2004 CVLX. 134k. Moonroof, steering wheel HVAC/stereo, EATC, cloth interior. RUST. It was a NY car for the first three years of its life, then bought in '07 by the CVNer I bought the car from.
The seller is moving to FL next week and needed to offload the car quick. It's worth more than I paid for it. I didn't need or want a car, but he threw that number at me and I couldn't resist.
The car needs brakes - BADLY. Super soft pedal, and the rotors and pads are trash. I suspect a leaky brake line somewhere, too. Steering shaft is pretty seized up and PB Blaster didn't do anything to help it. Luckily, I've got one of those on hand. It might also need a blower motor resistor, because that's finicky. But the A/C is cold and it passed emissions...
No idea what it looks like underneath. For $200, I didn't feel like crouching down...or checking fluids.
(Plus, I didn't wanna look a gift horse in the mouth.)
I mean, I could sell the A/S tires for half of the purchase price and still get $300 scrap. I'll inspect further whenever I get around to tossing brakes on this turd.
Again, words have very different definitions to you and me. A car in that condition, as long as the underneath was solid and it ran right would be worth a lot more than that here.
Unless that car has deteriorated significantly, I doubt it!
While I have your attention, what does the dealer do with recalled steering shafts that are still functional? I like to have one on hand just in case I buy a $600 car. I just used my last one, which was given to me by pantera77 and was in my inventory for damn near 3 years...
But I’d say it was time:
Believe it or not, this isn’t even the worst one I’ve ever seen...but it’s way worse than the one that failed on my old 2004 MGM.
Yes, the Beast has deteriorated quite a bit . The only thing holding the rocker moldings on is static cling, the trunk floor's beginning to look very suspect, there's considerable bubbling below the gas door on the left quarter and around the wheel opening on the left, and there's a pretty good sized hole in the driver's footwell. One more winter's going to be about it for this car I'm afraid. One has to remember that it DID come from the Brine Capital of Ohio, the city of Independence, and they put that evil stuff down any time it gets below 70F . Mechanically it's still pretty much bulletproof.
It was whisper quiet for 60 miles. Now I’ve got a hole somewhere else. Sounds like maybe near the flange by the rear cats. Need to put in the air tomorrow and see. Maybe I’ll get lucky and just get to buy a cheap ass catback for it.
The flange area failed so I called on my buddy to raid his junk pile. He found an old P71 exhaust so we decided to put it on. The pipes came from a car equipped with fire suppression so it has the little pads wrapped around it by the axle/gas tank. Of course, I didn't take a picture.
He had a couple near empty spray cans around, so I decided to finally do a bumper tuck and make it look a little less crappy.
Man, that actually makes the trunk pan on my Town Car look structurally sound. Mine made an effort at self preservation by having the factory jack fall onto a 5qt jug of oil, which leaked all into the trunk. I didn't notice it for probably a few days when I saw a wet spot under the rear of the car where I usually park at work. Plus side is that I now know where all the holes are in the trunk floor and they're now encapsulated in oil. Down side is I now know where all the holes in the trunk floor are and I lost a 5qt jug of fresh MaxLife.
I'm kinda curious about the heat shields on your duals. I wonder if Ford didn't just repurpose the heat shields they used to put on the tailpipes of air suspension equipped cars. My '98 doesn't have them, but the '97 does and so did the duals I put on the '96.
I'm kinda curious about the heat shields on your duals. I wonder if Ford didn't just repurpose the heat shields they used to put on the tailpipes of air suspension equipped cars. My '98 doesn't have them, but the '97 does and so did the duals I put on the '96.
Kinda. This was just a quick snap I took after I pulled the passenger side tailpipe off of it after it broke at the muffler weld. You can see the shield welded to it on the over-axle bend. My guess is it was done because the pipes do come somewhat close to the air springs.
Definitely not the same. Mine are padded and just affixed to the pipes with something similar to a band strap or hose clamp or something. If I ever crawl under that side of the car again, I'll snap a picture.
Haha!! I hear you, but I stand by my statement. I love stuff like this!
My friends & I have had expensive cars and dirt cheap cars, but a lot of the FUN is similar to build either.
Dirt cheap budget builds make you think really hard how to get the maximum for zero-to-minimal dollars.
I'd have already had the buffer on the paint of this car to 1) improve my correction/scratch repair skills with zero concern of damage if I made a mistake 2) experiment if really damaged paint is even repairable (I've been very surprised what Presta Ultra Cutting Creme & wool pad on a rotary can do to completely dead paint)
I'd also be in the junkyard for a P71 intake & complete axle assembly with gears deeper than 2.73. (at my yard the cost would be $100 for both)
Ebay for a dirt cheap unlocked SCT X3 ($75-100) & then Marty tune ($150)
Of course all of this is not counting the value of your labor... But if you were willing to fight with an exhaust manifold that rotted in half....obviously you ain't afraid of a little hard work!!!
Got some free parts from a pal. Lipstick on a pig - engine cover edition:
Also tried my hand at smoking headlights and was surprised that they came out better than the picture indicates. Unfortunately, upon install, the cheapo housings have such terrible fit and finish that they look crooked AND won't aim properly. They're so bad that I might go back to the hazed over stockers.
