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1964 ford fairlane mean streetcar


Dragfreak

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I picked 3 of these kits up real cheap, I plan on building a pretty mean street car that you would see out street racing late at night. Yes, that is a big block chevy shoe horned in that little engine bay. I plan on just building it up as a nasty 496 with aluminum heads, single plane intake, Holley dominator, and the imaginary forged rotating assymbly, H beam aluminum rods, 12:1 compression or so, etc. I haven't decided in a color although I might not be able to paint it till a few months into next year when it heats up. I've opened up the grille, and set the stance, after jan 1st, I'll order another couple sets of drag radials from Chief Joseph, (his products are awesome!) but until then the 9" slicks will be used for mock up purposes. The Steelies will most likely be body color or gloss black with poverty caps.

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Cool project. That engine is a tight fit. Going to have room for headers????

That's the issue at hand, ill have to get creative, maybe some foreword facing turbo style headers? I'm trying to figure that out now, I have cut out the firewall to make room for the engine set back which hopefully will give me some room for cylinders 1-4.

Looks like an entertaining build. Man if only I had the money to make something like this in real life.............................ponder-1378.gif

I think it would be a fun little car in 1:1 scale, it would be quite a handful on little 8.5/9" radials.

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You had me until the big block chevy Jason! Should look good

Haha! I had this block laying around so I thought I'd try something new, with these header and valve cover clearance problems, I may have to revert to a small block chevy :lol: . I don't think it will be too popular but it's different and that's what I'm going for.

Got a question...

What's wrong with the fe 427 supplied in the kit????

I got no gripes with old chevys, I love'em to death!

I had this BBC laying around so I decided to try something different. I plan on putting that 427 in a mustang build coming up.

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I like those Fairlanes.

Engine bay is a tight fit with the FE - especially once you get the front end on. Ground clearance under is limited too.

I would test fit the grill to the body prior to getting too far - the two I've built both had some issue there and with the top of the windshield.

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Gonna be cool man!!! :-)

I think so too!

Great project,I done a similar conversion a while back.I cut the strut towers and the inner fenders out and used a sub frame and an a-arm front end..I will be watching your progress...

That's a brilliant idea, and probably what I'll end up doing, even with the engine set back quite a bit I don't have room for really any exhaust.

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I like those Fairlanes.

Engine bay is a tight fit with the FE - especially once you get the front end on. Ground clearance under is limited too.

I would test fit the grill to the body prior to getting too far - the two I've built both had some issue there and with the top of the windshield.

Thank you Erik, I'll take note of that and check as I go along to make sure no fit issues arise.

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  • 4 weeks later...

hey Jason, just saw this build. any other progress? i prefer keeping Ford motors in Ford cars, but if in the 1:1 world, if this car sees any hard core racing on the streets, it's a lot less expensive to fix a Chevy than a Ford. i will be watching the progress. for your header dilemma, you may be able to get block hugging headers for it. the exit point may be directly over the front suspension, don't know. just a thought.

a useless side note.

I have one on the bench I am doing, have too many hours in the chassis (for whats done to it) and the body. went a little different and took the side trim off. i am using the 5.4-liter V-8 with intercooled supercharger from a 2010 Mustang Shelby GT 500. i also put the front part of the Mustang frame under it. i sanded the you-know-what out of the shock towers to make that motor fit.

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If you can find one, the Revell Beatnik Bandit II has a really nice Mustang II/Pinto type front subframe and suspension that would work wonders in this for making a street type car, and give you a lot of under hood room since you'd remove the stock spring towers completely and use flat inner panels then, you could go with the 427 Ford parts pack engine from Revell, they're still pretty easy to find and fairly cheap too.

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I fit the 37 Ford street rod independent front end under my on hold pro touring t bolt. Fit like a glove and I built a nice 427 cammer for it. I took the towers right out. I can put pics up of what I have done on mine if you like

I'd love to see them Fred I like your work. Hope you don't mind Jason. That BBC looks sweet, but I'm a chevy guy.

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  • 2 weeks later...

hey Jason, just saw this build. any other progress? i prefer keeping Ford motors in Ford cars, but if in the 1:1 world, if this car sees any hard core racing on the streets, it's a lot less expensive to fix a Chevy than a Ford. i will be watching the progress. for your header dilemma, you may be able to get block hugging headers for it. the exit point may be directly over the front suspension, don't know. just a thought.

a useless side note.

I have one on the bench I am doing, have too many hours in the chassis (for whats done to it) and the body. went a little different and took the side trim off. i am using the 5.4-liter V-8 with intercooled supercharger from a 2010 Mustang Shelby GT 500. i also put the front part of the Mustang frame under it. i sanded the you-know-what out of the shock towers to make that motor fit.

I've been so engulfed in life itself I haven't had much time to build, unfortunately I just haven't had the drive to build like I used to. I hope to make some time get back to some of these builds and make some progress.

If you can find one, the Revell Beatnik Bandit II has a really nice Mustang II/Pinto type front subframe and suspension that would work wonders in this for making a street type car, and give you a lot of under hood room since you'd remove the stock spring towers completely and use flat inner panels then, you could go with the 427 Ford parts pack engine from Revell, they're still pretty easy to find and fairly cheap too.

I'm going to see about cutting the front subframe out and building a tube chassis style one. if that wont work ill have to rethink my plan.

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I fit the 37 Ford street rod independent front end under my on hold pro touring t bolt. Fit like a glove and I built a nice 427 cammer for it. I took the towers right out. I can put pics up of what I have done on mine if you like

Sure, I'd like to see how you did yours.

I'd love to see them Fred I like your work. Hope you don't mind Jason. That BBC looks sweet, but I'm a chevy guy.

Thanks, I hope I will still be able to use the big block in this build.

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It makes a very cool and interesting build with a big block Chevy in there. Any updates...?

Thank you Carl, sorry but no new progress, I just haven't been in a building mood lately, school has really gotten in the way along with sports and work. I'm going to try to make a point of getting some work done on this soon.

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You don't do it the easy way do you. ;)

Putting a Chevy engine in a Ford is difficult as the front part of the body with the suspension of most Ford cars isn't made for a rear sump...putting anything larger than a 289-302 in a 62-65 Fairlane is cramped...even a 351 Windsor is a hard fit...and they had to modify the engine bay, especially the spring towers and upper A-arms severely to fit the FE 427 to the Thunderbolt's.

I own a 1964 Ford Fairlane 500 Sports Coupe so I know what I'm talking about. B)

Edited by Force
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I've been so engulfed in life itself I haven't had much time to build, unfortunately I just haven't had the drive to build like I used to. I hope to make some time get back to some of these builds and make some progress.

I'm going to see about cutting the front subframe out and building a tube chassis style one. if that wont work ill have to rethink my plan.

At least you have 3 kits. If the tube subframe, doesn't work out, you can pull out another chassis & be back at square one.

Jeff

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