Build Thread 1978 Mercury Cyclone. The pig is in the pen.

Noobz347 said:

Mike... Can you toss up a pic of the front of the car before the bumper was pulled?

Edit:

Never mind.

View attachment 111819

Just how high off the ground are those things going to end up being?

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Ohh that's stratosphere, compared to how low I intend to run my ride height.

Noobz347 said:

Are these ALL poly bushings? Uppers and lowers?

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And they are ALL poly bushings, just as they come in the control arms when purchased.

I'm gonna remove the the springs on the rear to see if there is a full range of movement w/o them installed. I'll do that tomorrow.

95BlueStallion said:

Id be interested to see how that goes without the springs installed. Good test from a trustworthy source to know for sure. I know my poly bushings in the lowers on my '95 made a lot of noise when I had over tightened them, but I never did upgrade to uppers to have first hand experience with the binding hearsay.

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Well I decided NOT to remove the springs just yet. I'm taking a break to eat something (Not taco bell), and I've almost got everything bolted on to allow me to put it on the ground for the first time in a year, so that is the focus for now.

Noobz347 said:

You may end up with rubber bushings for the uppers.

For the heat exchangers, I think I might have mounted them horizontally behind the bumper if there was room.

A very small air foil/rock guard underneath of them would have pulled all kinds of under-car air through them.

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I looked at that option as well but they would've ended up in the engine compartment looking up at a serpentine belt. I guess it's really no different that an intercooler/radiator when it comes down to it as far as being subjected to frontal impact. I know one thing though,...this is one thing that I'm NOT gonna do twice, the coolers stay where they are.

Well,.......I said I was gonna have it on its suspension,..and I almost did.

But 1978 Fairmonts have really short front LCA's, and that fact when combined w/ a coil over conversion kit equals collision. The strut crashes into the closest part of the K member, and that is gonna require clearancing. While that is NBD, I still have to take apart all of that sh it that I bolted on today.

The tail pipe I made had to be completely rebuilt. The original went over the rear end between the upper control arm, and the differential. Despite the fact that it was all the way up against the top of the rearend tunnel, the upper control arm hit it at ride height. ( which is just north of the weeds)
The new pipe went to the other side of the upper control arm, and it works great, so that's done now.

The fuel tank had to be dropped so i could do some more painting in areas that I neglected when I was spraying the whole underside w/ bedliner.

I did get it down on the ground, and there is definitely rear suspension travel, I had the rebound on the adjustable rear shocks set too stiff, so yea me.

And it's gonna be cool.

One year. I bought this thing in August of 2013.

In the past year this build has been more like a war. Each day, each mod, each improvement has been a battle. As in all wars, the battle is the smaller part of the whole mess, and as the saying goes, you win some, you lose some.
Saturday, the battle objective was to get the car on the ground, and rolling on it's tires for the first time. Before that could happen, I had to change the tail pipe that I had built just last week. The original design had the tail pipe going over the rearend between the upper control arm, and the center section of the rear. Despite the fact that I had that tail pipe against the tunnel roof, the upper control arm hit the tail pipe when the car was lowered to ride height.

Me: 0
Car: 1

So I had to completely rebuild it, and re route it over the rear on the outside of the upper control arm. But I got that done, and it cleared perfectly.

Me: 1
Car: 0

I had still some painting to do in, and around the gas tank, and I wanted to redo the fuel line in braided SS as opposed to the braided cloth wrapped hose that I had done previously. Got that done w/ no casualties.

I moved to the front end.

I've been holding on fully assembling the front suspension because I knew that I was gonna have bump steer issues as low as I intended to run this car at ride height. My thinking being that I'd just assemble the strut w/o the spring, take a stab at my anticipated ride height, and go through the pain in the ass process to correct the tie rod end geometry to match the arc of the lower control arm, and the put the whole thing together for real. .

But I didn't want to go through that procedure just yet, as I really have no clue how low the front end will actually be. I figured the only way I was gonna truly be able to make that determination was to actually assemble it, and let the car settle on it's springs.

So I opened the oldest boxes I've had in the garage, and got out the rotors, calipers and pads, and put that junk together. No sooner did I get that done it was obvious that there was a major interference issue.


