What have I gotten myself into...

[CopperheadandFlash]

Well, I must be insane or something, because I just bought not one, not two, but three XR4Ti's. It was kinda strange but I had to do it. Its not like I didn't have enough to work on. I have known about these cars for several years, as I passed these three quite often, just a couple miles from my house. The only reason I knew they were for sale was because of the yard sale the owners were having. They have been sitting an estimated 10 years and the condition is fair, about what you could expect for one of these to sit in the sun for several years. The are 2 89s, and a 86. The 86, "Copperhead", is rather rough, and is going to take much work to get looking good. "Flash", an 89 and the best of all the cars. It is in really nice shape mostly. A mono white with a tan cloth interior, I think its only missing heated seats and leather. The last car, "eyebrow" is most likely to be destined as a parts car. Identical to Flash, it has a leather interior in decent shape, only one rip, and some bolster wear. it would be a great car if it had not had an electrical fire within the dash many years ago. All cars leak water inside, none have been started in years, eyebrow doesn't even have an assembled engine. The tires are beyond crap, but they hold air for a few hours. Paint is nearly ruined on all, dashes split, headliners drooping, Etc. Copperhead has had some snake visitors that lived there quite a while. I'm not scared of snakes, I just don't like surprises. I hope they have moved on.

The current plan is to work on flash first, as its the most complete, and has best interior body and such. I think it was the most recently running as well. Id like to learn on it as it was a previous daily of sorts, likely to have been best kept up on maintenance. After or sometime near the middle of its restoration, Ill begin on the 86, if I'm not completely broke by then... . I really don't know a lot about these mechanically, or any car for that matter, I'm still a beginner. Maybe it wasn't a good idea to start with these, but they are just Fords right? Its gonna be an adventure, but I expected that. Id like to make them as close to factory as possible. I'm not much into performance or speed, I enjoy my cars as the factory built them.

I suppose I should mention what I paid for these, drumroll please, $800 for all three. That includes several service manuals and other information, including some forum/mailing list type conversations from 1996 I believe. Also some eBay listings printed off from 2003. All these prints are from late 90's to early 00's, and I don't know if it is still information that anyone knows or can get anywhere on the web. If anyone wants to see it let me know. Also, a Rapido Catalog from 1993 I believe. Some cool stuff in there! there was also a box with several dealership brochures for Xr's and scorpio's, and "The XR4Ti Challenge" on VHS.

I was told that there was a few other Merkur enthusiast that were interested in these, but couldn't get them due to schedule and distance. You may be members here, and you will be pleased to know that they are in good hands with me. I created a video of them, its rather low budget, and I've never filmed much of anything in my life, but Id like to continue to video the restorations of these and add them to youtube. There isn't a lot of restoration type videos for these that I found, so if you'd like to see more, let me know if I should continue or not. Here is the link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPb_ypMXTjA

Im getting ready to begin work, so get ready for a slew of questions. Its such a privilege to be able to work on these, and I have been waiting years for these to be put up for sale, and my patience paid off! Thanks for reading and I appreciate all the help in advance.

[merkurdriver]

Congrats on instant triple Merkur ownership!

[John Brennan]

Read, read, read, do a thorough rust inspection, then fire away with the questions. We'd all love to help-- and see some pix of watcha' got!

[andyofcolumbusmerkur]

[andyofcolumbusmerkur]

manual > power
cloth89 > leather89

[andyofcolumbusmerkur]

I modified a broken rear hatch button (flaw on xr4ti) to no longer work from outside pushing inward. With or without key. I just removed a rivet with my dremel. and also used a bunch of epoxy and a hose clamp. It will open if needed from the inside but is a pain. I want to just weld the stupid thing shut. Hit up the vendors as they may have good ones, but it will still break eventually. Some have made a metal sleeve that goes around the lock and makes it look stock on the outside but still function correct. Or put a pair of t handles on it (like an old jeep hood) for the 80's rally car look.

[CopperheadandFlash]

Thanks for the kind words, I'm getting excited. There certainly seems to be a lot of good info here, I think I'm in the right place! Gonna make another video of "Flash", showing some of the issues I've noticed, perhaps y'all can pick up on some others, and go through some of the junk that's in the car. It's certainly the best one to begin with, and I can't wait. I believe it was having fuel pressure issues when it was parked, and there is a transmission cooler kit ready to be installed. As for that latch you mentioned, it's begun working again, I believe it was the seal sticking to the hatch itself. The more I've opened it, the easier it is. I'll be gentle with it still.

