Here are two videos of our now upgraded front and rear suspension. It is not budget friendly though. Rear UPR Mustang ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-8tu3MiYo2yg.html and Front QA1 Naake ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-KpM9hKD3Hiw.html
Man awesome videos so I baught a crown Victoria a couple years back because it was a good deal 2011 lx true grandma car I out it in the barn and haven't touched it very very low miles fully loaded leather I'm wanting to change the wheels and I'm going the more exspesive rout for lowering but really curious what wheels u have look great tho are the rear rims wider than the fronts I'm building this as a sleeper will eventually do the 4v swap
@@ryanjacobsen9557 Ryan the car is currently on Naake front coilovers and rear UPR adjustable coilover springs. Wheels in this video were reproduction FR500s but currently it is sitting on a brazillion dollars worth of Forgestar CF5s. Have some videos on those wheels as well more recently.
@@PNW_Car_Mods awesome yeah I fell in love with them back when I was a police officer I have a much much better job now that allows me to build it how I like and the wife enjoys it so no budget restrictions lol
That is a nice looking Vic. I've been taking my time, mainly dragging a to do it. I have a set of front struts with cut springs at a coil and a half trimmed. I want a more flush fender to tire look. For the rear springs I have a set of S197 GT springs that lower it about an inch to inch and a half depending on what's in the trunk. I'm going to look into the Moog coils you used and possibly rear lowering springs for a S197 mustang. I read that the weight of a CV will drop a half inch more if they are used. Ex: Mustang 1 1/2in - Crown Vic 2in drop. This by far is the best explained video out there on how to change the struts. And what I really like is that you did it in focus and in the day time! The part I like most about your video was the time you spent with your son. I learned what I know on my own and by researching whatever it was that I was trying to do. I'm definitely showing my son what I know and learning with him as he grows.
My goodness, what a great "how to" video. This belongs on the trending tab. What's more 'Merican than father & son working on a classic American icon of a car. Good work, have a cold one on me. I think you're right about raising the rear just a snitch to give it a muscle stance. I know this is far down the road, but have you thought about what your going to do if the transmission fails. I've heard mustang GT 5-Speed manual transmissions of tge same era bolt right up. The hardest part is the metal fabrication for adding a clutch pedal, and bracket for the hydrolic clutch master cylinder. Just thinking about the sound of this cars exhaust with a manual row box gives me chills. Also, you would have to worry about anybody stealing it, because who knows how to drive stick these days. Lol.
Thank you Chuck. Always appreciate your support. It will probably get a 5 speed swap. The boy want's it manual trans SOooo bad. Currently at 64k miles the trans works perfectly. Isaac has come a long ways in his mechanical abilities in the past year. Very proud of him. He's a good kid.
We ordered up 4 each 1/4 inch thick energy suspension spring isolators which hopefully will lift us up about 3/8 of an inch out back. The one spring isolator that is applied at the factory is paper thin and only at the top. We will not have an isolator top and bottom. lol if we don't like that then I'll make some perch adapters for the bottom that will get us what ever we want out of the steel tubing and plate. I will say the ride on the Moog spring is fantastic and it is a progressive spring.
Was debating between these and GT500 springs for the rear because they both seem like popular choices with vics. Leaning towards the Moog springs after watching this. Thanks for the video
I really wanted to try the GT500 springs but those cars are so rare parts wise and there is so little information out there on the parts for them I didn't want to take a chance at buying them and having them not be the exact right part. My son loves the way it sits with the Moogs but I would like another half inch of height in the rear. Just to compensate for the trunk and fuel loads.
@@derek8147 Long story on that one Derek. The car only has 63k miles on it so our intent was to just use the factory originals. Once we had it all tore apart to do the spring cut we realized the front passenger side was leaking just a tiny bit. Wetness observed anyways. We by this time there was no way we could scare up anything in time to just leave the car all torn apart so we slammed it back together with the leaky front right strut. We'll have to go back in there one of these days and replace the struts. I would only use the factory Motorcraft struts myself as replacements. If we win the lottery we don't play it will get RIdetechs. ;)
You can easily do this without removing them put a spring compressor and then cut the coil while it's on the car and then release the spring compressor gently
Martago you should see our two newest videos on this car. It's even better now that the car is on coilovers in the front and adjustable rear suspension. Ride is much improved as well.
First time I tried to lower my truck I heated the springs and let gravity do it's thing. Shortly thereafter the springs shattered or totally collapsed, kinda forgot it's been awhile. Second time I just ordered some dream beams, turned out a little better.
Looking to drop the back of a 2010 I just bought but I like u think that rear is an inch too low. I’m not lowering the front so it’ll be worse on mine.
We ended up putting adjustable rear suspension perches on this car with coil over springs on the rear axle. It's not terribly expensive and might be a perfect option for you. Look in our videos we show the install. Plus it rides a million times better!
