1980 Ford Fairmont Wagon. Family Cruiser.

TLDR:  Here's a bunch of photos of me mounting ONE piece to the car.

Last weekend I brought the V8 K-member to the carwash and, as expected, transferred all the grime from the part to myself.  But at least the part was clean.

I also realized that I was past the "tearing down" part of the project and on to the much slower, much more expensive, "putting stuff back together" phase.

I brought it back home and thoroughly sprayed it down with Phosphoric Acid and let it do its thing for a while.  Then it was on to primer and Hammered black

Today I slid it under the car and bolted it back up. 

Feels like a big step even though it was one part installed over the course of about a week ;)

ClemSparks said:

I also realized that I was past the "tearing down" part of the project and on to the much slower, much more expensive, "putting stuff back together" phase.

I hate that phase sometimes.  I guess at heart I'm still the 5 year old that took apart the remote and the cable box.

I think you hit the nail on the proverbial head!

It's kind of disheartening knowing progress will slow down.

But I DO like that it's going back together...and at least I get to work on clean parts now!

I've repeated in my mind several times today (and many more over the course of the past couple of weeks) the mantra that I've learned from several folks here:  "Perfect is the enemy of good."

Every little bit of progress is a baby step closer to what I truly believe is going to be a REALLY COOL car.  And fortunately I'm pretty excited about this project so hopefully the incremental progress will provide some fuel (inspiration) for further progress.  We'll see if I can make the funds keep up.  Ha!

In reply to ClemSparks :

Clean parts are a beautiful thing to have to play with, aren't they?

Cleaning and painting more parts in "the booth"

A little before and after of the spindles.  These are from the '93 convertible parts car seen earlier in the thread.

I had a bit of a development this evening when this came home with me.

I guess that settles the "which transmission" part of the project.

Stick shift wagons, to the front!

I got my control arms back from the shop that pressed in new bushings for me last Friday.  Over the weekend I installed my ball joints and painted them up.  Last night I installed a bunch of front suspension stuff:

Control arms (with new bushings and ball joints)  

Motorsport "C" Springs  

Spindles  

KYB Struts  

Refreshed strut mounts (updated to the later fox body style) 

KYB Bump stop/strut bellows

Not a lot noteworthy has been going on with the Wagon but I have been working on it.  I brought the T5 to the carwash this weekend.

It's a little more presentable now.  Not sanitary but hopefully I won't spend much time looking at it ;)

I've been spending a lot of time waiting for paint to dry, frankly.  Calipers, brake shields, etc.  Every part...well...most parts that go on are getting cleaned and painted. 

I put the steering rack back in to find out that from '82 to '83 the foxbodies switched to a different outer tie rod end.  The tip-off was an obvious toe-in condition when I connected the tie rods to the newer spindles.  So, I picked some up today and put some paint on them before installing.

I'm glad you decided to go with the T5. The world need more 3 pedal RWD wagons!!!

Tonight I set it down on all 4 wheels for the first time in, what...a month or so?

I guess the "rebuild the suspension, steering, and brakes" portion of the "engine swap" is mostly buttoned up.  There are still a few little details on that front (like brake hoses...waiting on parts), but I feel good about where it's at.

I guess now I ought to start putting together the engine.

The weather got warm enough today that I did a final rinse of the block (because I knew the warmth and sun would help it dry nicely) before beginning assembly.

(that's Walter Sobchak spreading Donnie's ashes on the screen in the background)

Before I knew it I had the cam and crank in, main bolts torqued, and timing kit installed.  

It's now wrapped up in a bag to keep the dust out.

Well, damnit!

I went to put rings on pistons this evening and the oil ring I have is too thick.  I've now learned (after a frenzy of googleresearch) that the forged piston they used in '85 used a 5/32" oil ring which is unobtanium.  I found a new-old-stock set on ebay and it should get to me next week.

As per usual, I try to save a buck (by basing a whole build around not having to buy pistons) only to find out the pistons take a ring nobody makes.  

My Sealed Power E-462K piston rings showed up in the mail earlier this week.  

Over the course of the past few days rings went on pistons, pistons went into block, rod bolts were torqued, roller lifters were installed, heads were installed, and head bolts were torqued.

I've decided this is one of my things on engine assembly.  It's my clearly-not-forgotten past as a Manufacturing Engineer.  I put a little dot with a paint pen when a main, rod, or head bolt has been torqued to specification.  I'm sure lots of folks do this, but it makes me feel better.

I've installed my flywheel and clutch setup and bolted the Transmission to the Engine.

I put it all in the car yesterday so I can work out the details of the conversion to manual transmission.  And that's mostly just where to drill a hole for the shifter and modifying the later-model transmission crossmember to fit in the early fox body.

The drivetrain will come back out one time so I can cut the shifter hole.  But man...it sure looks at home in there!

And...the engine is back out.

ClemSparks said:

And...the engine is back out.

Well, that was quicker than normal

Working on gravel with the engine hoist, are you moving the car back and forth under the hanging assembly?

Indy "Nub" Guy said:

Working on gravel with the engine hoist, are you moving the car back and forth under the hanging assembly?

LOL... I was going to ask the same question! 

Having done it a couple of times, it's a PITA!

ClemSparks said:

Indy-Barely Functional-Guy said (back on April Fools day, 2018):

How the heck did you move that engine hoist (casters) in the dirt with the engine hanging?

I didn't 

This really demonstrates that my "build" threads don't move fast enough, lol  ;)

[to be clear:  IndyGuy...I'm not picking on you but rather me]

Yeah.  It's a bit of a logistical dance.  Not ideal for sure but better than nothing.

One up-side to leaving the engine hoist stationary is that the engine doesn't swing around like a pendulum crashing into firewalls and A/C condensers every time you try to make a small positional adjustment.

Mr_Asa said:

ClemSparks said:

And...the engine is back out.

Well, that was quicker than normal

Fortunately it's all part of the plan.  That did, however, happen even quicker than I thought it would.  I was able to mark out the shifter position on the bottom of the tunnel and test-fit-and-modify my double-hump transmission cross member relatively quickly...so I kept going.  Now the engine is back out so I can cut the floor for a shifter...at least an initial cut...and chip away at a few other things that might be easier without the engine in the way.  But hopefully very soon I'll set the engine back in for the forseable future!

In reply to ClemSparks :

Doooooohh.

Sorry, I thought I had seen it before, now I know where.  I guess it had been so long ago I forgot where.

Carry on.

In reply to Indy "Nub" Guy :

Yeah...that's pretty much how it goes around here.  So long between progress posts that it's hard to follow. 

I got the same question on my '83 Buick Regal (seen covered in dust in the barnbackground here) thread.  I did the same thing (roll the vehicle under the engine) on the '83 Suburban but I showed and explained it in a post when I did that one. 

My projects move slower than most folks can tolerate.  But I just have so many of them and have little bursts of interest/progress on them here and there.

Your hurrying along compared too my wagon! The smallblock does fill out the engine bay so much better! This is a column shifted c4 factory isn't it? 

Oh...I think your wagon has progressed at lightning speed compared to mine, lol.  

Yes, this car had a column-shifted C4.  I have to cut a hole in the tunnel now for the T5 shifter.

At least for now I think I'll just cut the hole and go with as tasteful a universal shifter boot as I can find.  If anyone has any pointers on that front (shifter boot), let me know.  The hole is going to be roughly 4" wide by 6" long.

Today I managed to remove the Bench seat, rear seat bottom and carpet.  Next I need to find the pedal setup (with clutch pedal) that I have squirreled away so I can see what I need to do to get the clutch pedal all set up.