I’ve been waiting on space honestly. the shop is too full and we split it four ways so I can’t get the truck in just yet. I’ve always driven the focus as much as possible during the spring/summer/fall as I didn’t spend all the time on it to keep it parked.
the ECU came back a few days ago from being sent out for a tune and PATS delete.
I have everything I need to bolt this all into the truck…all I have left once it’s all bolted in is wiring, brake and fuel lines, and a set of crown vic steelies. I had a week off work recently and wanted to get a bunch done on the truck, but nothing fell into place.
2012 goes back may 31st, just had the turn-in inspection this morning actually.
those fit the “vintage” look of the truck but compared to the P71 wheels they may as well be cheerleader Barbie V6 Mustang specials
Is it really that hard to find a set of cop wheels? Ridiculous considering that car was in service all over the country getting bounced off curbs for almost 2 decades
I really wanted the 17" cop car wheels, but all I can find locally so far has been the 16" ones. I really thought they’d be easy to find at M&M but the cab companies ditch them sans wheels/tires so everytime one is there it’s laying on the ground on the frame/hubs
I know this is taking forever, but I’ve been doing too much motorcycle stuff. finally made some space in the shop and pushed the truck in. Last night I tore down the entire front end body-wise and removed the power steering pump, and set up some reference markings and measurements to swap to the crown vic front suspension. Today after work I’m gonna grab some pipe to brace the front of the frame so nothing moves when I take out the existing crossmember with cutting wheels and big hammers. If I’m lucky I might be able to get the crown vic parts bolted in tonight but I’m not holding my breath…
also scored on CL a set of 16" crown vic steelies with tires for $40, and then got dog dish center caps for $30. the tires aren’t a matched set so I’m gonna have some fun with them before mounting up some new ones.
cross member is welded in and the spring mounts are riveted. I left the ends for now, they’ll add strength and as long as they’re not in the way of the crown vic front suspension I’ll leave them there. I’m planning to box in the front of the frame a bit anyways.
so the remaining ends of the old crossmember were in fact in the way. what a pain in the nuts getting at all the welds to cut them out. Anyways, got about 3hrs into it last night and here’s where I’m at.
existing holes in the frame actually were dead nuts where the locating pins on the Crown Vic crossmember needed to go, just needed opened up to a larger diameter. Once I got to that point I marked and started drilling 1"Dia holes to sleeve the frame for the bolts that go from the bottom of the aluminum crossmember through the frame to the top cast mount. I ran out of charged up batteries in the cordless drill, then went to use the air drill and the airline popped. I cut the airline behind where it popped and put the end back on, and it popped immediately again. Called it a night there.
here’s where the sleeves will be welded in. still have to drill the bottom holes on this side (passenger) and all four holes on the driver side are left to drill.
how are you marking hole centers for the holes you want to cut for the sleeves? just trace with sharpie, or use transfer punch to mark center and then just drill appropriate diameter? either way it looks like you kept a nice close tolerance on the top 2.
