'79 Fairmont Build

[TeeJayTee]

If you run MSD ignition and a 3g alt. you can make the job alot easier and have a better elect. system. Just throwing ideas out there while your in the building stage. You guys sre doing a outstanding job on the car.

Funny that you would mention that! We were looking into the 3g alternators! the guy my dad works for is a huge mustang guy and told us about the higher output alt. i think the 3g one is like 110 amps or something instead of the wimpy factory fairmont one.. but we're also thinking of just doing a one-wire alt, but not sure if it will work or not.. still a little ways from that stage. Also MSD would be sweet, but maybe later down the road..

Thanks for the comment and input! If you have a thread or info on the 3g alt let me know. i'm very interested in that!

[4EYED85]

Here you go.

http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthread.php?t=133029

http://chrisb.users.superford.org/Br...lternator.html

[OldsRocket442]

Funny that you would mention that! We were looking into the 3g alternators! the guy my dad works for is a huge mustang guy and told us about the higher output alt. i think the 3g one is like 110 amps (135amps) or something instead of the wimpy factory fairmont one.. but we're also thinking of just doing a one-wire alt, but not sure if it will work or not.. still a little ways from that stage. Also MSD would be sweet, but maybe later down the road..

Thanks for the comment and input! If you have a thread or info on the 3g alt let me know. i'm very interested in that!

3g is a very easy install. I've done it on 2 Broncos, a '72 f100 and my Mustang. Heres a write up I did for my Bronco http://www.fullsizebronco.com/forum/...d.php?t=139544

[TeeJayTee]

3g is a very easy install. I've done it on 2 Broncos, a '72 f100 and my Mustang. Heres a write up I did for my Bronco http://www.fullsizebronco.com/forum/...d.php?t=139544

Just took a look at one of the links posted. I'm definitely interested in doing that now! If i understood correctly, it eliminates the need for the voltage regulator?

Thank you!!

[4EYED85]

Yes, all that wiring goes away, the voltage reg. is on the e back of the 3g.

[TeeJayTee]

Alright since some things are out of order i'm going to go back to some of the body work, just to show what we did.

So in the process of making the radiator support and finishing the engine bay we also fixed the cowl.

The hood on the car must have flew up at one point in time, because the cowl was creased and all bent up.
Pics:



Gettin' ready to clean up the fire wall a little.


Body filler on


Front view






And that was our cowl fix.

[TeeJayTee]

And now to finish off the engine bay!! I wanted to make my fairmont very stealthy and sleeper like. so i went with Nissan "SMOKE" Gunmetal grey with a flattening clear. i wanted the car a little shiny, but i like the flat/gloss look much better. anyways the paint came out great! Enjoy the pictures!

Before clear. -this is actually how i wanted the paint to be. very flat and eggshell like. i loved it this way, but i looks great with the 60% shine too!!


After clear:


Yes the trays are not perfect.. ik! but in the light you cant see the "wave"


Wiper motor and brake distributor block painted and installed.

-I love how the black accents the paint!!


a little dusty..








And that's it for the engine bay!


This took from December to May to finish.. my dad and i were very busy and worked on the car when we could. it was worth every second though. Now we're doing front suspension so that will likely be next. And all the other suspension things we've done also.

[4EYED85]

Very nice work. You guys are great at paint and body work, can I send mine over when your done with yours?

[TeeJayTee]

Yes, all that wiring goes away, the voltage reg. is on the e back of the 3g.

Awesome! Now i understand. sweet. when we get to putting in the motor in and getting ready for the alt i'll be keeping all this in mind. thanks!!

[TeeJayTee]

Very nice work. You guys are great at paint and body work, can I send mine over when your done with yours?

Thank you very much for the compliment. my dad is the body/paint man. he does most of that and i do what i can and learn a lot haha. After 30+ years in the auto body business, it really shows.. i'll try to post some pictures of his other odd job fixes and things. Thanks again man... and anytime ya wanna bring it over we'd be happy to hook ya up

[TeeJayTee]

For the suspension we went all out in some places and sorta put temporary things in other places haha.

When we dropped the stock K-member my dad and i were like "what a pile... Lets look at a tubular one!" So we got to looking around on the internet and got mixed reviews about a lot of tubular K-members (QA1, AJE, Granatelii, Afco, and PA Racing). So the one that had the best reviews and best ratings from our researd was the PA Racing K-member. There was non problems of them breaking welds, not being strong enough, and (from the reviews) they mounted up perfectly. It was not cheap though.. $400 plus some small bills the buy and ship it.. But after we got it we knew we had went with the right one. i picked it up with one hand and held it (straight arm) right up to parallel with the ground. this is a feather compaired to the metric-ton stock K-member.

Old:


New:








Tubular looks much better than raggedy old stock



For the lower control arms i went with the stock ones for now.. just sand blasted them, put on some fresh paint, new ball joints, and polyurethane bushings.



Getting painted. also, just putting on the stock spindles.


Energy Suspension bushings


Bushings in


Shocks, struts, sway bar, and control arms all repainted. (shocks and struts are new)



So we got the K-member in after we painted the car and were going to start putting the suspension on. so i grabbed a control arm and started to mount it on the K-member... well the didn't workout to well.. the tops of the arms hit on the k-member and didn't allow the arms to pivot downwards.. so we ended up having to cut the arms and weld in a patch to make them work.



i'm also putting in 2'' lowering springs all the way around and a 90's Cobra sway bar with the energy suspension bushings also.




new vs old sway bar


Much thicker and stronger... hope it handles fairly decent..







And that's about it for the front suspension. Its coming along good right now. we should have everything in by next weekend hopefully..



