Car Running Countdown

Wired up the underhood lighting. I took a good look at the plain-jane donor sedan's heater ductwork to make some PVC mounting brackets and found some good structural sections with potential for some safe (no cutting edges) and compact enough.

The mercury switch was toast and now that I installed a new hood sound pad, I decided to mount one of the teardrop Ford (I think they're from a 1964 Mercury sedan) license plate lights, on each shock tower. The third one will be mounted to use as a moveable work light with a lighter socket and a 15' rolled up, grounded cord. Hope I never have to use it, but it will reach to the rear of the wagon from the cowl/firewall.

Took a while to figure out where, find good wire from the old donor wiring, and how I could chop up the old ductwork. I'll take Before And After pics. After 70 cars, I learned that the Bird of Paradise can crap all over your cereal, usually when its raining and when no garage is in site.

I'm gonna make a second cargo storage door for the other side and make up a storage box for battery cables, a Four-way wheel wrench and a chevy-wagon jack like RK mentioned. The other side will carry basic tools and gas-line anti-freeze (absolute necessity in -40C and lower temps, during winter.)

 

If I didn't have the Haynes and the Ford manuals the wiring would be a worse task than it is.

Last year I merged all the sections of the 1978 donor and my 1979 Squire, to avoid wire splices and soldering joints. So between the two sets, I got the basics in and the accessories from the donor. BUT!

I got new visors with a vanity mirror and lights (SWMBO pacifier ) from a 1982 Fairmont. Since the '78 and '79 both had Map and dome light options I figured it would be a natural. I look for the wiring harness for the sedan and it's got the windshield mounted light. The Squire had it midway over the front seat backs. But I've got the front harness. Well, the visor lights have one wire. No ground. I'm checking the Haynes. Optional lighting circuits are not included. I had already dismantled the visors to dye the velvet fabric and light housing, so I knew it was only one wire inside. Where's the freakin' ground? Ah, yes dummy the mounting screws! One and half hours reviewing the books and the 1978 EVTM, and this dimwit clues in! :banghead3:

Well then I move onto the De-icer wiring from the donor. Nice big 10 guage from the tailgate to the driver's side cowl. The relay has a 12 guage connection to plug it in. Since the donor was a 2-door sedan, it's short by 2 feet. Do I use 10 or 12 gauge? So I checked the old wiring harness for the right size and found some connectors that hooked it up. Had it all done and realized I didn't weave it through properly so that if worse got to worse, no other wires would fry. Disconnected, fought with the emergency brake pedal bracket and got it in right. Lots of amps go through there.

All done for the day, I close up the hood and my cheapy hoodlight switch breaks off, (the 12 gauge wire I used was too stiff and resting on the headlight housing, the plastic push pin cracked. Well I've got a few oldtimer chrome finished metal toggle switches, so the heck with it. There's three lights to run off it (two stationary and one on a long cord to work like a trouble-light. I figured I'd give them some good wiring in case I need all three at the same time.

EDIT: I might look around for some high Candle-power LED lights for these engine compartment lights and reduce the power load a few watts.

Almost ready for the dash to go in, after I check for shorts and broken circuits.

 

Interior wiring is DONE!

Amen!

I wired in the visor vanity light wiring in series with a hopeful original map light. Andy's got a luxury Ford car dome light somewhere in his stuff, which should fit in my ceiling and it has those swivel map lights.

Rain tomorrow, so I'll get the leaf traps made up and my engine compartment light brackets (PVC) finished.

There's one plug that I'm trying to figure out, but I'm pretty sure it goes nowhere (courtesy light circuit option). I'll go through the books in the morning.

 

Way to go Normy!
I'll give you a hand with that dash.
I'm still messing around with a seized-up control arm bolt.:banghead3:

 

Not today, rain on and off.

The donor car was like that too. Drill some holes into the rubber close to the bolt and oil it with WD-40. Probably is all rusty-crusty and embedded into the rubber.

 

Never underestimate the details in reassembly! :banghead3:

One brown wire in the dash wiring really bugged me. Hours trying to find it in the schematics. It turns out that its the Automatic tranny Floor Shift indicator light. In my sheltered life of owning one brand new 1981 Fairmont Futura wagon and this one, and chasing down any lead to parts cars, I've never seen an Automatic shifter on the floor in a Fairmont!

Solved that mystery, and went under the hood, at last.

Got the vacuum tank distributor bar installed (only on AC equipped cars). located the hardware for the shift rods, and finally found suitable bolts to install the battery tray/shelf. The 100 AMP and up alternator frame bolts fit right into the clip nuts and are long enough to use thick washers in the floor of the tray holes and thighten down properly. I used two thick brush-on coats of varathane black to refinish the tray, after washing off the old grease and then washing it off with baking soda to neutralize any old battery acid. Rubberized paint might be better.

