Fairmont U/S Build AKA Craigslist Racer

[Shadylane]

[QUOTE=PROSTOCKTOM;

How are you going to run a roller cammed engine in that car?

Tom[/QUOTE]

Going to run a flat tappet cam in a roller block.

[PROSTOCKTOM]

Originally Posted by Shadylane

Going to run a flat tappet cam in a roller block.

When we raced V/S years ago the block numbers had to be correct. Has NHRA now allowed any block to be ran regardless of cating numbers?

Tom

[Mark Yacavone]

Originally Posted by PROSTOCKTOM

When we raced V/S years ago the block numbers had to be correct. Has NHRA now allowed any block to be ran regardless of cating numbers?

Tom

Yes...for decades.
Block numbers haven't been listed for as long as I can remember.

[Shadylane]

Made some small progress since my last post. I have 80% of the wiring completed. When I bought the car the wiring harness was in a cardboard box, so I made a decision to use the harness as a template and use the wire from the switch panel. I used Painless PowerBraid for bundling the wires, keeps things looking neat and tidy. The problem I have is planning everything out. I would get a bundle of wires run through the firewall and a couple days later find another wire I needed to run with them..plan ahead!

Mounted the 6AL-2 on an aluminum panel under the glove box with a hinge on the firewall so I can drop it down for access. I put the relays on the other side of the panel. There is a slot at the front and a tab that I put a pin in for easy removal. Turned out pretty good.

Installed the really heavy taillight panel. I guess if your going to have something heavy that's the place to have it. Fairmont Futura tailights are massive, got to love the 70's.

I have a set of 1 1/2 primary Hedman headers that had a very short 3 inch collector so I cut them off and welded on 10 inch X 2 1/2 collectors. May need a longer collector but it's a start.

One of my mentors (Sean) mentioned I needed to look into using plastic headlights. I decided to check out the wrecking yards to see if they had any. One of our local yards has about a 800 cars so I took a bottle of water and started looking. Scored 8 of them, all working. 7 low beams and one high beam. I took them home thinking how much weight can you really save with these things (my car uses 4 of them)?
Well it turns out the glass versions weigh 19 ounces each and the plastic ones weigh 7 ounces each. Glass 4.75 pounds and plastic 1.75 pounds each. 3 pounds off the nose of the car is pretty good and I only paid $20 for all of them and walked about 4 miles in the process.

[Sean Marconette]

It looks like you are making progress. Good score on the headlights. Don't stop there with your weight savings, any non critical fastener replaced with aluminum all adds up. Any updates on when you plan on being on the track? How is the engine coming along?

Sean

[black88coupe]

Originally Posted by Sean Marconette

It looks like you are making progress. Good score on the headlights. Don't stop there with your weight savings, any non critical fastener replaced with aluminum all adds up.

At the risk of sounding really dumb are you saying aluminum bolts and screws?

[FED 387]

Yep either alum or ti fasteners any bolt or screw like fenders bumper ettc etc

[Shadylane]

Originally Posted by Sean Marconette

It looks like you are making progress. Good score on the headlights. Don't stop there with your weight savings, any non critical fastener replaced with aluminum all adds up. Any updates on when you plan on being on the track? How is the engine coming along?

Sean

I'm hoping to have it out by early spring, I'm kind of slow but steady.

Engine should be on the dyno by the end of the month. Anxious to see how it does, no killer heads or intake yet. I need to get my feet under me with the car. I hate to admit I haven't made a pass in 35 years. Kind of rusty.

[Billy Nees]

Originally Posted by Shadylane

no killer heads or intake yet.

That's the last thing that you should be worried about. The small carb is your restriction at this point.
It's really impressive to me the time and effort that you're putting into the car! Great job! I don't have that kind of patience.