By
Richard Lentinello
—
Updated
in Classics, Hemmings Classic Car, Magazine
Share this article
Every time I walk down to my garage and look over at my 1982 Ford LTD station wagon languishing under the pine trees, I wonder if I’ll ever find the time to get it running again. All this time I thought it had only been parked behind my garage for two or three years, until yesterday, when I noticed the old inspection sticker on the windshield: Expires December 2000. That’s seven years! It seems that the older I get, the faster time goes racing by.
With full-size American station wagons–especially those with a separate frame like my LTD–becoming increasingly desirable, last year I decided it was time to get the old boat going again. Surprisingly, even though it spent the last three years sitting outside, exposed to our harsh Vermont winters, the body is still in great condition. Apart from one small rust bubble on the right rear quarter, the straight and solid body still wears its factory-applied black paint proudly. Well, okay, the lower part of the body is beginning to be overtaken by a white mold due to the car being parked on grass under the shade of towering pines. Not good. But still, it’s totally free of the dreaded tin worm. And that alone makes it worthy of a refurbishment.
As much as I don’t have the time or the extra money to pour into this wagon, I refuse to let another example of American wagon history go down the tubes. So rebuild it I will.
I actually started working on my old Ford on Christmas Eve day 2006, when the so-called global warming effect graced Vermont with a 63-degree day; that makes working on cars outside here in the winter an unexpected joy. Since 2000, I always tried starting the car every few months to circulate the oil through the engine; I also made sure to turn on the blower motor, wipers, headlamps and turn signals, and depress the brake pedal with several firm pushes to ensure that the caliper pistons and rear wheel cylinders didn’t freeze in place.
For some reason, the engine ceased firing a few years ago, so I figured that the culprit was the ignition pickup inside the distributor, due to the lack of spark at the plugs. Since it was easier to replace the pickup with the distributor on my bench, I removed it, but not before I marked its proper position with a permanent pen–or so I thought.
After I mistakenly wiped away the alignment mark I had made, I had Hemmings Motor News Executive Editor Terry McGean, a.k.a. Professor Problem Solver, help me set the ignition timing. Terry owns a 5.0 Mustang with the same 302-cu.in. V-8, so it was a no-brainer for him. Even with the spark plugs now sparking, the engine still wouldn’t fire. It did so with a shot of starting fluid, but then it would die.
We disconnected the fuel line to see if the fuel pump was pumping and were shocked to see what came squirting out. Now here’s the real reason why you should never let a car sit: Gasoline goes bad. And after seven years, it goes really bad. As in, dark brown bad, and sticky bad, and smelly bad. Just like varnish, I had always been told. And it was.
So this past Saturday, a week after being inspired by seeing early 1980s cars on the show field at Hershey, I decided to really get working on the old wagon. After siphoning out the old gas and refilling the tank with 12 gallons of fresh 93-octane, all that remained was to clean out the carburetor.
So I took the lid off the original Motorcraft variable venturi carb and found lots of caked-up fuel clogging everything. I had to replace the internal rubber diaphragm, which had turned to mush, and installed a new needle and seat assembly. Once the little plastic in-house filter was cleaned, I filled the fuel bowl with fresh gas and screwed the top of the carburetor back on.
And with one twist of the key, presto, we have ignition. Without so much as coughing or sputtering, the little small-block V-8 ran smoothly from the get-go. Only after the engine reached operating temperature did the sounds of sticking lifters and the occasional rod knock make themselves known. It was for this very reason that the car was taken off the road in the first place.
Thinking I was doing good, I replaced the oil with synthetic when I bought the LTD from the original owner back in 1998. Because I was getting ready to move to Vermont, I figured that the engine would start easier in the colder climate with synthetic oil instead of conventional oil, which thickens up. Unbeknownst to me, in just 5,000 miles the synthetic loosened up all the old crude in the bottom of the oil sump and put it in suspension, thus clogging the oil pump, lifters and oil feed holes to the crankshaft bearings–hence the knocking.
Now that the LTD runs, I’m able to drive it into the garage where, over the course of this coming winter, I will remove the engine and rebuild the bottom end. More than anything, pressing the brake pedal every few months and starting the electrics during the car’s mothballed period helped keep it in decent shape. During yesterday’s test drive, the brakes worked perfectly; so did the car’s lights, wipers, blower motor and radio.
Now my goal is to have it on the road by June so I will be able to attend the International Station Wagon Meet in Sturbridge, Massachusetts, on June 18-21. This is shaping up to be an important event for owners and lovers of station wagons, so if you own a wagon, let’s make a date to meet there. For more convention info, visit their Web site, www.iswc.readywebsites.com.
