BlackIceLSC
Dedicated LVC Member
Here's a little story for you all. From a while back...
The day I bought my 94 back in 2003, my brother-in-law Tommy drove it and HAD to have one. I searched for weeks and found him a filthy, but solid 93 Garnet red/black mark VIII with all options. He fell in love.
Through the years we've fed it bits and pieces as it aged...but it's been a great car. It's been repainted twice by his friend and the most recent was 3 weeks ago.
Sadly, the gleaming red 93 Mark VIII met its demise 3 nights ago.
Here is the day we brought it home...I spent maybe 5 hours and 3 cans of elbow grease to make her shine for him....the first two pictures are from 2003 when he first bought it and I detailed it for him...
before detail
and here's is AFTER all the hard detail work
AND now, 12 years later... here she is after getting dumped off the tow truck at his shop 3 nights ago:
So he has decided since we have 3 near-complete parts cars, not to turn it in to insurance since they'll total it. Today we're going to strip it down to the core and start rebuilding it.
Radiator has a leak, power steering line is torn, and windshield washer bottle is cracked...other than that it runs and drives fine.
I'll take photos along the way to show the rebuilding. I told him we should just scrap it, and transplant the black interior in to the Chameleon Blue 95 he has along with the spare engine and transmission he has waiting for a car....his response was "I will not...I love this car"
And so it begins.
spent the day yesterday stripping broken, mangled, bent, and now-worthless parts off the wrecked front clip.
Then I browsed ebay for some parts, only to find out that as time passes pretty much everything on these cars increases in value...either that or the SELLERS think they are worth more.
I found a fiberglass header panel for $300!..that's INSANE!. It takes 5 minutes to remove one, and we have 3 in our lot...so the fun began.
8mm, 10mm, 12mm, and clip removal tool, a saw-z-all, and a air chisel and the front core support was gone. Battery had a hole in it and the ABS controller had bent lines so fluid was everywhere...
Got the grinder out and cleaned the welding spots and remnants of the old body welds down to prep for welding the header on:
Then we carted the tools out back and played eenie-meenie-miney-mo to decide which car was the best donor. Found the 93 that already had the front bumper and fender off, still had a good radiator and condenser for the A/C and stripped the front header and core off.
You need to drill out the 40+ body welds with a 1/8" drill bit and then a weld cutting bit to free up the header so it can be removed without damage for easy welding on to the wrecked car. That took nearly and hour to do neatly.
Of course, while the front clip was off I decided the water pump needed to be replaced. It's a 5 minute job when there's nothing in front of it!
The header was then set in place to make sure the frame rails and crush beams were square...it fell right in with minimal persuasion!
Just have to clean up the edges and get it welded in. Then it'll get welded in place, some body seal and paint prep.
Every single part that was damaged, we have at least 3 spares so nothing needs to be purchased except Tommy wants NEW headlights...we cant find any new ones so I am frantically searching for a cherry set of used ones.
I am also thinking I will start selling a lot of the parts we have since it seems they are hard to find and I can make a killing even at 1/2 the price some sellers are asking. problem is, not many left out there that need parts anymore.
I wont be there to help re-assemble the car since I'll be at work but I'll update as much as I can.
I also see why these cars get "totaled" so easily in a wreck. This was 2 guys for 6 hours, used parts, and only 1/2 way through.
Monday the core support was welded in, the radiator/condenser, all the ABS controller lines, all electrical connections, hood and bumper were all snatched from the parts car and installed.
*the bumper is just set in place to check alignment.
New headlights are on the way...now just to find a nice grill and PAINT!!!
Amazing the turn-around 2 NON-body shop guys can do...total out of pocket expense is less than $500 (including having the air bags replaced and dyed to match, used headlights off ebay, and a new front license plate holder on its way from Ford.)
SO, from beginning to end.
all assembled...except waiting for a new grill to arrive and then paint.
new(ish) headlights found on ebay are now installed.
next week we'll slap the new front license plate holder, then paint, then we'll slap the brand new grill on and I'll post final shots.
I needed to wipe the hand prints off the chrome brow before taking pics!
Here is the car heading off the paint.
NEW grill and almost brand new headlights.
Next photos should show the completed project. It has taken a seat on the back burner while we waited for parts to arrive. Had all the parts been here this would have gone to paint 2 days after we started the repair.
.
here's the new grill....and finally, the finished product. Not too shabby for a couple of ham-fisted mechanics huh?
(that's not a scratch across the left side of the hood...it's a reflection of a pole)
So, new air bags on the interior, and she is back together and drives like new...
