[Bossman]

Zoinks! that sounds interesting.Why is it when something like that happens,there's a million people there to see it?

_________________

Run what ya brung..and hope ya brought enough.
1964 Fairlane 2 door hardtop



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Bossman on 12/22/01 11:44pm ]</font>

 

[dark7068]

My throttle stuck on my Fairlane to when I first got it. Ended up the dr. motor mount was broken, tranny mount was broken, and it ripped the shift rod out of the side of the block, couldn't shift it to neutral. The wife was driving at the time too. Scared the **** out of her, and the people in the car next to her, she went abit sideways in a cloud of smoke.
I had to pull the motor, drill, tap and heli-coil the hole in the block for the shifter. Thought I might as well buy headers while the motors out, got new tranny mount, motor mount, had to find another shifter mechanism (it was bent badly).
Is it possible to run a cable type linkage from a donour car instead of the rod type, incase of mount breakage again so it doesnt happen again. The rod linkage is not safe at all.

Rick

 

[gttorinofan]

I had Old Greeny for about 6 weeks, I was bringing the dog to the spa when the tach went up and the speedo went down. Had no forwards or reverse,C-6 by the way. Ended up being clogged with rust. Cost me more in rolbacks than it did for repairs. Gonna have it rebuilt anyway.

 

[rod n az]

Last May, me and my brother, and two of our friends went to grab something to eat during school. Yes we were ditching. We got to an intersection and the light was red. I stepped on the brake, the car didn't slow down. I then put my entire weight on the brake peadal and still nothing. The the parking brake, nothing. There was a van in front of us and a guy walking on the sidewalk to the right of us. I steered the car between the two and hopped the curb. By that time I had shifted into neutral. When we hit the curb, the front right tire blew out. And guess what? I didn't have a spare. lol So I called my mom and asked her to pick me up, she did. We went home and I got my truck. So I gave my friends a ride back to school and me and my brother went to buy a spare tire. We got the tire on the car, then we towed it back home. Turns out the rubber brake line had be weathered and tore, and all the brake fluid leaked out. That's the only story I have with the Fairlane. When I get it running good, I'll probably get more. But with my truck, I have lots. lol

 

[Greg P]

Back in my school days, me and a buddy went to a party. I drove my '71 torino. At the time it was pretty tough, 351c, C4, 4.11, all that. Well, I drank a few too many beers, so I had my buddy drive me and my car home. The engine was howling at highway speed, and my bud thought he must have the trans in 2nd so I guess he decided to find drive. Well, he went right into reverse with it. Just about the time we were sideways in the next lane, he dropped it back into drive and we drove on home. That was damn near 10 years ago, and that tranny is still shifting hard and working great! I have since gone on the wagon, tho.........

Greg

 

[paxtonman]

Last summer, my 16 year old and I go cruising in the 67. We stop at the light and along side pulls up one of the mid 70's Tran Am's with the scoop. Both of us drivers knew what was going to happen. Light turns and with a 427,2800 stall, and 4.11 rear, I was gone, I blew away that Trans Am so bad that the cop did a U turn between us to get me. It was worth it though, my son will never forget it.

 

[dark7068]

My wife, kids and I were going to her Grandfolks place about 8 hours away in the Fairlane.
Went and got an alingnment done on it the day before, and new tires all around. They replaced the tie-rod ends, and an upper ball-joint.
We took off early and headed for Creston. The car handled pretty good for the first few miles, then all of a sudden it started wandering all over the road. I slowed down to 50 mph, and it handled abit better, got to the next town and ask the garage there to look at the front end. They put it on the hoist and checked it out and did an alignment. Everything checked out ok. Continued on our way.
Cruizing doen the highway around 50 mph again and it started wandering real bad again, this time real bad. I pulled over, and checked the wheels out, jacked the car up and did a quick wheel tug to check the bearing and ball joint. Seemed fine. Continued on.
Got to Kelowna about 3 hours later (2 hour drive) and got to another garage. It took awhile for him to get me in but did. Said I needed a new idler arm, fine, put it in. 4 hours later the car was ready. It was getting late so got a hotel. Picked the car up and drove to the hotel, STILL handled like ****, went back and got the mechanic to drive it, he stopped and got out, said frame is bent. Went to a frame shop and he checked it out, it was fine, but my control valve was hooped. Got a rebuild and rebuilt it in the hotel lot, put it back on in the dark. Good damn car, so far this trip cost me close to 700.00 including hotel.
Continued on the next day, this time the car was worse, said fu*k it and went home, it was closer to go home than continue on to Creston.
Went back to the tire shop, got them to rebalnce and check the tires, they were fine, went back to the alignment shop and got them to check the alignment again, still fine. Now the car wandered at 30 mph and above.
Bought new lower control arms, new sway bar bushings, upper ball joints, wheel bearings, and even changed rims and tires, still wandered.
I was getting pissed, I checked a magazine and it said lower the upper control arms 1 in. I spent close to 2000.00 on the front end in 1 week, and was getting pissed. What the hell, it was free, if it didnt cure it, put it back.
Well, it cost me a total of 30.00 for the drill bit, and 3 hours of my time, (god damn coil springs), went to the alignment shop after I was done, another 50.00, and good to go.
Now it goes over 100 mph and straight as an arrow, no wandering, or anything. I spent over 2 grand on stuff I didnt have too, least I know the front end is ALL NEW, and is going to last along time.

