Checked the rest of the spark plugs.

MFW I checked them:

About 5 out of the 8 plugs had backed out around halfway or so. I was driving a plug shooting time bomb for about 20k after I did the plugs. I'm surprised it ran as well as it did.

When I did the plugs then, I was worried about stripping them, so I followed the rule of tighten until snug, and then only ever so much more because I don't have a torque wrench. Bad idea. I hope no damage has occurred to the threads, although everything seemed to tighten down fine.

Top of Christmas list: Torque Wrench. No exceptions.

Showed a hippie in a Nissan Vespa that his car isnt as fast as he thinks it is.

Took it out of town last weekend to see friends and other members in LA for a much needed weekend away. Went drag racing and also to Motor4Toys while I was out of town, so it was a super fun trip with lots of smiles and laughs. Chris had RocketCouch and Casper out, it's always a pleasure to see Chris and his cars out at the meets.

This was the first time I have driven the car more then 15 miles in almost 3 months. It was nice to take it on a trip and stretch it's legs. reminded me why these cars are so nice for long trips.

Now it is back in it's dungeon for probably the remainder of the year.

very nice Mr. Smug

Drove it all over the place to track down some oil for it. Its due for an oil change pretty soon, and its supposed to be warm-ish over the next couple of days, so that became the plan. Apparently 5w20 MaxLife is hard to find, I went thru 3 different WalMarts and none of them had any. So I paid a couple $$ more and got some at meijer.

I asked a woman stocking oil at the 3rd WalMart and apparently they have a shop that buys upwards of $2k on just MaxLife 5w20, 5w30 and 10w30 every month, and as a result they are having a hard time keeping any on the shelves. WalMart can apparently get it to them cheaper than their supplier can. That really doesn't surprise me at all seeing as our price on it at work for our top-tier commercial customers is still a dollar or 2 higher than WalMart's retail price. Its quite a bit cheaper than my employee price on it as well. I can get Motorcraft filters cheaper with employee discount than I can get them elsewhere, so thats okay I guess.

All together, oil change with Valvoline MaxLife 5w20 and a Motorcraft FL-820s cost me a whopping $22.50. It might not make sense to drive around looking for something like that just to save a couple bucks, but I enjoy driving around, so its all good.

I looked at the car briefly as I was turning the lights to the garage off.

Welp got into an accident & now my hood won't close..

I hope you're okay?!

I'm ok. I just wish this didn't happen at all & after I got it painted. They hood not closing is crazy dangerous so I'm trying fix that right now

You live in California and store your car in winter?

I realized that I need to fix the gas gauge, cause I ran out on the way home.

Last night I drove the Merc five blocks to my kid's school. I didn't bother putting my seat belt on. I noticed that the chime must be disabled in this LCM. The light flashes but no noise.

Just tried to aim my headlights. Go figure, the headlight that is the most out of aim is also the one with seized adjusters. Its also the only original headlight to this car. Drivers side is pointed WAY far to the right, so I fixed that, but the passenger side that is pointed at the ground, won't budge. Thanks rust.

Guess I'll have to pull an adjuster off of one of my spare headlights. Not a big deal, but I was hoping this would go smoothly. Nothing seems to go smoothly.

I replaced my burned-out right headlight before I get nabbed for it. Police are out in force looking for DUI's (Hey! It's Christmas! Drink up!) and they'll use any excuse to pull someone over for a citation.

The guy who designed the headlights for the Grand Marquis was a sadist... I had to yank the grille to get the headlight assembly out, and even then it was a hassle squeezing it between the header and the bumper cover. Many expletives were airborne within my garage...

Why aren't headlight bulbs on sale when yours is burned out? (Murphy knows, but he won't tell.)

Not as bad as town car lights. you nearly have to pull the header panel.