Minerva's Merkur, Mica.

[Jack_James]

It was just gonna be a quick clean and coat for the winter. Down the road I plan to paint the body cladding and bumpers low gloss charcoal and also do a DIY wheel restoration (polish what's polished, paint what was painted) and I'll be colour matching the painted parts to the body cladding. Because OCD is real haha.

The wilwoods are anodized dark purple so I'm gonna have to find some low gloss metallic purple paint for the rear tbird calipers as well. Might have the Wilwoods scanned and colour matched...hmm....thinking while I'm typing has its perks.

My mom also seems to want to pay for the grill and rear spoiler to be repainted haha. She's too funny. Well it is Minervas car, Jack. It has to look brand new!

[Jack_James]

This booster is a nightmare. Apparently I wasn't supposed to throw the old one out and send it back on my dime, with no core charge, all without knowing this lol. Wonderful!!!!!!

I should have retrofitting a universal booster or gone with a dual master setup. With the amount I've spent on this booster I could have easily tried both options lol. I'm out of steam with this. I'm beyond disappointed with how I'm being treated. Especially with the other parts that are M.I.A.

I now have a passive aggressive business owner who doesn't give two poops if my other stuff doesn't show up because he didn't advise me to keep and ship the old booster out. You'll deal with my stuff in the new year now that I have tossed an old booster??? WTF. 2-3 days to ship might turn into 2-3 months. I am NOT happy.

Regardless! This fkn car is going into storage soon and I can't wait to not see it for a few months. Everything was golden til I started being mislead, misinformed, misguided and mistreated with this stupid booster transaction. Heavens forbid I asked him for some small stuff I needed. FFS. Next time I'm just going to figure it out on my own like I normally do. Trusting people is apparently overrated in this day in age.

[my8950]

Where are you ordering a booster from that is so difficult?
I've got a few originals that work if you need.
Also have Scorpio electric MC assembly if you're interested in going that route.
Let me know.

[Jack_James]

Where are you ordering a booster from that is so difficult?
I've got a few originals that work if you need.
Also have Scorpio electric MC assembly if you're interested in going that route.
Let me know.

I really appreciate the offer! I have the reman in the car already and it's all said and done. Just waiting for my other parts to arrive if they do at all. I just miss dealing with organized businesses that tell you their expectations from the beginning.

[Jack_James]

Anywho. Finally found wipers that lock into the wiper arms. So I got 3. Went to use them and found out that the drivers wiper arm was bent pretty bad which causes the scratches to take place. Fixed the arm but now I've gotta somehow restore the glass....81,000km on it and has basically zero sand blasting from traffic so I'd like to try and fix it. I figure if it costs less than a replacement glass then I'm ahead of the game.

[Jack_James]

Also repaired the wiring damage from the mice. I now have working interior lights again. Somehow didn't break anything either. Just had to repair a spade terminal for the passengers sun shade and some chewed ground wires.

Also had my squirrel come visit.

[Jack_James]

Squirrel

[Jack_James]

Oh ya I also ordered a set of Scorpio hatch struts since they're rated higher than the failing ones in the XR. Also got a Gates 1/4" turn oil fill cap coming from rockauto. Now THAT took 3 days lol. Super fast. I love rockauto.

[andyofcolumbusmerkur]

That squirrel is like "Hey jerk why did you take my acorns! I needed those."

[Ed Lijewski]

Oh ya I also ordered a set of Scorpio hatch struts since they're rated higher than the failing ones in the XR. Also got a Gates 1/4" turn oil fill cap coming from rockauto. Now THAT took 3 days lol. Super fast. I love rockauto.

"Rated higher", assuming for higher hatch weight, isn't better.

YMMV

[Jack_James]

Oh ya I also ordered a set of Scorpio hatch struts since they're rated higher than the failing ones in the XR. Also got a Gates 1/4" turn oil fill cap coming from rockauto. Now THAT took 3 days lol. Super fast. I love rockauto.