The day I bought my 94 back in 2003, my brother-in-law Tommy drove it and HAD to have one. I searched for weeks and found him a filthy, but solid 93 Garnet red/black mark VIII with all options. He fell in love.
Through the years we've fed it bits and pieces as it aged...but it's been a great car. It's been repainted twice by his friend and the most recent was 3 weeks ago.
Sadly, the gleaming red 93 Mark VIII met its demise 3 nights ago.
Here is the day we brought it home...I spent maybe 5 hours and 3 cans of elbow grease to make her shine for him....the first two pictures are from 2003 when he first bought it and I detailed it for him...
before detail
and here's is AFTER all the hard detail work
AND now, 12 years later... here she is after getting dumped off the tow truck at his shop 3 nights ago:
So he has decided since we have 3 near-complete parts cars, not to turn it in to insurance since they'll total it. Today we're going to strip it down to the core and start rebuilding it.
Radiator has a leak, power steering line is torn, and windshield washer bottle is cracked...other than that it runs and drives fine.
I'll take photos along the way to show the rebuilding. I told him we should just scrap it, and transplant the black interior in to the Chameleon Blue 95 he has along with the spare engine and transmission he has waiting for a car....his response was "I will not...I love this car"
And so it begins.
spent the day yesterday stripping broken, mangled, bent, and now-worthless parts off the wrecked front clip.
Then I browsed ebay for some parts, only to find out that as time passes pretty much everything on these cars increases in value...either that or the SELLERS think they are worth more.
I found a fiberglass header panel for $300!..that's INSANE!. It takes 5 minutes to remove one, and we have 3 in our lot...so the fun began.
8mm, 10mm, 12mm, and clip removal tool, a saw-z-all, and a air chisel and the front core support was gone. Battery had a hole in it and the ABS controller had bent lines so fluid was everywhere...
Got the grinder out and cleaned the welding spots and remnants of the old body welds down to prep for welding the header on:
Then we carted the tools out back and played eenie-meenie-miney-mo to decide which car was the best donor. Found the 93 that already had the front bumper and fender off, still had a good radiator and condenser for the A/C and stripped the front header and core off.
You need to drill out the 40+ body welds with a 1/8" drill bit and then a weld cutting bit to free up the header so it can be removed without damage for easy welding on to the wrecked car. That took nearly and hour to do neatly.
Of course, while the front clip was off I decided the water pump needed to be replaced. It's a 5 minute job when there's nothing in front of it!
The header was then set in place to make sure the frame rails and crush beams were square...it fell right in with minimal persuasion!
Just have to clean up the edges and get it welded in. Then it'll get welded in place, some body seal and paint prep.
Every single part that was damaged, we have at least 3 spares so nothing needs to be purchased except Tommy wants NEW headlights...we cant find any new ones so I am frantically searching for a cherry set of used ones.
I am also thinking I will start selling a lot of the parts we have since it seems they are hard to find and I can make a killing even at 1/2 the price some sellers are asking. problem is, not many left out there that need parts anymore.
I wont be there to help re-assemble the car since I'll be at work but I'll update as much as I can.
I also see why these cars get "totaled" so easily in a wreck. This was 2 guys for 6 hours, used parts, and only 1/2 way through.
Monday the core support was welded in, the radiator/condenser, all the ABS controller lines, all electrical connections, hood and bumper were all snatched from the parts car and installed.
*the bumper is just set in place to check alignment.
New headlights are on the way...now just to find a nice grill and PAINT!!!
Amazing the turn-around 2 NON-body shop guys can do...total out of pocket expense is less than $500 (including having the air bags replaced and dyed to match, used headlights off ebay, and a new front license plate holder on its way from Ford.)
SO, from beginning to end.
all assembled...except waiting for a new grill to arrive and then paint.
new(ish) headlights found on ebay are now installed.
next week we'll slap the new front license plate holder, then paint, then we'll slap the brand new grill on and I'll post final shots.
I needed to wipe the hand prints off the chrome brow before taking pics!
Here is the car heading off the paint.
NEW grill and almost brand new headlights.
Next photos should show the completed project. It has taken a seat on the back burner while we waited for parts to arrive. Had all the parts been here this would have gone to paint 2 days after we started the repair.
here's the new grill....and finally, the finished product. Not too shabby for a couple of ham-fisted mechanics huh?
(that's not a scratch across the left side of the hood...it's a reflection of a pole)
So, new air bags on the interior, and she is back together and drives like new...