Oh, I've tried every trick in the book with the old housings. Gone so far as to sand them and try to polish them out with rubbing compound. They are atrocious.
Can you swap the adjustment/mounting hardware over from the old housings? I've seen a few where that got them to fit properly. The smoked lights turned out good. Its relatively easy to do. But why no projector retrofit while you had em out? That's just another 10 minutes of work once they're already open. Can be done for less than half what you paid for the car, so no need to worry about increasing its value too much.
Can you swap the adjustment/mounting hardware over from the old housings? I've seen a few where that got them to fit properly.
That's an idea. I hadn't even considered it.
Originally Posted By BigMerc96
But why no projector retrofit while you had em out? That's just another 10 minutes of work once they're already open. Can be done for less than half what you paid for the car, so no need to worry about increasing its value too much.
That is entirely too much work and money to put into this car. The smoked headlights cost me maybe $15, since I had to buy a new X-acto Knife to replace the one I lost.
I won't let it get that far. Gonna 'glass it on Sunday if I have the energy after work. If I can make it last through this winter, I'll consider it a major win...and probably send it to pasture afterward.
Yesterday, I used some Gutter Guard, fiberglass cloth, and resin putty (never used that stuff before - sorta weird) and globbed the trunk back to watertight. It looks atrocious, but is functionally a decent repair.
The 'glass set up real nice as I was aggressive with the hardener. Of course, then I sprayed it with undercoating:
I think my sport parts car would be an improvement over your daily driver, despite the fender, the underside and trunk was mint compared to your car lol
I know the feeling. If the Town Car's rocker covers attached the same way a CV/GMQ's do, I would not have them. There is nothing left of the rockers on that car, just the inner "rail" that is the pinch weld where the panels all come together. I had a habit of knocking my shoes on the rockers when getting into the car if they had snow on them. I had to stop doing that because of the piles of rust I was finding in my parking spots. At least I knew where to park.
I am legitimately surprised the LTC still even exists. The last time I saw it was I think STAP 2014 (?) and you could see through the trunk THEN.
Me too, actually. When I bought it, I thought I'd be doing good if it lasted 2 years. Its been 8. I haven't driven it regularly in almost 2 years, but there's nothing keeping it out of DD status besides the fact that its an "extra" car at this point and I still haven't decided what to do with it. To put it back on the road right now, it would need 1 tire and a battery. It was going to get a set of snow tires, but then I bought an Audi I didn't need instead.
Well, last night was fun. I went to pick up a pizza and realized my headlights weren't working. I was really in the mood for pizza, so I did the right thing and just held the brights on the whole way there and back. Oops.
Called the dealer this morning and scheduled the LCM recall appointment. Can't wait to see their reaction when I bring that turd through the bay doors.
Today, I took the LX in to Classic Ford (Mentor, OH) for the LCM recall repair. Previously, I'd had the recall performed on my '04 MGM at Ganley Ford (Middleburg Heights, OH) and it was done in under an hour. The service adviser, Olivia, had quoted me about the same time.
I was rather shocked when Olivia came out to the waiting area a short time later and said that in fact, they were anticipating a 3-4 hour total job time once the car was actually out of queue and being worked on.
I sighed and figured I would have someone come pick me up; Olivia then offered to try and find a loaner despite this not normally qualifying. She wanted to 'make it right' that I was quoted a waitable time that she didn't think the dealer would be able to honor. So I agreed, and a short time later, was placed into a 2019 Ecosport.
I decided to see if the vehicle lived up to its name by giving it a healthy hit of the gas pedal getting on the highway. Nope, no 'Sport'. Let's try Eco by resetting the MPGs and cruising at 80mph for a while. Nope, nothin' doin' there either. I was around 27mpg at that cruise speed. I finally got it up into the 30s when I exited onto a secondary highway and cruised at 55mph:
I'd like to know who decided that a fridge-opening tailgate was a better idea than a liftgate.
I got home, made some lunch, and got a call about 30min later saying the car was done. Apparently, the 1hr fix is still do-able. So I went back in the Ecosport and saw my first Coronavirus patient.
Not sure why they left the Vic inside - maybe they didn't want it trashing up the outside of the dealer.
I can assure you that the tailgate is asinine in person. No reasonable adult would say "boy, sure am glad this isn't a liftgate, the side open is way better"
Re: 2004 CVLX - new winter beater, new CVN price! - 03/10/2009:40 AM
Same way Ford did it, but with a single handle. Bear-claw latches at the upper left and lower right. Household door handle turns both ways, working a rocker and cables. Push it down, the bottom cable actuates the lower right latch and it opens like a door. Pull it up, upper cable actuates the upper left latch and it's a tailgate. Upper right latch is the standard slider type, actuated by cables on both sides of the rocker. Then it was just a matter of welding a heavy gate hinge into the left-hand tailgate pivot. Took about a month to figure out how to make it happen, but only a couple days to put together. It was my first welding project, and I surprised myself by not making a pig's ear of it.
