Ideas??

[scrowdiddly]

haha yeah tis a great and reliable truck, unlike my dads lawn ornament, a beat and pretty much dead '91 f-150 super extended cab...which would be a rather fun vehicle to MM out accept for the fact that we cant figure out why the engine is having so many issues (we think its the injectors due to the fact that it stutters horribly even though weve had the shop do a "tune up" on it, i dont beleive them) ild actually rather MM that than my car but i just dont have the fundage to run one vehicle let alone three

[MadMatt]

I think the four door body lines dictate a yellow interceptor paint job! Ditch the front big bumper! black out the grill area or somthing of that nature.

[MadMatt]

The body already has flared fenders too! find some mustang II sport mirrors remove body side mouldings fat wagon spoke rims on rear. Lift shakels (cheap) hood has good lines for a cool hood scoop. Find A Ford 400m from late 70's ford truck ditch 351m get rich and buy edelbrock aluminum heads they make that fits the 351m,400mANd 351 cleveland. Hotrod did a buildup of the ford 400 sometime back go to there website and find artical made about 500HP!! oh and have fun!!!!!!

[scrowdiddly]

thanks Matt, sadly this isnt a car shackles would work on, its got coils out back.... and yes all the molding on the sides is getting romved just as soon as this rain lets up, already had a couple big chunks of chrome and molding ripped off when both of my front tires blew on the highway (not at the same time about a year apart, makes sense since the date on the tires read early 1978 lol)

[DetritusMaximus]

I remember looking at the Montegos back in the 80's. I wanted a yellow four door for the obvious reasons..

It it were me (and didn't want to make a family member mad), keep the copper color and make some matte black MFP decals like on the Interceptor. Basically a reverse color scheme, black on copper. Some 16" Nascar style D hole wheels (cheap and they come in black and I think you can get 16" wheels). I say 16" because it's a big car and the 15"s will look small, plus there are a ton more 16" tires these days. Black out the grille, the area between the tailights and find some appropriate bucket seats (Pro-Car 2000's would be good, but some old Torino/Cougar/Montego buckets would be just as good). A two door coupe console would be nice too.
You can also find the gauge package dashes. The dash wiring plugs are probably ready and waiting in the existing wiring harness, but you'll need the underhood wiring and factory type sending units.

Even thought the car has coil springs, two things can be done to get some lift. One is new springs (wagon springs may give a little more height as they tend to have a higher rate) and the other is these little coil spring blocks. They install between coils using a socket wrench. Kind of goofy, but they work by wedging between adjacent coils limiting coil movement. Air shocks are crap.

And if you wanted to be distinctive, try to find the front sheetmetal from a 72 Montego. Better looking with the slimmer bumper and if you should run across one, the ram-air hood (72-73). The Mustang style Sportmirrors were available on all the Torino/Cougar/Montego/Elite cars of the same years, but are different from the Mustang mirrors. The Mustang mirrors will not fit (plus they cost way more).

As for the motor an stuff, the 351M-400 can be a built up, but 351 Cleveland stuff is easier. 9-1 compression or so, 2V heads with a 4v manifold. Don't get too wild as you probably have a 2.75 rear end, so until it is changed out, you won't see much benefit. Or...put together a 5.8 (351W) with good aluminum heads or Ford GT40/E7 heads and an AOD trans for good power and decent MPG. Doesn't have to be a high dollar motor, just good and solid with an overdrive trans. Might have to change over to a floor mounted shifter.
And dual exhaust.

Or...
72 front end with a two tone paint job replicating the Australian four door XA-XB-XC Falcon GT side paint scheme. Although I think the XAGT hood paint will look best. Maybe even make up some phony history for the 1976 only Montego GT four door!

Go here for pics and info on the GT parts/72-73 big/little bumper cars.
http://home.earthlink.net/~mercurymontegogt/index.html

[Big Bopper Bart]

Morris, dude that car looks like around the same year but an LTD or an Elite, still i love the grill on that thing, looks firggen badass! where is that picture from i dont remember it from the movies? maybe my memory is bad and i should watch them again, hell why not hahah

A

That's a Montego in that movie pic its a 74-76 or could be a 73 which was the last rear of the tailites incorporated with the rear bumper.

[Big Bopper Bart]

Instead of swapping engines and trying to look for rare and expensive earlier sheetmetal why not go this route with some custom bumpers off an older 50's car?

[scrowdiddly]

Detritus ---> i like the idea of the black MFP logos on the copper i actually think that might look pretty good, and yeah i have been planning on converting to a floor shift (which costs a bit for the correct parts but totally way cooler than column shift) especially if i got to some torino buckets like i had planned, and as far as a ram hood, like Big Bopper said thats way too expensive i priced one out a couple years ago like $600 for a fairly rusty hood and thats too much to spend. The gt gauge cluster and gauges would be nice, as would having the bucket seat console with the floor shifter.

Big Bopper ---> i like the idea of a different bumper for the front just gotta find a bumper i actually like and figure out how to mount it, seems to be the running theme in RW lol, also ild be able to sell the montego bumper for a pretty penny they are kinda sought after by torino/ranchero fans due to the two holes in it under the grill

And yeah deffinetly gonna try and find a way to pop the ass-end up a bit, and some black wagon spokes with some slightly taller tires in the rear and ive been keeping an eye out at the local swaps and ebay for some torino sport mirrors, though i like that my car only has one mirror, its how i learned to drive on my first car ('66 rambler, she is sadly missed)

and im sorry no yellow interceptor color scheme for this pig, i just think it would look silly on anything other than the models they had in the movie

[DetritusMaximus]

Well, I didn't say the parts would be cheap!

There is a parts locator site that lists a couple yards in Colorado with '72 Montego parts (including bumpers!). Unfortunately, the only place that shows a scooped hood is in Wisconsin, I think. Quite often you find stuff cheaper with shipping than what some closer places want just for the part.
Here is the link:
http://car-part.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi

Bart-
It would be cool to find an older bumper and graft it on. But even those old parts can cost. How it looks when you're done depends on what you find and your fabrication skills/patience. I like the 72 Montego front much better than the huge bumper 73 and later, but either would look better than a poorly done mod job. Not saying it will be poor, but we all know there is more bad stuff out there than good. Plus the 72 is a one year only frontend, almost by that fact alone it will look like a custom job. If nothing else, cutting the bumper brackets and bringing the bumper closer to the body would be good. That or make some seat cushions for it....

I was looking at the various cars that share that platform last night. The 72 front (bumper) with the 74 and later Cougar XR7 grill (factory blacked out with wrap around turn signals) would look great if the header/fender extensions will work with a 72 bumper.

It's all time versus money. Decide what you want, be patient and prepared to buy parts as they pop up and you can save money. All the Ford/Mercury parts are bolt on, don't have to do anything with them until you have everything. Almost anything else requires cutting. Once it's cut, that's it.

Any chance this place is close to you? No telling what they may have.
http://denver.craigslist.org/pts/2388906997.html

[scrowdiddly]

to be honest im not so into swaping out the front sheet metal, especialy if im not gonna paint the beast, ild rather have some semblance of uniformity on the car, plus i kinda like my front end, but thanks for the link to that cougar parts yard, im gonna call them tomorrow to see if they have andy torinos or montegos laying around, also i might be able to get my seats and console and shifter from there