OK then. Short history. Bought the car after it was traded in on a 1987 Taurus (I was a Ford tech at the time) for a whopping $700. It had 72,000 miles at that time. It's a Sunrise with Décor Package, slant 6, 4-speed O/D, power steering and AM/FM 4 speaker stereo and that was about it I think. In 1989 a brake hose blew and I shortened the front end about a foot or so, introducing the fan to the radiator, etc. I had planned on swapping in 360 that I had sitting on a stand (from a 1976 Duster 360) and good a time as any while I was fixing the collision damage. A buddy said "since you're swapping to a V-8, why not go all the way and put in a 440?" What a stupid idea..............or is it??? Then everyone told me "it can't be done", "it'll never fit". Had to prove them wrong. Did it on a tight (no) budget. Junkyard 440 and 727 TF and an 8 3/4" from a '71 Roadrunner. Drove it like that until coming home from the Car Craft Summer Cruise in 1996, the trans lost drive and did the last 20 miles in 2nd gear. Life got in the way, bought a house, blah, blah, blah.
Continued in next post.....
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Fast forward to 2002 when I finally got started on it. Original plan was overhaul the trans, do a little body/paint work and some other odds and ends. Ever hear of the snowball effect? Yep. Next thing I knew the car was down to a bare shell. Literally every single part, assembly, nut and bolt is either overhauled, rebuilt, replaced or otherwise made like new again (except certain parts of the interior, that's coming).
It's now a 500" stroker and gained A/C along the way thanks to a '78 parts car I bought back in '96 and canabalized the firewall, inner fender panels and HVAC plenum.
Other than rechroming the bumpers and machine work on the block and heads, 99% of the rest was done by myself. Ron (forget his screen name here, sorry) came up from Milwaukee area,,,,,in a snowstorm,,,,to lend a hand hanging the doors. (Ron with the calenders).
Anyways, that's the short version. Someday I need to start a thread to give the long version to bore all of you and some pics of it "in progress".
A few pics of it as it is now:
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