1970 Torino And Fairlane Builds

[bigjohn]

 

[bigjohn]

Thanks. I think I'd forego the Falcon and stick to a Torino or, failing that, a Fairlane.

I hear ya. And I agree, I feel like both of the latter are just sleeker without the posts and wing windows. The falcons uniqueness is what blows my skirt up, not so much styling styling.

 

[bigjohn]

The last few days have been pretty productive. I’d pulled the fuel tank last weekend to soak, toss and clean. The varnished gas smelled horrid and we didn’t want to risk valve sticking running this stuff diluted and I wanted to get some trash out of it anyway. So it was removed and most of the varnished fuel removed. Then a few gallons of paint thinner was an added and lots of sloshing over the next few days. Eventually it was clean enough, emptied again, rinsed a few times with water to get the rest of the sediment out and it was reinstalled. The fuel pickup tested good in the ohm range so after shrinking The rubber seal and installing a new pickup filter it was reinstalled as well. A few chunks of new fuel line and clamps, some cranking to get the new fuel pulled up from the tank and it’s finally running on its own fuel system for the first time in a long time!
The oil is changed and another quart of atf added and the rear tires really spinning now.
Today the mission was working on getting the exhaust downpipes done. And they’re layed out perfectly to run straight through their crossmember notches. They’re not pretty but done and cheap. Jeff ordered an $80 2” exhaust kit from Amazon with some 45’s, 90’s and 180’s. I’m still waiting for the mufflers, hangers and rest of the straight pipes to arrive so I can lay out the rest of the system from the downpipes back. But weather but wild lately with back to back score storms, followed by a few days of below freezing temps, then an ice storm yesterday. So parts are tough to grab.
I also found out the rear u joint I installed isn’t correct. It’s a 1310 series but not the standard cross and cap size on the axle yolk. So need to get and swap that and get the correct straps as well.
Here’s some vague pictures.

 

[wheelie]

Soon time for tire smoke.

 

[bigjohn]

No pictures but got the exhaust half done. The passenger side got a thrush turbo style muffler, and a 45 degree exit in front of the rear wheel. We had one stick of pipe the wrong size and needed one more 45. And I still want to add one more hammer to the passenger side.
I loaded one more 4 gallon gas can into the tank to continue monitoring the sending unit rubber seal. So far so good.
Also I finally got the correct u joint, installed it and got the shaft installed again.
Jeff dove into the interior and what began as troubleshooting the heater fan led to the dash and heater box removal. I think we’re looking at ditching the huge ac box and replacing it with a standard non ac heater box for simplicity sake.
Also we found this fmx shift lever is facing up instead of down. I don’t know why I didn’t catch that while installing the shift linkage. This means the shifter is dead backwards. Park position is 1st. So we’re looking at a few options here. The correct option is to drop the pan and valve body and swap the lever 180 degrees. What we’ll probably do just to simply get the car functional and shake it down is take some flat bar and mount it to the existing lever so the mount point is equal and opposite of its current position.
Lastly I finally pulled the master cylinder. It never did feel like it bench bled correctly. So it’s getting exchanged and I’ll hopefully install the newer new one tomorrow. And maybe take some pictures.
Jeff and I ran it with most of the exhaust done. We’re both super impressed at how smooth this little 302 runs.

 

[bigjohn]

The exhaust is done. Sort of. I’ll install one more hanger on each side and cut the tips at a 45 degree angle to match the body.
The rear brakes aren’t gravity bleeding well and I’m beginning to suspect either a plugged or failed brake valve. But once I get assistance to run the pedal I can better assess and troubleshoot that.
Here’s the exhaust. Those tiny thrush mufflers are perfect, grandpa loud as I like to call it. But very mellow sounding.

 

[Fireball]

Those tiny thrush mufflers are perfect, grandpa loud as I like to call it. But very mellow sounding.

X2 on the Trush Turbos. They flow better than Flowmasters and are pretty quiet when cruising around. Not quiet at all when full throttle, but that's part of the fun.

