#2734093 - 07/14/13 11:21 AM
There I fixt it. (Town Car Repair Thread)
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I know nothing
Posting Addict
Registered: 06/05/10
Posts: 19872
Loc: I can see Detroit from here!
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As some may know by now, I had an accident in my '97 Town Car back in January. Largely thanks to a spectacular lack of traction from [censored] tires and a puddle that was deeper than it looked in the curve of a freeway entrance ramp. Anyway, I did a SWEET 540* spin across 3 lanes of (thankfully) very light traffic and met the center dividing wall at a pretty good bit of speed. I dunno how fast I was going when I hit, was too busy trying NOT to hit anything, but I figure I was probably going about 40mph when it started to slide. Anyway, the car looked like this the following morning: It doesn't look too bad really, until you realize just how much of the front end got [censored] up, and shifted over. BUT, ZERO frame damage, no suspension damage, core support is undamaged, even the headlight escaped unharmed, so really it was all cosmetic. First thing was first, those tires HAD to go. They had lots of tread, but just sucked in the rain/snow. I knew that, but was putting off replacing them because they were basically brand new when I bought the car. That turned into a MAJOR headache that ended up costing me $1300 by time all was said and done (including tires) because when I took it for an alignment with the new tires, I found out that basically the whole front end was shot. Completely unrelated to the wreck because the drivers side was worse off than the passenger side, had more to do with the car having 87k miles on the original front end components. Caught me completely off guard too, I had inspected everything when I bought the car 9k miles earlier and it was all solid and tight. Anyway, since it was the middle of January and I don't have a garage, I bought the parts and sucked it up and paid a shop to install. Car drove GREAT with the new front end and tires, so I decided to see if I could tweak the broken bits to make it not so sad looking. I had no $$ left to replace anything, so I had to make due with what was there. This is the result: Most importantly, the hood sat MUCH flatter: Bumper was no longer sticking out:
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-Steve 2006 Audi A6 ~132k miles, stock. 1998 Mercury Grand Marquis LS HPP ~100k miles, slowly acquiring modifications. 1997 Town Car Cartier ~145k miles, Ported Plenum, Gutted Airbox, Contour E-fan Retrofit, Dual exhaust with Magnaflows, cats deleted, MSD Ignition, KYB Gas-A-Justs, P71 front bar, air ride reinstated, Projector retrofit, Caddy 4-note horn retrofit, Wood rim steering wheel retrofit, holistic weight reduction as the parts fall off.. 1996 Mercury Grand Marquis GS 117,485mi. R.I.P. 7/14/12
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#2734098 - 07/14/13 11:51 AM
Re: There I fixt it. (Town Car Repair Thread)
[Re: BigMerc96]
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I know nothing
Posting Addict
Registered: 06/05/10
Posts: 19872
Loc: I can see Detroit from here!
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Unfortunately, last week I was in another minor accident with the car. In avoiding what would have been a much worse wreck (and surely would have totaled the car), I chose to swerve and go over the curb and took out a bus stop sign. I think it was the right choice, but the sign caught the existing crack in the bumper and basically ripped the side of the bumper off of the car. That hastened the hunt for parts. I got VERY lucky, I found a complete header panel and bumper with lights and grille for $80 about a 1/2 hour away. So I loaded up my Town Car with more Town Car: The "new" parts: A bit scratched up, but no cracks anywhere. The car all taped up so that the bumper wouldn't fly off on the way to get the new parts (not that that would be an unusual sight on Detroit freeways..): And so repairs began: It was at this point where I began to worry that the new header panel wouldn't fit with the smashed up fender. The old header panel fell apart as I removed it from the car, there really was nothing left holding it together. BUT! It fits! Took alot of persuation from a BFH to bend the fender back out enough, BUT IT FITS! Mostly, you can see that the fender is still pretty squished, especially when you compare its shape to that of the sidemarker: The bumper also doesn't sit quite right because the metal inner bumper is so bent out of shape. Looks something like this: Also, one of the 2 charcoal canisters is missing. IDK where it went, it was there after the first accident. Its not a huge surprise, the metal bumper is currently sitting where the canister should be and the bracket that holds them is pretty badly bent out of shape. It surprised me tho because despite an entire EVAP component being GONE, I have no check engine light. meh. I still plan to get a new inner bumper and a fender or 2 (one is smashed but both are rotten) and possibly a new hood too. It may or may not ever get color matched to the car, we'll have to see what it'd cost once I get the rest of the parts. At the end of the day, its a 16 year old car that has seen every single MI winter since '96, and it shows. The front fenders are not the only spots that would need rust repair if I take it in for paint.
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-Steve 2006 Audi A6 ~132k miles, stock. 1998 Mercury Grand Marquis LS HPP ~100k miles, slowly acquiring modifications. 1997 Town Car Cartier ~145k miles, Ported Plenum, Gutted Airbox, Contour E-fan Retrofit, Dual exhaust with Magnaflows, cats deleted, MSD Ignition, KYB Gas-A-Justs, P71 front bar, air ride reinstated, Projector retrofit, Caddy 4-note horn retrofit, Wood rim steering wheel retrofit, holistic weight reduction as the parts fall off.. 1996 Mercury Grand Marquis GS 117,485mi. R.I.P. 7/14/12
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#2734106 - 07/14/13 12:18 PM
Re: There I fixt it. (Town Car Repair Thread)
[Re: BigMerc96]
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Poobah
Registered: 05/13/09
Posts: 9429
Loc: Alberta, Canada
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Job well done!