Fairmont lower control arms are too short to use a coil over conversion kit as the picture clearly shows. I believe that when compared to a Mustang, they are even shorter than that, and significantly shorter than a 93 arm.
For Saturday, that was the deal breaker. The suspension wouldn't compress as the strut was interlocked w/ part of the k member. That left me at the end of the day, w/ the car still in the air, despite the fact that the entire front suspension was now tightly bolted together, and the tires were on.

Again,
Car: 1
Me: 0

Today, after consulting some friends on how to best modify the k member to allow the necessary clearance, it was collectively determined that I would cut out a chunk of the k member w/ a sawzall, and add back a small piece of plate to restore any lost integrity, but that required I completely take the stuff back off that I just put on yesterday.
But whatya gonna do?


You put a new blade on the sawzall, and cut that bitsh.

Then cut, and fit a piece of plate, protect the surrounding area from weld splatter, and weld it back together.



Once that was behind me, I put the tires on the car, and put it on the ground ( also the first time they've actually touched the pavement),and rolled the whole thing outside.



The pic is deceptive, the cooler is centered, the radiator is offset.


it's down there.


Just a little FYI, this is actually a SW desert edition Fairmont, and evidently the original owner ordered the car w/ the optional "door delete" feature.
The hole behind the door is where the air inlets are for the rear mounted intercooler heat exchangers (aka little radiators)



This rear carnage shot was my attempt to show off the 315's under the car. The Mustang taillights will go in the trash, as they don't really fit the car, and besides, I have a custom plan for the rear of the car to that end. On the left, you can see the single 3" muffler. What to do w/ the tail pipe is another dilemma.
On one hand, I think I'll just add a 3.5-4" fart pipe looking muffler tip, and be done, on the other hand, I earlier sketched a trapezoid looking center positioned outlet to share a similarity to the front grille for the coolers that I may build instead.
I'll ask for opinions on that from you guys.

The car is low ( obviously) The only thing that is at risk at this ride height is the oil filter. Ironically, one of the most fragile items on the car is hanging about 5" off the road.
Again, The plan from the sketch was to add a splitter mounted to the bottom of the cooler shroud, and bolstered by 3/8-1/2" thick pylons that would be mounted to the bumper. That splitter would serve as "cow catcher" of sorts in the event something was on the interstate that would otherwise deal a death blow to that filter. You can look at the side shots, and see just how periously low that dude is hanging. In reality, not that big a deal, I can use a short filter, and gain over an inch, or I can use one of those 90 degree adapters to turn the filter horizontal.

I kinda like this ride height, and it appears that I have about 1.5-2" of compression left before I'm at full bump, however, I can obviously raise the thing if need be. But I'm gonna let it sit for a few days before I attempt any bumpsteer adjustments, But believe me,.....I have it. In spades.

This is after dropping the tie rod end 1.25". From the pic, (and if I keep this ride height) it looks like I'll need another 1/2-3/4" at least to get the tie rod anywhere close to parallel w/ the lower control arm.

But all that is piddly little junk. Today the car loses. I win!

95BlueStallion said:

Congrats on getting it on the ground! I am nervous for you about that oil filter. There is no where else you can mount it a little higher?

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I already solved that. That is a FL1A. AKA a long-assed filter. I'm probably gonna use a short cannister filt

Noobz347 said:

It will be a shame to cover up that after-cooler.

What are the small round panels that are behind the doors and just above the rockers?

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The duct work to the heat exchangers breathe through those holes

Noobz347 said:

For anyone not wanting to go back and count:


Me : Is equal to 1
Car: Is equal to 2

Currently, the car is winning.

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I didn't count EVERY battle.

stangboy said:

Are you going to fab up a set of scoops or use some from another car?

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I wasn't really even thinking about a scoop, as I don't know just how much air will flow down the side of this box with wheels, and because of that I don't know how far off the body the mouth of that scoop would have to hang. Whether it's to be a scoop, or just an inlet cover of some kind, I'll end up making it.

02 281 GT said:

A Motorcraft FL300 should do the trick; it's a full 1.16" shorter than the FL1A.

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Good deal. Problem solved. I'll use the FL1A to run break in oil through, then convert over to the stumpy one when I start driving it in 6-8 months.