My Daddywagon

This wagon build has been in my head for a long time. As soon as I found out about the chassis compatibility between foxbody mustangs and fairmont/ltd fords I have had this wagon in my head. Basically anything that you can do to a mustang from 1979-2004 can be done to the mundane ltd. My Daddywagon is a 1985 ford ltd squire. I found it finally on a donation used car lot and bought it for $500, in 2010. This past August I took 2 weeks vacation to begin my conversion of Daddywagon into a mustang that looks like a wagon.

 

My original donor mustang had cobra brakes, but the powertrain was bad. So I had to pull the front k-member and rear axle with the cobra brakes.

 

Then I took another mustang whose body was rotting away, but the engine and trans are in ok shape (it ran and drove, ran a little rough to be honest), and I pulled those for installation into wagon.

 

It was finally time to tear into my Daddywagon. Out came the 3.8 & c5 automatic and in went the 5.0 & tremec.

 

Daddywagon! There is still so much to be done. It does not run yet. This was 2 weeks of vacation time and now I have little time to wrench working 56 hours a week and taking care of 2 kids and my elderly parents and the honey-do list. The goals for the Daddywagon are ultimate daily-driven street wagon.

 

With the change in engine and transmission, the mustang driveshaft ended up being too short and the wagon driveshaft was too long. In addition to that I bought a cobra independent rear suspension out of a 2004 cobra mustang. I ended up driving 3 hours each way for a driveshaft out of a 2000 Eddie Bauer edition 2 wheel drive ford explorer. The shaft was $65 but ended up costing closer $120 with the gas and tolls and such. It's aluminum, but the slip yoke is wrong so now I have to find a crown victoria in the parts yards to accommodate the bigger u-joint and tremec spline count.

 

That is where we are right now! The engine in my head is a long rod roller cam 351 Windsor. The wiring is going to give me fits because I'm basically combining the 5.0 engine harness with the station wagon chassis harness. I have to lengthen mustang fuel lines and route the chassis brake lines for the independent rear suspension. I also have the idea of picking up hydroboost out of a 1984 Lincoln continental and combining it with the maximum motorsports adjustable brake pedal designed for manual brakes because the mustang booster has a hooked sort of push rod whereas the hydroboost push rod is straight. I have a looong way to go. Daddywagon.

 

You are basically doing the build I wanted to do, but got sidetracked. I had found a super clean, rustfree 64 Falcon wagon and missed buying it by 2 hours. I was bummed. When I found my Catalina, I sprung for it because it was too good a deal to pass up. But I was always a Ford man first and a Pontiac man 2nd. In the end, they all work out whatever model they might be......but you might end up with something other than your dream car.

 

Good luck on your project. Lots of work yet ahead. But when finished you will have your dream wagon. Keep in mind that family does come first.

 

Thank you!

 

Excellent project! That'll be a serious Frankenstein wagon by the time you're done picking parts out of donors. Good luck getting it all wrapped up.

 

Great job - that's a lot of work! I hope you get it moving again soon. How was the transformation from auto to stickshift?

 

Funny you should ask about auto to manual; everything is a bolt on because it is basically a mustang chassis only longer, however when I was jacking on the tail shaft of the transmission to bolt in the front crossmember and the tranny crossmember I realized I had forgotten one detail. I forgot to cut the hole in the tunnel for the shifter! So out came the whizzer wheel and luckily I guesstimated pretty well as to where to cut the hole. Pedals, clutch cable, etc. should all bolt right up. I'm not much of a fabricator yet so for my first project, the Daddywagon is perfect. Cutting for the shifter and drilling for the rear suspension brackets and maybe modifying the hood if I can put together a 351 should be all the "fabrication" necessary.

 

I am a Chevy guy, working on a Chevelle wagon, but you are doing the project I have always wanted to do, and with a wagon no less.

Keep at it, let us know what snags you hit (like the drive shaft), and all of you thoughts on making this work. I know from working on an 86 FOX T-Bird that it isn't always "just bolt FOX parts onto another FOX chassis", so appreciate your insight into the details of the swap, as I may do this someday when I run out of projects (riiight!).

Good luck, glad I'm not the only one that wants to do these things.

Best,
Tom

 

So very cool! I love what you're doing! Those Fox-bodied wagons have so many good choices for performance parts just based on the many excellent vehicles Ford made on that platform. Again, love what you're doing! :2_thumbs_up_-_anima

David