 

Yesterday:

- Tranny wiring done
- Speedo cable in with Orange gear and all clipped in!
- Engine splash shields in and fitted. (Found old plastic push pins that worked. I'll paint them black on the outside. Once they're dirty, nobody will notice.
- Hood handle mounted and cable all clipped in.
- Gas line ( I drilled a rivet hole down at the driver cowl last year, and repaired the line) and reinstalled sound baffle at hinges and fender liner)

Not a huge list, but lots of detail work behind the scenes.


Tranny Linkage, exhaust and engine compartment details, and tailgate wiper noise insulators today.

Unless somebody's got a LOT of cash, I don't know how you'd do a full restoration without a donor car. Too many small hardware bits and pieces to think about. Save those eggcrates - Just in clips and clip nuts, there's over 2 dozen types!

 

The engine and trans were rebuilt by one of the top Ford dealerships here, a few months before I got the car (it was rear-ended a month before, and I was thinking about restoring mine from top to bottom, so I asked that dealership owner if he knew if anyone had a Fairmont for sale. I was there to get an oil leak dye test on my 302-V8, which I blew up later that day).

Well anyway, the donor had a Canadian rearend with with a 3.27:1 rearend and mine has a Mexican rearend with 3.07:1. Speedometer gears are different:

From:
http://www.steeda.com/products/speedometer_recalibration_gears.php

375-C0DZ-17271-A Manual 7-Tooth 2.73 Ratio / Maroon 16 Speedo Gear
375-C0DD-17271-B Manual 7-Tooth 3.08 Ratio / Yellow 18 Speedo Gear
375-C0DZ-17271-B Manual 7-Tooth 3.27 Ratio / Pink 19 Speedo Gear
375-C1DZ-17271-A Manual 7-Tooth 3.55 Ratio / Black 20 Speedo Gear
375-C4OZ-17271-A Manual 7-Tooth 3.73 Ratio / Red 21 Speedo Gear
392-STE -17271-D Manual 7-Tooth 4.10 Ratio / White 23 Speedo Gear
375-C0DD-17271-B Manual 8-Tooth 2.73 Ratio / Yellow 18 Speedo Gear
375-C1DZ-17271-A Manual 8-Tooth 3.08 Ratio / Black 20 Speedo Gear
375-C4OZ-17271-A Manual 8-Tooth 3.27 Ratio / Red 21 Speedo Gear
392-STE -17271-D Manual 8-Tooth 3.55 Ratio / White 23 Speedo Gear
392-STE -17271-D Manual 8-Tooth 3.73 Ratio / White 23 Speedo Gear
392-STE -17271-D Manual 8-Tooth 4.10 Ratio / White 23 Speedo Gear
375-D0AZ-17271-A Automatic 7-Tooth 2.73 Ratio / Blue 16 Speedo Gear
375-C7AZ-17271-B Automatic 7-Tooth 3.08 Ratio / Gray 18 Speedo Gear
375-C7VY-17271-A Automatic 7-Tooth 3.27 Ratio / Tan 19 Speedo Gear
375-C8SZ-17271-B Automatic 7-Tooth 3.55 Ratio / Orange 20 Speedo Gear
375-D0OZ-17271-B Automatic 7-Tooth 3.73 Ratio / Purple 21 Speedo Gear
392-STE -17271-J Automatic 7-Tooth 4.10 Ratio / Black 23 Speedo Gear
375-C7AZ-17271-B Automatic 8-Tooth 2.73 Ratio / Gray 18 Speedo Gear
375-C8SZ-17271-B Automatic 8-Tooth 3.08 Ratio / Orange 20 Speedo Gear
375-D0OZ-17271-B Automatic 8-Tooth 3.27 Ratio / Purple 21 Speedo Gear
392-STE -17271-J Automatic 8-Tooth 3.55 Ratio / Black 23 Speedo Gear
392-STE -17271-J Automatic 8-Tooth 3.73 Ratio / Black 23 Speedo Gear
392-STE -17271-J Automatic 8-Tooth 4.10 Ratio / Black 23 Speedo Gear =============================================================================
375-C0DD-17271-B Manual 7-Tooth 3.08 Ratio / Yellow 18 Speedo Gear
375-C1DZ-17271-A Manual 8-Tooth 3.08 Ratio / Black 20 Speedo Gear
375-C7AZ-17271-B Automatic 7-Tooth 3.08 Ratio / Gray 18 Speedo Gear