"Rated higher", assuming for higher hatch weight, isn't better.

YMMV

From my search on here a lot of people use them over the XR replacements. Why aren't these a good upgrade? They're rated for about 25% more weight. I've got the bi-wing hatch on this car.

[Jack_James]

That squirrel is like "Hey jerk why did you take my acorns! I needed those."

Haha I feed him and his friend daily so they know my voice. They're really a big fan of coming into my apartment thru the balcony window!

[Ed Lijewski]

Oh ya I also ordered a set of Scorpio hatch struts since they're rated higher than the failing ones in the XR. Also got a Gates 1/4" turn oil fill cap coming from rockauto. Now THAT took 3 days lol. Super fast. I love rockauto.

"Rated higher", assuming for higher hatch weight, isn't better.

YMMV

From my search on here a lot of people use them over the XR replacements. Why aren't these a good upgrade? They're rated for about 25% more weight. I've got the bi-wing hatch on this car.

Don't just follow the crowd. I did once to replace Scorpio hatch struts and found the "community" recommended units much stronger. <<They were a struggle to fit onto the opposing ball socket (they wanted to pull off), and one day one unit did do that on raising the hatch. Those rated for more weight out more stress on the friction points for no functional gain.

I'd only buy new ones recommended for the specific Merkur model. From Rock Auto e.g. or MPM or Rapido. <<Satisfaction likely guaranteed.

YMMV

[Jack_James]

"Rated higher", assuming for higher hatch weight, isn't better.

YMMV

From my search on here a lot of people use them over the XR replacements. Why aren't these a good upgrade? They're rated for about 25% more weight. I've got the bi-wing hatch on this car.

Don't just follow the crowd. I did once to replace Scorpio hatch struts and found the "community" recommended units much stronger. <<They were a struggle to fit onto the opposing ball socket (they wanted to pull off), and one day one unit did do that on raising the hatch. Those rated for more weight out more stress on the friction points for no functional gain.

I'd only buy new ones recommended for the specific Merkur model. From Rock Auto e.g. or MPM or Rapido. <<Satisfaction likely guaranteed.

YMMV

Funny enough I came here for the community and their knowledge lol. I guess we'll see what happens. My reasoning behind it is that both the XR and Scorpio likely use the same ball sockets, body metal gauge and strut geometry (they're the exact same length oddly enuff) so we shall see what happens. Seems the word guinea pig is something I am using often here lol. Thank you for the insight!

[Jack_James]

"Rated higher", assuming for higher hatch weight, isn't better.

YMMV

From my search on here a lot of people use them over the XR replacements. Why aren't these a good upgrade? They're rated for about 25% more weight. I've got the bi-wing hatch on this car.

Don't just follow the crowd. I did once to replace Scorpio hatch struts and found the "community" recommended units much stronger. <<They were a struggle to fit onto the opposing ball socket (they wanted to pull off), and one day one unit did do that on raising the hatch. Those rated for more weight out more stress on the friction points for no functional gain.

I'd only buy new ones recommended for the specific Merkur model. From Rock Auto e.g. or MPM or Rapido. <<Satisfaction likely guaranteed.

YMMV

I'm glad I went with my own logic for the brake master setup. A lot of people said the 1 1/16" brake master would be too much for the car and it's pretty much perfect for me. I can get on the brakes hard and they don't lock up. Where as with the original 1985 15/16" the front brakes locked up pretty easily with the Wilwoods. They flat spotted the brand new tires at the time. Previous owner upgraded to the +87 setup but I think he had a failing master and booster as he was not able to get a proper feeling pedal once it was installed. I got most of the air out of it before it started leaking and even in an OH $#!* moment the front brakes locked up instantly....They're fairly sticky tires too, so I knew there was definitely a bias issue as well as potentially too much line pressure at the front. With the Wilwood proportioning valve in there now it seems to be fairly balanced and not as twitchy to lock up.