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old_mate · 12-05-2004, 02:39

Hello all

Im heading down to canberra early next week to have a look at a car that I didnt really expect to be buying at my age.....XY Fairmont! My pop has a original 3 on the tree six cyl XY, and ever since I can remember have wanted one of my own (will be waiting ages to inherit his lol). Never thought I'd be buying it at 20yrs old though!

Have spoken in some depth to the owners, Basically its a 351 4spd sedan, with 12 slots, GT rear wing, front spoiler & shaker (not sure if its glass or not). Body looks to be in good nick (apparantly was sprayed 10 years ago), paint is stuffed (its a darkish green of some sort), interior is needing lots of work (saddle in colour), still unsure of year model, how many miles its done, if it has a nine inch etc.

basically, the plan is to drive it back to my olds house in Brisbane, park it in the shed and start collecting parts. The build plan basically involves spending big dollars on getting the body and paint up to standard, debadging it, warming over the clevo, rebuilding the suspension and brakes, slam it on some wide 12 slots and just cruising the thing.

Now, what do you blokes think I should do? restore it to completely stock Fairmont specs, or build it the way I want it as talked about before (would paint it wild violet or white) with the addition of the GT shaker? Even if I added those few things, the interior would be as original as i could get, so i suppose I could always hang on to all the original bits and if i sold it restore it then....hmmm

Reason why i dont want to cut too sick on it is because of resale. I'd love to be able to restore this thing and not have ALL my money wasted on it. compared to some others I have seen for sale lately, the owners are not asking a lot of money for it (only reason I can afford it) and it seems the prices for nice XY's are climbing. And building a faker GT for mine is a little old now.

Have been doing lots of researching, and i cant get over how much stuff you can buy repo for the things! I have heard some bad stories about rubbers and stuff, are there anything else that are known to be dodgy? Are there many people out there who restore parts? The console and dash in this car will need some work, as will the door trims and seats. (basically the whole lot) and i dont wanna get stuck buying it and finding things are impossible to source.

here are a couple of photos for now, will get some more happening later

http://www.fordgallery.com/showphoto...cat/500/page/1

http://www.fordgallery.com/showphoto...cat/500/page/1

some of you may know it already as it has been advertised here.....

davway · 12-05-2004, 02:56

ok its an XY with a 351. that will command $$$$ on resale. its NOT a GT (or) HO so you wont be getting top $$$$ in the long run. id say cut sick, do what you please to it and if you ever want to sell it you will still get a good price. if everything is schmick when you sell it it wont matter too much that its a Fairmont.

old_mate · 12-05-2004, 03:01

I understand i wont get top top $$$ in the long run, but if i can get back about 75% on what i spend on it Ill be happy. I would have thought a Fairmont may command a little more, but if not, oh well. Its still an XY (closest thing I'll get to a GT too)

Not that i'd sell it within the next 10 years (knowing me, will take that long to build)

Am impressed with some of the resto's I have seen here www.grandtourer.com.au

Not thats a level of resto im aiming for. I want to cruise this thing.

brenx · 12-05-2004, 05:52

Fairmonts do command a little more cash. They are also valued higher when insuring.

Brenden

blueyes · 12-05-2004, 11:43

is it a factory 351 and 4 speed? if so, it's still worth a bit of money. it should share the same 54H body shell as the GT (read this for more info).

i'd try to restore it to it's former original condition just with hidden enhancements (like a warmed over motor, etc). but i'm a bit of a purist.

it'll be nice to see a clean, stock looking XY Fairmont instead of the usual cars that feature in the reader's section of street machine magazine..

congrats on the purchase and good luck for the resto!

oh, grand tourer can provide you with a lot of exchange parts. door trims are made from brand new but they can restore dashes, etc.

outback_ute · 12-05-2004, 18:53

Find out what the original colour was (if it's not that dark green) and if you like it paint it that colour, otherwise whatever you like. Since it is a Fairmont I would restore all the badges and put them on - with a smick paint job it will look stunning and stand out from all the cars that were debadged/chromed during the late 80s-90s.

galaxy xr8 · 12-05-2004, 23:25

If it is a factory 351 than you would be mad not to restore it to it's former glory, fairmont's especially the GS model's are comanding BIG $$$$ as factory item's but if not factory it's still worth restoring to a fairmont, that is what I would do.

Neeek · 12-06-2004, 00:02

If it were mine, I'd restore to factory (if, as others have said, it's a factory 351 Fairmont). But if it's already a bit of a mash-mash of parts and not close to original, I'd just do what I liked.

Good luck with it!

old_mate · 12-06-2004, 01:57

Im going to have a look at it tomorrow. The owner hasnt got a set of keys for it (they were stolen) but she assures me it runs and will deliver it to sydney if i go thru with it. I have had a look around the Forums and have found what areas in the shell i should look for in regards to rust...but as i have never looked underneath a XY before, how do I tell its got a 9inch? Im of the impression it should IF it was factory 4 speed and 351....thats another thing I'll check. what numbers am I looking for to tell what motor it had originally?

Neeek · 12-06-2004, 02:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by old_mate

Im going to have a look at it tomorrow. The owner hasnt got a set of keys for it (they were stolen) but she assures me it runs and will deliver it to sydney if i go thru with it. I have had a look around the Forums and have found what areas in the shell i should look for in regards to rust...but as i have never looked underneath a XY before, how do I tell its got a 9inch? Im of the impression it should IF it was factory 4 speed and 351....thats another thing I'll check. what numbers am I looking for to tell what motor it had originally?

This site will tell you what to look for on the chassis plates: http://www.falcongt.com.au/ID.html. Check the colour, engine and transmission codes. And of course, to see if it's a Fairmont by the VIN number - you can never be too careful. Look for JG34 or JH34 at the start of the VIN. Engine number will be located on the front of the block on the passenger side, I think. It should match if it's original.

As for telling if it's got a 9-inch diff, have a look under the back. If the diff centre housing has bolts around the outside of it, it's a Borg Warner unit. If no bolts are visible when viewed from the back, it's a 9-inch.