Car garaged for 4 years...

I've got an '86 LTD wagon (3.8 V6, 76K miles) that's been garaged for 4 years, and it needs to resume duties as a daily driver. No special prep was done to it before storage, but was decently maintained prior to life in the garage. The battery was dead (due to a dome light being left on :banghead: ) and was that way for most of the time, but after a bit of distilled water, took a charge and seems to be holding it. The car starts, and sounds quite strong and healthy.
Is there anything I should do beyond the obvious - new tires (age), oil change, maybe new battery - to return this car to service?

Nah. Put some gas in her and take off. Some of the seals on the engine and transmission might have gotten hard through no lubrication so after you drive it check underneath for leaks. High Mileage Castrol will soften up the seals and will get them to do what they are supposed to do and the seals on thr tranny should do the same thing with ATF..

* I would agree a new battery will likely be needed soon.
** I would bleed the brakes - until ALL of the old fluid was out. And I wouldnt be surprised if the car needs some brake work fairly soon. I would expect things like the handbrakes to be stiff - and perhaps not release fully. If you have the time and energy, spraying penetrating oil on all of the brake bleeder screws each day will make it more likely they can be opened without snapping off.

Thanks for the replies.
Had a chance earlier this week to give it a little more extensive check-up...
Oil was about a qt. low, but it's always had a bit of a leak. Coolant was dead on. Smoked a fair bit until it had run for about half an hour - probably until the oil got to where it was needed. Now, not a trace of smoke :)
The battery seems to be a little weak at holding a charge, but then it hasn't been ran much above an idle, either, with several starts, light checks, etc. Maybe with some actual driving, it'll behave better. <shrug>
The power steering fluid was a smidge low - less than an oz. - topped it off, no problems there.
Tranny shifts fine - all gears - so I'm not worried about it.
The brakes, however... very squishy, and one caliper (d/s front) seems to be dragging somewhat... brakes still stop the car, though, so hopefully they aren't too far gone. I figure I'll hit its piston with the penetrant when I do the bleed valves. Can't hurt it any worse...:lol:

You can get rebuild kits for the calipers. They arent too hard to do. You push the piston out using the brakes, until they are both about ready to pop loose. Then you unscrew the brake hose from the calipers, work the pistons out, clean out the muck and polish the bore, put in the new rubber sealing ring and dust cover - and voila! - they should be good for years. With rear axle wheel cylinders, I usually replace them on an car over 8 years old, or that has been sitting. At the same time I get a good look at the handbrake cables (usually rusty and stiff.) With the wheel cylnders replace and the self-adjuster threads cleaned and lubed - you should be okay for some years. I also do a visual inspect of every inch of brake line, looking for rusty surfaces that are pitted. Any pits - I replace the line.
I am willing to pull brakes apart, even when they seem to be working fine; because they are the most important system on a car. Usually its hard on the back though, all that stooping.

I'd maybe run some SeaFoam treatment through it. And wouldn't run it to long with that old oil in it. Maybe change anti-freeze. Check fluid level in the rear end. Do the brake bleed, check make sure the rotors haven't collected moisture to produce rust since some garages do have them creases for moisture to get in. Check the air filter/hoses. Since rubber tends to dry out over time and to make sure you don't have any leaks that could cause a problem. Maybe check the gas line filter especially if the car had old gas in and you ran the old gas through since any dirt in there settled to the bottom of the tank. Just my thoughts and suggestions, good luck with your new to you car :)

Interesting development-
Went out yesterday to give the brakes another check before I started getting my hands dirty. When I pumped the pedal a couple dozen times, it actually firmed up! Started & warmed it up, and tested the brakes again... from where the brakes would hold the car in place, I had around 1"+ of pedal left between it and the floor. Plus, the dragging caliper didn't seem nearly so bad. After shutting it down, I pumped the brakes up again - firmed up within 4-5 pumps.
I went ahead and took off the wheel from the corner that had the questionable caliper. There was a bit of corosion, but nothing really spectacular. The bleed valve turned fairly easily (after hitting it with a little penetrant, just to be safe). The rotor looked pretty decent, with only the type of surface corrosion that you see even on the newer cars that haven't been driven in a couple of weeks. The brake line itself looked smooth and unkinked, and felt fairly flexible.