@@Formerlywarmer Front is Naake QA1 coilovers and the rear is UPR adjustable with stock motorcraft shocks. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-8tu3MiYo2yg.html
I got the outcast drop brackets for the front they're only $38 for the pair and they work brilliantly and you don't lose any shock travel, or have to hack up your springs, so your car rides fantastic just like it did originally but is 2in lower in the front👌
Yoshi do you have the steel lower controls arms or aluminum? I've also heard these can have problems with wheel interference. Depending on diameter. We ended up going to coilovers just for something fun to do.
They are not a great match for the car and we quickly realized that while they do work the don't ride well at all. I highly recommend going to the adjustable coilover style springs we installed in a 2020 video. The moogs if you do want to try them we got on amazon www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000COMSYK/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
This car now has coilovers on the front and fully adjustable rear suspension as well. The ride height is now totally dialed in and it just flat out rides 1 million times better. :)
Why on earth would you go lower in the back?!?! lol. Good ol saggy worn out suspension look. Thought it looked *mean* before you guys dropped the rear. To each their own I guess. Good video regardless though, I enjoyed watching the disassembly, informative, and glad to hear you're planned to raise the back up a bit.
You mean like we should have left the rear at stock height? No way. I grew up in the 70s and absolutely can not stand the massive amounts of rake look. Cars should sit level for the most part IMO of course. Changes will be made though. More for functionality and performance. I would like to raise the whole car up about a half inch. Of course I have to fight my son on this lol. He's young so it's about looks and not how it works. Hope to be going to coilovers and adjustable rear perches soon. Stay tuned.
MRBLACK947 lol yah I love that drag car stance/look. I guess I just thought it would be lower in the back when you said 1” in the front and 1.5” off in the back. If it’s level then that’s solid. I have a CVPI as well, great car imo.
Under average conditions it rides pretty damn good. I will say though that this car is normally driven with only one or two people in it and nothing in the trunk. It doesn't slam into the bump stops but it does run out of travel easily. I think in the long run we're going to have to refine the suspension to be truly usable and not just for looks. This could be coilovers or something of the sort.
Thank you sir. The wheels are from a shop called Wheel Replicas down in Texas. The wheels seem to be of good quality and reasonably priced. We went with matte only because I'm cheap and they were on sale lol. Like 100 each for the fronts and 130 each for the rears. Center caps that came with were garbage though. The silver disc is to cover up a huge hole in the quarter panel that was from some kind of key lock box the SPD used on all their crown vics. The silver disc is a purpose made HAM radio antenna block off plate and has nice rubber gaskets to seal the hole perfectly. It gets a ton of comments too hehe.
@@FrankWhiteMH I am trying to remember what the shipping cost was. In the world of insane shipping costs I seem to recall it was pretty reasonable for shipping 4 heavy wheels from Texas to Washington state. Actually just went to their website and it's showing free shipping if I try and place an order right now. Maybe it was free back in July.
@@PNW_Car_Mods I'm trying to understand what will fit in my Grand Marquis. Could you please list your wheel and tire dimensions here? I'm thinking of going with 235/50R18 or 255/45R18 tires.
@@PNW_Car_Mods just did my rear with the cc501 it looks great but they ride too soft it bottoms out in some bumps with I'll say slight aggressive driving with just me in it I'm going to install air lift bags to help stiffen the ride will do the front when I get a chance but what do you think of just cutting half the amount you did on front coils?
@@yogie3235 Just a quick thought are your rear shocks pretty old? Also we did end up putting some thicker poly isolators on the rear top and bottom for probaby another 3/8s inch of lift. With two of us in the car and a full size spare in the trunk I don't think it's bottomed out. I have not seen anyone cut a half coil but I would imagine that it would lower right around a half inch.
Ford redid the complete suspension in 04 to accommodate the Marauder, never buy a pre 06 vic and take a pass on any unit that has traction control. I had an 05 that was sprung like a baby buggy, lame , my 06 would run circles round that one LOL not all p71 are equal !
'04 is the best year for the P71. That year seemed to have the best build quality, reliability, & performance. I did some research before buying mine, asked my Dad who has been in law enforcement for 30 yrs, my Grandpa that had a maintenance contract for the Sheriffs dept, & other friends in law enforcement; all of them agree that the '04s performed better, & had less problems. 🤷🏻♂️
I would say it's all going to depend on experience level and the amount of rusty hardware you encounter. Anywhere from 4 hours to a whole weekend. I think we had about 5-6 hours into it taking our time and no stuck bolts.
@@PNW_Car_Mods thank you so much for the quick reply!! I was figuring it would be an all day project. I’m going to use a set or ‘11-‘14 Mustang GT stock rear springs I just picked up. I’ll reply back on how much they drop it. It’ll be a few weeks till I get around to it. Thank you again!!!!
At the time yes they were. Looking back on it, they were terrible. I can't really recommend them. We've since moved on to an adjustable setup that utilized coil over sized springs in a more appropriate spring rate and the car drives 1 million times better.
