That is a nice car.

Yes it is. I always loved going places in this car, except in summer as it had no air conditioning and the interior turned into a furnace. It always sounded really grunty as my dad had fitted it with a twin exaust although it goes back into a single behind the back axel because my dad didn't want to modify the rear bumper.

Oh man my first car was an ugly blue 1980 fairmont that had been sitting in a barn for the good part of a decade. It also had no AC, and no FM radio. I still loved that car, even though it got terrible gas mileage and burnt oil enough to make a smoke screen at the drive thru.

All it needs is some rust repairs to the front doors and the rear quarter panels, and the engine a bit tired. I like it because it’s fast and makes all the right noises.

http://www.uniquecarsandparts.com.a.....c_fairmont.htm Here's a brochure, ours is the Sedan not the GXL.

Rust issues? Baby if your car still casts a shadow then it's better off than mine. Of course I'll bet it don't snow often where you are.

The closest snow gets to where I live is the very top of the mountains to the south a few times in the middle of winter, and it usually melts before 11AM.

Years of gravel roads and cow crap are the main causes along with poor rust proofing and a damp climate.

Hurrr!

I'm seeing another right side drive Ford product sharing space. The roofline, back window and what I can see of the side indicate a '60 Fairlane.
I love Aussie Falcons! I have an XC van and a XB coupe. The XB is in my gallery here.
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/3158126/
Cheers, Mate!

Yeah it’s one of two ’60 Fairlane 500’s we have. The other one is a LHD 2 door and is in much better condition than the four door, neither have run in my lifetime.

Here's the other Fairlane.
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/4451904/

Yeah, you need to take charge of those Fords! Somthing 'bout the tail end of those 60's that does it for me.
If i were you,....i'd do the 4 door! If you're like me, you have lot's of friends and need those extra doors!

Yeah but the two door is in better shape and has had most of the rust dealt with apart from the floor.
With the four door I can stick my arm into the trunk without opening it because of the gaping hole where the rust was on the left side the right side isn’t any better but has been patched with some metal which is visible just above the Fairmont’s headlight.
I’ll have to take some pictures of it sometime but I don’t have a set of keys to the shed handy.

I think you should make somthing happen with those ol' Fords. They're no fun just sitting around! Love the XC Dude, Aussie bods rock!
You may enjoy this, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abHI3FkOrE8 I can remember going to theese shows once upon a time.

My Dad just doesn’t have enough time to do much to them.

His current plans are to put the steering box back in the ‘71 Mustang and replace the motor in the Mazda Lantis that my brother overheated.

Woah, remember me the Ford Taunus and the Ford Capri. :S

Nice isn’t it. It’s powered by a 4.9 liter V8. I think the Fairmint was styled along the same lines as the Capri.

Wow, big engines...

It’s the smaller of the two V8s available, the other was the 5.8L V8. The 5.8L V8 only has about 10 – 15hp over the 4.9L but has more torque and can run on low octane petrol because it has a lower compression ratio.

The engines in the Falcon/Fairmont range were the 3.3/4.1L I6s and the 4.9/5.8L V8s and the transmissions were 4 speed manual and 3 speed Automatic (both floor shift) in the Fairmont, and 3(column shift)/4 speed manual and 3 speed auto(also column shift) in the Falcon.

Wow! My car it's only a 1.1L with 56hp. Manual transmissions with 5 speeds, max speed 180km/h.


But it's a city car of the 1990. :S

My daily drivers are a 1989 Ford laser L 1.3 and a Toyota Windom. (Lexus ES300)

That's my car in the background.

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/3713726

Ford Laser... it's ours european Ford Escort? :S

I think the US version of the Escort was based on the Laser/Mazda 323. the European version was completely developed in Europe.

The Escort was discontinued in New Zealand when the laser was introduced in 1981. More recently the Escort Station Wagon was sold in New from 1996 until 2000 and the sedan/hatchback versions between 1997 when local production of the Laser was discontinued, and 1999 when the Laser was reintroduced because importing the Focus from Europe was unviable.

