Thanks for letting me know. I wasn't sure if my install was exactly correct.
A lot has happened, some of which I'm extremely grieved by.
I'll get to the bad stuff in a moment.
Blend Door Actuator
The biggest issue with the actuator is the two-piece design. The arm is brittle and gets split by the shaft. This was the case with mine.
I used super glue and baking soda and finally a zip-tie to completely solidly attach the arm to the shaft. This is a good long-term fix, as baking soda and super glue always is.
Console
I rebuilt and degreased all of the components of the console, cup holder and ash tray. My ash tray lid is broken in pieces so I sutured the pieces for now and will be looking for a replacement. Not that I'll ever use the ash tray, but hey I like things as original as possible; assuming original condition is best anyway.
The center console compartment is flocked. Let me first say that the car has suffered a few severe fills of Big Gulps in its tenure. Sometimes orange Fanta, sometimes Cola. It has saturated the compartment, cup holders, ash tray, shifting components, carpet, seat and floor mats. I will be mentioning the clean-up quite often.
The flocked material was syrupy and otherwise dirt ridden. I was able to soak this in a very mild solution of the Super Clean. Dabbing with just a paper towel made it good as new. The glove compartment is cleaned in the same way.
The cup-holder was soaked in a stronger solution for a long time and thoroughly rinsed. Without the buildup of old degraded grease and soda syrup, the cup holder springs open just like new!
The ash tray was worst. It's clean now but I unplugged the lighter socket and removed the bulb socket because it will never be useful. Instead I'm going to install a power socket in the bottom of the center compartment. There is actually a removable piece on the bottom that is intended for the cell phone and even has the leads there ready to supply power. My cell phone will live in this compartment and will be able to connect to the new head unit I'm planning on. This connection will supply data and power.
Speaker Grilles
The foam that masks the rear speakers has long perished. I don't like being able to see the components behind the grille, so the old foam is cleaned up and I mask it now with Typar. It looks fine now in the sunlight!
One grille with the perished foam and one grille with Typar.
Seat Motors
As I posted previously, I intended to clean and recondition the motors. I've changed my mind as the gearbox is the biggest issue.
Instead, I've taken a new gearbox and set of motors.
I had the choice of an '06 Town Car or an '04 Grand Marquis. I know that Town Cars also have the easy entry feature, which means the forward/reverse motor is used every time the car is driven. With the Grand Marquis, no automatic seat functions exist. This was a no-brainer, I took the Mercury motors and gearbox.
Once I opened everything up, I saw that the commutators were in excellent condition and showed very little wear! I plugged them in and everything worked perfectly!
I did have two hangups.
1. The sensors for the memory function do not fit the later style motors. I had to put all of the brushes and rear bearings into the Mark VIII's original rear cover.
2. When I plugged it into the car to try, the forward/reverse motor as well as the rear tilt motor were reverse-poled. I swapped the pins in the connector and now everything works exactly as intended!
Seat Foam Repair
I will move on to the upper part of the seat another time, but for now here is my lower cushion repair.
The outside bolster had a hole worn through it, it even went through the leather. I had it repaired, but I'll bring that up later.
For the foam, I stuffed new foam to fill the gap. Then, to ensure it will not wear through again, I used Typar to reinforce it.
The bottom of the cushion is being sawed apart by the wire supports underneath. I used Typar yet again to reinforce this area.
The rear of this interior is definitively
complete!
