1970 Torino And Fairlane Builds

The floor is pretty well done. Killmat is in. And I got the carb rebuilt last night. I really didn’t find anything glaring aside from the float level pretty high, which was annoying. The engine does seem happier though.

 

Ok last update for a bit. I got the transmission adapter lever done. It bolts to the top of the previous shift lever hole, has a cutout for the kick down to function, and’s a kick out at the bottom to allow the shift lever to mount on the bottom. All of this so the trans doesn’t need to be disassembled to flip the shift linkage. The function is great. The detents line up perfectly with the shifter indicator. I’m not sure how the kick down will work though. It gets close to binding in park and reverse. And I need to ad a few tack welds tying the new and old shift levers together. Then Jeff came up today and we got a bench seat mounted and the hood bolted on. No pictures of course. There is one with the rear wheels mounted up that don’t fit. The steelys are back in the back. All of this so we could car shuffle. The Fairlane and Falcon are in the upper carport for a few. The Falcon needs the rear dried out so we can clean and glue in the rear glass. Mostly the f100 needs transmission work so it’s in the barn to get the c4 removed and dropped off for a mild build. Resealed, shift kit, heavier clutches, ect.

 

Well Jeff got a ton done today while I built stairs to the house from the patio I poured 2 years ago
We got the rear glass installed in the Falcon. And he got the dash harness, heater box and the dash mounted in the Fairlane. He also brought by a c4 trans for the Falcon and the new rear wheels with new narrower tires, 235/70/15 copper cobra’s I believe. The wheel wells will need rolled but it looks fantastic and should work fine.
​

 

Great progress. Liking it.

 

Today was a great day! We started with rolling the fender well lips to better clear the tires. We installed the new heater hoses, installed the grill for the first time, and mounted up the inner grill to work despite the mounting tabs all being broken off. Then we pulled the bench seat and installed the new carpet. If you look close you can see it with the bench reinstalled. This tan seat is temporary by the way. He’ll have the original seat reupholstered at some point.
I spent some time carb tuning. The electric choke didn’t work so I just locked it open. The carb is still a little finicky but seems to be getting better with more run time.
The highlight of the day came when we finally took the Fairlane for a test drive up the hill and back. And it was good! Ran good, trans felt good, brakes, steering, ect were all good.
Jeff and I chatted a bit. We’re going to get the car back to his place. He loves tinkering with the little detailed bits, so that’ll be perfect for him. Then it’s on to the next project I believe.

 

The next brief episode in this saga is “falcon gets some love”.
I drove to Vancouver Thursday morning for a vin inspection. This normally wouldn’t be a big deal except this car doesn’t have a legible full vin anywhere on it. The dash should have one but it’s long gone. The door has a tad but it’s faded to nothing even remotely legible. The inner fenders both have partial vins stamped in which required partial fender removal. The only part missing from the inner fender vins though are the engine code and body code. So i brought a I binder of documentation down to illustrate the falcons uniqueness and brought a trans crossmember for a v8 vs the i6 this car came with, along with the Marti report, which perfectly matches this car. In the end he bought what I was selling and issued a complete vin and blessed the car, starting the 3 year title process.
To celebrate ( in advance of course) I’d ordered the converter seal, output seal, filter and pan gasket, and a few other bits for the c4 that’ll be going into the car. I went to change the filter but the one I ordered was wrong so I need to pick one up tomorrow locally.
Otherwise the plan is to swap to the new flex plate, put the fmx bell housing back on the Torino fmx, finish sealing and install this c4, loop the cooler lines, rebuild the carb, and of course have a running driving Falcon by the end of the weekend

 

Well I got the c4 hopefully resealed and installed. This of course meant changing the flex plate, trans plate and bell housing. I’m short a few parts though. One piece of column shift linkage, the shift bell crank block mount, torque converter nuts and a dipstick and tube. I also need a drive shaft u joint and the shaft we’ll be ready to install. It looks like we did have one that’s the correct length in the stash.
Also side note, we were up north yesterday and I loaded up a few batteries to recycle along with the scrap metal run from our engine builders estate. Included in those batteries was a red top optima. I’ll be damned if it wasn’t the only one with a charge. I was checking them all out to make sure I wasn’t tossing any good ones.

 

That looks like an old version of the Optima minus whatever is on top of it. One of the good ones.

 

Ya I agree. I used to have a heck of a stash of them. I’m down to two red and one blue top, and they’re showing their age. Buddy was an aircraft support equipment mechanic years ago. They had very strict test standards and these optimas would sometimes fail after only a year and would land on a junk pile, where he would rehome them to his buddies. My standards aren’t so strict. These that I have left are all 10-12 years with me.
As of late I’ve been replacing those with odysseys.

 

I learned too late on the Optima batteries. When they get too low on voltage, they won't accept a charge in that state.
Putting another battery in parallel with the Optima fools the charger until the Optima shows signs of charge. I probably
bought a couple of Optimas not realizing this. There are cheaper alternatives for the AGM batteries now and the quality
has gone downhill on Optima. I like the AGM's due to the issue of little to no corrosion.

 

Ok last update on the Fairlane for awhile. Its loaded up and headed to Jeff’s house tomorrow to button up little details and repaint some time later this year.
I have a few things ordered for the Falcon like converter nuts that’ll be here this weekend so hopefully we’ll find out then if this c4 will go soon.

