XY Fairmont - rivalrx

[rivalrx]

Soooooooooo - as some of you will know, I sold my XE Falcon project, along with basically EVERYTHING in the shed. 

And this is the reason - welcome to my XY Fairmont 4.1L column auto bench seat

It's an ex South African car and the body is bloody amazing. Interior needs new upholstery and I want bucket seats...

Plans - to keep it Fairmont and just add a few of the GS touches such as:

- XYGT lower lip spoiler

- XYGT fog lights

- XYGT square based aerial

- XYGT wing mirrors

- XYGT gas cap

I picked it up 4 days ago from up north and drove it back to Aukland with a faulty brake booster - only a couple of hairy moments.

The first port of call was for me to remove the classic trident (tridon) mags and wack on my 14X8 12 slots and NEW 245 50 14 eagers.

Discussion thread

https://oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/forum/11-project-discussion/&do=add

 

[rivalrx]

[rivalrx]

[rivalrx]

I will be cobbling together a 351c and C4 along with a mustang 9" if I can locate one.

I need to get new shocks and have the leaves reset (has 2" blocks) plus super low front springs.

I will load more pics as I get more time to tinker on it - sh1t the bed the body is clean and that paint is supposed to be factory yellow ochre.

 

Now to sell my wrx type r v limited so I can sleep at night.....

 

I owned an XY Fairmont 1997 factory v8 and sold it for $4K.....aaaaand regretted it daily since.

I am so happy and can't wait to give this the loving it deserves - no I'm not keeping it 6cyl (no offence to those folks). but this will remain Fairmont with a GS twist. Nothing I am doing to this car will be irreversible.

 

@Lord Gruntfuttock I know you are going to dig this! 

[rivalrx]

This is the style of how I want it to be - but in yellow ochre

 

The 7" 5 slots are even growing on me even though I am all about the 14X8 life

[rivalrx]

The interior is gagging for a redo - hunting the bucket seats now.

 

[rivalrx]

[rivalrx]

The brake booster is no bueno and literally offers zero brake assistance. 

I checked the vacuum hose that runs from the manifold to the. Poster and the valve works fine. 
So I undid the brake master and removed 2 of the side brake lines and left the one under the base. This gave me a few extra mm to help manoeuvre it all off. The strut tower made life difficult….

Then I undid the 3 bolts holding the booster to the firewall bracket. Still not enough angle to clear the tower. 
Under the dash I went and removed the 2 studs holding the bracket to the firewall and disconnected the brake pedal from the booster bi a split pin. 
 

it still didn’t just slide on our so I tried brute force and lifting up angles - Gottem. 
 

not to send away for rebuild and hopefully that’s that. 

i can now clean the firewall up a bit and paint the bracket and booster  

All in all I only skinned 2 knuckles - I call that a result. 

[rivalrx]

Today I managed to clean up the red tail light lenses, as they had some rude red reflector on them from South Africa. I even managed to polish the chrome and remove the Natal Sharks sticker off the rear screen too. 
 

[rivalrx]

Rebuild booster and new valve all back in the XY Fairmont. Now to bleed the brakes. 
 

CBC Brakes in Chch did a great job and I can’t wait to drive it.  
 

It was $388 delivered back to Auckland. 

[rivalrx]

[rivalrx]

800 grit wet and dry then 1000 and the prostars are looking a lot better. There is nothing like a bit of the old elbow grease to really make them pop

[rivalrx]

Almost cleaned up the prostars enough to put on the Fairmont. 
 

new caps en route from aussie and new ROH decals ordered. 
 

 

[rivalrx]

I whipped out the old bench seat, as I have some bucket seats from an XT Fairmont coming my way. 
 

the car needs the carb rebuilt and cleaned as the air idle bleed is leaking so it’s not happy when the car comes to a stop. I have to manually pull the choke to keep it alive. 
 

easy fix and the stromberg carb looks pretty simple. 
 

if anyone is heading to chch or Nelson from Auckland and has space for a bench seat holla. Cash paid for help with post. 
 

sh1t I LOVE this car. 

[rivalrx]

In prep for my bucket seats, I ordered the bloody bracket that I was loathed to pay for. 
 

it sits over the trans tunnel and allows the inner leg of the buckets to locate.  
 

Also it appears I need 2 x nylon 45mm bushes with 8mm centre bore as a spacer. $74nz for 2 off trademe or $8 if you c all a plastic engineering place in NZ haha. 
 

I also buffed the hell out of the 14x8 prostars and almost have got the clear coat off using stripper many many times….. that was some good sh!t they used back then. Sigh. 

I ordered repro centre caps from GT Wheels aussie and some ROH 45mm decals from Toyshop Engineering in NZ.

I think you agree that they now are looking great and all for the cost of some 800 and 1000 grit wet n dry and elbow grease  

My spare mint 245 50 14 nankangs will go on the prostars as I want to save the Eagers as much as I can  

Carb was leaking fuel down the idle bleed valve and a mate popped in the other night, tore it down and it’s now fixed and runs loads better. The bloody dizzy cap was loose….which wouldn’t help the richness and bad idle  

Now to fit the buckets when the arrive, time it up and then I ca  look to reset leaves 4” and super low front springs with new struts

if anyone ha super lows to suit PM me.  

 

[rivalrx]

Bucket seat bracket arrived from Resto Country aussie super fast. Now to weld it in and get the. I need the seats here now. 
 

[rivalrx]

I really couldn’t help myself - the 14x8 prostars are on with the 245 50 14 nankangs. 
 

morenfor Eagers preservation more than anything….
 

GT gas cap is en route and I cannot wait to fit it  

Koni short shocks will be ordered soon and then slamming time with reset leaves and super low springs 

[rivalrx]

We on

[rivalrx]

Mini update - I managed to SWAP my bench front seat for some averagely retrimmed bucket seats that appear to be mk4 zodiac ones 
 

Here they are mocked up in the car as I’m yet to have the centre bracket welded in. 
 

$1000 later, a full set of short Koni shocks are en route and I’m getting close to having the rear leaves reset 4” and removing 2” the blocks. I’m hoping the same place can reset my front springs 1” but that’s a 2023 problem. 
 

wrx type r sold yesterday so now I can relax for a bit and focus on this build. 
 

front and rear seat retrimming is $2400 via Tinwald canvas and upholstery Ashburton.
 

I will get this done in the coming year along with new interior everything.

They have the patterns and it’s a pretty basic replication job. They will be XYGT/GS spec trim. 
 

still after the lid for the dickie seat too (any colour)

 

 

[rivalrx]

Stuck door handle and lock - pulled the card and lubed the mechanism. 
 

works a treat now - also found some calliper paint and made the door cup “better”. I will get repro new ones. 
 

also removed the screws from the door cards…..who would do such an outlandish thing.