Another Crown Vic/Slick chassis swap. Project "Dark Horse"

[Telford]

Alright, here goes another Crown Vic chassis swap. The donor vehicle is a 98 Crown vic. I picked it up for a song. Had a few issues, but nothing that I was going to use, or that wasn't an easy fix. Its your basic LX vic, previous owner was an old lady, the 4.6 is still running strong, I took my boys out and did a few burnouts just for good measure. Ive taken the advice from others who have been here before, trying to label every wire and plan for future mock up. Up to this point its been straight forward, the further in the project I get I suspect it will kick my butt.

The Slick is a 66, it was in great shape, needs work like all of them do, but I believe it will be a sweet runner when its done. It will evolve as we go, but I am hoping to keep it as slick as possible. This is a budget build, and I suspect at times it will be slow going. Bare with me as I get there. My goal is to be done by Spring, at least with a running/driving vehicle.

Ill try to keep it up to date, and moving along, if for nothing else my own sanity, and most importantly my therapy.
Here are a few pics to get it started, nothing you haven't seen before but its my project and I m excited to get it going.






Had to let the boys do some destruction

[unibody madness]

I think its great on all levels. enjoy playing with the boys, its a great way to bond and grow. Above all else have fun, and use it to ground all involved, like sawdust therapy its something to bond together with.
Good luck and have fun

[foodstick]

The hands on labor will make for a economical SWEET driving truck. Not to mention the memories you and your boys will never forget.

[Telford]

I decided to take advantage of the nice weather were having here in Utah and do a little pre-Chistmas
"unwrapping". Had a good friend drop by with his son and help me get it done. It progress, gearing up for a big week ahead of getting a bunch of work done. I'm guessing it will end up being about a 9" drop when its said and done

[Telford]

Progress is slow, everything takes 3 times as long as it should. I had a bunch of photos but the iphone took a dive so I lost a bunch of my front mock up picks. I am using the existing cab mounts and will be fabricating mounts on the Crown Vic to fit the way I want. I really liked how the front of the cab fit, so I used that a my reference point and have been spending a lot of time on the rear mounts. I used 1 1/2" dom for the rear cab mount, the channel for the drive line is a 1/4 wall 8" steel tube. I have it all tacked up for now. I am working on some gussets for the driveline channel to help stiffen it up and give it some rigidity. I am happy with how the cross member and mounts worked out so far. The truck still sits to high for me right now, eventually I hope to bag it, but for now I will see how it sits when its fully loaded, maybe from there cut a coil or two.





The cab is sitting on some jacks in this picture. It will sit down about 1/4 off the frame rails.

[Telford]

I got the cab mounts finished up, now its time to move forward. a few mock up pics

[marcfridge]

very nice

[Telford]

Thanks Marcfridge


Made some progress today, I ended up getting the frontend mocked up a little bit today, I wanted to see how things lined up, and what it is going to look like. Obviously I am going to need a new radiator support, this one is beyond repair. I got the throttle setup, and the booster mounted with the pedal assembly done as well. So far everything is going well and coming together nice.

[foodstick]

Don't be afraid to cut away the bad metal on that core, use some angle iron, tube steel and scraps to make it work ! As long as you have the bolt holes there, (and you don't need all of them anyhow there are so many). and it doesn't interfere with anything.. it doesn't have to be stock. you can only see the part of it that is still good when its together anyhow....

Thats the CHEAP in me talking

[Telford]

I like your style Foodstick, I'm going to look at it a little closer this weekend and see what I can do

[foodstick]

They want big dollar for those supports, I wish I had pics of the different ways I have repaired mine.

Its gonna have to bolt up way different with the LTD chassis anyhow.. Been there done that !

[Telford]

Thanks foodstick for the advice, I about croaked at the thought of spending 400.00 for a new radiator support. Its coming along nicely.

[foodstick]

There you go, Its amazing what you find you can do once you start bending up scraps and making patch pieces.

I had a friend that did all my difficult work when I started. Once I saw how hard he would bang and hammer things and it would turn out I realized I could do that if I just took those first few steps.. and sure enough I started learning...

[orangeRcode]

Great project. Keep us updated on your progress.

I bought a 2005 Police Interceptor about a year ago to use as a donar. Ended up selling it about a month ago because I didn't find a Slick I thought would work with it. Now I've got the fever again. Will likely buy one and just drive it and work on it as I go.

[Telford]

Im getting closer, installed the pushbutton start and accessories switches. I thought I took great care in making sure I wouldn't have any problems with the PATs system. Turns out I was wrong, all I get is a blinking light. Oh well, guess it's time for that p71 computer.

[orangeRcode]

Coming along nicely!

[390fastback]

PATS......whole reason I bought an interceptor!

[orangeRcode]

So what's the deal with the PI and PATS? Does the cop car ecu not utilize PATS?

[Telford]

The P71 platform is not equipped with the PATs software. From all of the research I have done the only way to bypass the PATs system is to reprogram your PCM. This could get pricy from what I understand. From what I can gather my issue is coming from the module not picking up the signal from the transponder unit. I'm not entirely sure this isn't a problem from not having the oem stero in the car as to one theory, another theory is the pcm has been disconnected so long it's lost its sequence or even just the chips them selves aren't working. Most people are using the P71 platform and so they don't have this issue. The deal I got on my vic was too good to pass up so I thought I would attempt it ( being carful not to disrupt the system). So what I have done after going through the system and not being able to reprogram it or find an issue is I purchased a pcm from a exact year P71 off of eBay for $60.00. I will lose pats entirely, but if this fixes it I can install other forms of anti theft. It will also remove the speed limiter to a higher speed, adjust shifting points to be more aggressive, and some other minor differences. If you are going to go this route make sure you do your home work, epically for the 2000-2002 years. So now that I rambled on, yes the civilian crown Vic's have pats systems, the interceptor / taxis do not have it.

[orangeRcode]

The P71 platform is not equipped with the PATs software. From all of the research I have done the only way to bypass the PATs system is to reprogram your PCM. This could get pricy from what I understand. From what I can gather my issue is coming from the module not picking up the signal from the transponder unit. I'm not entirely sure this isn't a problem from not having the oem stero in the car as to one theory, another theory is the pcm has been disconnected so long it's lost its sequence or even just the chips them selves aren't working. Most people are using the P71 platform and so they don't have this issue. The deal I got on my vic was too good to pass up so I thought I would attempt it ( being carful not to disrupt the system). So what I have done after going through the system and not being able to reprogram it or find an issue is I purchased a pcm from a exact year P71 off of eBay for $60.00. I will lose pats entirely, but if this fixes it I can install other forms of anti theft. It will also remove the speed limiter to a higher speed, adjust shifting points to be more aggressive, and some other minor differences. If you are going to go this route make sure you do your home work, epically for the 2000-2002 years. So now that I rambled on, yes the civilian crown Vic's have pats systems, the interceptor / taxis do not have it.

Good info. If and when I find a Slick my plan is to buy another wrecked/retired cop car. There's a local auction that sells dozens of wrecked/retired OCPD a couple of times a year for a reasonable price. Cab companies will buy most of them but there are always plenty to go around.