Bird or 'mont?

Topic: Bird or 'mont? (Read 2487 times) previous topic - next topic

Bird or 'mont?

July 02, 2009, 12:55:01 PM

Heres the deal, Ive just recently got my TC back together after sitting for a year engineless. At this point I look, and the body is ROUGH. Its getting rust through everywhere, its beat to , and overall is just not desireable. I love the car, it was my first (well, first that I could actually drive, more on that in a minute), and has a lot of memories. But the truth is that it was a $300 beater, and will never *look* nice.

Okay so my "real" first car was my 81 fairmont, futura coupe with a 6cyl and auto. My dad bought this car when I was like 15 or 16. I didnt get my license til I was 18 though so I never got to drive it. He picked up a 351 cleveland out of a syard really cheap one day and well, being the youngin I was I started tearing the mont apart. I ripped the dash out with plans of an 87-93 mustang dash, stupidly, and we later yanked the 6cyl/c4 out and sold it. And well, thats how the car sits now. The body is excellent, just needs paint. Only 69,000 west virginia miles on it. It could be a really nice car.

So as you can guess I have many thoughts of swapping the 2.3t and 5 speed from my bird to the fairmont. To most this would be an easy decision but I also love my bird. Its just too bad it has 170,000 dirty michigan miles on it (well more like 140,000 michigan and 30,000 nw ohio miles).

Thoughts?

Bird or 'mont?

Reply #1 – July 02, 2009, 02:22:08 PM

I would do both if it was me, and get another motor for the fairmont.
I'm sure this doesn't help or answer your question though.

Bird or 'mont?

Reply #2 – July 02, 2009, 08:09:16 PM

Here's a few pics that I had on screen saver. Could spark some interest in getting it done. I love the yellow one.

Bird or 'mont?

Reply #3 – July 02, 2009, 09:01:17 PM

as much as i love my tbird, i was actually looking for a box top 2dr mont to put all these parts on before seeing a random TC rekindled old memories of my dads first 87 tbird.

Bird or 'mont?

Reply #4 – July 02, 2009, 09:34:30 PM

I love the fairmonts when done correctly. I'd love one but there are so many cars I'd love to have and way to many hobbies....

Bird or 'mont?

Reply #5 – July 02, 2009, 10:04:22 PM

Well, when you consider that the basket handle Fairmont was supposed to be the '80 Thunderbird... hmmm....

Shiny Side Up!
Bill

Bird or 'mont?

Reply #6 – July 02, 2009, 11:03:42 PM

You should keep your bird together, and give me that ol fairmont, so I can go mid 9's with the truck motor. Or you could get that black $1000 auto 87/88 tc in toledo on craigslist

Bird or 'mont?

Reply #7 – July 02, 2009, 11:03:52 PM

i love fairmonts, had 3 of them. the only problem is finding good used parts. you think tbird/cougar stuff is hard to come by try finding clean body parts or interior parts for the monts.

Bird or 'mont?

Reply #8 – July 02, 2009, 11:29:27 PM

i have a friend with a farmont...350 chevy powered but drags the bumper

Bird or 'mont?

Reply #9 – July 02, 2009, 11:44:52 PM

You ever tell him that with a ford motor he would not only drag the bumper, but probably come off the back wheels too?

Anyway, what would I want with an auto TC?

Besides, I cant *buy* anything, Im poor. It would be nice to get that black auto car and swap my 5sp stuff into it and swap the 2.3 from my bird into the mont with a c4. Only in a dream though.

Bird or 'mont?

Reply #10 – July 03, 2009, 12:39:38 AM

we could show em up couldn't we brad, and do it on pump gas too:)

Bird or 'mont?

Reply #11 – July 03, 2009, 06:02:58 AM

I always love the old Futura coupes! They were originally designed to be downsized Tbirds. I would love to get my hands on one to restore.

Bird or 'mont?

Reply #12 – July 06, 2009, 10:24:13 AM

So if I were to actually sacrifice my bird to the fairmont, what else should I swap over besides...engine-trans-rearend? Front brakes should go right on, right? How about swaybars? I dont think the mont has a rear swaybar.

I also wonder if running megasquirt with its own harness would be easier than splicing in the tbird harness and eec.

Bird or 'mont?

Reply #13 – July 06, 2009, 10:47:47 AM

Brakes will swap as will the sway bars.

You might need to check to see if the 'Mont RLCA's have the holes for the sway bar. Some early ones don't.

Control arms (front and rear) are the same as a Fox Mustang.

You could pare down the TC harness to only what is needed for the EEC.

Kind of a shame to sacrifice your "rare" TC for the 'Mont, but it's whatever you want to do.

Bird or 'mont?

Reply #14 – July 06, 2009, 07:13:19 PM

you might want to swap the k-member over also. you did say it was an inline 6 mont didn't you?