Such Brown wafty land yachtage

[Uncleben]

Lost all power, no ignition or dash lights. 

Suspect starter solenoid\voltage regulator thingymajig on o/s inner wing?  

Will have a poke around when it's less dark. 

Shan't be driving it to the NEC Sunday then 😔 the brightside being the money saved in petrol will pay for the ticket! 

[Stinkwheel]

11 hours ago, Uncleben said:

Lost all power, no ignition or dash lights. 

Suspect starter solenoid\voltage regulator thingymajig on o/s inner wing?  

 

ah the 'steal me' junction - maybe best to modify it to be more secure as well as fix.

[Uncleben]

Few pics of when I had it on the ramp 'tother day, really is a solid old barge! 

Cherry bomb because V8

[Schaefft]

That looks incredibly clean.

[grizz]

Do still think you snagged a beauty there. 

[eddyramrod]

Jealous.

[Uncleben]

6 hours ago, eddyramrod said:

Jealous.

Yeah, but you had the pleasure of owning Huggy, so you win!

[eddyramrod]

I can't deny that; and a pleasure it certainly was.  But it's all past-tense for me now.  For you it's present-tense.  Enjoy in good health!

[Uncleben]

So I'm tracing the history of the Ltd and this is what I have so far, some of you may be interested, some not so much! 

 It was built at the Mahwah assembly plant in New Jersey in 1973,  Americas biggest assembly plant, covering 172 acres until it's closure in 1980 (Bruce Springsteen references this in 'Johnny 99')  my Ltd was the 108,037th model off the production line. 

Finished in 5J Ginger metallic, with ginger interior trim, 351-2v Windsor V8, FMX 3 Speed box and 2.75:1 rear axle. 

Sold by Winner Ford, Berlin rd, cherry Hill, New Jersey (still a Ford dealer today) on 22/3/73 to a Mr William Scott of 920 Herbert Blvd, Williamstown, New Jersey for $3248!

It seems this was passed to his son or other relative, Ronald W Scott of 1714 Herbert Blvd, on 21/6/94 who owned it until it was exported to blighty on 13/9/19

It seems it sat in a garage and used sparingly during this time, mileage on the title in 94 was 96778, it's currently on 113920, unsure on mileage when it came to UK, the guy that imported it commented on a post I made on Facebook, I'm waiting to hear from him, also I'm currently in the process of contacting the American owner and will hopefully find out some more info about it's history and life in the US as I like geeky stuff like that. 

So it was built, sold and spent all it's US life in New Jersey, think I may name it Bruce! 

 

[Uncleben]

Early Christmas present, new plates.

Spent ages deciding what colour background and letters, finally decided on black and cream.

Also bumper sticker.

[danthecapriman]

Very cool! 
 

Where did you get the plates? I’ve been thinking of getting a set for mine.

[Schaefft]

Just out of curiosity, from what age is it legal to have plates that arent white/yellow?

[captain_70s]

Cars built before 1st Jan 1980 are allowed black/white plates, as the DVLA closed the loophole that meant B&W plate allowance was rolling with tax exemption. US style replica plates were never legal to start with and so continue to be illegal.

Although technically any new plates fitted to a car of any age must be of the latest iteration available and marked as BS AU 145e compliant. So even a set of period correct Tippers plates wouldn't be legal, as they're new plates.

 

[Uncleben]

On 22/12/2023 at 15:55, danthecapriman said:

Very cool! 
 

Where did you get the plates? I’ve been thinking of getting a set for mine.

Got them from states plates, lots of colour options and custom backgrounds etc.

Paid just over £60 with delivery.

[danthecapriman]

1 hour ago, Uncleben said:

Got them from states plates, lots of colour options and custom backgrounds etc.

Paid just over £60 with delivery.

Sweet!

I’ll have a look in the new year and order some I think. I’ve got the car’s original plate from Georgia state, complete with its last tag (1995!) before it was put in storage in a barn. Not sure I’d get away with running that though!

[ETCHY]

Appropriate soundtrack 

 

[Uncleben]

Went shopping, fits fine!

Well ......

[Justwatching]

Amateur error. If you park in the bay nose first, you can access the boot to get your shopping in.

[danthecapriman]

Your both doing it wrong.

You’re supposed to park across about six of the back to back spaces in the most self important cuntish manner possible while sneering at any of the peasants who dare to look at you for doing it. Because your car is bigger and better then any of theirs, and that entitles you to do that!

[Justwatching]

3 minutes ago, danthecapriman said:

Your both doing it wrong.

You’re supposed to park across about six of the back to back spaces in the most self important cuntish manner possible while sneering at any of the peasants who dare to look at you for doing it. Because your car is bigger and better then any of theirs, and that entitles you to do that!

Typical wannabe Lincoln Mercury driver...

 

[ETCHY]

7 hours ago, Uncleben said:

Went shopping, fits fine!

Well ......

I hope you were purchasing Cawfeee & Donuts ? (say it in a Noooo Yoik accent).

