I've made the leap from wagon lurker to wagon owner

To be honest, I don't blame the windshield shop at all. I think it's documented somewhere further back in this thread, but those guys were great. They told me up front that they had doubts about their abilities to do it but were willing to try. Since they were the 4th place I'd been to I gave them a shot.

They charged me around ~$100 to put the window in, keeping the car for several days to test it for leaks. They took it back twice, for several days each time, to try and solve the problem, removing and reinstalling the window two more times. Never once did they bat an eye or complain about not charging me anything more than that initial fee. They were great all around, they just didn't have the experience to troubleshoot the problem.

All of that being said, you're right, I will be taking it somewhere else if I can't do it myself.

 

I've been sweating the fact that it's June and I'm still not driving my wagon yet. I'm pretty much stuck for driving it anywhere until I get the Vista window and the roof rack reinstalled. I'm not worried about the roof rack as I've removed and reinstalled it several times now. The Vista window is another issue. Since the glass shop didn't have any better luck than I did last year, I decided that it's my turn again. They figured that it may be my window that's leaking and not the seal between the window and the body. With that in mind, I picked up another Vista window from a guy scrapping a '96 and figured I'll just pull it off and install it on mine. Simple right? WRONG!

I worked at cleaning up the roof last weekend and made some pretty good headway. I tried a number of solvents that didn't really do much before I spoke to the guys at the glass shop. They said that they generally use a razor scraper to remove all but the thinnest layer of sealant and then just seal over top of it. That takes a lot of the headaches out of this but it was still fiddly. I managed to nick the paint in several spots and remove the clearcoat in others. Thankfully most of my damage is to the fresh paint that was done a couple of years ago and not the factory paint. I figure I can use some frame coating to seal it up again before I reinstall the replacement window. I took these before I really got going. I don't seem to have any pics of how it looks after I went at cleaning it up with a scraper.







That turned out to be the easy part. Getting the replacement Vista window off of the chunk of roof that I bought from a local seller has proven to be a real PITA. The last time I did this, the butyl was relatively soft and came off pretty easily. This is 18 year old sealant I'm dealing with now and it's not giving up without a fight. It's a much harder substance than what the body shop used to reinstall my window. It cuts well with a razor but I stand a pretty good chance of cutting the window frame trying that as the sealant and the frame plastic are about the same texture and consistency. I did the same thing when I removed my leaking window and damaged the frame in several places as it was difficult to tell when I wasn't cutting sealant anymore. I picked up a Windshield Removal Tool but it's not long enough to do the job so I'm working at it with a sharpened putty knife. Progress is very slow. So far I'm about 4 hours into trying to remove the window with very little headway. It looks exactly like it did when I bought it apart from a cut in the frame plastic that I put there when I got a little overzealous with a windshield removal cable tool.:banghead3: Hopefully I can fix that will a little improvised plastic welding.



On the upside, I'm extremely please with how my newly recoated steering wheel looks now that it's back in the car. That was a lot of work, but it was worth it.

 

Well it's been one heck of a week.

I've been driving my Grand Marquis since I still haven't reinstalled the Vista Roof on my Roadmaster. I just haven't gotten motivated enough to get outside and work on it. There's always been an excuse. It's either been raining, too hot, my back has hurt, I have to work late, etc. Finally the Grand Marquis decided to force my hand. The cars must have been colluding. On Wednesday last week, the Marquis started going nuts on the way home from work. The dash went out, the EATC was dead, my door locks wouldn't work. Strangely my dash clock and radio were fine. Since everything worked fine when the car wasn't running it seemed pretty likely to me that the alternator/voltage regulator had failed. I managed to get home (thankfully the digital dash came back on) and discovered that the alternator was putting out 16.9V and had boiled the battery over. I took The Mrs' car to work on Thursday and picked up a new alternator and battery. I swapped both in without any hassles, apart from having to replace a cracked positive terminal connector, and happily drove to work the next day without issue. On the way home on Friday, the car started to overheat and the transmission was shifting at the wrong times (if at all). This was one angry car. I made it home just as the dash started screaming about the coolant temperature and parked the car. I figure the over voltage probably damaged the temp sensor but I wasn't 100% sure (I'm a computer guy by trade). I figured I had a better shot at getting to work on Monday by tackling the work that I know how to do on the wagon.

