Buyer beware

[416Ford]

This one my is one of those things that would go unnoticed if my wife and I had purchased a painted car.
My wife and I were looking for a 68-69 Torino fastback to build and we found "Rust Free" Fairlane shell in Tenn. On C.L. Matching the description.
A buddy and I went down looked the car over and the owner told us they put Torino badges on the car. We purchased the car and brought it home back in August of last year.
The Torino and Fairlane vin tag in the RH windshield and stamped in the shock towers. The fenders are not cut out like a Mustang fender to see the vin stamped in the shock towers.
The vin number in the windshield matched the vin on the title.
Once I removed the fender to do some cleaning I noticed the vin numbers did not match the vin in the window. I then removed the dash and the vin tag in the window was taped down, not rivited.
We called the person we purchased the car from and got the blow off. We informed him we were contacting the police and having the car inspected and he would be contacted if it came back stolen.

As of last week, we now own a legal 1968 Torino.

[moose]

Looks like a nice clean straight start! What are your plans??

[416Ford]

Looks like a nice clean straight start! What are your plans??

We are having a 351C built for it with 400 plus HP.  Hoping to build an AOD for it so it will be street/strip and able to drive on the express way.
Vickie will not race it but I would like to smoke my buddies Chevys with it.

Stock looking, black and white car with buckets and console is what she wants. I would have put a mini tub in it and hide away headlight.
Similar to this but mag wheels and jacked up in the back.

[chimp koose]

Have you looked into building a 400M with Cleveland heads? wider and taller but what a torquey beast. We blew up a boss Cleveland (sleeveland we called it)years ago (late 80s) and decided to build a larger engine as a replacement ,400M with Cleveland heads and a set of spacers for the intake. The cam ,heads,headers etc were re used. That thing easily made better power at 1000 to 1500 rpm lower than the boss351.Years later John Kaase won a string of engine builder contests with different versions of the same style of engine.

[416Ford]

Have you looked into building a 400M with Cleveland heads?

No, I have not looked into a 400M.
One of the circle track racers from west Michigan passed away(Cancer) and the engine guy I know was his builder. He sold me his blocks a couple of cranks a few cams, a couple sets of 4V heads, lifters, valves, pans, pulleys, pumps, pistons, and more for $400. Plus I already have a 351C engine sitting on my engine stand.  

[wayne petty]

that's going to be nice...

a friend had one in his garage for several years.. they were trying to replace the piston in the 390.. they kept saying that the engine builder is giving them the wrong piston.. as when you install it the piston sticks out the deck and the rings expand..  i kept trying to tell them that it was a 428FE motor and they pointed to the badge on the fender.. no .. its a 390.. see the badge.. 4.060 piston diameter..  i just walked away leaving it in pieces..  it was not my job.. it was not my car..  man i wanted that car..  it was a 4 speed car also.  light green metallic..

so many possible ways to go..

a friend with a 66 fairline 500 does massive research and found that global west was bought up by chris alstons chassis works and the new tubular suspension is just right  there are roller bearing spring perches. . there are long long spring over shocks that push against the lower control arm.  there are suspension kits that knock out the shock towers all together and have a coil over shock below the upper control arm.

there are disc brake kits for the drum brake spindles.. that work far superior to the granada spindles. especially the slightly larger bearing 70 up spindles.

there are integral powersteering boxes that allow you to LOOSE the control valve and power piston under the car..  a bolt in sort of unit..

if you have an automatic with a column shift.. please spend a few extra minutes and examine the bell crank that might be on the fender side of the steering box.  the bushings for the bell crank fail.. can be easily replaced but you will have to split one and narrow it slightly to get it in..  why do i know that.. been there . done that. .figured it out.

if your window regulators are worn out.. its usually the crank bushings.. or crank brakes.. those can be swapped over from rear door window regulators that are NOT Worn out.. by drilling the three rivets.. and carefully swapping parts.. warning the big spring will spin the arm and cut fingers off.. be prepared..

oh.. and for readers and rodders...   a quick google of the term  VIN CHECK will take you to the nicb vin check site..  it will allow you to run a vin to see if its on a hot sheet someplace before you buy it..

[Crosley.In.AZ]

Hundreds of storys out there on the VIN swap-o-change-o

A buddy bought a 1970 Z/28 car around 1989.  Not great condition, original engine was gone. basic 350 engine. It was a real Z/28 car

Arizona inspection for out of state plate/title vehicle.   VIN tag looked odd to inspector.  Turns out the VIN tag had rusted from windshield leak.  VIN tag had been patched with bondo.

OFF came the inner fender well, heater core box , looking for hidden VIN  numbers on body shell. Thankfully the VIN matched the title.  Arizona then issued a new assigned VIN tag to the car.

[chimp koose]

I like clevelands . The heads can be mistaken for bbc parts when seen from across the shop.We used to spin the boss up to about 8300 through the eyes at top end.