing back and forth due to acceleration/deceleration.
3. I simply sprayed them with Krylon Navy blue plasticoat.
4. They have mirrors on both but no lighting.

I also took the rear view mirror. Mine was cracked and the dim function lever was broken.

Next on the agenda? Seats. I'm going to take the front buckets from the bird and install in the wagon. I just have to get proper fabric paint. The krylon won't do on seats.

The salvage yard will certainly provide a console.

Way too stinking hot to paint the car. That will just have to wait until we get back in to the 90's.

 

Isn't it a bummer with the floppy visors? Just when you're dozing off, they slap you awake!

I got a couple from an '82 Zephyr. The passenger has the vanity mirror and lights. Nice.

You've got vinyl gussets or is it all fabric? Each need different dyes and protective cleansers.

 

All fabric. Some kind of rat hair. They took the plasticote paint just fine. The plus is the inboard supports for the visors that I took from the bird. That keeps them in place. My old ones were torn and the chip board broken with worn swivel ends that made them swing to and fro. The were never floppy though. These are just nifty in comparison.

 

We have to see

 

So it's a Nylon/Polyester fabric. Probably a simulated velours finish. Whatever dye that you use needs to have a UVA (at least) and UVB (possibly) protectorant, to help preserve the seam threads. IIRC, you can remove the actual fabric, get an old wringer/washer and dye them in a product made by RIT. My mother used to dye bridesmaid gowns in it. Most Fabric and Department stores carry it, but you might try an Upholstery Fabric dealer (not an Upholstery shop - they want your $4,000 upholstery job, you want about $20 worth of dye.)

http://www.ritdye.com/home.lasso

http://www.ritdye.com/Rit_Products_Available.5.lasso

His lens will melt in that heat!

 

Really, I'm going to get started....just as soon as the temps settle down to around 105 or less.

This weekends activities is going to the wrecker and checking out the fox wagon I saw about a year and a half ago. The goal is to get the complete interior plus the passenger front door for free along with the rear hatch and whatever else I can talk them out of. If my memory serves me it has a light blue velour interior. I think it's an LTD or Marquis. My plastics are pretty bad and my front seat bottoms are toast and I think it had good plastics plus good fabric. Not to mention any good rubber seals. I'm sure the dew wipes are wiped so to speak. How you say?

If the interior is good I'll attempt to get them to take the 86 bird in trade. A running and drivable car with 6,000 miles on the tranny.

 

You are one tough puppy to work in that heat!

Take some jewellers' screwdrivers to split the underdash connectors without breaking the tabs off. And take pictures through the windshield of the wiring layout inside the dash 'wiring tracks'.

I'd bring a helper for the rear hatch or a length of 2X4 to hold it up when you undo the hinges.

On my Fairmont, Ford used colored tape for optional wiring harnesses, instead of the usual black tape. Light Brown harnesses for the Heater/A/C and blue for extra courtesy light wiring right to the back gate.

You might scoop the rear cargo side windows too. 3 months to get a replacement, 4 years ago. Sharp boxcutters and some thin, 1.5" wide paint scrapers - 2 or 3. The trim comes off fairly easy from the glass side, not the body side. And get those nylon spacer block wedgies under the bottom edge of the glass. They are a beech to find.

Rear cargo light too. They're all plastic, but the lens comes off with a small flat screw driver.

Other than that. You know the drill.

 

It's a dry heat.:dancingparty:I'll get as much as I can if they'll go for the deal.

 

I don't know if it was in Mexico or one of those BBC Documentaries, that they were discussing why people from hot, dry countries have larger sweat glands to store humidity and release it into the body more gradually, than Northern folk, like me. My wife took 3 winters to adapt to our climate, after living in 50C Monterrey for decades. Even I took 2 winters to get 'into it' again.

Sounds like you know the guy well enough.

 

Parts haul

Saturday I went to the junk yard and bought the whole interior from a 1984 LTD wagon.

I got the whole shootin match except for the passenger compartment carpet, and seat belts. The A pillar covers were broken and the bugger wouldn't let me take the steering wheel.

All plastics in great shape. They will certainly need a repaint as they are lighter blue than my interior. The seats are in great shape, cloth in 84 wierd pattern. But that's OK. I even took the headliner boards, lighted visors and the door panels that I won't use as they are set up for power everything. It even had the carpet I was missing on the liftgate. The drivers seat is power but I can bolt on the manual seat tracks from my current seat. I also took all of the insullation and the round spare tire cover for the cargo area. No rotted plastic. Just a bit of fade. I even got the good door seals as well. The rear liftgate seal was rotted.

It took me three hours to strip the interior. It pays to have experience.

Now that I have the interior collected I can get started. The bad part is all these bits and pieces takes up most of the left side of the garage.

Once I get the door panels cleaned up and the power seat rig removed and clean I'll post them for sale or ????. The power seat works great as we had to power up the circuit to move the seat up and forward to get at the mounting bolts. I'm sure that's a pricey piece.

Although I haven't actually got started on the car I have all the hard parts collected. Even the storage bin in the left side rear area is pristine. Mine is very broken and unrepairable. I'm still missing the rear courtesy light switch button though. I'll have to go back and find one of those. I might not use the lighted visors either.

This was a fully loaded LTD that had the vent windows in the front doors. Because of the stacking of another car on top the A pillars were crushed and the roof rack was trash. Too bad as the car was completely rust free. There are 5 other LTD wagons, 2 Fairmont wagons, 2 Fairmont Futuras, 1 Zephyr wagon and a bunch of other Fairmonts of various configurations. All rust free. Most all the interiors are garbage but there's lots of good glass and body panels including the wagon sheet metal. Mostly 3.8 liter six engines remaining in the cars. I saw no inlines or 302 v8s in any of the cars.

They treated me right and provided help so I'll give them a plug. Gordon runs the place with his wife. Good folks but really not cheap but I got a good deal at $275 for everything I wanted from the interior...less the steering wheel. (darn it).

If you are in the area:

County Line Auto
201 County Line Rd.
Ridgecrest, Ca. 93555

760-375-0077