Conversions & Hybrids - what do you guys think of this??

i've been thinking about this swap for a while now. a 63 ford fairlane 2dr sport coupe, with the wheelbase altered 5" forward on the front 15" forward on the rear, mini tubbed, strait axle front suspention with leaf springs, fuel cell & batt in the trunk, with a H/C ls1 and TH350. maybe individual throttle bodys with super tall stacks out of the hood. the whole car (from the outside) would look strait out of the early 60's match base era. the only problem is the fairlane is in such good condition it would be a shame to hack the floorpan so badly, the whole rear suspention, floor, rearend, and wheels get cut out as one big peice when moving the rear forward.

im going to start A swap soon. just gotta figure out what i want first.

If its a virgin car with no rust I wouldnt cut it up.
Thats why I didnt cut up my nova, im in the process of building a gasser right now....
Really just depends on how far you want to go.
The hilborn style stacks will either need a custom sheetmetal intake or there isnt a way to make them functional....

yeah the stacks are just something ive been thinking about, not real serious about them but there is a c5r 8 throttle system so it wouldn't be that crazy to get them functional. the car is virgin and rust free, but i think ill cut it up anyway:devil:. so like i asked before, what do you think?? do you like the idea (besides cutting up a rust free car)?? what front susp. is going in your gasser??

Already have the front end done...
Chassisworks front frame that I welded a 4" drop axle from speedway to...
Heres a side shot of the stance, even with a motor it wont drop down more than an inch, the straight axle I tried first was WAY too tall....
Pic of the drop axle, the 5.3 almost ready to go in, and how it was when I got it....
Ill get some more pics later of the axle/front end when I get a chance...

I say do it though, if you dont mind cutting it up, do it right!;)
Nothing sexier than an altered...:cool:

very nice! your engine looks sexy! maybe ill go with a carb setup, dose it make things way easier?? since im going th350 i wont need the computer to control my trans. for the front end of mine i was thinking of geting an old light truck strait axle and cuting it short to fit. my friend told me that HOTROD did an alter to a 64 fairlane (froorplan same as mine) and that the guy took a '65 ford econoline van front axle and shortened it like 5" along with the steering tie rod, seems unsafe to me (because he mig welded it back together) but that might be one of my options. i want leafs under the front for sure though because i wand to cut out the spring towers, that will make tha bay roomier than heck.

Yeah I wouldnt narrow the axle, I was in the same boat, had a 2" drop axle 54" KP to KP and thought about narrowing it and welding a collar over it as well, but I just went ahead and bought the kit, much easier and I didnt want to chance narrowing the other one...

Im going with a th350 as well(you can see it on the ground in the first pic there:p) Probably a converter in the 3600 range with 3.73s out back on a 26" tire....

The carb setup is eaiser becasue of not needing a high pressure fuel pump, tank, lines, etc, and wiring in the whole harness to the car, and I just wanted to go with a carb for the ease of tuning, wiring, etc...
Intake is the GMPP intake, but in hindsight I may have gotten the performer rpm(but not the kit from edelbrock)
THe MSD controller is better from what ive heard with the ability to adjust timing curves(using pills) and to be able to hook it up to a rev limiter(not included but easy to hook up) cant with the edelbrock kit...
You can also hook it up to a computer to tweak it some more as well(have to buy a cable and software) but I like the ability to do it if I want to later...

yeah that sounds really good. if i do decide to do the swap with this car ill go carb...... dosent the gmpp intake use traditional intake gaskets while the edelbrock has grooves for the stock o-ring types? if thats the case ill go with a victorJr single plane. what carb are you using?? im thinking about a 800cfm?? is that big enough for a 5.7?? and what cam are you planing for? i hear very good things about tight lobe seperation when using a carb. really tight like 106 degrees. i guess the incressed overlap helps to draw in more air-fuel mix from the carb (since the air flowing in the manifold is weighted with fuel it is a little slower than the clear air when the engine is efi)

also if i do the 15" rear alter with a fuel cell and the batt. in the trunk how much of the car's weight will be on the rear do you think?? prob around 65% right??

also if i do the 15" rear alter with a fuel cell and the batt. in the trunk how much of the car's weight will be on the rear do you think?? prob around 65% right??
Depends if you set back the motor as well, and also where the front axle ends up....
If you move the rear foward itll deffiantly help out though, dont know for sure on numbers...

yeah that sounds really good. if i do decide to do the swap with this car ill go carb...... dosent the gmpp intake use traditional intake gaskets while the edelbrock has grooves for the stock o-ring types? if thats the case ill go with a victorJr single plane. what carb are you using?? im thinking about a 800cfm?? is that big enough for a 5.7?? and what cam are you planing for? i hear very good things about tight lobe seperation when using a carb. really tight like 106 degrees. i guess the incressed overlap helps to draw in more air-fuel mix from the carb (since the air flowing in the manifold is weighted with fuel it is a little slower than the clear air when the engine is efi)

Its no biggie to get gaskets, got some fel pros PN 1312-3.(only problem about the others is the Oring types arent cheap if you cant reuse some old ones you might have)
I already stabbed the cam and the motor is ready to drop in, went with a PP 232/230 Dur. @.050 .580"/.580" Lift 110 LSA cam.
Should have a nice lil rumble to it:)
For the carb, mine is only a 5.3 I wont be going bigger than a 650/750, and I dont see the need for a 800 on yours either, 750 should be plenty unless your doing a stroker or something larger than 346ci(other variables too, cam/heads, nitrous, etc) but just NA 750 shoud be fine...

My project is still at least a few months away from running, but I plan to see how far I can go with a lil 5.3:) after that maybe a turbo, carbed, 6.0;)

kool. you got any pics of the front suspention yet??;)

kool. you got any pics of the front suspention yet??;)
Shoot me your email address, took some yesterday:)