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 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 |