[Uncleben]

Gave it a quick vacuum out, really impressed how tidy the interior is, think the front seat has been redone at some point in it's life but the rest appears original

[rattlecan]

It is very brown inside & out eh? Proper 70’s, like it lots 

[PhilA]

American cars on here? Yes

These are my two beside the modern ones.

Without being too much of a pedant, your car should have the primrose yellow "N.J." / "GARDEN STATE" plates, coloration of which is still used today.

Nice to see it back again though.

 

Phil

[Uncleben]

On 10/02/2024 at 11:18, PhilA said:

American cars on here? Yes

These are my two beside the modern ones.

Without being too much of a pedant, your car should have the primrose yellow "N.J." / "GARDEN STATE" plates, coloration of which is still used today.

Nice to see it back again though.

 

Phil

Yes, I did want to keep true to its New jersey heritage, but states plates didn't do the right shade of yellow!

Nice pair you have there, read through your thread for the Plymouth recently, wow! Talk about a project, will be awesome when its done!

[Uncleben]

I'm now basically an undercover FBI agent....

roof mounted for attending  shows and chasing bad guys, dash mounted for everyday waftage.

Not the right style of light, they have been out of stock for ages, so got this cheap Chinese strobe light in the meantime

[Uncleben]

Well, it's been a while! Thought I'd give a little update as it's been a year already since owning this!

Nothing exciting really, it's been perfectly reliable all through the summer, attending various local shows and meets, commuting to work etc, i've done just over 2200 miles in a year, and loved every one of them!

I gave the front suspension a good wire brush and waxoyl..

It was all in good order, next, where water would leak into the boot (trunk, because American) it was going a bit rusty where it would sit along the rear seam, so having fixed the leak, I cleaned, primed, re seam sealed and stone chipped the trunk area, still need to cut a nice piece of brown deep pile carpet to fit (using the old piece as a template)

Next up, I removed the wheel covers and gave the wheels a spruce up with some BBQ paint, then ran around for a few months without the covers..

To go full FBI spec I need to lose the whitewalls really, but having spent £340 on a pair of rear tyres just after buying, and with the fronts also pretty new, I couldn't justify changing them! I could turn them round so the white is on the inside but would like to change from the current 235/ 75 to 225/70, a set of 4 currently £240 on eBay so at some point may bite the bullet!

Something like this:

 

The spare wheel tyre was pretty knackered, so bought a cheap used 225 70 15 Goodyear eagle off eBay

Offered up to the car.

 

Changed the oil and filter too, previous owner included a genuine motor craft filter amongst other spares, so bought some good quality 10w 40 oil and job done!

And that's pretty much where we are up to, put the wheel covers back on for now, the exhaust needs sorting, it's full of holes now, place by me can custom build a stainless system with hidden tail pipe for around 400 pound coins  for a single pipe or double that for dual pipes, not really any point going dual pipes, especially as the tailpipes will be hidden!

Have no plans to sell this yet, I love driving it, love the attention it gets everywhere you go, not sure what id replace it with that's as cool to be fair! 

If anyone is thinking of getting a yank tank, just do it, it's the best thing you'll ever do! 

 

[Justwatching]

Good to see you're still wafting about in the LTD, and taking care of it, too! I'm glad it went to a good custodian. Some of the people that messaged me about the car seemed a bit dim. I dread to think what could have happened to it. Probably rattle canned black with bucket seats and a side-exit exhaust.  

If you get the urge to move on to something else in future, let me know. It will always be welcome back here!

[Madman Of The People]

 

Hello.  Autoshite's token Yank here.  That LTD takes me right back to my childhood.

My Dad had a 1974 LTD sedan/saloon in black, minus the vinyl roof of your car.  BTW, no cop or undercover FBI car would have had a vinyl roof! 😁  We also had a 1973 LTD station wagon/estate in that very same brown with the EXACT same brown vinyl interior.  I actually passed my driving test at sixteen in the black '74 LTD.

Growing up with these cars, they were nothing special to me.  In fact, the teenage me thought they were pretty embarrassing!  Other kid's parents had those new stylish imports that looked far more modern and I was having to be seen in these increasingly unfashionable land barges!  Maybe that's why I drive a MINI today?  The black '74 sedan/saloon was a southern car, originally owned by my grandmother and, as such, was rust-free.  But the brown '73 wagon/estate spent all of it's life my native Chicago and was riddled with rust by the time I was old enough to drive it.  Terminal rust finally consigned it to the crusher.

The black '74 sedan/saloon suffered from a never-ending series of mechanical faults.  The damn thing ate ignition solenoids and alternators.  Plus, for some odd reason, if there was even a hint of rain, the car would refuse to start.  At one point, the carburettor caught fire and nearly incinerated the whole car, with us inside it!  I'm afraid to say these were the cars that sent an entire generation of Americans running to the imports, myself included, and we never looked back.  Even my staunchly "Buy American" dad caved in near the end of his life, buying a Volvo as his last car.

I hope you have better luck with your LTD than my parents had with either of theirs!

 

[MAF260]

Love this! I really need to tick the 'own a big yank boat' box as I've hankered after something like this for years.