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1983 Fleetwood Brougham d'Elegance project

203K views 776 replies 73 participants last post by  Maximln 
#1 ·
Hi,
first of all i want to introduce myself. I am Felix from germany and i just bought an '83 FB d'Elegance Sedan, loaded and in beautiful "woodland haze" paint.
I want to say sorry to you if i make mistakes writing english. It is not perfect, but i will try as good as possible. :)

4 Years ago (when i was 18) i bought my first car: a rusty and worse custom '74 Continental Mark IV. You can see my Lincoln restoration here: Link
I restored it and now it is like new but as a daily driver (it was still my only car) it is too expensive on gas. (In germany it is something about 8$/gal)

I always loved 70s and 80s american cars. 80s Fleetwood Brougham always was one of my favourites.
So i looked for one. I had exact criteria:

- Year 80-83 (in germany there is a huge financial advantage for cars older then 30 Years, called historical license plate)
- Sedan (it is hard with these small parking spots and those huuuuge doors. I always have problems with the doors of my Lincoln.)
- Fleetwood Brougham, no Deville
- d'Elegance package with cloth seats (very important, i love these seats)
- paint shouldn't be silver or black (i don't like common colors.... today every car is silver or black)

It is hard to find a car that fits. I searched a lot worldwide but found almost nothing (and if, way too expensive)
In germany those cars are between 1.500 and 10.000€ Compared to the US-prices, they are expensive. Shipping from the US to germany is something about 2.000$.

One day i drove through a city 70 mls away and saw a '80s FB at the street side.
- Sedan :thumbsup:
- Fleetwood Brougham :thumbsup:
- d'Elegance :thumbsup:
- cloth seats :thumbsup:
- 80-83: yes, '83 :thumbsup:
- color :thumbsup:

Holy! A car like out of my dream.
Ok, it is needs TLC, but no problem.
I contact the owner, yes the car is for sale. It was inserted a while ago for 4.300€
I negotiate "a bit" and at the end i bought the car for 800€ (about 1.000$), which is a very good price here in germany for such a car.

And this is it:
(Cadillac next to my Mark IV)


rear:










Ok, and that is the condition:
- front bumper is bent, but chrome is ok
- rear bumper is straight, but chrome is worn
- broken bumper filler
- worn vinyl top
- worn tires
- missing emblems
- engine (HT4100) runs perfect
- transmission needs rebuilt. no movement in reverse
- brakes, suspension like new
- seats like new
- headliner hangs down locally
- some electrical things aren't working
- almost no rust (only surface. undercarriage is like new)
- car is 100% original (exept for stupid german conversions to the turn signals, parking lights, cornering lights, sidemarkers....)

I have a Carfax report and it seems that 30.000 Miles are original.

So far... in february i took the car with me. It drives like a cloud. Awesome!
It only is difficult to remember the missing reverse.... sometimes i had to push the car back on road.

Cadillac at arriving.




Ok. I only can put 15 images in one post so i will distribute the progress to the next posts.

Regards
Felix
 
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#318 ·
What a hell of a job. It is terrible to do this job alone because it is important to let the engine down, raise the exhaust + hook it into the passenger side exhaust manifold and raise the transmission at the same time. The pass. exhaust is a dumb part of it.
But at the end I got it but you can see how long it took at the pics... horrible....











Regards
Felix
 
#319 ·
Not satisfied with the progress today. Started late at 4:30 PM and some rain stole an hour too.
Passenger side fender and hood is missing. I wanted to close the front end today... :(
Painted both inner fender and put everything together. Passenger side fender needs some time because I had to build a holder for the new aftermarket Radio+CB antenna.







Regards
Felix
 
#323 ·
Thanks!!

The front is closed.
Furthermore I installed drive shaft, radiator, new power steering hoses, wiring, vacuum lines, connected the transmission and so on.
I hope to finish the project tomorrow.



btw is it normal that when I fit the fender the pinstripe is not lining perfectly? This is definately original paint and pinstripe.


driver side: this looks horrible! Is it normal?






Regards
Felix
 
#325 ·
Left front fender wants to go up and back at the top. You will have to take the hood off and loosen up the left rad cradle rail where it mounts to the rad cradle. It looks like you had a good fit on the hood but if you don't loosen it off, when you set the gap between the door and fender, your hood won't close properly. It is not easy getting all the gaps right. Did you note the placement of all the spacer shims when you took it apart? Your front bumper looks good. Is it the one from the coupe?

Cheers...........R.
 
