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Thread: My '80 Fairmont

  1. #151
    FEP Power Member gmatt's Avatar
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    Damn tree. Name:  P1360722.jpg
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    Last edited by gmatt; 05-20-2023 at 01:55 PM.

  2. #152

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    Oh! That sucks!

    Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk
    Brad

    '79 Mercury Zephyr ES 5.0L GT40 EFI, T-5
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  3. #153
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    Argh. Any body damage or just the window?
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  4. #154
    FEP Power Member gmatt's Avatar
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    Just the window.

  5. #155
    FEP Power Member gmatt's Avatar
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    Crazy day.

    So i called this glass shop about 1/2 mile away. Not in stock, his suppliers don't have it either. He says he'll install it for $150 if I can source it. Last Friday, my friend was at a local junkyard. He texted me a picture of an '80 Fairmont 4dr at the yard. It has good glass. So I go to the junkyard and get the glass($30). While I'm there, I run into a guy I haven't seen in like 20 years. We get to talkin' and he's got a guy that'll install it for $75 and come to my house to do it. Win Win. i was gonna go grab some parts off this car anyway. Which i did.

  6. #156
    FEP Power Member gmatt's Avatar
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    And it's done!Name:  P1360725.jpg
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  7. #157
    FEP Senior Member Patrick Olsen's Avatar
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    A blessing in disguise! What good parts did you score off the junkyard car? I've only ever seen 1 "other" Fox platform car in the yards around here, I think it was either a boxy Tbird or Cougar. Even seeing Fox Mustangs is rare.
    '89 GT convertible - not a four-eye
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  8. #158
    FEP Power Member gmatt's Avatar
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    Smooth rear bumper(front had bumperettes?), 1 amber turn signal, 1 clear turn signal, both rear tail lights, the rear window of course, and the trim, rear package shelf, dash bezel, some brackets. Weird car had some mismatched parts on it. Interior was in pretty good condition, but I don't need it; red cloth bench. The car had taken a front end hit so a lot of that stuff was wrecked. Side mirrors seemed OK except that the chrome was very bad. Name:  P1360724.jpg
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    Last edited by gmatt; 09-24-2019 at 08:24 AM.

  9. #159

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    Nice, I love a good junkyard haul.
    Brad

    '79 Mercury Zephyr ES 5.0L GT40 EFI, T-5
    '17 Ford Focus ST
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  10. #160
    FEP Power Member gmatt's Avatar
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    Just trying to make something positive out of this.

  11. #161
    FEP Power Member mcb82gt's Avatar
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    Id say you came out positive. Considering what could have happened.
    Mike

    Now stang-less.

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  12. #162
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    Nice. I was wondering if you were going to have a hard time sourcing new glass. Glad it all worked out for you and you got some other stuff out of the deal.
    '89 XR-7 5 Speed
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  13. #163
    FEP Power Member gmatt's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by mcb82gt View Post
    Id say you came out positive. Considering what could have happened.
    Amen to that.

  14. #164
    FEP Power Member gmatt's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by KevinVarnes View Post
    Nice. I was wondering if you were going to have a hard time sourcing new glass. Glad it all worked out for you and you got some other stuff out of the deal.
    Unbelievable timing. Makes you wonder if there's a plan.

  15. #165
    FEP Power Member gmatt's Avatar
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    Playing with a slightly different look. I kinda like it, could always go back.
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  16. #166
    FEP Power Member gmatt's Avatar
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    "I've only ever seen 1 "other" Fox platform car in the yards around here, I think it was either a boxy Tbird or Cougar. Even seeing Fox Mustangs is rare."


    there is another local yard that had a '85 LTD for about 2 years. I got a lot of parts off that car, but I think they finally crushed it. I cleaned up the bumper and installed it. I went back to get some parts for another car and thought about getting the front bumper, but it had a bend in it from the accident.

  17. #167

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    I simply need to get to a yard to even look for another fox to rob from!