I had managed to finally remove the replacement Vista window, from that chunk of Maroon roof you see in the pictures above, the previous weekend. I spent Saturday and Sunday addressing the damage that I had done to it in removal and getting the Vista Window and the roof rack all resealed and reinstalled. It was getting late on Sunday by the time I got everything done. I left out the headliner until I could check for leaks and there are several assorted interior parts that still need to be reinstalled from the interior swap last fall. Fortunately we had a pretty severe thunderstorm here on Sunday night and the interior of the car stayed dry as a bone. I haven't tested the front edge of the Vista window yet but it looks like the 5th time putting the window back on was the charm and I've finally got that fixed.

I drove to work on Monday morning and noticed that the Roadmaster was running pretty rough. I had noticed a rough idle when I pulled it out of the garage but I chalked it up to 6 months sitting and the fact that I had forgotten to put fuel stabilizer in the tank. I filled up the car with fresh gas and drove on to work. After a 30 minute drive it was no better so I dropped it in to the garage beside my office. The guys in there are really great so I had no qualms about having them take a look. They were swamped but agreed to take a look as long as I could leave it there all day. They finally got a look at it late Monday and figured it was the dreaded Optispark. I got them to park it indoors Monday night so that they could work on it on Tuesday and called The Mrs to come and get me (She's a saint for driving 35mins each way to haul my sorry azz home and then driving me to work again on Friday AM). The parts arrived late on Tuesday and they were scrambling to finish putting things together at 5:30 so they gave me a loaner to get me home (A well-used 2004 Sante Fe...ugh).

If all goes well I should have a hefty bill to pay at the end of today but still have only one car that's drivable. At least it's the wagon that will be mobile. A little while behind the wheel and I'll forget all about the un-repaired car waiting for me at home.

 

Spoke too soon. Tom just called me from the garage. The repairs were done but they found, during the test drive, that the torque convertor is shuddering during shifting at highway speed. I've noticed that ever since I had the transmission rebuilt a couple of years ago but neither of the two shops I took it to could find it and I thought maybe I was being a little too picky after having put that shift kit in. They're also going to put in a new O2 sensor and fix my leaky crankshaft seal while they're in there. Dunno if I'll get the wagon back today or not. I do know that the bill is getting increasingly unpleasant.

 

Sorry to hear about the problems, Cyber-Wizard.
But it's great to know that you got the roof leak taken care of; that was a long and tough road!

 

I'm trying to take comfort in that as well. I was really looking forward to finishing up the interior installation this weekend and finally doing this years cleaning/detailing (and driving of course).

As it stands, I may still be able to do that work I'm just struggling to come to terms with what I expect to be a $2K+ bill. Optispark, crank seal (front, of course), and torque convertor at the same time will be no easy pill to swallow.

I keep reminding the wife that my Mercury is just a car. A wagon isn't a car, it's my hobby and we all trade money for happiness where hobbies are concerned. Perhaps I need to remind myself as well over the next few days. I suppose I should also take heart that these are all just wear-and-tear parts and I'm not finding holes in the body or rotted framework like I'm sure some of us have had in the past.

 

Bummer Cyber, hoping the trans bill stays with in reason.

 

Every time I have these guys do work on my Mercury, the bill always surprises me when it turns out to be cheaper than I expected. Tom says it'll be ready today so we'll see what happens when I pick it up.