Wow, you are an expert of the Ford?

I checked Wikipedia. Most of our cars are Fords.

Oh... :3

the european and US escort have nothign in common but the name, really. australian fords are different again, unless imported from UK or germany, which was rare.
during the 80's they slapped Ford emblems on many Mazda's for whatever reason. Mazda used to work a lot with Ford, see also european Ford Probe, which are actually Mazda with Ford Engines.

They were also the last cars that Ford assembled in New Zealand. The 80s Ford Laser/Mazda 323 Wagon remained in production here until 1997.

it's sometimes funny where they produce which car for which market. here, they have production plants in germany, belgium, and england. they used to have one in france, but it got sold to SIMCA in the 50's. so early SIMCA were almost Fords. :)

The only reason cars were assembled here was because of import restrictions.

switzerland had some building sites, too, mostly by Chrysler who made a intermediate Dodge for the swiss market.

within the EU there aren't any such restrictions anymore. but it still irks me some that they would transport cars from spain to eastern europe and still offer them cheaper than say we, back in spain. or in germany...

It is possible to bolt in a 7L FE block V8 without modification to the car and with some modifications a 460 will just fit.

A big engine is necessary for cruising across the outback at 160 – 180kph all day long, when this car was built most country roads in Australia had no speed limit.

from a german viewpoint I'd rather say somethign like a Granada Mk1.

I was about to ask where you live, because of the headlights. from the thumbnail I thought it was a Taunus Mk2/Cortina Mk4, when a closer look cleared it. as far as I know the US Fairmont has different grille and little rectangular double headlights...

you aussies have curious designs sometimes, very interesting. :)

the Capri was styled pretty much after early Mustangs, the Taunus Mk1/Cortina Mk3 had a lot of elements from US Fords, especially the round hips and the "Knudsen-Nose". they received a lot of flak from designers, but they still sold 1.2 millions in five years.

One of "last interceptors" (yeah i know, there was Falcon, but look at THAT )

Yeah. The Fairmont is basically an up market Falcon, it uses the same body shell with minor trim differences.

Here’s the brochure for it. http://www.uniquecarsandparts.com.a.....c_fairmont.htm

MMMM, double-lever wipers

This construction is compromise between "flat laydown" and "full contact with side"

And... with "rust issues" you mean insurance? Or transport department refuses to give it permission?

It can’t pass the safety check because there is rust in the doors and one of the rear quarter panels. The rules state that the total amount of rust in a car cannot exceed the size of a ten cent piece. Up until the rules were changed in 2000 it didn’t matter how much rust a car had as long as it was not in a load bearing part of the car.

aw... so you mean Chassis must be rustless completely?

I wish to see, how theese korean crap passing checks. In R.F. they rust in 2 winters.


but here noone does actual checks. it's already become from "bribe" status to "addition check-bill"


And you know... not even crappy Ladas are yet fallen apart on the road So i find it totaly UNFAIR to decline theese cars to get on roads.

No repaintings since 78, no crashes, no lack issues.... this is BRILLIANT in our measurements.



I'd bought it from, but our goverment is forcing people to buy our crap, so customs on 5 litres will be.... 5.000 X 3 euro on one cc. 15K euro. plus i'll need "CO" adeptation (still - useless forcing, our cars doesn't make euro 2 exhaust)so it's gonna cost me more, than some 4 liter bimmer.

The only rust is on the bottom of the drivers and front passengers door and the rear quarter panels, there is no rust in the floor pan or the sills.

I saw a 1988 Lada 2104 today when I was in town, it was in excellent condition.

Riva..... export variant... they licked them with tongues, and screwing bolts with "laser-guided" screwdrivers.

You should have a look on our market Ladas.... this is crap.

This WAS a fiat, which was crap too.




Our engineers, who can build a normal car denied to build.... other-ones messing same sh**, they done in 50's-70's


screw this bad themes.

That sounds a lot like the Trekka. The Trekka was basically a 50’s Skoda Octavia Combi with a locally made body shell on top. It looked a lot like a Land Rover without the off road ability.

