Will Today's Wagons Ever Be Classics?

ps and pb are good to have...at least in a fullsize truck. ac is something i can live without in a truck. that is a nice looking truck...my cousins is a longbed. i alwyas loved flaresides... my wife hates em she says trucks arent suppose to have hips...ha! what a diva!

 

Funny to me reading about how simple the Ford trucks are that a1awind and Dodgeguy mention, das newz fangeled tecnogigly to me! Look at my Avater....65 910, 250 inline 1 barrel, oil breather air cleaner, 3 on the tree, no PS/PB, from the factory with no seat belts, no wind shield washer system, no back up lites but it does have a CD player.....that I still don't know how to use properly

 

Sounds like my first car, 350 and a Powerglide, manual steering, brakes, no washer fluid or backup lites. Had an AM radio until the tubes blew up one day. No seatbelts from the factory.

 

I think it will look decent after I get it painted. The wood in the bed is not too great. Think I will either put a steel plate in it for the floor, or a piece of 3/4" treated plywood and paint it with floor enamel. Not going for a show truck, just a beater. Not enough room to haul anything in it anyhow. I have a van and trailer to carry big stuff. It sure feels better driving it than my other cars with the computers and fuel injection. I like the simple stuff. Not too much to go wrong with it.

 

I like those Fords especially with the step side. around here they are hard to find anymore that hav'nt been basterdized. Owned alot of Fords but never a inline 6 Ford...yet. Have had great luck with the GM 250 and the slant six over the years. And Yeah back when they built them simple, spark and fuil no other crap.

 

Fat Tedy, the Ford Sixes are so good they even have their own website. You don't know what you're missing.

http://fordsix.com/forum/

 

OOPS, theres that dang oops thing again. I have had one Ford inline, stright 6 in my Fairmont wagon. It was a good motor. I was refering to trucks and thinking of Fords 300 6. Every Ford truck or van I have onwned was a V8, never came across a 6. Owned several 250 Chevs and love them, My first V8 GM van is the one I have now with a 305. Owned 1 slant 6, 78 Dodge van, it sat for years, bout it, spent a day getting it running again and a week later drove it from Victoria to Fort St John and back trouble free. I think about it now and would NEVER do some thing like that again based on what the van was, it sat, never inspected the brakes, changed the oil, nothing and no money if it broke down......Dam I wish I was 20 again!
:2_thumbs_up_-_anima

 

Of course I'm talking about my Ford Wagon. I haven't gotten the hang of including pic in posts, but you can click on my garage to the left to see pics of my ride.

 

No OOPS Required! It's kinda like Mrs. Robinson. Thought I was introducing you to a new engine experience.

Having owned the Fairmont and the 300 I6, you know already.

Amazing what those FordSix guys do to them. Kinda like cadipacer with his 500 CID tucked into that Pacer wagon. Gone in a wink!

 

Only thing I don't like about my truck, it has fiberglas rear fenders. The earlier ones were steel, of course, and I liked them better. There is an old stepside down the road I thought about buying for parts, but the fenders look to be a different shape. Anyhow, I have owned several Ford 6's. I have had Falcons, Econoline vans, a Mustang, a Ranchero, a Comet and a Fairmont with 144-170-200 sixes, and all were excellent runners. Never had any problems with any of them, except for the occasional small stuff like a fuel pump or carb rebuild. Nothing as far as the engine itself. My Fairmont was somewhat disappointing on gas mileage, however, it only got about 20 on a trip. I tried every trick I could think of, but 20 is all I ever squeezed out of it. It was a great little car. No matter how cold it was, hit the gas pedal a time or so in the morning and it would fire as soon as I bumped the starter. The AC would run you out.

 

It's amazing how few guys 'admit' they owned a Fairmont (present company excepted), since they made over 600,000 during 1978 to 1983. Pretty hard to avoid.

Advance Curve kit gets the MPG closer to the new CAFE regs.

 

I tried everything I have ever learned about engines to improve the MPG on this car. Even the little stuff. I bought MSD solid plug wires, a Standard Ignition cap/rotor with solid brass terminals, a MSD Blaster 40,000 volt coil.........nothing worked. I tweaked the timing, still nothing. The vacuum advance was working fine and the engine idled so smoothly that you couldn even tell it was running unless you saw the fan turning. I hooked up with a guy on the Ford 6 forum that supposedly had worked for Ford and he mentiond that the original head gasket was no longer available in the aftermarket. He sent me one of the originals that he still had. I pulled the head and installed it, but, still no better. My little '61 Comet 170/2 speed automatic got in the mid to upper 20 mpg range. I really liked the little car and wish I had kept it. But, that was then and this is now. Guess I'll have to enjoy my old Ford pickup for a while.

 

Dodgeguy, you don't recall the brand of head gasket, do you?

I got my 200 CID from the donor car (fresh rebuild). Runs like a trackstar. But I'll be watching for a good replacement eventually.

 

Norman, It was whatever Ford used when the car was built. It was supposed to be a little thinner when torqued, as best I remember. I believe the FelPros were too thick. Might have been McCord. They are usually a little thinner when compressed.

 

Thanks. I'll know what to watch for. Some old rural garages might have some. Kinda nice being in the boonies sometimes. Nobody cleans out the NOS backroads.