Mine is this one:
375-C8SZ-17271-B Automatic 8-Tooth 3.08 Ratio / Orange 20 Speedo Gear

The other has a 21 tooth purple/brown gear, this page shows the speed error percentage:

http://www.ffcobra.com/FAQ/speedo.html

But check out these guys' FAQ if you need some clarification:
http://www.speedometershop.com/

http://www.speedometershop.com/rep-pag.htm

No way back to main page from this (no frames).
http://www.speedometershop.com/faq.html

They're listed in this EXCELLENT Links page:
http://www.crt-performance.com/links.htm

They've got good tuning and tech articles on the top of the main page:
http://www.crt-performance.com/

Anyway, I'll know if I'm driving at 30 MPH in a 35 MPH zone.

 

Got the tailgate wiper rubber sound absorbers back in properly. On the Fox wagons that means removing the license plate/backup lite tray, wiring connections and the wiper arm unit, reinstalling the rubber and nut insert and then reinstalling everything. about 3 hours in 32C sunlight and 9 UV under a shade tarp. HOT!

Engine compartment tomorrow before the rain. Resume on Sunday PM, and hopefully start her up Monday or Tuesday.

 

After Andy gave me the automatic shifter bracket for the 200 CID C4 automatic, I got back and got to work:

The donor car was crunched halfway into the trunk, so the new 200 CID muffler and tailpipe were toast. I had just gotten a new system on my 302 V8 a month before I blew the engine in my yard. So I had a 1.75" pipe from the I6 manifold to feed into a 2.25" V8 system. Picked up the adapter/reducer and clamps, chopped the flanges back with my Sawzall (actually Bosch), filed the burrs and in she went.

The I6 and V8 column shifter bracket is almost identical on the Fox-bodied Farimont/Zephyr/Cougar from 1978 to 1982. BUT you can't use the cross-shaft support. You probably shouldn't, but could use the longer V8 cross-shaft itself on the I6, but you'd also have to straighten out the actual shifter bar to the trans. I had the V8 all painted and restored, thinking it was the same, but for some reason, misplaced the support bracket. So before I installed the exhaust, I cleaned up and derusted the I6 system, removed the V8 parts I had already put in and then installed the restored I6 rods and brackets. That's the last of the 'UNDER CAR' stuff.

 

You are really getting close now!!! Can you already imagine the feeling to start her up and drive around the block the first time, after such an amount effort? Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

You can count on it! It's a real tug-of-war, I have to admit. Do I rush it and leave critical details to later or do it right?

I was really lucky for the answer to that. A highschool buddy was a farmboy. We were in a Physics class doing something with hydrochloric acid, when his Lab partner was going to take a shortcut in the experiment and he yelled out: "If you don't have the time to do it right the first time, when will you have the time to do it over again!" The guy had just spilled the acid all over the counter and burned a hole through his running shoes. The Lab apron saved his family jewels!

 

Let's see how much of the interior I get done today. No seats until the glue dries. My headliner is a cloth type with hoops, not the cardboard backed vinyl.

Oh, for those following this thread, I found a rain leak. The Fairmont rear view sail mirrors have a foam gasket between the window frame and the mirror. The passenger side wasn't tight enough and it let in about 1/2 cup overnight. So if you're wondering why the inside windows are fogged up and the car smells like a u-name-it, that's one of the sneaky spots. I found it by tracing back. The car is angled with the hood lower than level, so I thought my roofrack fasteners weren't sealed. Since I didn't have the driver's side on all winter, nor the stick-on sound deadener and drain plugs, on the floor, it would run out when the weather got warm.

I installed the driver's mirror with the new swivel, and no water on the driver's side. Well, I had to get some parts out during the rain two days ago, and the water was still coming in from the mirror on the passenger side, seeping in and running down the door seal and back to the rear passenger floor pan area. Gotcha! I said!

I'll post pictures before I start, and after I get whatever done today. And just to beat the sharpshooters to the punch:

 

Good that you found that leak now. I guess it would be much harder when everything is in and probably could do more damage as well. Before, I had a garage of about 6 x 10 meters, which was heated aswell. I fouund it hard to continue for a long time. I just can't imagine you doing everything outside!!!! I just went through some of your older pictures, that's why I realised again. Respect!!!!!

Btw: did you see the fairmont pictures I uploaded to the ford section? I came across it on the net and didn't want to hold you guys out of it, if you hadn't seen them already.

 

You shouldn't have been so humble! Here it is! WOW doesn't begin to describe it! That is one car with a real WOW-Factor!