1983 Fairmont Futura 4D (long)

Sorry for the REALLY long post, but I've been building all this stuff up for a month or so and I needed an outlet.

I feel I should explain my intentions before I continue. I am not a racer, and probably never will be. I'm not interested in building a drag car or whatever. I'm not even interested in how this would fare against others on the street. When I say I want a sleeper, I want it so I won't be noticed and bothered at stoplights. I drive solely for my own pleasure.. and my goals with this car are to build something that's pleasing to my eye, exciting for me to drive when I stick my foot in it, but still keep the kind of fuel efficiency to be expected from mixing a 2900 lb./25 year old car with more modern technology like EFI and more diverse gearing options.

I also absolutely love inline 6s. (the name isn't just a gimmick) I already have two vehicles with V8s. I will under NO circumstances ever put anything other than an inline 6 in this car.
Now that that's out of the way.. (just trying to save possible frustration later) the car: As the title says, it's an '83 Fairmont 4 door.. 200 I6/C5.. 101,000 miles. A/C works and most of the A/C hardware was replaced recently. Only other options are PS, PB, and a rear defroster. Was owned by older men (50+) for its entire life, and I'm the third owner. Was garage kept or covered for most of its life. There's NO rust on this car aside from one spot on the left rear corner where it was dented. The first owner drove it after a stroke and had a minor fender-bender with it, so it has a few scratches.

He also drove it with the hood not latched properly and flipped it, (something I almost did the day I drove it home) hence the hood was replaced before it was repainted. The only problems with the car other than the scratches are a leaky heater core, (bypassed for now) and a need for new shocks & struts.
I've had it for about a month now, and I've already made decent progress on it.
I've done:
- Tune-up, of course. (new Autolite plugs, generic plug wires, cheap Accel coil, generic cap & rotor, PCV, all filters except transmission, 180 deg. thermostat and new housing, two cans of SeaFoam before plug change, Auto-RX added on oil change, two radiator flushes and refills, new battery wires and terminals, replaced all non-headlight exterior bulbs and one headlight)
- Painted the stock wheels low-gloss black with bronze centercaps.
- Painted the fake woodgrain dash pieces bronze. (eventually I'll do the door trim too)
- Painted the inner grille piece and taillight surrounds bronze.
- Painted the dash cover a light tan color. (needs more paint)
- Covered the rear package tray in some tan velour fabric from Wal-Mart.
- Added a (Proform, I think) 16" pusher fan on a dash switch and relay setup.
- Added a Sunpro mini-tach and set of 1.5" Sunpro mini-gauges.
- Added spare Grant GT steering wheel from parts car,

after I broke the trim off the stock wheel. Oops. Painted the wheel the same bronze as the rest of the dash, and used a lighter color on the horn button.
- Added the two-horn set from my Mark VII parts car.
- New floormats. (yawn)

My immediate plans for it (and likely my next Making Progress post) involve a set of Mustang 15x7 10-holes I picked up for $150 locally, and the Eastwood powdercoating kit I also recently purchased. I'm painting them Eastwood's bronze metallic and high-gloss clearcoat. Here's a comparison between the original (sandblasted) wheel and the bronze powder: (not yet clearcoated)
(Click Thumbnail #7)

My long-term intentions for it include some kind of forced induction (leaning toward an Eaton M90.. I've always wanted a supercharged car) along with Classic Inlines' new aluminum head for the small-block I6. Mild cam, roller rockers, whatever else I need to do to go along with it. EFI conversion.. maybe a Megasquirt. My goal is around 200 at the rear wheels, from something that makes like 85 now. Since my fiance will also be driving the car on occasion, I'll probably want to use one of the MSD boxes that allows for crude traction control as well.

Anyway, I have a lot of details to work out about that yet, but I don't plan this for a couple years yet. (I wanna get the rest of the car to where it can handle the extra power first)
I'll also likely keep it an automatic, but I'm not sure which yet. I have a spare AOD, but I'm interested in the "Project Frankentranny" from some Explorer forum where they blended an A4LD with a 5R55E. (that depends on getting a certain bellhousing that I'm not sure I can find easily or cheaply) I'm thinking around 3.55s out back, but the big change out back will be if I can get my hands on a Cobra IRS setup. Need to look into whether an Aerostar aluminum driveshaft would fit.

Of course I'll be upgrading the brakes. I'm shooting for Cobra 13"s up front and maybe Mark VII disks out back.. whatever works with the IRS, pretty much. 17" wheels to fit all that, when the time comes. I'll also do whatever structural reinforcements I need to do.. subframe connectors, torque box reinforcement, strut tower brace, etc.