@@PNW_Car_Mods would you say they were to soft or to firm of a ride I saw the coil over video just don’t have the means to weld at my house at the moment
@@rtbrady89 Very choppy like a buckboard and just overall stiff. We tried to convince ourself it wasn't that bad but in reality it sucked. They will work and many people use them but understand you are sacrificing ride quality for looks and that is it.
We reused them and the moogs don't come with anything. Ultimately we ended up scrapping these springs. They look cool but just aren't ideal for a crown vic. Went with a fully adjustable coilover based spring setup with a spring rate more appropriate for a crown vic.
Surprisingly very well. It is a heavy car though. I think overall it rides better especially the progressive springs in the back. I had read enough out there on forums and the such saying it's not even really noticeable on the Crown Vics so we went for it. I tried cut springs on a fox Mustang once and it rode like a lumber wagon.
Yo I got mines for $800 bucks 175000 miles when I got it 225000 miles now and it's the best running and handling car i ever had and it's easy to work on and cheap. I drive it like i stole it too. Lol
Hello. I have a question. Did the alignment changed alot? Where you abel to aligned correctly?? I'm trying to lower mine but don't wanna have to buy tires often doe to alignment! Thank you !
I can honestly say I don't know. That being said it has not burnt the front tires off of it yet lol. They look totally fine as of today. That being said this car doesn't get a lot of miles put on it. Maybe 4k since this job was done. I've been hesitant to spend the money on alignment as we're not done tweaking the front suspension yet.
When i lowered my vic with lowering springs in the front (about 1.5” drop) it was ready for an alignment. That was about a year ago now amd it’s not had any issues since having it done. The only time I think people really run into alignment problems is when dropping significantly. Which in terms of spring cutting would probably be for anything over 2 coils for these cars.
@@PNW_Car_Mods Thank you! I’ve found myself coming back to this video after considering cutting some p71 springs and swapping out the lowering moog springs i originally went with. Just gotta decide what front strut i’m gonna go with because they’re much needed lol. Car bounces like crazy rn with the lowering springs and stock struts
So the half inch drive is an M18 FUEL 2767-20 that one was from Home Depot. and the 3/8s drive is a 2658-20 and that one was from amazon. Hope this helps. So far I've been lucky with no failures on the Milwaukee stuff.
I have a 97 grand marquis grandpa owned all its life beautiful,car inside n out I'm looking for the cop,car steel wheels with silver center caps are you interested I, selling the old wheels?
Those bolts dictate the alignment of the car. If you have good tire wear I wouldn't mess with them unless you have to. Even though this car is now on coilovers we still have never had to align it. Tire wear is very good. Especially for a non rotation staggered tire setup.
I did and it did help but I would still like a little more. My son is happy with it and there's nothing wrong with the stance performance wise so we've left it alone. The rear right height changes dramatically with weight on these cars. Even full gas tank to empty is probably over a 1/4 inch.
@@Shawn-fn7vx Ours is a 2011. I am pretty sure a 2000 has a different front suspension design. But it may be possible to still cut a coil. Do you research on the internet. I know on crown vics the 98-2002 have coil and shock seperate. The 2003 to 11 have coilover shocks in the front.
Nice set up bro. I just done the same thing to my Vic. I was wondering what insulator did you for the rear. An did you use upper and lower insulator? Im not digging the rear ride height. Seem like i to be raised like a inch back there.
Hi Marty. They are Magnaflow Magnapacks. These are NOT the quiet version of magnaflows. They're basically tiny glasspacks. Check out some of our other videos on this car and you will find some exhaust vids.
@@martycole4667 Marty if you I have an actual video of us installing them in the car. We had to scab them in because they were from another car that used 2.5 inch tubing. If they sell a 2 inch version it would be even easier. Part number we used is a 10416 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-RJgoefQJNWY.html
We only did one coil. NOT 1 1/2. There are guys out there that do 1 and a half but I wanted to keep this car from looking slammed. I also wanted to be able to still drive the car down a forest service road without dragging on everything. I think one coil is the perfect compromise. On a P71 its right around 1 inch. Hope this helps. Also to add, not we didn't change anything else. If I had it to do all over again I woudl have had a fresh pair of Motorcraft struts to install. They will need to be changed at some point. The passenger side was a little damp.
@@PNW_Car_Mods I am saying this from experience, there is stored energy left , I miscalculated that and the spring flew horizontally toward my knee, it was painful and still hurt after 4 years later, trust me do not underestimate that strut specially the police stiff spring. And yes I know you have the strut compression tool but never ever trust them. SAFETY ALWAYS FIRST.
The actual ride around town is not too bad really. I dislike the rear more than the front. If it had stock sized wheels and tires it would be better but right now the way it is it will hit the front tires on the fenders because they poke out just a smidge. If you can afford it I say do it right with one of the coil over companies out there. Tentative plan is NAAKE QA1 coilovers on the front and UPR mustang adjustable lower rear perches with 10" coil over springs on the back. The way it is right now if you put 4 people in the car and any gear in the trunk it would be complete garbage. I have to be totally honest with that.