 

The Falcon got a little love this weekend. Not a ton though. We were working on a 97 Chevy side project most of Friday. But the torque converter nuts showed up and got installed. Then Jeff brought by some trans cooler lines that I got installed. The shift linkage was missing a pivot rod that bolts into the block and I had one but it’s for a sbf, so I cut a 3/8” bolt, beveled both ends and butt welded it together, lengthening the rod 1.5”. So the shifter now does shifty things! I also ordered another locking dipstick tube for the f100 so used the one I removed from it in the Falcon. The last step was trans fluid but holy hell, all the local parts stores wanted $8-9 a quart for type f atf. And I need about 16 quarts between the two c4’s I’m installing. So I ordered them through Walmart for about $6 a quart. That’ll be here tomorrow.
I also pulled the carb and gave it a clean. There’s no accelerator pump, but it’s otherwise pretty clean. Then it was in to installing a radiator. I got a few lower mounts from Jeff’s stash, got it all installed only to find a pinhole leak at the top of the fins. I do have another to try that came with the car that I’ll mess with maybe tomorrow. Also I tested the fuel pump and off course it was dead. I needed to order that special ford rear u joint and straps anyway and Rockauto had the Carter pump for $16! So that’s on the way.
I’ll take a few pictures in the next few days.

 

Just be aware our last carter pump lasted about 30 minutes of runtime before it decided to blow gas out the weep hole.

the delphi brand took a bit to get, found at the local flaps, brought from another store next AM...

Seems to be holding up.

 

Ah bummer. Rockauto had a Delphi for just a bit more. I’ve always bought Carter for stock replacements, vs most of the junk they sell at the flaps, if they can even find it in their computer. Well hopefully I have better luck with this one than you did.

 

The good news is the Falcon transmission works! The fluid came in today so I loaded it up and fired it up! Of course I forgot to plug in a Speedo gear hole and about half a quart dumped on the barn floor.
The bad news is neither of the radiators I have hold water. I swapped it out tonight after work and the second leaked worse than the first. I’m not super worried about it. In the end my main goal is simply to move the car around the property without a strap and I can run it in very short intervals as is. Or option b is to use some stop leak but despite having no intentions to run this i6 in the long run, I hate the idea of that junk in the cooling system.

 

Well dang, usps is killing me. The fuel pump, u joint and straps were supposed to be here yesterday but no dice. The fuel pump and u bolts showed today but still no u joint. I did get the fuel pump on and test fired the engine, which was successful. I did do the first drive on Wednesday night, but it was only a few feet before the wrong size u joint freed itself from the single joint u bolt.
So here’s the Falcon sitting outside, waiting for the u joint, hoping to drive up top under its own power.

 

This should be the last Falcon update for awhile. The U joint finally came in and the shaft reinstalled. The ignition switch/cab wiring is a soup sandwich so I’m still using a jumper from the coil to battery and's a remote starter switch. But man, she fires right up with the new mechanical fuel pump. Anyway, drive it up top to park it in the big carport. She’s hilariously far from hitting the road but it was super cool to be able to move it about without a second person and a tow vehicle.

 

Today was a super fun day. I drove 2 hours to Renton to meet Fireball (Roy) at his dad’s house to dig out the Cleveland and a few other treasures. It was planned as a day job but actually went really quickly. I got there at 9am and I believe by noon we were closing the tailgate on the super beater Tacoma. Roy and his dad were really awesome, and his dad has a really rad car/jeep/tractor collection. And I’m excited and thankful to rehome his old 2v 351c back into a 70 Torino. He also sent me South with a sbf pattern c6, a c4 that I believe appears to be a 24 spline input, which I have a brand new converter for, and a bunch of 4v Cleveland bits.
The Cleveland, having sat for a few decades here in the pnw, is slightly stuck. I pulled all of the spark plugs and didn’t get one with much more than a touch of rust. This makes me think it’s just lightly stuck. So I have all the cylinders marinating in wd40. I strongly prefer other concoctions but I have a spray jug full so I’m using it up. I’ll try and bump the crank/ring gear a few times a day and get it free hopefully. If it frees up, it’s going straight in the Torino. We had so many mini battles with the latter 302 into the older Fairlane, what I’m seeing is this engine wanted to be in this car. The throttle cable, engine mounted, carb, ect are all set to go. The other thought, in lite of the f100 Cleveland situation, is I probably should pull those heads and have the machine shop install hardened valve seats at least in the exhaust sides, but those are much easier to pull when in the car than on an engine stand at the present time
Anyway here’s the hopefully new home for the Cleveland, the 70 Torino. And the truck full. And Roy striking a pose.
Fireball, I still can’t thank you enough!

Side note, I just noticed the bed pictures were next to a single cab Cummins ram at the gas station north of castle rock. You never see those in these parts. How’d I not notice that!

 

You're very welcome. It was fun to meet up!

 

Not much new to report. I blew out the wd40 and replaced it with pb blaster, reinstalled the plugs and did the first round of cleaning, which was consisted of soaking with concentrated purple power, pressure wash, blow off and repeat. I will say this engine has the most stubborn oil coating I’ve experienced. I ran out of time this afternoon to get it as clean as I wanted. I’ll revisit this adventure in the near future.
Otherwise it’s still stuck. But I have faith in the pb blaster and I’ll continue to bump the crank bolt and flex plate a few times a day until she pops free. If she doesn’t in a week or two I’ll get the heads off and see what’s going on in there
Also another big thanks to tumbleweed! The shopping cart engine cart is back in service after my other engine cart wheel fell off again last night. Also it’s way easier to maneuver with a little lube on the wheels, haha.