1966 fairlane 500

Hey All:

Here's some info about my 1966 Fairlane 500 hardtop.

I decided I was tired of the late model Mustang thing, and wanted to try something a little different. This is my first "classic" car.













The car is an original California car, and even came with the original black plates that were issued with the car in 1966. Apparently, in Cali, the plates stay with the car throughout it's life. The plate number is even on the title.




I'm learning a lot already!

The car came with the original 289 2V replete with CA smog pump. It's a C4 column shift with an 8" 2:73 open rear. Well preserved, but hardly exciting. It does drive pretty well.

I had envisioned a semi-restoration type buildup.
I've decided to build it into a mild street/strip car. I'll drive it to cruise-in type stuff, and race it on the weekends. I've got a ton of parts laying around from all the 5.0 projects I've done in the past, and I've also got some stuff I can sell to generate cash for the stuff I don't have. So I'm hoping to keep the out of pocket expense to a minimum.

Here's a couple more pics of how it looked on the Internet.




The underside is very clean.
That is the original Ford single exhaust under the car. Pretty amazing.

OK

First things first.

Those hubcaps have to come off!







Not the greatest picture, but you get the idea. Maybe a little super stock looking? Anything's better than the granpa caps though.

The CA smog 289 just isn't going to cut it for making power, but I don't have a ton of scratch to spend.
Fortunately, one of the local wrecking yards had a 5.0 motor out of a 2000 Mountaineer with only 25,000 on the clock. We'll see.


These motors have the GT-40 P heads with their infamous spark plug placement that causes most regular headers not to fit. No worries (I hope), as Ford Powertrain Applications actually sells headers for the 1966 Fairlane that work with the P heads. We'll soon see....


This is what it looked like when it came off the truck. This is basically the same thing as a Mustang engine except they drown it in about 100 feet of vacuum lines, coil packs, crank trigger, etc.


Ignore the idiot in this picture. He does have a diamondplate garage fridge though. LOL!


Here's what it looked like after I got most of the extraneous crap off.
The only real gotcha is that the oil filter insert is different on this motor than the Mustangs. I neglected to get a picture, but the part unscrews with a large allen wrench and the mustang type FL1A insert threads back in its place.


Here's most of the leftover junk.
EDIT**
Found some pics of the oil insert thing. It takes a 32mm socket to remove, and the Mustang style uses the allen wrench for installation.

I went ahead and primered the motor up. I just left the stock Mountaineer oil pan on and I'll paint the replacement front sump pan separately. I keep a spare stock 5.0 intake around just to loosely bolt down when I want to paint engines. I threw the stock Fairlane water pump on.

Finding a suitable replacement water pump is proving a bit of a challenge. Passenger side inlet Ford stuff isn't common. I refuse to put a cast iron pump on the car, and the budget necessitates the use of the stock radiator.

the local auto parts place got me one, but it didn't have a rear cover and wouldn't work with any Ford small block front cover I've ever seen....

Edelbrock makes an aluminum unit for this application, but it's $150! I'm still looking.

The car looks in great shape to me. Sweet! Don't know what you paid for it but i'd be pretty happy with it.

It is alway's refreshing to see the beginning's of ones work!

Keep it up We'd love to see more!


FE

Thanks for the compliments guys.

Exhaust is off. So far the only two bolts on the car that didn't cooperate were the manifold bolts. I took the driveshaft loose with a box wrench. The exhaust hangers unbolted without air tools. Sheesh. I know they've got wildfires and earthquakes, but people in California have it GOOD.




Go sawzall! LOL!

I think this is the original factory exhaust. If this were an Illinois car, the body would look worse than this exhaust does. check out the putty patch!

Here's the motor's last moments in the engine compartment



Check out the smog can and pump on the left. HA! From the smell of the exhaust, I don't think it was doing a lot. Cannister had a new filter in it though....(they sell them somewhere?)

Check out what my wife got me.
HA! I guess it's supposed to be the Fairlane that Mario Andretti drove to win the Daytona 500.


My daugher loves this movie. I think this car might be in there for 3 or 4 seconds tops.


Here's another shot of the front. You can see how the front bumper is a little "tweaked" in the middle. It's mostly symmetrical at least so it doesnt stand out too much.



I picked up the later model Mustang seats for a pretty good price. I thought with some blue seat covers they might make a good replacement for the bench. Now I'm not so sure.

Car looks good! On the waterpump issue, I picked up an aluminum waterpump from my local Carquest for my '67. I actually didnt know it was going to be an alum. one when I ordered it, since I was only looking for a replacement, but apparently somebody is making direct replacement alum. ones. Its a right hand inlet, just like you would need, and works great.