Crown Victoria Police Interceptor

[lindrup119]

I'm in the process of immigrating to the states, and of course I had to get the most important thing sorted first, some wheels.

I wanted cheap, easy to fix as I'm fairly inexperienced, and a V8.

I ended up with this for just under $2500.

It's got 212k miles, a trunk boot that could hold three bodies, a spotlight, a cabin divider, and most importantly a simple 4.6l V8.

It's not without it's faults obviously. First off I bought the car knowing it had a misfire, the dealership told me it was cylinder 2. Why would they lie?! It was cylinders 2, 3 and 5. So 8 new plugs and coils went in and fixed that. There was liquid in the wells so I'm thinking leaky hose somewhere. Next was the drivers side window that was stuck down. After testing the switches I replaced the regulator only to find it was the up switch on the master set (dipst = me), but at least now it works.











The rest of the list? Well where do I start. It's mostly little niggles and cosmetic issues but here it is.

- washer reservoir/pipe leaking (in the pic you can see the empty bottle that I topped it up with, and the contents of said bottle running straight out the bottom end)
- loosen/rebuild spotlight as it's jammed stuck (I debated removing it but it'll leave a hole in the frame that I really can't be arsed to fill - and if it's gonna be there for comedy value, it might as well work)
- rattle spray rear quarter panel (all the stickers came off at the dealership pre sale, except one gold stripe on the rear panel that was painted on)
- remove backboxes (keep cats) and decide if it's too loud or just right
- solve airbag light
- solve new CEL (fuel temp sensor if I can remember)
- $20 seat covers, new stereo with AUX, full service, etc.

And that's it for now. Probably won't/can't do too much to it apart from tart it up and run it. Cheers for reading.

Edited by lindrup119 on Wednesday 29th March 15:23

[lindrup119]

No shotgun mount I'm afraid. I did find a couple of AIDS protection kits and latex gloves in the boot but nothing else interesting.

Yep I've come across the Marauder and Grand Marquis etc., why do you ask?

Will be based in Canton eventually, looking forward to life back out in the "countryside" as I'm moving from London, but originally from the middle of bumfk nowhere in Lancashire. The car came from McCaysville all the way up top.

[lindrup119]

J4CKO said:

arent slow but they arent going to trouble a hot hatch

Exactly. When I'd fixed the misfire I took it out for a drive to try and clear the CEL. I was nice and gentle to it at first but then I really wanted to open it up and see a) the speed and b) the noise. B delivered, A not so much

The 4 spd with Overdrive does a good job of encouraging you to bumble around instead of race, which is definitely the MO for this thing, and Atlanta traffic is fully ste anyway.

[lindrup119]

5ohmustang said:

J4CKO said:

Oof, love a crown Vic, sort of the dictionary definition of a car, I think a lot miss the point and see V8 and expect some road burning monster, the interceptor ones arent slow but they arent going to trouble a hot hatch, its the way they lope along, huge space, very comfy and most importantly, seemingly indestructible, and pretty simple.

Went in a Taxi one that the owner driver had installed a claimed 500 bhp engine in, was certainly rapid

The engine I believe is the 2v 4.6 v8 modular motor from the mustang, the same one from the Mg zt, I think.

The mercury maurauder had the mustang Mach one engine, the 3v twin cam v8. You could easily get 500bhp on the 3v, the 2v don't really respond well to Bolton's, you would need a supercharger to hit 500bhp on a 2v, op correct me if I am wrong please.

I haven't done much tuning research on this engine at all. It's never going to set the world on fire so unless my plans drastically change (lottery win) I'll be leaving it mostly standard.

I do ride bikes. I started off as a London commuter then got bitten by the bug hard. On the way up to collect this thing I actually said to the OH that I'd be back with a bike (KTM 690/Husq 701 hopefully) one day, the roads are excellent. Where are you based?

