Project Sleeper

[never]

A few people have asked so I figured I should make a build thread...now that things are starting to progress.

The car is a 1986 Mercury Marquis...not a Grand Marquis. It's a Fox chassis car so it's basically a 4-door Ford Mustang. The awesome part is that almost everything for a Mustang bolts right in.

I bought it from an 83 year old gentleman and it had 118,000 km on it. The car was in great shape and didn't have any rust on it. The paint is in desperate need of a polish and there were several minor nicks where the previous driver may have misjudged how close things were.

Nothing done to it yet at this point:





The plan is to do an LS swap with a turbo and build it up as a street legal drag car. I'll have to review the IHRA and NHRA rule books but I'm planning to build it to be legal to run up to 8.50s. I recently pulled the motor/trans/wiring/etc. and have a bunch of suspension/chassis parts waiting to go in. I'm going to set it up in the garage and get going on it right away. The other current major steps are finalizing the parts list, figuring out vendors and ordering everything.

Test fitting the ET Radial Pros (won't be using these wheels, just wanted to see clearance with the tire):







Engine/trans coming out:











It's going to be a great sleeper!

[ExtraSlow]

I like where this is headed!

[CanmoreOrLess]

I had a coworker who was really into sleepers, he came from a family of sleeper builders. His reaction to whenever I suggested this or that for his current big Olds: "Does it make it go faster?".

I stopped suggesting anything as he was right. Keeping it real is the goal.

[xnvy]

So this is what you were talking about at GE... I'm excited to see the progress on this.

[KRyn]

Cool project, looking forward to following along.

[DeleriousZ]

Cool man, definitely a sleeper. For some odd reason, it looks weird having 4 bolt hubs/wheels on that car. I'm sure that's what it is stock, but it just looks off to me lol.

[never]

Thanks guys, should be fun. And it'll be just a little bit of a change from what I was driving/racing before.

Originally posted by DeleriousZ
Cool man, definitely a sleeper. For some odd reason, it looks weird having 4 bolt hubs/wheels on that car. I'm sure that's what it is stock, but it just looks off to me lol.

Yeah, no kidding...must have saved Ford a bunch of money going 4-bolt on most of their cars during that time.

Good news is a 5-bolt conversion is happening on this car. Already have the 5-bolt spindles mounted to the tubular k-member for the front...plus updated brakes with 5-bolt rotors are on the way. And when I order the race axles out back, just have to check the 5x4.5 box and I'm good to go.

[89s1]

Nice!

I like me a good sleeper.

[vengie]

Subscribed, this will be an awesome build!

[D. Dub]

I'm old. My young family had one of those in the mid 90's -- it was a horrible thing. A perfect sleeper.

Cant wait to see this car progress.

[Gary@UrbanX]

Sad to see you part with your beast, hope the new owner treats her well. This is going to be a sweet build though! Definitely going to follow your progress.

[LSChevelle]

Nice! Turbo LS, I heard those are fun!!

You are the Albertan Denmah!!

[bourge73]

When you go 5 bolt I have old Minty 5 bolt Ponys off my 94 GT you can have for a few bevies,,

[corsvette]

Going to be a cool build! In High School my buddy had a Marquis Wagon, complete with woodgrain sides. I always thought that car would have been an awesome sleeper, they're fairly light Cars.

[never]

Originally posted by LSChevelle
Nice! Turbo LS, I heard those are fun!!

You are the Albertan Denmah!!

Yeah, turbo and LS...how can you go wrong??

I don't know if I can be compared to him...let's wait until I get at least one of these done!

[never]

Originally posted by bourge73
When you go 5 bolt I have old Minty 5 bolt Ponys off my 94 GT you can have for a few bevies,,

Thanks for the offer! I'll have to see how the front spaces out when the k-member goes in. I have shorter chromoly A-arms so I'm not sure how wide I'll be able to go up front. The k-member will be going in shortly so I'll know soon. Definitely have enough room for some drag 15x4s though.

[never]

BTW, the car is set up and ready to go in the garage. I'm away for the weekend but when I'm back, I'll snap pics of the parts waiting to go in. Then I can get installing.

First step is to get the car to roller status.

[mrsingh]

Nice project, perfect title I don't think anyone would expect from looking at it that it could be fast Good luck with the build!

[Hallowed_point]

Hell yeah! Talk about doing something different.

[TL911]