I'm still going to do a bleed & fill on the brakes to get the old fluid out... It won't take too long, and it'll give me a chance to check the other three corners. Would I have any issues if I switched to a synthetic in a car of this vintage, or should I stick to a standard DOT3?
Also, I've heard a lot of positive stuff on these forums about Seafoam - I'll give that a shot when I change the oil.

There is a couple diff. methods of using the seafoam, one is running it through a full tank of gas and the other is to run it right through the throttle body or carb which a car of your year I'm guessing its a carb, there is kinda one catch though, its said that it can sometimes foul your sparkplugs depending on the condition of the engine. Something else some people have done and I have done myself it isn't the brightest thing but before changing the oil I put a little bit of tranny fluid no more than a quart into the oil because tranny fluid has a type of detergent that cleans internal engine parts. I ran it through my 92 explorer i drove it for 10miles worth of driving I'd say and when I drained my oil it was like pure black. your choice buddy you just have to be careful you don't wanna lock your motor up. And I honestly don't know about the synthetic I would guess its ok, synthetics usually just have additives in them, quite a few people had a debate on weather its a good idea to put synthetic oil in a motor with more than 100k miles on it, and when i just changed my oil in my explorer i put straight 5quart synthetic 5w-30 valvoline in mine it has about 145k miles on it and i have no issues infact it seems to be running more smoothly. Whats the shape of this old this old car?

TeamExploder-
It has a "carb" of sorts... throttle-body fuel injection. Looks like a carb, set up like a carb, just has fuel injectors there instead of floats, etc.

I did a little research on Seafoam after my last post. The engine's really in pretty decent shape (idles smooth, revs sound healthy), so I'll probably just stick to using Seafoam in the fuel and in the crankcase (just prior to an oil change). One can should be enough for both.
I wasn't planning to switch to synthetic motor oil - I was thinking of switching to Valvoline's SynPower brake fluid vs. standard DOT3. My apologies:lol: The only motor oil I'll be using is a name-brand high-milage-engine oil.

The overall shape of the car is decent... 79K miles, some surface rust (no holes), and I think the AC (converted from R-12) needs recharged (don't need that now anyway :) ), but otherwise it's worth putting back into service.

Yeah...I know the diff between the throttle body and carb...yeah I too would just stick with the seafoam if it's running fine. And I'm there with ya I don't use nothing but the name brand oil either :) Them miles are pretty good for that car....I have seen a couple of 80's crown vic's on like craigslist with mileage under 100k people must notta ran them much. But does sound good to put on the road with them kinda miles and if it don't really need mechanical or body work.

One week update...
Seems like The Beast is coming back to life :)
I've put about 300 miles on it, and it looks like I'm down to some minor irritation issues. The battery did need replaced - it wouldn't hold a charge, plus the pos. terminal post was loose. There was a broken belt in one of the front tires that was causing an apparent alignment and vibration issue... got both fronts replaced (rears looked almost new, and my tire guy said they were fine), and now it tracks true and the vibration is gone. Replaced a low-beam headlight due to it being a bit on the dim side.
All told, I'd figure that I''ve got about $200 invested in getting it back to daily-driver status.
Now for the issues:
The overall ride is a little "floaty" - I'm assuming that new shocks will cure that. Not a big deal, just not to my tastes.
Mild aroma of burning oil (not from the exaust) after a freeway trip of 20 miles - I've been checking the fluids daily, and the engine oil seems to be staying at the full mark. If I had to guess, I'd say some was seeping out the valve cover gaskets. If it doesn't stop in a week or two, I'll try tightening the valve cover bolts and see if it helps.
The wheel bearings probably need greased... the DS front has a small squeak to it. Not even annoying yet, but it's on the list.
AM reception is crap :lol: - guess I need to find one of those filter things.
The biggest deal is that the rear brakes appear to have a small leak somewhere. I need to top off the fluid (for the rear - front's staying OK) every other day or so, but it's less than an oz. each time. It's number one on my to-do list, but it'll have to wait until things settle down a bit after the holidays. At least the brakes work and brake fluid is cheap.

Thanks for the assistance so far, all!:cheers:

Good to hear its still runnin! :)