62 Fairlane project

[BigIrish]

This isn't a muscle car but not a rat either, so I guess this is the best place for it?

1st of several planned upgrades is finally done. 3" lowered front and rear, with new Fatman dropped spindles and disk brakes in front and lowering blocks in rear. Also converted to the old single chamber master cylinder to modern dual. It was anything but "bolt on", but it's on!

Before and after....

 

[Tripper]

Wow... what a difference!!! [cl

BoB

 

[Snake Farm]

Yeah, what Tripper said! Those Fairlanes are sweet little rides [cl[cl

 

[Tim...Ok]

That looks SOOOOO much better..

 

[Old Iron]

OOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHH YYYYYEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWW

Jim

 

[JeremyL]

Awesome looking car!

While I've never owned a Fairlane, I have owned a few early Falcons. Fun little cars!

 

[hotrod preacher]

lookin good.... i guess the "fat man fiasco" finally was straightened out....

i have access to a 63 fairlane "sport coupe" and have really been thinking about another project....


share some more pics of that 62 if you can-or direct me to them if you've posted them elsewhere

 

[BigIrish]

Thanks for the compliments!

lookin good.... i guess the "fat man fiasco" finally was straightened out....

i have access to a 63 fairlane "sport coupe" and have really been thinking about another project....

share some more pics of that 62 if you can-or direct me to them if you've posted them elsewhere

Haha - yeah finally, but it got better. They put out a "call tag" for UPS to pick up the incorrect spindles from my house, but instead UPS picked up a bean-bag chair that was supposed to go somewhere else and that turned up at the Fatman shop!!

I'll post some better pics soon, esp as I get on to the interior part of the project in the coming weeks. I posted some a few weeks ago when i first got it:

http://www.ratrodsrule.com/forum/showthread.php?t=21653

 

[bluchvyguy]

what was the cost if you dont mind Im wanting to drop 69 falcon I know is very close to fairlane, but not sure of the difference between 62 to 69...but it made yours take a whole new attitude

 

[OldKarznTruckz]

LOOKS GREAT!!

 

[kyotb8]

That's a sweet ride. Always liked the 62 and 63 Fairlanes ! Rather have it than an early mustang any day !!!

 

[BigIrish]

what was the cost if you dont mind Im wanting to drop 69 falcon I know is very close to fairlane, but not sure of the difference between 62 to 69...but it made yours take a whole new attitude

It would be the same Mustang drop spindle. For a Falcon they would fit anything from a '63 to a '73 I think. Make sure you ask them what kind of tie rod ends to use if you have a 6cly car. You might have to swap out to Granada tie rod ends which are $10 new. The spindles are $580. Complete new brake kit is another $450. If you can find yourself a Granada or Monarch in the junkyard and rob the brakes off of it, they will bolt on.

Unfortunately, the Granada upgrade has been very popular with the mustang guys for years, so Granada junkyard brakes are mostly long gone.

 

[BigIrish]

Decided to tackle restoring the steering wheel. Used a dremel to V the cracks, filled with JB Weld, primed, painted, cleared. Had a local paint shop mix up a couple of rattle cans that match the future upholstery. Came out pretty good, but was a lot of work!

 

[bob w]

It looks very nice. Good work. You wouldn't want to pay to have that done.

I'm glad RRR isn't restricted to rat rods cuz I wouldn't get to see cool projects like your Fairlane.

 

[bluchvyguy]

thanks where did u order spindles?

 

[BigIrish]

Here http://www.fatmanfab.com/

BUT I would honestly not recommend them to anyone for this car. They are really designed for a Mustang and will fit all the unibody cars with modifications. I have had alot of issues (rotors rub on the lower control arms, tie rod ends don't fit well) that are requiring me to make modifications to the spindle and my control arms that I really don't like.

If I had to do it over again, I would have left the orig drums which worked great, and just cut a coil from the springs to lower it. The $1100 would have been better used on something else.

 

[motrhd]

Wow Big, sorry to hear about the Fatman stuff, I thought that their products were better than that. Great job on that steering wheel !

 

[BigIrish]

I have been slowly working on the interior, redoing the seats & such (pics on that later) and decided to see what was lurking underneath the fiberglass in the footwell. It had a heater core leak, probably since forever, and leaked all in the passenger footwell.

Look what I found - swiss cheese!! This awesome "repair" did a great job of trapping the water in between the metal and fiberglass. What kills me is the PO didn't bother to fix or even bypass the heater. He just glassed over rust, then put down new carpet, which also got ruined. [S[S

 

[rex1927]

I had a 66 mustang that looked like that.The subframes were so rusty you could crumble them with your hand.It had undercoating sprayed under it which held water like a swimming pool and rusted everything out.
Hope your subframes are OK.

 

[42chevy]

That looks ugly! The car looks great low.