I'll say what.... you need paint your Fairmont with "matte chrom" and set nightvision in it. It'll be great stealth. Vroom.



In the deep night... cops will be like... "WOO! what-was-that????"

I remember ads in german magazines from the 80's where they used the 2104 design to compare it to a brick, saying "some designs are perfect" or something along that line.
meanwhile, Lada almost doesn't happen in germany, except the Niva. which is still an awesome off-roader. ^^

Well tho... Niva was first ever cross-over, mother of this cartype for present days. And i think i would be proud of it, if they paid attention to fix issues (bugs) and at least RESTYLE it sometimes....

But truely it's wonderful because it was built by our "blackhorse" engineers. Guys with "feeling" - you know Other models were cheap crappy copies of not so quite well built model...

I mean, take the GAZ 3110. It's still the same old Ford Falcon with half of a proper engine.. (i mean they've split 4.6 to halfs and comeup with Inline 2.3) but theese new looks, leather interier, injector aspiration and such as "not so bad" pricing makes it at least selling able.

Riva, Priora, Kalina etc holding up just because of goverment monopoly to AutoVaz. (heavenly high taxes, toll payments etc.)

and quality issues. unless, of course, you guys got that wrinkled out? aside that, from what I have seen from a motorshow in moscow a couple years ago, if they had followed it through there would be a lot of nice rides for everyone, be it small sedan or a (dreadful) SUV...

a friend of mine had bought a brand-new Samara, which never worked right in the four years he had it. the dealer claimed other samara would work better and be reliable. but it's things like these which can ruin a reputation...

I think it looks far better than the US version of the Fairmont in the link below.

http://americandreamcars.com/1978fo.....mont082906.htm

Yeah it’s a lot better looking. The Fairmont was an up market version of the Falcon and shares the standard Falcon body shell.
The whole Australian Falcon/Fairmont/Fairlane/LTD range was built on one platform using three different wheelbases. (Four if you count the Falcon/Fairmont/LTD Landau Hardtop shell.)

It sucks they are so hard on the rust issue here. It's forced a lot of decent vehicles into the scrap yards and all we get to replace them is modern tin-foil crap. I would love an old school ride like this, but sadly the oldest vehicle I have is an '83 Mirage hatch. I would have loved a Valiant VK Regal or some such.

Are you working on this one yourself? It would be cool to see more of these on the roads. I'm not really a fan of the Focus, no matter how highly Top Gear rates it... :/

I hold the tools while my Dad works on the cars.

It has sat pretty much untouched since 2000, we start it every couple of months to keep everything working. There isn’t too much rust in it but the rust is in difficult to repair places. It also needs an engine rebuild and a repaint.

The oldest vehicles we have are a pair of 1942 GMC CCKW353 trucks. The oldest car currently roadworthy is one of these. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdgFOzxvg4E

Ah. Good to get experience where you can. As long as the metal cancer is stopped in its tracks you can take time doing a rebuild. And that muzzy sounds nice.

I used to know a guy who had a '68 Camaro 454 drag car. It was a hack to look at but eventually pulled 9.8's on the quarter. That was slightly insane. He also had a 1969 T-Bird with a 460 BB. That was a beautiful car also. Doing 160kph on the motorway felt like 90 because it was so big and stable.

A friend of mine currently has a 2003 BA XR6 turbo. He's accumulating after-market parts and waiting for the warranty to expire before he gets into it. I'm not a fan of modern cars much but it's a nice example and looks much better than a Holden SV6 IMO.

hehe rust? you oughta see the cars where I live Rust City & still driving! hehe Nice car tho

It was the same here until 2000 when the rules were changed from no rust in structural areas to no rust anywhere.

well that sucks royally Least you don't gotta comply with Emmission Testing like California does Unless you do?

Here the emissions test is simple one guy stands behind the car and another revs the engine, if the guy standing behind the car doesn’t disappear in a cloud of smoke the car passes.

