This vinyl is coming loose a bit on the rear passenger's side. Other than this spot, the vinyl is in really good condition. When the weather warms up, I'll be able to fix this, and glue it back in place.

Blurry words here are "My thumb"

and "Small crack in?plastic"

The steering wheel is a little rough. It may look better one I get rid of this cover. ?

All the controls on the armrest work fine. ?Even the power-door locks.

The carpteing seems to be really good, but needs a good shampooing.

That's it for now! ?This is going to be a long-term project. ?I'll have the mechanical things taken care of first, then eventually I'll have the car painted.

Having sat most of the winter without a cover, I started getting the rust stains in the paint. On April 13th, I applied polishing compound the the entire car, and then added a coat of wax. I was really surprised at how it brought the car's finish back to life. It actually shines!

?

Currently the car is at my mechanic's in Bloomfield...here's the e-mail my step-dad wrote to me indicating what needs to be done:

Subj: Marquis update
Date: 4/17/2002 4:55:18 PM Eastern Daylight Time

It's generally in pretty solid condition and there is no one major item wrong with it. The things they think it needs are

1) Cooling system work..it needs a water pump for sure and replacement of some of the freeze plugs (these are in the engine block, they can see 4-6 of them, some are leaking antifreeze. They're not sure about the others). This'll be around $400.

2) Brake work. The fluid in the master cylinder for the rear brakes is gone and the rear brake cylinders are leaking. This would be around $200 if a new master cylinder is not needed.

3) Exhaust. Apparently there is a resonator that's bad and can't be replaced so they'd have to put in a by-pass pipe plus fix the pipe we patched. This could be up to $500.

4) Engine. They think the plugs are pretty new so it probably doesn't need a tune but it might be running rough due to a vacuum hose or something. They didn't provide an estimate for this but it shouldn't be too much.

5) Front end. The ball joints and linkage are all solid. I told him that there is a lot of play in the wheel so he'll look at it again to see why it's so loose.

6) Rear end. The rear suspension looks Ok, and the shocks all around are Ok.

7) Tires. He said the tires are not the right size for the car and eventually all of them should be replaced.

The estimates on everything are pretty general. He tried to do things on the high side which is good because sometimes you get into these things and find more stuff. The good news is that there's only around $1000 worth of work to do to get it road worthy, and you might be able to cut some corners on the exhaust for now. Tires would be a few hundred more, and throw in some more for unknowns and you'd sink $1000-$2000 in mechanical work. That's not too bad to get it into real good shape. The only other thing you'd do is paint it, then it would be mint.

So, let me know what you think. Sounds like the brake work and cooling system stuff is the first on the list.

- Chris

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