Rick

 

[MGT351]

My fascination with Fords started when I was 14 I always wanted a 70/71 Torino GT like my dad had when he was young. We found a 71 Ranchero instead, and I became attached to it. We started working on it and built a strong 351C C6 for it. I was 17 and had about 350 miles on the motor when I decided to sneak it out and drive it to school(it was not insured). On the way home I decided to put my foot in it around a turn, the car went all over the road and I ended up rolling it. I learned a valuable lesson that day and fortunately only bruised my knee( I wasnt wearing a seatbelt). Unfortuantely the car was totaled. 2 months later my dad gave me a second chance and we found a 70 Torino GT. We got it into shape took all the front end componets off the Ranchero and the disc brakes installed it on the Torino. Put the 351C C6 in and had it going for my senior year. I had alot more respect for the power under the hood by then and didnt have anymore wrecks. My Torino GT now has a 429 and serves as a weekend crusier.

 

[Rainy]

not a story particularly, just a set of memories.

I worked in a drive-in during highschool and had a 68 Torino...one white fender, one black (with red C-stripe) fender, a dark green 69 passenger door all on an otherwise aqua? car.

before work we'd race around the lot, which was gravel with raised 'moguls' every row. Got airborne any number of times, sideways always, dodging the speaker poles. Then going home after the last show, down the gravel roads, so fast the car was basically floating on gravel dust, squirming in a generally straight line, sometimes following a friend home (on a gravel road, with headlights, behind someone else, you're basically driving blind).
After a couple of years of this I learned that gravel kicked up at high speed under your car will eventually destroy your floor pan. The car's front seat eventually turned into a rocker and dust began seeping up into the passenger compartment. The underside was in such bad shape, I ended up pulling the motor/trans and junking it. I still regret that. I still miss the gravel-floating and only do it in rental cars nowadays.

Stupid youth-tricks. Should be on Letterman.

 

[Bossman]

With Kerosene soaked shorts?

 

[89 coupe]

You mean battery acid soaked undies and shorts

 

[Brian M]

I got a couple interestin stories with my torino. When I first got the car, it drove pretty good, little wobbly sometimes at speed. After about 2 weeks it was gettin really wobbly, and you could feel it in the steerin wheel. A couple times one day i was on the freeway, and my torino sudden jerked to the left, almost hitting another car. Made it home, and took off the driver side wheel. The rotor was really wobly, you could move it almost a half inch rocking it. Took off the dust cap, and the washer was mangled pretty bad. To my suprise, there was no outer wheel bearing left, just the races! I found the rollers in the grease in the middle. Even worse, one of the races had spun, and split wearing out the rotor as well! $120 bucks for new rotor, and some new wheel bearings and it was as good as new, thank goodness. Could have been really bad with no outer wheel bearing! Another time, I was at a stop light, and a camaro pulled up. Suffice it to say, I gunned it on green, and took off. I was kicking his ass, until I shifted into 2nd, got back on the gas and poof, big black cloud of smoke, engine stalled and wouldn't start. Turns out the holley choke housing was plastic, and had broke, snapping the choke closed all the way! If I had just had some bailing wire, or zip tie or somethin, I would have been able to wire it open and make it home. Unfortunately, this woas before I had gotten used to the needs of an older car, and didnt really carry any tools or anything with me at all. I ended up having to pay 50 bucks for towing, cause at the time I only had 10 mile towing for AAA, all over something I could have fixed with somethin cheap and simple, had I been prepared. Now I carry plenty of tools, water, oil, power steerin fluid, and brake fluid *just in case* mainly cause I have been at a point where I really needed one of thoes vital fluids, and got stuck because I didnt have it with me. I have gotten my torino sideways a few times in the rain too, fun, but a bit scary too. I haven't even had my torino for 2 years yet, and I allready have all these memories. Its been on a couple 300+ mile skiing trips, back and forth to sacramento a few times, bout 2-2.5 hour drive each way. I bought the car with 95k miles on it, about a year and a half ago, and its allready at 120k. Great car, I wouldn't give it up for the world!

 

[DynoTom]

Just brought this up from the back pages!

 

[67stang]

When I was around 5, my folks had a 55 Fairlane. It had probably a zillion miles on it and the ball joints were really bad. We were poor mountain folks back then and dad and I would take the car and go along the road side and pick up coal that had fallen off of trucks and hauled it home in the trunk to heat our house. One particular cold, January day, we hit the "mother load" where a coal truck had wrecked in a sharp mountain turn and spilled it's load on the roadside. We crammed the truck of that old car so full the bumper was nearly dragging the ground. On the way home, dad could only go about 20 mph as the front end was shaking so badly he could hardly drive it. We pulled into the gravel drive of our house and the left front wheel fell off the spindle right on the ground. I'll never forget how the sad the car looked to my five year old mind, but the desperate look on dad's face nearly made me cry. He was out of work, out of money, and now the car had died an untimely death.

 

[primemover]

Thought it would be a good time to end the grudge between me and a buddy so we head out to the local race spot and line up, me in my 289 fairlane and him in his beat down p.o.s. 89 sho taurus which still runs bitchin. Needless to say I beat him by a car but on the way home I could only get about a quarter throttle. I pull in to a friends shop to inspect, the accel rod was bent from to many stompings so I decide to bend it back thts when it broke off. So now I am standing there wondering how I'm going to get home. Lucky for me I carry some wire with me and I attach it to the carb and run it out the vents in the teardrop hood, so I drove home about 8 miles with my hand out the window pulling on the wire.