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2008 P71 - Vortech V2-SQ, 3.4" pulley, 2nd cats removed - Sold 2013 Silverado 2500 6.0 4X4 - Sold 2017 Challenger 392
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#2734338 - 07/14/13 09:32 PM
Re: There I fixt it. (Town Car Repair Thread)
[Re: BigMerc96]
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Over the Hill
Registered: 08/26/07
Posts: 4898
Loc: Buffalo, NY
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Maybe you should keep that car. It certainly is a trooper.
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2020 F250 - 7.3 4x4 CCSB STX 3.55's - BAKFlip MX4 2005 Grand Marquis GS - Marauder swaybars, exhaust, wheels - Daily Driver/Winter Beater 2003 Marauder - Trilogy # 8, JLT, kooks, 2.5" exhaust, 4.10's/31 spline, widened rear's, metco's, addco's, ridetech's 415hp/381tq 2004 Marauder DTR - 46k 100% Bone Stock 1987 Colony Park - Money Pit
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#2734488 - 07/15/13 06:10 AM
Re: There I fixt it. (Town Car Repair Thread)
[Re: BigMerc96]
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Over the Hill
Registered: 10/19/10
Posts: 4071
Loc: Ohio
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I hear ya on being f'ed over by putting off tires. Glad you got it a little more intact.
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'91 Wrangler, far from stock '22 Tacoma SR5 4x4 And I knew a boat wasn't a good idea for a standoff. I hope Wrinklypants realizes that now.
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#2734566 - 07/15/13 11:50 AM
Re: There I fixt it. (Town Car Repair Thread)
[Re: BigMerc96]
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Over the Hill
Registered: 12/08/10
Posts: 3214
Loc: Tuna, Texas
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I give you 50/50 odds of the evap canister tripping a check engine light in the next 150 or so miles. That's how long my '04 goes when I reset the light before the malfunctioning evap ssytem triggers the light again. Good job putting the town car back together. She's good for another 150K miles now!
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1978 Grand Marquis 1996 Ford Thunderbird 2001 Jaguar S-Type
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#2734573 - 07/15/13 12:12 PM
Re: There I fixt it. (Town Car Repair Thread)
[Re: Robert_Allen]
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I know nothing
Posting Addict
Registered: 06/05/10
Posts: 19872
Loc: I can see Detroit from here!
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Thanks everyone! Its REALLY strange having 2 properly aimed headlights again. Its also really strange to be able to see the whole hood ornament from the drivers seat and not just the top 3/4 of it. Since I took these pics I repositioned the hood latch so that the hood now sits level with the header panel. I give you 50/50 odds of the evap canister tripping a check engine light in the next 150 or so miles. That's how long my '04 goes when I reset the light before the malfunctioning evap ssytem triggers the light again. Good job putting the town car back together. She's good for another 150K miles now! As long as I've had this car its had a stored pending code for a P0455 (or whatever the code is for large EVAP leak), and its popped the light on a handfull of times, but only once since the accident. I have a cheapie code reader in the glove box so I just clear them when the light comes on. \ Another odd thing is, this car used to do this surging idle/stalling/thing that I found an old TSB for that points to a fault in the EVAP system (the fix involves a redesigned filler neck and a couple different sensors). Well, the car has not displayed any of these symptoms since the accident. I also probably would not have put new tires on the car and thus wouldn't have found the 2 bad ball joints, pitman arm, and idler arm if I hadn't had the accident in January. So maybe wrecking the car was really not the worst thing to happen to it. It drives so much better than it ever did with the responsive and sticky tires and the new tight front suspension. It just looks worse. As for it going another 150k miles, I'm sure it'd run that long (it runs great), but I'm just as sure that the rust will have claimed it by then. That is unless I start racking up the miles alot quicker than my usual 15k a year. Side note: yesterday was the one year anniversary of the Merc's death, which means that as of next Tuesday, I'll have owned this thing 1 full year. It has cost me more $$ in that year than the Merc did in the entire 3 years I owned it. Not including repairs to stuff I broke..
_________________________
-Steve 2006 Audi A6 ~132k miles, stock. 1998 Mercury Grand Marquis LS HPP ~100k miles, slowly acquiring modifications. 1997 Town Car Cartier ~145k miles, Ported Plenum, Gutted Airbox, Contour E-fan Retrofit, Dual exhaust with Magnaflows, cats deleted, MSD Ignition, KYB Gas-A-Justs, P71 front bar, air ride reinstated, Projector retrofit, Caddy 4-note horn retrofit, Wood rim steering wheel retrofit, holistic weight reduction as the parts fall off.. 1996 Mercury Grand Marquis GS 117,485mi. R.I.P. 7/14/12
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#2734734 - 07/15/13 08:52 PM
Re: There I fixt it. (Town Car Repair Thread)
[Re: BigMerc96]
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Poobah
Registered: 06/19/05
Posts: 5435
Loc: Miami Beach&Brooklyn N.Y.
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Nice job!! Very nice looking car!! I hardly see any 97 Town Cars on the street down here anymore.
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05 Crown Vic/LX/260K miles [sold] 2016 Chevrolet Tahoe LT
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#2736057 - 07/18/13 09:07 PM
Re: There I fixt it. (Town Car Repair Thread)
[Re: BigMerc96]
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Over the Hill
Registered: 09/21/06
Posts: 4379
Loc: Indiana
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Very nice, I like threads with pics showing a repair and replacement of some sort!
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