Check out this immaculate Scorpio for auction

[merkurdriver]

Are you sure? It's got the US spec headlights....and a US plate?

I'm sure. Its not a Scorpio, its a 1987-1990 Mk2 Sierra sedan.



Plates look like they might be Puerto Rico New Car Dealership Plates from the late 1980's...

[eaton53]

Well, it is in transit, which is exciting and terrifying at the same time.

[eaton53]

Not the best pic, but...

20201216_191754_resized.jpg (89.79 KiB) Viewed 3407 times

Right off hand...
Rear view mirror is in the glovebox.
Hatch struts are totally bunk.
I'm sure that's not all.

Otherwise...
Every control I tried worked, had to consult the owners manual a number of times because it's a little different.
It's quite a bit faster than I expected.
Damn, those seats are sweet.

Tomorrow I''ll get some daylight pics.

[eaton53]

Well, it is in transit, which is exciting and terrifying at the same time.

Here we go...
This car is as close to cosmetically perfect as a 30+ year old survivor can be. That's the really good.

So, I'm going to the car wash to clean it up a little... almost there... dies.
I had this happen with my old XR, so I look at the battery terminals.
Sure nuff, a wire is off the positive terminal, ring terminal is still on there.
But there are several wires and the car's not totally dead.

This car has a battery tender and there is some very shady business going on in that area.
I'm not at all impressed with how this was done, so I am not hooking it back up like I did with my XR.

Got a tow truck, took it over to my guy (I was only about 1/2 mile away from him) with instructions to "fix it" and do the other things.
He's the best mechanic in town and likes messing with these cars. Ok, he got it a couple of weeks earlier than planned.
I knew something like this would happen eventually. Gonna quit sometime, so we may as well do it in a convenient location.

At least it wasn't in Chicago where it took three all day trips and two big tows to get my XR over to Jeff's place.

When you take possession of the car tell us what the date codes are on the tires...and measure the tread depth too. It might be revealing.

Well, I was gonna when I got home, but sometimes the best laid plans go poof!
Next time I see it, it'll have four nice new Uniroyal Tiger Paw Touring tires on it.

[eaton53]

My mechanic is home sick with the flu (not COVID) so the desk lady sent him a bunch of pictures.
He is very excited to get to work on it. He couldn't believe that a Scorpio as nice as this one exists.

That is until you get to that whole battery tender mess. He didn't think much of it, either.
Remove this unoriginal cluster**** has been added to the "to do" list.

[thesameguy]

There was a guy on Craigslist last year who had a 30Kmile(?) Scorpio, in nice condition, claiming it was one of only 1200 in existence, etc., etc., and was asking $25K for it. For at least 6 months. He never budged. And, I don't think it ever sold, at least nowhere near that price. IIRC KBB valued it at $4200 or so. Over-priced, and no demand from the narrow audience which would have been interested in it. He obviously valued it highly, but that's not what the market bore.

I saw this car, and laughed at it every single time I did. For months. TBH, it wasn't really the price so much as the description - just one false claim after another trying to justify the price tag.

My driveway is nothing but weird cars and I always hold out hope that one day the rest of the world will appreciate them as much as I do. In all seriousness, XR4Ti was probably my first automotive love but Saab 900s were easier to come by, and I spent a lot of time with them before finding just the right XR. It used to bug me when E30s started skyrocketing in value but c900s plummeted. I get there is a lot that makes the E30 special, but the c900 is a truly interesting car. I mean, I bet most folks here haven't ever entertained owning one....

That said, in the last two years c900s have started to see major appreciation. They've been featured in more articles in the last five years than probably the two decades preceding. For years, you could bring a nice c900 home for two grand, You'd pay three, and everyone would be like WHY YOU PAY SO MUCH!!?!

Imagine my surprise when suddenly prices started to go up.... fast. No more $100 cars, no more $500 cars, no more $1000 cars. A friend of mine recently paid $10,000 for a pretty nice 1988 900T with 100k on it. I didn't pay $10k for my 1990 900T in 1995! I dunno specifically what changed, but something set off the car buying public and c900s are getting mad love these days.

Probably, some day, the same thing will happen to Merkurs. It probably doesn't help that USA Merkur is often conflated with European Sierra so the relative rarity isn't fully grasped. Eventually, though, I do feel the XR4Ti is special enough it'll get its day. But I agree it's useful and important for people like Eaton to keep a few of these time capsules around. The market for $25,000 time capsule Scorpio will always be quite small, but you need a few $25,000 low-mileage SPG halo cars to coax "average buyers" into justifying a $10,000 c900T. *Someone* has to keep the garage queens around. And that's a big part of the reason I bought a well-used XR4Ti with nearly 300,000 miles on it... because I didn't want that responsibility.

(*MY* SPG has 450,000 miles!





)

[eaton53]

Wow, 450K... that is amazing.

I have the manual for that battery tender...
It came from Sears. No one's shopped at Sears for years!
It's so old that the manual is only in English. I'm guessing 20+ years old.

And it picked today for the half-baked wiring to fail.
It's ok... I was debating removing it. The decision was made for me.

FYI this is my tech...
https://www.aftermarketnews.com/auto-va ... -the-year/

[eaton53]

In the meantime...