 

[bigjohn]

We got a few more small things done. We got the brakes bled and they feel normal, thank God. The other struggle was the throttle linkage. The carb setup isn’t for this car so neither Torino style throttle bracket would fit. So I cut one of the old crusty ones down and trimmed to fit tightly around the carb base, then welded the half I cut off so it mounts to the egr block off stud. Of course I forgot to take a picture.
In other news, the floor pan and toe board came in. So we’ll probably work on that in the coming weekend hopefully. Also I’m very much procrastinating working on the cowl repair. But that needs to happen before the heater box and dash come in.
Speaking of, the new heater core is installed in the non ac heater box and the heater dash controls are changed from the ac vacuum style to non ac style. Lastly we hit the metal parts of the heater box with some por15.

 

[Norcal69]

They flow better than Flowmasters.

That's funny you mention that.
Flowmasters are actually one of the worst mufflers on the market, and often times the stock muffler will out flow them.
I was sponsored by a startup called Varoom Exhaust, think Batmobile sound. The company was started my a pneumatics engineer who specialized in pneumatic conveying of materials. At heart he was a gear head and always building a hot rod of some sort. There was a huge muffler dyno setup with a variable speed 3 phase duct fan and a valve that could mimic the exhaust speed and displacement volume of an engine. Later on he built a trailer mounted 350 chevy engine and dyno where he could go to shows and dyno peoples favorite brands of mufflers.
Health issues eventually caused him to sell the business to one of the big muffler companies. Both of my race cars had his mufflers on them, they sounded like a vacuum at 8k rpm.

 

[bigjohn]

That's funny you mention that.
Flowmasters are actually one of the worst mufflers on the market, and often times the stock muffler will out flow them.
I was sponsored by a startup called Varoom Exhaust, think Batmobile sound. The company was started my a pneumatics engineer who specialized in pneumatic conveying of materials. At heart he was a gear head and always building a hot rod of some sort. There was a huge muffler dyno setup with a variable speed 3 phase duct fan and a valve that could mimic the exhaust speed and displacement volume of an engine. Later on he built a trailer mounted 350 chevy engine and dyno where he could go to shows and dyno peoples favorite brands of mufflers.
Health issues eventually caused him to sell the business to one of the big muffler companies. Both of my race cars had his mufflers on them, they sounded like a vacuum at 8k rpm.

Another reference to back this claim is engine masters. They tested a bunch of mufflers and the flow master really wasn’t that great.

 

[bigjohn]

Paint is dry on the throttle bracket so I mounted it up. The range of motion seems perfect and no flex.
I messed with the fan and shroud some too. The stock 4 blade is underwhelming and it needed to come off for the shroud to go on anyway so I tried another 18” factory 6 blade flex fan but the blade swept back way too much and into the radiator hose. So the 4 blade is reinstalled until I consult Jeff and see if he wants to try a few aftermarket options. Id like to go up a few inches in diameter but we’ll see. And the shroud isn’t a great fit. There’s an inch gap on either side of the core and the radiator didn’t come with the saddle mount for the bottom of the shroud to rest.

 

[bigjohn]

Well she moved under her own power for the first time in a few decades today. I needed to get the floor under her clean and get into the barn attic so we dropped her down and drove her out. Had to run it with a coil jumper wire and starter button because the fuse box is currently removed. Jeff was having issues getting power to the heater motor. The spades in the rear of the fuse box were toast, some rusted completely out. So that’ll be replaced probably tomorrow. Otherwise it was strange running the shifter in reverse order. Put the brakes were good and she ran alright. I ended up driving it up above to the carport so I could get a few things done on the Falcon tonight.
In these pictures you’re can see the trunk lid Jeff found in his stash and painted the factory pastel blue to replace the rotten factory one. Also here’s the hood. He repaired and repainted the underside the color Denise (grandma) chose. The lighting is terrible but it’s a fiat color, a very light blue gray. I like it a lot.
On the Falcon note I got it turned around and in the barn to install the Flexplate and bell housing. The flex plate went well but bell didn’t work very well. The first was totally wrong. The second I borrowed off the Torinos fmx bolted up but the starter holes are off between the plate and bell housing. The goal was to get the extra starter in and get the little 250 fired up. I’ll mess with it again tomorrow. I have a bunch of other plates I can try. I just assumed the one on the 6 was correct. They did have another smaller 6 that used a sbf bell but with a high mount starter, which may be what this plate is from.

