Crappy Vic

"Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo" (rustyvandura) 02/27/2020 at 13:04 • Filed to: None

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So this guy who is an ace m echanic and fabricator was bending my ear about, “Yeah, just run down to Pick-n-Pull and grab a fender and it’s easy . “Yeah, right ,” says I. Anyhow, when I was actually at Pick-n-Pull, there are a couple of blokes who hang around and pull assemblies for people who pay them cash. $80 to pull a Vic rear end, for example, if I wanted. Dude said he’d replace the full front clip on Crappy Vic for $300. Well.... I sent word to Ace Mechanic Fabricator Dude that the bloke at the junkyard had offered to do the job for $300 and asked whether he’d be interested in doing the job for that price and he said, Sure . And here we are, so far.

The 3.55 Posi rear end is at home in my driveway. Next is deciding whether to replace the clutches before I install the rear end, or wait and see how it performs first. I’m sort of leaning that way...

sony1492 > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 02/27/2020 at 13:19

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With the price bracket the car  resides in, just run the rear end as is.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 02/27/2020 at 13:26

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One of the things that made these so great for cop and taxi service. Take off the old, swap on the new, very easily.

SBA Thanks You For All The Fish > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 02/27/2020 at 13:55

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The guy in front of the Home Depot this morning at 6 said he’d do it for $50.  Do I get a 10% Finder’s Fee?

SBA Thanks You For All The Fish > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 02/27/2020 at 13:56

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Man, did LAPD and CHP have an operation going to keep Crown Vics on the road. They could pretty much build one complete from scratch.

Can’t do that as well with Unibody cars, regrettably.  I’m sure the Chargers are more fun to drive-- more than I can say for the CHP Exploders.

TheTurbochargedSquirrel > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 02/27/2020 at 13:58

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Crappy Vic is looking pretty good, I honestly couldn’t tell if that was yours or if that was the car you were pulling the parts from.

Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 02/27/2020 at 14:16

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You’re supposed to bring it to the Chevy dealer for a rear end replacement, duh.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > SBA Thanks You For All The Fish 02/27/2020 at 14:21

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My aunt hit an animal in the road with one once . I helped replace the front plastic filler piece/grill frame , and was struck by how novel the structure was. “Unbolt this thing from the literal beam that is running down the fender with an attachment flange at the end. Literally like pallet shelving. ”

SBA Thanks You For All The Fish > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 02/27/2020 at 14:27

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Funny, there’s always been a quaint “agricultural” streak in Ford designs of the late 20th Century. That beam (I saw it in my mom’s Mercury Marquis De Sade) is classic- simple, functional, unadorned. But. It works. You can tell they used to build these—

I also think the company’s tendency to “not change it if it still works” carried over to the bad side—- those “automatic transmission shifter mechanism s” that only kept a tenuous grip on the “PARK” position, with a heavy metal lever arm  just dying to drop it into REVERSE??? Didn’t they go like 27 years before enough people had died that they fixed it?

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > SBA Thanks You For All The Fish 02/27/2020 at 14:36

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Driving an ‘02 F250 diesel and my ‘63 Galaxie, there are some uncanny - and odd - similarities. Down to the approximate relation of the door handle to the hand and required tension to open (including the last 5% where you sort of “feel” the latch open) , the lock pins in the doors being level when rear doors are locked/front doors are unlocked, the approximate feeling and arrangement of the seat. ..

NKato > Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies 02/27/2020 at 14:39

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Bruh...

NKato > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 02/27/2020 at 14:40

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welcome to the world of Panthers. You’ve jumped off the deep e nd and found out that it’s easier than the wading pool for modern cars.

SBA Thanks You For All The Fish > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 02/27/2020 at 14:41

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Yes! Exactly! Recycled design elements that you can’t even necessarily see, but you sure get a tactile-memory sense like “Hey, that feels familiar!”.

Of course, Toyota does a lot of that, too... the window regulators, switchgear, controller-- even the Cruise Control box and stalk-- identical in my MR2 and my Land Cruisers.

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 02/27/2020 at 15:08

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Ooo, looking much better! :)

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > sony1492 02/27/2020 at 15:36

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Yeah. The parts with carbon fiber clutches are sub-$200, but there’s a chance what’s in there is just fine.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 02/27/2020 at 15:38

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I had a few 2000 P71s a while back and this 2010 is way  more refined, even with the trashed body.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > SBA Thanks You For All The Fish 02/27/2020 at 15:49

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Unfortunately for me, that puts a lot of otherwise solid Toyota products off the list for me, because I don’t like the “Toyota design flavor”. Not any one thing, nor even an easily-defined set of things, just the “taste”.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > SBA Thanks You For All The Fish 02/27/2020 at 15:59

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Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > TheTurbochargedSquirrel 02/27/2020 at 16:00

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The guy doing the job is as skilled as anyone you’d ever want to meet, but also hard to manage. I suspect the guy from the junk yard would have done alright as well.

Bman76 (hates WS6 hoods, is on his phone and has 4 burners now) > Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies 02/27/2020 at 16:00

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Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars 02/27/2020 at 16:02

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I got the entire front clip with hood, bumper, core support, everything, already pulled, for $350.

SBA Thanks You For All The Fish > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 02/27/2020 at 16:19

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Yeah, it’s funny.  My MR2 has a pretty convincing F348 Body Kit on it (yeah, I know, So Sue me!) and it’s un-nerving to hop in it and feel all the familiar (but very robust and reliable) Land Cruiser elements.

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 02/27/2020 at 17:53

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Yeah, awesome price!

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars 02/27/2020 at 19:01

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I’m pleased about that. It’ll never be an excellent Vic because dents, but it can be a tidy Vic that isn’t a wannabe cop vic , and with the 3.55 rear end, it should be a smoker Vic... And only has 42k miles on the chassis, though doubtless a few of miles are hard miles...

I’m feeling a lot better about the whole venture now. It’s money I’d have rather not spent, but the car will be halfway decent and the fact of the matter is that the 2010 Vic is very refined for what it is.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > NKato 02/27/2020 at 19:08

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I think I understand that world pretty well, even if I’m relatively new to it. What I shun from that world is driving around in pretend cop cars bristling with spot lights and cow pushers and so on. I’ve always loved the family saloon and if I can have less of Crappy Vic and more of Sleeper Vic, then it’ll suit my like much more. It’s money I’d have rather not spent, but now the car is less of a rolling plague and I can make it into something more pleasant. Down the road, maybe I can get a couple grand back out of it and go back to working on Rusty.

NKato > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 02/27/2020 at 22:14

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It’s not all pretend cops though. :p

NKato > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 02/28/2020 at 01:20

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That reminds me, there are aftermarket products specifically tailored to the CVPI that can keep your car secure. Look them up. 

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > NKato 02/28/2020 at 11:18

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As in secure from theft? Or secure from rocket attack?

NKato > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 02/28/2020 at 19:24

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Somewhat secure from theft. You can wire up a shifter interlock pretty easy. Comes in switch or foot-pedal form. Hiding either one ensures that anyone trying to jack your car will have to tear apart the steering column to get at the wiring and that’s time lost and a higher likelihood of getting caught. :P

But it also works against carjackers.