#328 ·
The doors have to be turned the opposide way. So the driver side door should move backwards at the top. The gap would be even worse. There is a huge gap at the top of the door to the b-pillar and it is almost touching the a-pillar. The back doors are good.
How it was before:
red= huge gap
blue= small gap. fender to door was touching
hood to fender and hood to front clip gaps were great.
So for me there is no chance to fix that properly.



I will lower the car to it's wheels, disconnect the fender to the radiator support and will adjust it correct to the door. Then I will try to fasten it to the radiator support again.
How is it possible that the gaps are that bad? The car has original paint. The screws of the doors and fenders were untouched as I saw it. But I don't think the car came with scratching door from the factory. Is it typical that the parts are moving over the years? Is the car bending? But why upwards... Don't understand that.
Have set all the gaps on the Lincoln and these were great. A lot of work too but possible to do. So I have some experience with that kind of work.

@ Robin Banx
yes it is the Coupe's bumper. Its straight. Has 2 rust spots but better than the old bent bumper.


Felix
 
#329 ·
The doors haven't been taken off. If they fit before, leave them alone. You will need to re-fit everything that has been removed starting with the fender to door fits. Then the nose panel and rad cradle including the rails and diagonal braces. Make sure all gaps measure correct and then tighten everything up. If your A/C was charged with R12 refrigerant, if possible try to have it re-charged with fresh R12 otherwise you will have to change the hoses because 134 will degrade the rubber which will disintegrate and end up plugging and ruining your compressor.

Cheers..........R.

Cheers........R.

----------

And..........the excessive gap between the left rear corner of the hood and the left front door is the factory fit. My car has never been apart and it displays that gap at the belt line on the door to the hood moulding at 1/2" on the left side and 3/16" on the right side. The gaps between the fender top and the hood top is equal and even on both sides. I wonder what those assembly line workers were smoking on the days that our cars were built. When I got my car, I had to re-adjust the right rear door because the latch pin was pushing the door edge down and breaking the paint on the quarter panel. It only needed to come up 1/16" so it was no big deal but it should have been adjusted correctly during the dealer's pre-delivery inspection.

Cheers........R.
 
#330 ·
At first I saw this today in front of the cars... it seems that the summer wants to quit and make free for autumn... :(


here I want to show the gaps again. Passenger side looks pretty good. Even the hood to door is not bad!


driver side is a catastrophe. fender needs to go up, at the top closer to the door, at the bottom to the front and the hood has to be a little bit lower.




Ok back to topic. I finished the project today almost. Haven't started it yet but there is only minor stuff to connect. I want to put in a new wiring harness for the front clip because it was totaled by some pre-owners to fit german laws. I will put in the Coupe's wiring because fortunately this is untouched. In Germany it is not allowed to have amber parking lights but I don't care. It looks stupid without I think.






Tomorrow test drive. Keep your fingers crossed.

Best regards from Germany
Felix
 
#332 ·
Yeah the engine is running.

But it makes heavy noise. I think it is something with the V-belts.... fan, steering pump, vac pump.... I don't think it comes from inside the engine. I will look tomorrow.
Maybe it is the steering pump which was dry over the last weeks.

This is a video immediately 5 seconds after the first start.

The noise hurts! I hope I will locate it tomorrow.

 
#336 ·
My '89 made a sound exactly like that when the power steering line split and the fluid was leaking. I was absolutely certain it was being caused by a blade scrubbing against something, just because of how it sounded, but after I fixed the line/replaced the fluid it stopped.

Try turning the wheel. If the sound is being caused by the PS pump, it will get louder when the wheel is turned.
 
#337 ·
Thank you so much!
I found it, it was the new Rockauto vacuum pump. Disconnected it and made this video:



The sound you hear is from the vacuum system running without the pump. I connected the open vacuum hose (you can see it in the video) to the pump and it was quiet.

Made a test drive. Damn, this engine is powerful!!! This runs so much better than the old engine. But even the old engine was noch bad for an HT4100. An expert for this engines (he has something like 18 of these) said to me that my HT was really good on power besides the bearing damage. But this actual accelerates so great, I can't believe...
Wanted to make another viedo of driving but it died on the parking lot while turning around. It seems like that alternator and battery are done.

But I think there is a big problem with the transmission. It won't shift until full throttle (maybe tv cable misadjusting) and need more oil. But it makes heavy noise in reverse and "P" is not working anymore. I hope I haven't shot the parking brake (it is directly near the reverse part).

I will look. At first I have to check the electic and put in a new starter (have a new one here), fill up the tranmission, set the tv cable and do another test drive.

But I am happy about the great running engine!!











Regards
Felix
 
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