 

[bigjohn]

And another good day today on both the Fairlane and Falcon. I found the right block plate in the slash only to find flex plate wrong. So grabbed a 164 tooth out of the stash and got it on, robbed a starter relay from the Torino, and put on the cables. With a bit of 2 stroke gas in the carb and the coil jumped to the battery, the little 250 I6 fired right up. I don’t think the six is starting long term but it’ll be nice to just get the car on the road. I thought about installing the spare c4 but it turns out the trans to bell is a 5 bolt, so won’t work for our sbf 4 bolt bell. Jeff has a spare sbf c4 that worked fine but leaked I’ll probably use just to get it mobile. After that I got the ignition switch changed, just so I can unlock the steering when moving her around.
While I was working on the Falcon Jeff was pulling the entire dash and cab harness from the Fairlane. He found a beautiful harness in his stash, and decided to take the dash home and paint it and maybe weld up the ac dash vents. Then he dove into cutting the rusty trunk jam out and replacing it with a nice piece. I cut some rusty metal out of the passenger cowling around the stove pipe , where they usually rust out. And cut and fitted a replacement. The last step will be sealing it up. Last I got the driver floor pan removed. Tomorrow I’ll work on fitting the toe and floor pans and drilling the spot weld holes, hopefully.

 

[bigjohn]

Got a bit more done after work tonight. The toe board is in. The fit of the pan was ok, but the rib steams were wrong so there was a ton of hammer work to get them lined up. The finished product turned alright. Also I messed up. The left side factory floor was cut to that top shelf under the toe board until about an inch under the end. So I’ll need to cut them both in that little bit before I fit the floor pan so there’s not so much dead metal under there. Also, again, the stamping isn’t great so it’ll be a pain to fit that with the wrong contours.

 

[bigjohn]

Well I’ve been running around after work shuffling kids the last few days so haven’t done anything on the Fairlane. But 40 days after ordering a full set of 70.5 Falcon side glass from a guy out of South Carolina, it has arrived. The regulators and hardware came in about a week ago. The goal for the weekend is to finish the Fairlane floors and dry in the Falcon. Here’s a sneak Peek of ensuring glass fitment. And one Jeff sent me of fresh painted dash. This will be the car color.

 

[bigjohn]

With a little bit of time tonight the floor pan is in. Still a little welding and a bunch of grinding to do yet. I should get some serious quality time in the barn tomorrow while the kids are in school.

 

[Norcal69]

. And one Jeff sent me of fresh painted dash. This will be the car color.
View attachment 90659 View attachment 90660 View attachment 90662

Does this mean the car is going to get paint too?

 

[bigjohn]

The driver floor pan is done. And a bunch of stuff is rust treated. A few small patches on the passenger side and we’re ready for por-15.
Today was about the Falcon though. It was dry but chilly overcast day so we worked on getting the rear window channel ready to glue in the rear window. There was one corner that was punky. It got cut out and rebuilt, which was not super fun. And the previous owner said he’d grabbed the glass and want for sale, as a 70.5 Falcon owner I understand the sentiment. But he wasn’t gentle removing windows and regulators. Half of the install time was rewelding spot welds back up and cracks created I can only imagine removing glass and regulators as a unit. But it’s done. Then we got all of the windows and regulators installed. This was a huge relief, one step closer to being dried in and mouse proof.

 

[bigjohn]

Does this mean the car is going to get paint too?

Yes sir, it will.

 

[bigjohn]

It’s seems to be slow going but got the floor buttoned up. Well, it needs bottom paint and seam sealed but the topside is done. It was very time consuming doing these two simple patches. Compared to doing the entire pan on the other which was more fitting and welding but seemed much smoother. It’s fine though and por15 is on. Hopefully tomorrow I can lay some killmat on the firewall and toe board so I can reassemble the park brake cable and run the new Speedo cable.
There’s a carb rebuild kit here for it and a new thermostat, and a plan in my head for the shift linkage but that’s easier shown than explained so stay tuned for that.
Anyway here’s the current state of the floor.