 

Tom did it again! I went in pretty worried about getting the bill and he surprised the heck out of me. He gave me a break on the labour, perhaps because he went for a bit of a joyride to try and diagnose the shifting issue. I heard him roar by my office around midday. He also didn't have to do as much work as he thought. In the end, it didn't need a new OptiSpark, just a cap and rotor along with new wires and plugs. He didn't make any mention of it when I picked up the car, but the Torque Converter wasn't on the bill. I'll have to go see him tomorrow to find out if he forgot to charge me, or why he didn't need to replace it after all. The issue that caused him to say it needed replacing is gone so I'm stumped. All in all, unless he made a mistake with the Torque Converter, it all cost me less than half of what I was expecting.

The Mrs and I took a drive to look at a house for sale and give the Roadmaster a bit of a shake out. While standing in the driveway of the house another Roadmaster wagon owner drove by honking his horn like a passing train. The real estate agent didn't miss a beat and immediately told us how friendly the neighbourhood was. She seemed stumped when I explained that it was just a bit of wagon-love.

The Mrs suggested that I swing by a nearby office to have a look at the Roadmaster wagon sitting in their parking lot on two flat tires. She advised that I should put a card on the windshield suggesting that they call me if they want to sell. I'm not sure what this woman has done with my wife but I may have gotten an upgrade.
I drove out there and took a quick look around the '91-'93 Roady but when I got to the windshield I found my buddy Rick's business card already there. He sold his wagon last year and replaced it with an Invicta but is still apparently on the lookout for longroofs.

 

The Roadmaster is in at the transmission shop today. The symptoms that my mechanic were reporting was a hesitancy to shift up around 80KM/H. I noticed that myself the day after I had the transmission rebuilt in 2011 but assumed that it was due to the new shift kit that had been installed during the rebuild.

The transmission guy just called me to say that it seems to be shifting just fine. The shift kit that was installed was intended to shift much quicker than it would have otherwise. He mentioned that the car would have originally shifted by Pulse Width Modulation meaning that there would be a gradual shift giving those smooth barely noticeable shifts common to a slushbox transmission. The shift kit disables PWM and instead shifts in one movement, making it slightly less smooth. That's pretty much what I expected but my inexperience let me take my mechanic's word as gospel.

There was something making a weird noise as I pulled away from stop lights on Friday. It was a rotating sound that only occurred in first gear. Once I got away from the light it stopped. Thinking that might be the torque converter as well, I have them looking into that too. Hopefully that will be minor, or non-existent and this won't be too bad of a bill either. Fingers crossed!

 

Well, the shop pulled the transmission out of the wagon today for a look see. Apparently that noise was the torque converter after all. They're sending the converter back to the manufacturer to find out why it failed after 12,000kms (7500miles). They'll put a new TC in it and the wagon should be home tomorrow night.

My '98 Grand Marquis will have to be put down I'm afraid. It turned out that it needs a head gasket. I'm quite certain that I'm not enough of a mechanic to tackle a head gasket myself and it's not worth paying to have it done with all of the other repairs we've put into it in the last 2-1/2 years. I hate to give up a rust free Florida car but I'm not certain that I want to spend that much more on it and the Mrs is very certain that she wants to see it go. Who am I to argue with an order to go car shopping?

 

Wow, a bunch of mixed emotions there! Glad to hear you'll have the wagon back and running tomorrow.
Sorry to hear about the Marquis. Maybe you can sell it as is?
Car shopping...EEE that sounds like fun.

 

Well the Buick is back and running quite well. The transmission shop covered the parts costs even though the work was out of warranty. They chased after their supplier to cover the cost of the three year old torque converter failure. I just had to pay the labour costs. Of course the labour on dropping and reinstalling the transmission was no picnic either, especially with wanting to buy a replacement for the Marquis before snow flies.

