Hard to believe that I have owned my 78 Fairmont 2 door sedan for 30 years! In 1986, this ultra bare bones boxtop came into the car dealership I worked at, as a trade in. It had just under 100,000 KM, (about 60,000 miles), I always wanted to build a Fairmont drag car, being such a plain janer, this Mont was a prefect candidate.
1986 and 87 saw the Fairmont getting backhalved at my buddys garage, and the mounts, headers, and other items needed to install a 390 FE and C6 fabricated and installed. By 1988, it was ready for the track.
I was never really a fan of the reddish brown factory color, in winter of 1988, I decided to paint it blue. My buddy did the body work and prep, and a local body shop agreed to spray the car for free, after my buddy sprayed all the engine compartment, door jams, inside the trunk etc.
Unfortunately, the body shop painted the car the wrong shade, different from all the paint that my buddy applied to all the inside panels and jambs.I ran it that way for 1989, the next winter the same body shop agreed to respray the car again. It has worn this same paint job ever since.
In 1990, I replaced the 390 with a modified 428 Cobra Jet, still with the C6, (best of 10.55ET @ 126MPH, by 1999, I decided to replace the C6 with a Jerico 4 speed, with no other major changes, the car improved to low 10s at over 130 MPH. After breaking a couple of 428s, about 5 years ago, I replaced the 428 with a 427 Side Oiler and 428 crank (454 cubes.) Best to date of 9.97 @132 MPH, with cast iron CJ heads, a flat tappet cam, and 780 vacuum secondary carb on a Ford intake manifold. For the Fairmonts 30th anniversary, I may buy a pair of aluminum heads for the 427, and install a 2x4 barrel Tunnel Wedge intake manifold, but for this year, I`m going to freshen up the 331 SB Ford from my 85 Mustang, and stick it in the Fairmont. Should be fun!
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