  18. #168
    FEP Power Member gmatt's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Str8sixfan View Post
    I simply need to get to a yard to even look for another fox to rob from!
    I usually check their inventory online before I go. When I went to the yard with the LTD, I asked the counter guy for the location. He told me they didn't have any cars that old. I went out and searched the yard and there it was. They kept it for over 2 years before crushing.

  19. #169
    FEP Power Member gmatt's Avatar
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    Cleaned up the bumper and installed it the other day.
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  20. #170

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    Looking great!

    Did you paint under the cowl grille? ESs came with black cowl grilles and had black accent paint under them. I need to redo that on mine.
    Brad

    '79 Mercury Zephyr ES 5.0L GT40 EFI, T-5
    '17 Ford Focus ST
    '14 Ford Fusion SE Manual

  21. #171
    FEP Power Member gmatt's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ZephyrEFI View Post
    Looking great!

    Did you paint under the cowl grille? ESs came with black cowl grilles and had black accent paint under them. I need to redo that on mine.
    Thanks. No I didn't paint under the cowl. Yet. The paint in there was peeling and there's surface rust, but no rust through. So, yes, I need to get in there with some rust converter or encapsulator of some sort.

  22. #172
    FEP Power Member gmatt's Avatar
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    Laughing at myself here. Short story. A few years ago I acquired a large lot of Fairmont parts from a local guy. A front bumper was included. Now, this was before I had any inkling of the various trim levels offered for these cars. I just stuck the bumper in my shed as a repair/replacement should the need ever arise. When I swapped my rear bumper the other day, I put the old bumper in that same shed with the same purpose in mind. Now I decided to take a closer look at the one I've been storing these past years. Lo and behold, it's a smoothie. No rubber strip, just the 2 'bumperettes'. And it has a license plate bracket. It's far from mint condition, but with a little work it should be presentable and it'll match the one I put on the rear. Facepalm moment.

  23. #173
    FEP Power Member gmatt's Avatar
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    So I've got underdrive pulleys on the car. ASP steel pulleys. The other day i noticed that the belt was wearing on the front edge. The water pump pulley is slightly misaligned with the other pulleys. Maybe 1 rib and since that pulley has lip on it, it's wearing the edge of the belt. I have a different pulley in my bin from a efi 5.8 and this pulley is rounded with no lip. So I put it on and all is good except I had to get a slightly shorter belt since this one is not an underdrive. i went from 75.5" to 74.5". The longer belt worked, but it squealed on start up and when revving and was kind of floppy between the crank and alternator pulleys. I also had 73" belt on hand, but it was too tight to even get installed. So, if you're keeping score, I have an under drive crank pulley(smaller), normal(I think) WP pulley, Under drive PS pulley(larger, 6 5/8", relocated), underdrive alt pulley(larger), no smog pump, no A/C, stock 5.0 bracketry. I have never had any charging or overheating issues.

  24. #174

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    I wonder why your water pump pulley is misaligned. Maybe you can tweak something somewhere else to help line things back up? Also, I'd keep an eye on that temp gauge if the water pump isn't turning as fast as it's designed to with a matched underdrive set. Just thinking out loud here.
    Brad

    '79 Mercury Zephyr ES 5.0L GT40 EFI, T-5
    '17 Ford Focus ST
    '14 Ford Fusion SE Manual

  25. #175
    FEP Power Member gmatt's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ZephyrEFI View Post
    I wonder why your water pump pulley is misaligned. Maybe you can tweak something somewhere else to help line things back up? Also, I'd keep an eye on that temp gauge if the water pump isn't turning as fast as it's designed to with a matched underdrive set. Just thinking out loud here.
    Ya, I don't know about what exactly was misaligned. The belt tracks in the grooves of the accessory pulleys, it was rubbing on the front lip of the W.P. pulley. But with the lipless pulley it should solve it, I'll keep an eye on it. This pulley should also speed up the water pump because it's smaller than the under drive one. It's never had an overheating problem, but I do keep an eye on the gauges.

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