Also to anyone reading/looking at this thread--> this is my very first thread and forum.. i'm sorry about the randomness..! i'm just trying to get up to speed on where we're at now, but include everything that we've already done. i will probably make another thread after i get the car on the ground again and do everything in chronological order.

Next will be the rear suspension!!

[83t-topp]

lovin the progress pics. keep em comin.

[4EYED85]

Great progress. You guys came this far, why not put some FRRP control arms on it with the upgraded ball joints?

[TeeJayTee]

Great progress. You guys came this far, why not put some FRRP control arms on it with the upgraded ball joints?

Cost is the only reason.. i'll eventually upgrade to tubular control arms and coil overs, but for now the stock ones will do.

[TeeJayTee]

We're still working on the read end, but i can post pics of the progress up to this point.

Started out with the original 7.5 rear end. we did the 5 lug conversion.. (ranger and winstar axles). **note**-->at first we were just going to stick with the 7.5 because 8.8's with posi are a needle in a hay stack to find in Minnesota for a reasonable price..

4 lug 7.5


5 lug axles in:


My dad decided i needed some rear control arm up grades, so he ordered tubular upper control arms off ebay:


installed the polyurethane isolators, springs, and uper control arms:


After we got all that my dad was like "you're gonna need something to plant the tires"... so he ordered up these. (lakewood adjustable control arms)






Middle setting for more traction, but not all out:



After i installed all that i thought "sweet we're good to go back here"... then my dad informed me that he found a 8.8 posi with 2:73 gears! the 2:73 was a little scetchy, but we got a 8.8 out of an explorer for free from a guy that had 3:73 gears! after some research we found out that you can use the ring and pinion off the explorer rearend and put it in on the mustang differential! so that is being sent down to our rearend/engine man. (he actually used to build rearends for nascar)

Old taken out:


scrappin' it, besides the axles..


And yes i am going to be replacing the bearings and putting in C-clip eliminators.

That's where we are now with the rearend. we're gonna take that down tomorrow to have the gears changed and the other goods put in.

I suppose now its on to the power plant!!

[Dacolino]

Great build! Keep up the awesome progress and work!

[TeeJayTee]

Can't sleep so i might as well continue with the pics..

For the engine i went with a stock 302 out of an Explorer. I bought it from Erick who has a red and black farimont with a 351w in it. Anyways the ford explorer motors from i think '97 to '02 came stock with GT40P heads and usually are a lot nicer blocks than the mustangs ones, because they usually aren't beat on to bad.. anyways we stripped the motor and sent it to our engine builder where he is putting in all new bearings, rings etc... we sent the heads to a shop to have them freshened up and then sent those to the engine builder too. i'll post some notes above the pics for the rest on the engine build... dont wanna ramble too much











Cylinder walls are clean as hell!!


Heads off:


Double hump oil pick up:


Chrome oil pan:


Had to get a new front cover because we're switching in to the old style water pump and belts.. (i think now i should have went with the serpentine, but ohh well)


Chrome dip stick:





Now for the goods

I wanted the motor to really lug and have and aggressive idle, so we had a cam custom made. .496 lift, 270 duration, and a 108 lobe center. (GT40P heads lose flow after about .500 lift, so we went as close as possible..








We also had the company send us new springs with the cam. idk what the specs on em' were.. but here's some pics

[TeeJayTee]

For the intake i did some research and what i came up with was that the weiand stealth intake or the RPM intake were the best for the 302. so we started looking for intakes on ebay. we found a lot of satin finishes, but i really wanted to get an everbright chrome intake. we finally found one for about $250. so we ordered it up.




Next was finding a set of shorty equal length headers for the GT40P heads... (not an easy find)... we did however find a set!! they're MAC headers.. we found em on craigslist for 50 bucks!! ..yeah they are in rough shape, but we sand blasted them and sent em'to a powder coater.









I believe we will be running a 750 holly double pumper for a carb and we're still looking for a distributor...

[TeeJayTee]

Great build! Keep up the awesome progress and work!

Thanks man!!

[Blainer]

Very cool build! Subscribed!

[TeeJayTee]

Very cool build! Subscribed!

thank you sir!!

[TWR2003]

Great work. Kiss your Dad nine times!

We are not that familiar with the later Exploder engines. What are those lifter retainers made out of? Are they PM parts like the dogbones on a Mustang 5.0L?

[Quick82]

great progress on the fairmont, from where you started it is turning out super nice

[TeeJayTee]

Great work. Kiss your Dad nine times!

We are not that familiar with the later Exploder engines. What are those lifter retainers made out of? Are they PM parts like the dogbones on a Mustang 5.0L?

To be honest i'm not exactly sure.. this is my first 5.0 build.. I searched around and googled it and as far as i read/know the explored had 2 types of lifter retainers. one that is metal (like the one i have) and one that is plastic. i read that there is guys who buy mustang 5.0's and install everything in from an explorer motor and there are many guys who use the explorer lifter retainers... so i'm guessing they are the same, or at least very close.

Hope that answers your question.. (i'm no expert)

[TeeJayTee]

Found sub-frame connectors on craigslist for $60! (did some research on these..)--> My dad and i were looking for connectors online and we came across some info. many people liked the tubular ones better than the square/rectangular ones because i guess the tubular ones aren't supposed to twist as much as others.




Threw some wheels on the back:









This is my dad's 1979 Fairmont. she's got a rebuilt straight 6, it's lowered 2'', flowmaster 80 series (idles like a v8 ). after market rims in the front with 17'' mustang rims color matched to the front with 275 tires on the back! this looks really aggressive.










right now he's getting ready to jam the car and put the doors back on.