Junkyard Gem: 1979 Ford Fairmont Station Wagon

Through the heyday of the station wagon (Peak Wagon in America got here in both 1964 or 1977, when automobile buyers may select between 47 totally different wagon fashions), Ford proclaimed itself to be the Wagonmaster in its advertising and marketing supplies. In 1979, People may purchase Ford-badged longroofs in three sizes (4, if you happen to rely the Econoline-based Membership Wagon as a real wagon, which I do not), from the little Pinto on as much as the mighty LTD Nation Squire. In between these two got here the midsize Fairmont wagon, which lived on the new-for-1978 Fox platform and thus was sibling to the same-year Mustang. This is a type of Fairmont wagons, now residing in a Denver self-service wrecking yard.

The door tag tells us that this automobile was born on the Kansas Metropolis Meeting plant and ordered by means of the Denver District Gross sales Workplace. The unique engine was the 200-cubic-inch (3.3-liter) straight-six (which was accessible within the Mustang by means of 1981, consider it or not).

Figuring out how Fox Fords get engine swaps like some folks change their socks (i.e., each few years), we won’t be certain that is the unique 200. Whether it is, then it was rated at 85 horsepower. The bottom engine in 1979 was the two.3-liter straight-four from the Pinto, which made three extra horses than the 200 (take into account that the 200 beat the two.3 on torque, by fairly a bit: 154 lb-ft versus 88 lb-ft).

An optionally available 302-cubic-inch (5.0-liter) small-block V8 was accessible as nicely. In case you chop two cylinders off this 200, you get the Ford HSC four-cylinder, developed for transverse-mounted use within the Tempo/Topaz a number of years later.

As a result of it was offered new a mile up (really at 5,518 ft up, the elevation of Lakewood), the engine settings had been adjusted for the thinner air.

A four-on-the-floor guide transmission was base tools, however I’ve by no means seen a Fairmont wagon so outfitted.

The Mercury-badged twin of the Fairmont was the Zephyr, and naturally you would purchase a wagon model.

This automobile has the bucket seats in “wicker-weave” vinyl. In case you obtained the guide transmission in your Fairmont, you had to get the bucket seats (Ford stopped placing three-on-the-tree column-shift manuals in US-market vehicles after the 1977 Maverick/Comet, although Ford offered three-on-the-tree F-Collection pickups by means of 1986).

Kerr Ford isn’t any extra, but it surely seems to have been a dealership in Lakewood, simply outdoors the Denver metropolis limits. This automobile might be crushed about 14 miles from the place at which it was offered new.

As a result of the Fox-platform vehicles had been light-weight and had rear-wheel-drive (and, crucially, as a result of the 1979-1993 Ford Mustang was a Fox), with bolt-on elements interchange between all of the fashions, they’re highly regarded amongst modifiers and drag racers. I’ve heard that it is almost inconceivable to seek out Fairmonts and Zephyrs at affordable costs in some elements of the nation, however I nonetheless see these vehicles in Entrance Vary Colorado wrecking yards.

Automobile fanatics love Ford Foxes and so they love wagons, however this one is a battered straight-six/automated automobile in two-tone primer paint and so could not discover somebody to rescue it.

Simply in time for the 1979 Oil Disaster!

America’s best-selling wagon in 1978, in accordance with Ford.

Sadly, right now’s Junkyard Gem by no means obtained to do that.

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