1966 Ford Fairlane Feral-lane devaluation

You might remember me from my previous antics building a turbocharged duratec ranchero in this thread https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-projects-and-project-cars/1962-ford-falcon-ranchero-duratec-25-econoboost/186285/page1/

Well I told you i'd be back at it.  So here we go.  I'll try to include dates as this has been a long term project by my standards

I moved from CA to GA a couple years ago and immediately met a circle of like minded enthusiasts.  After hearing about me missing my ranchero they more or less gifted me this 66 Fairlane that had been passed around backyards and garages for years.  It was my duty to adopt it and do it justice.

So here it is the day i picked it up. Feb 2023

Poor thing anguished in my new backyard while I remodeled part of the house and the garage.  Once both were habitable it finally got brought inside in June of '23

It is (or should I say was) quite rusty and in my opinion gone beyond the point of trying to restore.  Purists need not read further as I lay out the bad things I've done to this poor car so far

First order of business was to remove rust.  You'll notice I don't fix rust.  I remove it and replace it with tube.  The thing was about to fold in half as I put it on jackstands.  So I went to work adding subframe connectors out of 2x2x.125 sq tubing

Now that it wasnt in danger of killing itself and me it was time to start caging it.  1.75 .120 dom for the main structure with some .095 mixed in

With the main cab part of the cage locked in I moved forward to the front suspension.  I'm using an aftermarket SN95 mustang crossmember and strut arrangement.  This is around August '23 now

Zeny cut was the MVP here

Front end mocked up.  Crude jig for the strut towers.

Add tube through the firewall and CAD-board

I'll spare you the boring measuring and geometry, but it is a pretty aggressive road race spec

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And more or less the finished product for the front end.  This is Sept '23 by now

Shock towers are hand plasma cut and broke on a harbor freight shop press

Overlays at frame attachment points

Sept 1st I rolled it outside for a look at how it was shaping up.  Unfortunately I rolled it back in the garage and didn't touch it for nearly a year due to a massive remodel of the lower floor of my house.

I'll leave it at that for tonight.  There's a lot more coming.  More tube work.  A turbo. And more irreplacable classic ford butchery

If you want more details or information let me know.  I glossed over a lot

One of my all-time favorite body styles. Looking forward to the build.

Bring all of the details! This is cool 

I aspire to weld half as nicely as you do some day.  Also, I love the stance and the wheel and tire setup.  I would be tempted to go for a stock car look but with the modern performance you're no doubt baking in.

SO cool!  Do you miss the Ranchero?  And did the guy on the forum from CO buy it?

Will said:

One of my all-time favorite body styles. Looking forward to the build.

Mine too. This is awesome.

mjlogan said:

I'll leave it at that for tonight.  There's a lot more coming.  More tube work.  A turbo. And more irreplacable classic ford butchery

If you want more details or information let me know.  I glossed over a lot

What?

NO. GIVE US MORE. NOW.

With all the juicy details. Pretty please?

PS. Guess I'll have to make do till tomorrow by re-reading through the Ranchero thread.

Loweguy5 said:

I aspire to weld half as nicely as you do some day.  Also, I love the stance and the wheel and tire setup.  I would be tempted to go for a stock car look but with the modern performance you're no doubt baking in.

SO cool!  Do you miss the Ranchero?  And did the guy on the forum from CO buy it?

I'm going to let you, and probably myself, down on the modern powerplant. I'll make it interesting though I promise.

I miss the heck out of the ranchero. It's still in CA as far as I know 

I would drive this.

CAD-board. Nice :)

Alright one more for tonight. And I lied, I did the following during the house remodel 
 

Picked up a 3.73 limited slip 8.8 out of an explorer. Turns out an explorer 8.8 is 1/2" narrower than a stock Fairlane 8". Perfect. So I cleaned some brackets off and tacked the perches on at the same angle as the stock ones

painted and bolted in

Nature got rid of most of the trunk floor, so I finished it off. Then started adding structure back in.

Boxed in the top of the "frame" rails with .125 plate

and this is where it sat during the remodel, serving as a step ladder and workbench

this brings us to December '24 for the current big push on this thing

Yes!  Another vintage Ford on GRM!!!

Ok lets address the powerplant.  I so badly wanted the ranchero vibe and to put something modern and different in it. 

The initial front runner was a ford 3.7 "cyclone" V6 out of a late model mustang/f150.  I was pretty set on this for a while but after rolling it out of the garage and seeing the vibe it had, I just didn't want to give it a V6 voice.  I still really want to put one of these engines in something, heck maybe even this car at some point.

Other contenders were a GM atlas inline 6, 2JZ, and some BMW inlines that friends were recommending.

As it came together my mind started drifting towards a Coyote.  This is really what this car deserves.  I was just having a hard time with the price and lack of transmission options.  Plus I like to have a care free attitide when it comes to these projects, tune them myself, and I'd be a little nervous with a coyote.  I feel the car is still possibly destined for one, just not right now.

Ultimately in the same way the Fairlane fell into my life, a '70s era 302 fell into my lap.  Freshly rebuilt and bone stock except for GT40 heads. Pulled from a customer car in a buddys shop in favor of a 347, and in my garage for too cheap to turn down.

Yeah I know.  Booooooooring.  At least its not an LS.  I still think of it as a place holder, but it allows a path forward.  And I've got a buddy with a garage full of T5's so it was kind of a no brainer.

It'll remain totally stock internally.  I'll be hanging a Borg Warner S369 sxe off of it, feeding it 450 lph of E85 through 80 lb injectors, all managed by some amateur tuning via megasquirt.  At least I think i'll do megasquirt again, I havent bought an ecu yet.

I like where this is going! Where in Georgia are you located?

In reply to MadScientistMatt :

Acworth

I love watching the work of people with skills orders of magnitude more than my own.  Great job!

Turbo plus E85 buys you some forgiveness for the flat-tappet SBF. 🤘🏻😎

In for updates!

glueguy (Forum Supporter) said:

I love watching the work of people with skills orders of magnitude more than my own.  Great job!

 

I appreciate the compliment, but don't sell yourself short.  Anyone can do this, theres nothing special going on here.  I've got no formal training, minimal easily attainable tools, and a small but functional workspace.  Dont be afraid to give it a shot!

Oh boy, this is my favorite kind of rust repair. Amazing work so far as always.

Welcome back. I do enjoy your particular style of vehicular resurrection. 

Fantastic. Looking forward to more!

'too rusty, cage it' is definitely a vibe I can get behind!

Following along