I still have a lot of rattle chasing to do with that new tan interior. All of the plastic interior pieces are in beautiful shape but they sure do make a fair amount of noise on a bumpy road. The blue interior was much the same so it's no great change. There's a really loud rattle in the dash that I've been trying to find since I bought the car! Every time I take the dash apart and tighten something that might be causing it, the rattle comes back a week or two later. At least now the interior is a lot prettier than it has been. I'll try and finally take some pics this weekend. I've been stocking up on Hush Mat kits when I have the spare dough but I don't have enough yet to do the whole car. I may just pull off some panels and install some of that old felt insulator on the back to deaden the vibration a bit until I can do it right. I still have a small leak in that Vista Window that I reinstalled. I think I can finish sealing that up and finally get started on getting the headliner and the last of the interior trim installed. The Mrs is going cottaging with her family this weekend and we're on vacation all next week so hopefully I'll get all of that done then. I've been swamped at work as well as house hunting, job hunting, and car hunting all at the same time so spare hours have been a little scarce.

I found some time to head over to my buddy Rick's place the other day to pull some more parts out of that donor wagon that I had in October. I sold it to Rick, he gave the transmission to forum member kurtbrown and then passed the car on to another guy who wanted the engine. That guy changed his mind and now the wagon is back on Rick's lawn. For a dead wagon, it's really made the rounds! Rick needed help getting the seats out for a friend of his and I took the opportunity to pull a few more bits and pieces. I'm going back on the weekend to take a few more of the really odd parts before he finally scraps it.

I've been doing a lot of car hunting over the last week. Just getting a feel for what's out there ya know. This will be a winter car and I'm torn between finding an AWD wagon like a Passat or a Volvo, or going to an SUV like a Trailblazer or a Durango. Part of me wants to stick with Grand Marquis (mostly 'cause I have some spare parts kicking around...and I know my 6'3" frame fits in there) and part of me wants a change. However you look at it, I love the car shopping process!

 

Man, you've got a lot going on........

I'm a bit puzzled by a blown head gasket 'killing' the Crown Vic. I can understand it if coolant got into the oil, but if it didn't, couldn't the gasket be replaced and all will be fine?

If you're going to replace it, now would be a good time to look at your vehicle needs. Need a truck? (Something like an Explorer Sport-Trac maybe?) SUV's are pretty good. We're enjoying the Ford Edge. Just got almost 27 mpg on our trip to Carson City and back (3.5 V6). The 2003 Explorer we had previously was pretty reliable (4.0 V6). Can't say it got real good gas mileage, though (I think they're a bit heavy with the full frame....)

 

It's more a case of The Mrs not wanting to put anything more into the car. I only paid $950 for it but since then it's needed a couple of oddball items like a heater core, ball joints, steering components, and lot of monkeying around with emissions equipment. Most of the work is just wear and tear that you would expect to have on a 16 year old car but I think having the alternator fail and fry the battery has soured her and she doesn't trust the car anymore. She equates that failure along with all of the other work and has decided that the car isn't worth keeping. Since the alternator was putting out 17VDC I can understand her concern. We could be swapping little electronic parts from now until doomsday and still never get it right again. The head gasket went 24 hours after I replaced the alternator and battery so we'll likely never know. She may not have a lot of logic behind her concerns but that doesn't really make them any less valid. I also wasn't going to fight too hard against the prospect of picking out something else. I had planned on keeping the Mercury for a good long time and that was a little disheartening.

Coolant did get into the oil but even just replacing the head gasket is more than she wants to contemplate. She's hoping that I'll find something newer and relatively trouble free rather than the older cars that I gravitate towards. My tastes really don't run into newer cars so I suspect we'll be at loggerheads when it comes to selecting something. She has a car and this would really only be my winter car but she would be a frequent passenger.

We don't really need a truck (often) but I am thinking about something with a little bit of hauling capacity be it wagon or medium SUV. One of my possible job prospects might require that I haul around a bit of equipment from time to time and a little bit of cargo room wouldn't go amiss. I don't know that I want to go with a Suburban or a Yukon, but something in the size of the Trailblazer or Durango might be OK. I've ridden in my sisters last two Explorers and I can't put my finger on why, but they weren't for me. Usually when I find things that are right for me it just clicks and I find that I'm happiest when I find that something that "just clicks" even if it takes a long time to figure out what that might be.