I'll be finishing it up with a nice paint job, but I can't decide on color yet. I'm fluctuating between deep jewel green, a nice dark blue, or the deep purple color from the new Fusion. (I've seen it up close, it's gorgeous) I'm thinking about blacking out most of the chrome. The interior will inherit the two-tone from the outside of the car.. I'm thinking deep brown carpet and headliner, and a dark brown vinyl for the parts of the bench seats that aren't normally sat on.. but the four main seating surfaces I'll redo in a tan cloth. I'll probably get the windows tinted long before all of that.

Finally, I think I'll be using the idea from this site to use a portable music player hooked to an amp, and build a decent stereo but hide as much of it as I can. I have three dash speaker holes, so I'm thinking about trying out some sort of center channel setup.. tweeters in the 3.5" dash holes, a normal speaker in the center.. 6 1/2" speakers in each door with the speaker covers painted tan to help hide them.. and maybe 8" subwoofers and small boxes for each mounted where the 5x7s normally go, via some fabricated adapter.

If you took the time to read all that, you may be eligible for a medal. Anyway, thanks for taking the time to read all that. Hope to have that wheel powdercoating post up in the next week or so, with a brand new set of BF Goodrich g-Force Sports on them.

i want it, a 1982 4 door fairmont was my first car pretty much just like this one but brown with red gut . damn i beat the hell out of it 19.5 at 70 mph all day long

There's a guy over at FourEyedPride.com selling a '79 wagon with a 302/C4 in it. 50k miles on it, I think. Another one ('78) with an '86 5.0 in it. Also a Zephyr 4-door. If you're serious about wanting one, there's plenty of choice right there. (and if not, it rarely hurts to look, right? uhh, right? How did my wallet leap into my hand..?)

Cars For Sale, Wanted, or Trade - Four Eyed Forums

I seriously lucked out on mine.. a friend of mine saw it on the side of the road on a road I NEVER drive down.. only a day or two after I asked him to keep an eye out for Fairmonts and Zephyrs for me.

I'm a complete nut for Fox bodies. The only thing I'd want more than this I6 Fairmont is an I6 Capri with T-tops.. but I'm sticking with this car. Even though I admit it's ugly to 99.9% of the population, I still find myself standing at the front door staring out the window at it constantly.. or going out to fiddle with it just one more time. I'm positively stupid over this car lately.. even if it can barely get out of its own way (now) compared to my Mark VII LSC.

Love the little 200!! Drove a factory Grabber green 1971 4dr Maverick all through highschool with the little 200 under the hood. If your looking for performance parts check this website out .

Classic Inlines Performance Parts - Home

Originally Posted by lchapel

Love the little 200!! Drove a factory Grabber green 1971 4dr Maverick all through highschool with the little 200 under the hood. If your looking for performance parts check this website out .

Classic Inlines Performance Parts - Home

Cool site. They have nothing for my 223 cubes inna row under the hood of my '64 Custom but someday a swap may be in order....

Jan

Already knew about the former Ford Six Performance Parts.. mentioned it in the OP.. (which is so long, it's easy to miss) but thanks for posting it again. Not sure how much use it will get around here, though. I imagine most here think of an inline 6 as just something complicating a V8 swap.

As for swapping to another I6.. I'd like to swap to a 250 for the Fairmont. Thought about the 300 I6, but that's a whole other block and a tight fit for a Fox body. (not impossible, just more of a hassle) I would think there's plenty of room for a 300 under the hood of a Custom/Galaxie, though. Classic Inlines will be doing a 300 aluminum head, too.. and the 300 should have the same bellhousing bolt pattern as a SBF. (and the 250 I6, and the 3.8 V6)



No real progress on the Fairmont project to report, other than getting a crude version of the headless stereo working. Two crappy slim-mount speakers in the door is all I have now, but it's better than the stock stereo on 25 year old speakers.. and I made the headless setup expandable. Otherwise, the project's paused for a little while. Have to get some other things in order around here first.. like getting my truck and my Mark VII operational again..

Ehy, sounds like some fun...straight six, nothing wrong there...good little engine, beat the hell outta a few, a buddy had an '80 4 door with too many hard driven miles.
I had a 2 door post coupe I had to sell years ago and regretted doing...been thinking how fun a swap on a 2 door post would be, with say a 3.0L duratec DOHC V6 from a taurus and a 5 speed driving/smoking the rear tires...with a good set of struts and some decent springs.

Never would of thought on the 300...but I suppose anything is possible.
Have a good one.

Good opening story... now where's my award


I like the Moredoor Fairmont and I LOVE the 200 inline 6 like NOBODY ever will