Until the late 90’s most of the used JDM imports had their catalytic converters removed before they were registered here so they can’t be more stringent than that without putting half the cars off the road.

catalytic converters have been in US vehicles since the 1970s older cars don't have them & still legal to drive them hehe

New cars sold here weren’t normally fitted with catalytic converters until 1991 when unleaded petrol was first introduced. High octane petrol wasn’t made lead free until 1996.

ah thats prolly the same with US too

Lol i nearly bought a 1980 Ford Fairmont Futura. It had a couple issues regarding exhaust work, but it looked awesome. sadly, my funds did not meet the buyers satisfaction. ah well. at least i have other gems in my stable ^ w^

humm i hate to point this out but................... the steering wheel its............................on the wrong side.............. Just kiding

It's an Australian Ford.

I know just being silly American But when i drove a Taxicab the company had a Fairmont station Wagon with i belive a 402 V8 so you never wanted to "put your foot in it" as you could see the gas gauge go down never mind trying to keep it in a strate line

If I remember rightly the largest engine for the American Fairmonts was a 302.

ok a 302 i'm not a ford guy more a Fargo/dodge & AMC guy

Very nice.

Woof... I'd love to see the Falcons though.. xP Still, this is a nice car <3

I haven't got any photos of either. The 500 has rust holes big enough to stick my arm through and the GT has been most of the way through a overhaul since 1986.

Oh wow... Well good luck on finishing all of them...! ^_^

We've got about 28 vehicles altogether although only ten are in use at the moment.

Oh wow... o_o;; You're so lucky... ;-;

Registration costs a bloody fortune. About $280x10 and $45 every six months for the safety check and insurance.

Keeping those ten running takes a lot of time so the cars that I'd rather be driving don't get much done on them.

Honestly, I think Ford made better cars outside of the US market, I have a very small soft spot for old international Ford cars. I like the front end, very classy.

Strange how slight engine displacement can be.

I have a 1967 Buick Skylark with a 300CID V8, which is about 4.91612 in liters

Your lovely Ford Fairmont has a 302CID, which is about 4.94889 liters.

Thats a difference of .03277 liters.

How many horses can you cut loose? Mine only has 210bhp, not much in the world of the 60's.

About 205hp from the factory with the emissions equipment the larger 351 had about 215hp. Less now with nearly 300,000km it really needs an engine rebuild.

The XY GTHO Phase 3 had somewhere between 350 - 380hp from the 351 and it could top 7000rpm.

When the Skylark's had to be rebuilt at 241,062km, all it needed was new piston ringss, the rest has to been cleaned up. A rebuilt is costly, but the feel of the motor sounds heavenly at 150kpm.

205 and 215 is the average today with most cars, but they are climbing higher up the horse spectrum of power. But compared to most cars on the road, 205hp is something not to laugh at. 7000rpm is pretty high, but I wouldn't want to risk finding out if it could. I nearly blew my Cavalier engine last winter in -4degreesC, the engine was barely warmed up and that rpm needle was getting pretty close to 7000. You can feel it through the gas pedal, that was my que to get off the road. Ever since then, my engine doesn't have that quickness anymore, I should get new rings for it, but money is non-existant until I get a reliable job.

That's probably all the Fairmont needs piston rings and maybe some work on the valve lifters.

The normal 302 and 351 V8s redlined at about 6000. The GTHOs were basically street legal racing cars with hand built race spec 351s.

XC was the model they used in MadMax wasnt it?

It was a 1973 XB GT.
http://www.madmaxmovies.com/mad-max.....tor/index.html

Close but no cigar xD

Looks a bit like my old GXL I had

I think it is a GXL.

That be nice to fix A1

Nice alwasy loved the XC my old man has a XW that has also been of the road for many years, one day well restor her

We have a pair of XWs a 500 and a GT but neither of them have been on the road in my lifetime.

AH nice :D when I was a kid my dad had one XY then a AB then a XW GT's all got stollen so gave up and felth the fairlane

We also have a pair of 1960 (US) Fairlanes and an 89 LTD.

Oh that's too bad on that Ford Fairmont are great cars good on gas too. I used to have one have the inline 200 6 cylinder in it I also had one that had the 302 V8