I drove it to work 2 days this week. At this point I've put over 100 miles on it, and I've had no problems. Well I do some small bugs to work out but nothing major. I have a draw on the battery. I don't know why, but I think I might have the regulator wired wrong. It needs new shocks. Other that those things, it's good!
I drove it to work 2 days this week. At this point I've put over 100 miles on it, and I've had no problems. Well I do some small bugs to work out but nothing major. I have a draw on the battery. I don't know why, but I think I might have the regulator wired wrong. It needs new shocks. Other that those things, it's good!
I took the old man for a ride in it today. This car was his mother's since 1968. It was real cool letting all the family check it out.
I've got to say that I really enjoy driving this thing! I've driven it to work like 5 days since I fixed the trans again, and I drive it into town almost every day. I actually haven't driven my 68 Coupe since I got this thing going, but the coupe is going to work with me tomorrow. Anyway, this Fairlane is such a great cruiser. It is very fun to drive, but in a different way than my Mustang. It's slow, but it sure is different. I still get the "nice car", "sick car", and all the other comments and questions, even though it's a four door. People seem to love it.
Last weekend I hit a big ass owl. He screwed up the drivers side of my pristine original grille pretty bad. I spent about 3 hours on it and got it looking pretty damned good, but not quite like it was. This is before I fixed it, I don't have any after fix pics yet. I also fixed up the mid 80's "Powered by Ford" valve covers I had laying around and put them on, and repainted the air cleaner base and lid, with a new filter. The gold was old!
My newest project for this car is getting the a/c going again. I'm driving this thing to Tulsa this June for the Mid America Ford and Shelby meet, and I want my a/c working. I cleaned up and repainted and mounted the stock a/c compressor bracket, which is the only a/c component I removed from the car. I also had to move the coil. I can't put it in the stock location with this intake, so I moved it down under the a/c bracket. The compressor went right on, just like before, except the braces that originally came off the back of it and bolted the intake won't fit with this intake. It should be fine though, this bracket is stout as hell as it is. Since these pics, I have also cleaned up the a/c hoses and fittings. I plugged the wire in to the a/c coil, and my when I turn on the a/c blower motor (which still works ), the clutch still engages! My main problem now is to see if I can find a clutch with a 6 rib serpentine pulley, and to see if it will line up with my existing pulleys. If it comes down to it, I might have to ditch the water pump and all the brackets I have on it now and switch to a complete fox body front dress (parts I already have), but I really don't want to do that.
Mayb I'll see you in tulsa, I go every year! Its an hour and half drive for me, but I'm dissapointed the track closed...
I will be there, may bring the 68 Coupe also. I think I'm going to register for the cruise this year so I can park downtown. Stop by and say hi. I might stay for Sunday's show too. I heard that TRP ended up not closing. They still show it on the Mid America site: http://www.midamericafordmeet.com/ And they still have a schedule on their site. http://www.tulsaracewaypark.com/schedule.htm Here we go: http://tulsaracewaypark.com/News/2011/Partnership_111811.htm .
Oh I almost forgot. She met a buddy today. I went to an upholstery shop to have him give me a quote on some work and they had a 62 Fairlane 2 door Sport Coupe up there that they were putting a full interior in.
Worked some more on the a/c stuff yesterday. I still needed a way to tension the belt, so I found this bracket I had laying around, modified it a little bit, and put a spare foxbody Mustang tensionor on it. Not ideal, but it will work. It seems to line up good. I also found a 6 rib clutch for this York compressor that will line up correctly according to my measurements. Boy, my engine looks dirty in this pic. It has also developed a squeek on the drivers side from the upper control arm shaft. A new shaft is 160$ for one side! It doesn't appear to be wore enough to need replacing though, so I'm going to take it out, grease it, drill and tap the ends for grease zerks and put it back in. I'll also go ahead and replace the upper ball joints, and lower control arms, and shocks whenever I do that. All that stuff is still original!
I haven't done much since my last post. I ran out of money and into more issues. I knew I should have got this thing aligned while I had the money but I didn't because it drove so good. I now have wires hanging out of the insides of my tires. So I need 2 tires, new tie rod ends and sleeves ($$$$$$$$ for a Fairlane!!, though I found a work-a-round), a bushing that goes on the idler arm, and 2 front shocks at the least. That's all it needs, but spare money has gotten sparse lately. I was doing all this with the big bonuses I was getting at work but the last 6 months they've dwindled down to next to nothing. Busy time is about to hit so maybe it will get better.