ScorpioComplete.jpg (51.49 KiB) Viewed 3387 times

3D models of the base...

models.png (170.35 KiB) Viewed 3387 times

In case anyone was wondering, this guy has the big 1/25 Scorpio diecasts for cheap and my guy will 3D print you a base.
I can delete the feature for the sticker since there is probably only one of those. I'd have to ask how much for a base.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Ford-Scorpio-i ... Swdb1fJc7P

This thing turned out really cool. It's very suitable for a desk or shelf display.
Mine's going somewhere in the engine bay at shows and on the parcel shelf the rest of the time.

[merkurdriver]

First, congrats on the car!

There are so many wires going to the Scorpio battery terminals from the factory I'm surprised there was any room to sneak a battery tender hook up on there.

[Ed Lijewski]

Next time I see it, it'll have four nice new Uniroyal Tiger Paw Touring tires on it.

Uninformed choice. Especially for a deep pocketed Scorpio owner.

Michelin Premiers would be a top tier pick.

Except they are NLA in 205/60-15 (Boo Michelin!). Nor in 195/60-15 for XRs (Boo Michelin!).

My extensive research points to Bridgestone Turanzas as a damn near equal if not equal tire on all counts. Especially for touring.

Re the positive terminal wire collection, it all works fine as is as long as the connections are cleaned and tightened occasionally. Any modifications involve extending the length of those wires to, say, a bus bar mounted near by; and experience shows that such mods may increase the possibility of an issue down the road due to additional soldered or otherwise joined wire connections.

YMMV

[Ed Lijewski]

Wow, 450K... that is amazing.

I have the manual for that battery tender...
It came from Sears. No one's shopped at Sears for years!
It's so old that the manual is only in English. I'm guessing 20+ years old.

Black rectangular hard plastic case ~5"×3"×1" or so? I had one; Paul Michael Van Hook who is/was on here had one, he mounted it on the battery itself.

But, those were pre-true battery tender electronics, good enough for occasional limited-time charging only.

YMMV

[brokencase]

In the meantime...

3D models of the base...

Can you post that base 3d model on thingiverse.com so I can 3d print my own?

[john keefe]

In the '80s, THE police vehicle for the towns of Vail and Aspen (back to the old ski racing days...) were the SAAB 900Turbos. Used to love those cars, and I really liked the Aero version. I was talking with one of the officers, admiring the car, and asked him, "But, Vail's a small town, there's nowhere to get even up to 40mph, so why did you guys order the turbos? He said that sometimes they had to stomp on it hard to get up to speed on the 2 mile stretch of Hwy 70 along Vail, chasing criminal skiers. OK.

A friend had a 900T, which I used to drive us up for training, lot of fun, and absolutely great in the snow. Two problems... with the ignition key on the floor console, he'd constantly fumble and lose his keys between the seats, which ain't fun trying to find them in the middle of a snow storm, no gloves, and the door open.

And, he went through about 3 turbos in less than 2 years, without even trying. He finally wouldn't let me drive it any more after the last turbo seal started going, and I kept heel-and-toeing through Vail Pass and Loveland on the way back down, spewing blue smoke every shift. I figured the seal was gone anyway by that point, it was still under warranty, and the roads called for it, so what's the problem? He didn't see it that way.

[eaton53]

Next time I see it, it'll have four nice new Uniroyal Tiger Paw Touring tires on it.

Uninformed choice. Especially for a deep pocketed Scorpio owner.

Michelin Premiers would be a top tier pick.

Except they are NLA in 205/60-15 (Boo Michelin!). Nor in 195/60-15 for XRs (Boo Michelin!).

Therein lies the problem. My guy sells Michelin, BF Goodrich and Uniroyal.
Had Michelin made the Scorpio's size, that would've been it. Cost was not a consideration.
The Tiger Paws actually get very good reviews. It's a classic name, so I deemed them appropriate for an 80's car.

In the meantime...

3D models of the base...

Can you post that base 3d model on thingiverse.com so I can 3d print my own?

I'm on Christmas shutdown, so I don't have access right now. But when I'm back, absolutely!
I do need to make a modification to the underside so that the supporting material is easier to remove.
This model was made in CREO / Pro/Engineer. Do you have a preferred file type?
I would recommend IGES, but a STEP file will also work.

Also, do you want the "IMON" sticker support feature? I can easily suppress it...

Wow, 450K... that is amazing.

I have the manual for that battery tender...
It came from Sears. No one's shopped at Sears for years!
It's so old that the manual is only in English. I'm guessing 20+ years old.

Black rectangular hard plastic case ~5"×3"×1" or so? I had one; Paul Michael Van Hook who is/was on here had one, he mounted it on the battery itself.

But, those were pre-true battery tender electronics, good enough for occasional limited-time charging only.

YMMV

That is the one. I haven't talked to my guy yet.'
Time is not of the essence and he has yet to call asking me to hit Jeff or Mike up for Scorpio parts.
But I suspect that thing is in the bin by now. I don't need a battery tender.
When I get it back, the hack job will be gone and a first-rate repair made.

First, congrats on the car!

There are so many wires going to the Scorpio battery terminals from the factory I'm surprised there was any room to sneak a battery tender hook up on there.

Thanks, Mike!
Previous owner really didn't sneak it in, they just cut, spliced and taped. Lots of tape and not a pretty job.
I expect to be hitting you up for something at some point.

Several people in my club here want to go for a ride. This car is off the charts unusual, so there is definitely a curiosity factor.
Once both cars show up somewhere, the XR can perform Megapole duty while the Scorpio does rides.

[brokencase]

Post the model as is. Most folks just post the STL file.

Does not have to be thingiverse.com, They actually have had a lot of website issues lately.