The recipe is simple: yank gutless wonder mill out of a featherweight box-top Fairmont, cram in as much turbocharged LS motor as you are willing to fit, add whatever safety equipment you deem is necessary, and prepare to scare yourself so bad that your shorts will need an overhaul. The recipe exists because it works…there are plenty of LS-swapped Fox bodies out there that prove it. But this banana cream yellow Fairmont deserves something different. And for a Rough Start project, I think I have the perfect plan.
You see, this crackerbox could be yours for a measly $800 if you don’t feel like haggling. Eight bills gets you a two-door, six cylinder, automatic car that needs a replacement taillight lens but has clean paperwork. Our next trip would be to the junkyard to raid a throwaway SN-95 Mustang for five-lug swap parts, a junked Explorer for a donor 5.0L, and whatever is willing to donate a five or six speed manual to the equation. With your leftover $4,200, cleanup work on the engine shouldn’t take long and you might even have enough for some hop-up parts. Shop smart and wise, and for under five grand, you can have the monster Fairmont that Ford was too scared to build at the beginning of the Eighties.
Rough Start: 1979 Ford Fairmont two-door sedan
Been there, done that, forgot to beef up the rear end. After replacing that it was a great sleeper. Beat on it for a summer then sold it for more than we had into it.
Stroker cleveland headed solid roller old school motor with a liberty or jerico Glidden clone for the street
Here pal – I’ll tell you where you can cram an LS!
Why anybody would want to buy this boring ugly piece of crap is beyond me anyway – even if it is a Ford!
You would cram a LS in the Fairmont? I’m so proud of you! It….it brings tears to my eyes!
I got someplace you can cram an LS…