[t-tung]

It's been quite a while. Figured I'd post up some 90% finished glamour shots of this project. I've got it running and driving (fairly well). Still trying to get the rearend situated the way I want so I can put some goodies in the engine. I was debating on a 4 link and coils or ladder bars and coilovers but, instead, I'm keeping it simple and cheap. I'm leaving the leaves under it and going with an off-road style traction bar shackled to a crossmember to keep the pinion from pointing skyward when I get on it and a panhard bar to keep the axle from moving side to side. Right now I've got my shocks at too much of an inward angle rendering them useless. I'm going to straighten them up welding all new upper and lower mounts. Also, the stock crossmember behind the cab is coming out in favor of a tubular crossmember that is bent up and out of the way of the driveshaft so they won't make contact anymore. Gawd is thought an awful sound/feeling �� Other than those few details in the back, the plan is cam/heads/converter and piecing together the stock A/C system out of the Tahoe and getting it going, though I'm not sure in what order I'm going to do those two. It's getting HOT down here in Texas! Oh yeah, and I need to clear coat it. I was using Yamashield on it to protect the patina but it's just no match for this humid air living on the island.

Overall, it was a fun build. There were definitely plenty of weeks straight I was pulling my hair out and wanting to light it on fire (not really but I think we've all been there). I'll list a few here...
1: GM PS pump/ Ford Rack & Pinion... they don't play well together until you buy the $16 shim kit to bring the GM pump down from ( THINK ) 1600psi to around 900 where the Ford R&P is happy.
2: Another fairly simple problem (or so you would think) is plugging the big sensor port on the R&P next to the input shaft. I STILL don't know what the sensor is called, but it takes a big ace hydraulic ORB plug to fill it.....and I STILL couldn't get it to seal correctly.... that is until I JBwelded that d*mn thing in. Believe me l, I tried plugging it the "correct" way. I've tried several different plugs. Just couldn't take it anymore. JB Weld it is
3: Wheels. Running the wide Marauder member up front and narrow Exploder 8.8 in the rear proved to be tough to find wheels I liked with the correct positive and negative offset I needed. If you've got the money, this isn't a problem. I just couldn't/didn't want to shell out $3000 for a set of wheels.... though some Welds would look absolutely killer on it �� Ended up running some spacers in the rear. Also, Fatman is making narrow control arms for crown Vic swaps but they can keep them right now for $900 a set.
4: LED tail lights and my ECM didn't get along well. It went into limp mode. Figured it out after some reading and installed some resistors. Worked for a while until one of the resistors burned up or got disconnected. Started giving me a dead pedal. Didn't realize it because my taillight was still working so I was swapping pedals and TAC modules and throttle bodies out. Long story short, put traditional bulbs tail lights in it an (knock on wood) it's been running well ever since.

I'll try to dig through and find some more build pics. If you've got any questions at all on the Crown Vic/Mercury Maruader swap, ask away and I'll try to help any way I can. It CAN be done and it's actually a lot easier than I expected. All the guys on the internet saying it CAN'T be done were actually motivation for me doing it. Thanks fellas �� It's drives like a dream.