[lindrup119]

5ohmustang said:

Every time I see a crown Vic, I slow down and this plays in my head
Https://youtu.be/GazE8PAL-DE. You know you have played that on aux while you drive.

Ktm 690 enduro would be very nice. I am in the SE corner of TN, find Canton, go straight up, literally straight up.

You probably saw this one driving around then if you've been in to McCaysville

It's great on the motorways as everyone moves over, but the lanes results in everyone driving at bang on the limit. As soon as I have an AUX port that'll be on the playlist. The OH has to stop me saying this at every chance I get to roll the window down: https://youtu.be/Kl_sRb0uQ7A?t=32s

[lindrup119]

Cloth in the front. Leather/vinyl (wipe-down ) in the back. I'll probably take the divider out at as it ruins rear legroom, but I don't have many passengers in there so for now it's in for the laughs. The rear door mechanisms have been disconnected for the inside as well so the child-lock switch does nothing. Don't think I'll ever bother fixing it though, I'll just have to chauffeur.

[lindrup119]

Sensibleboy said:

There's a video on YouTube of them putting the chassis from one of these under some old pickup. It's quite interesting.

Hot Rod Garage, Episode 49. Very recent if that's the one you're talking about and worth a watch as you say. Roadkill also messed around with one a while ago but not their best episode.

Cheers for the tip on ChrisFix, have seen some of his stuff but missed the CVPI ones.

Brownie points would have been awarded for knowing that the P73s were unmarked with de-police-ified exteriors. (although to be fair I only found that out when reading the wiki page before buying this one)

[lindrup119]

The painted gold stripe...

[lindrup119]

FiF said:

Goofnik said:

OP, why is doggo under arrest?

Keeping watch for other candidates for the bad parking thread?

Knew I'd take heat for that

[lindrup119]

So after two months away, and having forgotten to disconnect the battery, the interceptor was dead. It fired up after a quick jump though and I took off the inch of crap that had gathered on it as it had been under a tree since I'd been gone.

After it was cleaned (relative term) I decided I didn't want the gold stripe anymore, so I reckoned a budget strip down and respray was the way to go. I'm a complete amateur at this stuff so the idea wasn't to get a perfect panel, but to replace the gold stripe with a white one that looked slightly better. Every other panel on the car has a crack or paint problem so I wasn't too worried about butchering it.

I bought some sanding blocks from Lowes, working from 220 all the way up to 1500 wet and dry, and then used 3 coats of white primer (wet and drying in between coats). It's not perfect, and it could probably do with some actual paint on it and some lacquer. But it's white enough for me and it'll do for now!

[lindrup119]

Update time.



I briefly considered selling the car as it won't be used much over the next 10 months due to my temporary return to the UK. Then I changed my mind. Partly because it's thrown a new engine code (P0420) and I'm pretty sure there's an exhaust leak. I didn't want to sell it on with the problem, and didn't want to have to sell it too cheap because of it. Plus I figure, when I'm back maybe I can spend far too much money on this thing and treat it to a full exhaust system.

Since then, I've generally tidied up the car and fixed bits and bobs on the interior and under the bonnet. Got bored one weekend and coloured in the tyre letters. Got bored another weekend and bought new seats off Craigslist (didn't get murdered) for $75. Out came the old ones and out came the divider which was fking heavy. The new seats came from a Marauder but the drivers side was an electric seat with an electric seat subframe. Cue extra swearing and an extra couple of hours cannibalising the old seat to get from this...





To this...









I also found this under the drivers seat...






Unless I decide to strip the exhaust off before heading back to the UK next month there probably won't be any more updates on this. Thanks for reading this far.

Edited by lindrup119 on Friday 22 March 19:58

[lindrup119]

Yep sorry, think they did come from a GMarquis not a Marauder actually.

They also had a front lap belt and buckle so when the armrests are up you can squeeze in a 6th passenger but I cut them out.

Yep that's a hollow point. To protect and serve ha