[andyofcolumbusmerkur]

Disconnect the wire so it stops locking/unlocking. The central locking is dumb. There's a power lock on all the doors except the drivers wtf. Guess they didn't have alarm fobs and keyless entry back in the day so it made sense to them. You don't happen to have manual windows and cloth interior do you? As far as stuff working all of a sudden then not anymore, well you will get used to that over time.

[Bob Weir]

Welcome to the MCA

Although using the MCA website is free, the're advantages to being a PAID member. To get a free one year membership, go here -> viewtopic.php?f=19&t=30034

Please go to your "Profile", in drop down menu under your user name and tell us a little about yourself, especially what people call you most often, your city and state. If you're curious of the Merkur owners in your area, contact me and I'll arrange contact info.

You've been infected with Merkuritis. Once you own a Merkur, you're smitten.

Bob

[CopperheadandFlash]

Well, I'm a bit slow on my updates right now, a bit busy and I'm kinda doing some saving to buy a garage cause this laying in the wet grass and waiting on the weather to be halfway decent isn't pleasant. But I'm not complaining. I put up a new video, and forgot to tell y'all. Here is the link https://youtu.be/ZpRVLVVD5jk . I only posted it two weeks ago. Anyways, I put a battery box on Flash and played with the electrics. Flashers popped right on, broken button to thank for that. Nice to see immediate life, and zero fires, always a bonus. Played around with the random junk that came with the car as well. Soon, I'm gonna try starting it, but I really need to know some about what should be done to these engines before they start after an estimated 7-9 years of sitting. I sure don't want to damage anything. I'm gonna do the usual, fluids, plugs, wires replacements that should be done, but after that, I'm lost.

I've dropped the tank, bone dry and fairly rusty inside, outside looks great (I love Georgia) but the sender looks horrendous. Anyone ever rebuilt one? I'd like to use the original tank over a fuel cell. I've done some reading and that has come up several times and seems to be the common thing to do, but I don't think my tank is rusted through anywhere. I'll include that in the next video.

Anyways, that's your update. I'm loving these things, I've never dropped a fuel tank before, but it wasn't bad at all which is great for a beginner like me. Now I got to buy a Scorpio too. Lol like I need another car...

[andyofcolumbusmerkur]

Red Coat or POR type product for the gas tank. Maybe Walbro 255l intank fuel pump instead of the 2 stock pumps while you're at it. And new fuel filters. I would shoot wd40 into the cylinders and let it sit, then crank the engine over and install new autolite plugs. After it starts up and warms up I would change the oil a second time. I would also be worried mice chewed some wires and concerned about a fire.

[CopperheadandFlash]

Well, I've been away for a bit again, but I've been busy. Somebody junked an XR4Ti at my local pick a part and I have managed to obtain some very nice parts for my cars. There are so many good things left I may be able to save my parts car as well, but we shall see. The cloth seats in my 8 are popping stiches and are quite faded so I pulled the seats out of this Merkur that were a matching upholstery. They should clean up nicely. I pulled a super nice dash, one minor split, for $15. Not bad! It appears to be a project that somebody gave up on, which is a shame because it was a really complete car. The back glass was busted but other than that it was in really good shape, just dirty. I plan to pull more to spruce up my cars a bit. More progress should be soon, but we will see how things go. I included some pics of the junked car.

[andyofcolumbusmerkur]

So it's a late 88 or 89 it seems. Get that 150 speedo. The NLA late style master cylinder (even if you need to rebuild it), the late style ZF steering rack, the E6 exhaust manifold (maybe the whole turbo assembly), the dome light if good, maybe the engine wiring harness. Check it for big brake adapters, aluminum rear diff mount, LSD, boost controller.

[thesameguy]

Congrats on instant triple Merkur ownership!

Yeah, it usually takes a few months, but no problem getting it out of the way up front.

[merkurdriver]

So it's a late 88 or 89 it seems.

Dash and a pillar trim say its an 88. REALLY nice interior stuff you picked up from that one