Hi there. New to the forum and I have to say, I could have used this forum 20 years ago. You guys have a great site with lots of good info!

So, I'm back in a Fairlane after many years of kicking myself for selling my 500 4 door.

Here's my project:








A very solid California car. Factory 289 and Cruise-o-matic.

Last edited by ccain on Thu Jun 11, 2009 6:46 pm; edited 1 time in total

Got a little more done this morning.

I'm gonna be starting on the interior soon so I decided to refurbish the instrument cluster. I think it cam out OK.

Before:





After:

Been busy today. Removed the windshield and cleaned the channel. Took out those old scab front seats and vacuumed up all the debris.
Then, I felt like working on the dash. and here's the end result. The evening sun doesn't do this color justice. I also took a pre-painted part to the piece goods store to match the color and scored 4 yards of marine vinyl.

Before:


After:










Abe, here are those shots of the tranny hump:





I was lucky... The previous owner was careful to only take out as much metal as needed. I was expecting to see a hole twice the size.

Chris, your lucky, that parts wagon I got had the whole tranny hump cut out. I would just get a piece of sheetmetal bend and tack it in.
So your missing the speaker grille?
Don't forget to get a complete list of wanted parts together.
Abe

Worked a little more on the interior today. Here's the plan. Do the interior, the exterior and then focus on the engine.

Today's progress:

Here's today's progress:







And this dang camera is still making my panels look orange. They aren't orange! They match the paint damned near perfect. Weird!

Went to LARS this weekend and picked up some parts from Abe.

Here's today's progress pics:

Covered the wheel wells.

OK, so it's been a while since I had any progress to show... Well, here ya go:





Here's some of the new shop equipment.


Looks to me like a head gasket went and water got in and fried the pump, the rods and the mains:




#4 rod bearing:




#4 Piston Ring


There's no question she is the original 289 for this car. The mains have "Fomoco" printed on them with a date stamp of "4-64".


And here she is. The stripped down 289:

I've been working on getting the tailgate squared away. I have to tell ya, this thing was destroyed. And after many months of searching and not finding a decent replacement, I decided to try and salvage it. So, after many many hours of welding and tweaking, I finally have it to a state where I can fine tune it and make it look decent. Also, I got a set of 63 tail lights for it. I know, I know, they're not right for the car but I have always liked the look of the 63 tails and to me, honestly, the 64 wagon tails were... Well, just plain boring. Besides, I got a hell of a deal on them! Oh, and I had to weld up a nasty series of holes where at sometime in it's life, the car had a whip antenna installed. Sorry, but I don't have any decent "before" pics.

Looking very good.

Side note: apparently first generation Fairlane SW tailgates have a propensity to rust out----------even on California cars. My 1965 wagon from the SF Bay area back in 1979 had a severely rusted out gate--------it looked like a typical Midwest POS yet the rest of the vehicle was a West Coast cherry.

Some more progress...

With the engine and trans out of the way, I turned my attention to cleaning up the engine bay. I also went ahead and cut in the opening with a fresh coat of Wimbledon White. One step closer to painting the car.

I got the drivers doors and jams and the tailgate and jam cleaned, and cut in with the white paint that I will be painting the car.















So today, I took a little time off from the car to work on something dumb.
I made myself a Hotwheel of the wagon out of a Thunderbolt Hotwheel and a Chevelle wagon I bought.

how are you shooting the paint? single stage? BcCc? touch up gun?
details man!
thanks
mike

quote:

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Originally posted by 64fairlame:
how are you shooting the paint? single stage? BcCc? touch up gun?
details man!
thanks
mike

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