We ended up spending the past two days working on my car lo
so if you want new content, go read the II thread

 

We took a couple cool pics of The Swordfish on 280 today. It looks almost shiny in some of the pictures lol

checkit

 

Beautiful car.

 

It really is. As I said, its bigger than the bloody Titanic, but its sick. Its louder than the II despite being a 2bbl and its just fun to ride in. Pack 6 full grown adults in that car, and you have a party. On top of that, we all sit comfortably in it lol

Its wonderfully smooth too. Coil springs all the way around (I didn't know they did that in '69 ) and some new shocks probably help. We redid the timing and retuned the carb today too. Alot less smoke out the back now lol

 

my first car was a 69 gal like that- but was 429 4 barrel...that big old boat would pin you to the seat harder than any car Ive ever had- those 11:1 429's were one butt kickin high revving bigblock...and IMO coolest dashboard ford ever put in a car(except for the stupid lefthand radio). I'd love to find a clean one someday, but dont think I could ever take a roller to a car...I did have a Elcamino in high school that was all krylon spray paint- it actually looked OK paint wise, even though spray bombed, still took off every piece of trim, etc... but most folks hated my crazy striping

heres a link to the 'diary' I kept while redoing our 65 LTD back in 03...not my favorite car, but its kinda grown on me... www.hometown.aol.com/ford4v429

 

Pretty cool ride, it looks great compared to all the rust you had in the beginning

And rattle can specials can turn out alright,

I'm doin one right now for my car

 

So Arin, what kind of gas mileage that thing gets? Is it double digit number?

 

I think he's getting around 12ish. Not too bad for the Titanic on wheels

 

Wow, that's impressive.

 

Yeah, thats what I said. I JUST asked him right now

 

That is not bad at all, my 1965 stang with its 200 inline 6 only got around 16mpg.

 

I'm absolutely shocked myself.

I felt terrible after calculating a combined 17.5mph out of the bullitt last fillup. I've been trying to improve, hopefully its more decent now. Cuz if that gorram boat can get 12... i should be able to get 20

 

yeah but the bullitt is like 3 times faster... and you get better mileage.

 

yeah yeah...

If I run any errands today I'll fill up the Bullitt, its almost E, and see if my driving has improved my MPG

 

stay off the loud pedel and shift around 2500rpm and you should see some improvements.

 

I've kept it under 2000rpm for the last 220miles aside from a short jaunt into recklessness

My passenger wondered if we "could possibly get there kinda fastish?"

MUAHAHAHAHAHA

 

our 65 ltd (289-2v) got right around 20 the only time I checked it- right after a tune up, carb rebuild, and wheel alignment on new radials at 32psi...its got a 3.00:1 rear end. My moms 69 with the 429 got 17 mpg (hi-test only) when she kept her foot out of it- suggest maybe checking tire pressure/alignment/ignition timing, see if you cant get closer to 20 mpg out of it. we had a 74 ltd with a 351w 2v that never got over 12, they werent happy as the old 429 beat it mpg wise all the time. I think the 74 was very low compression, I remember it was scary getting on the highway in that car(compared to the 69 anyway)...in 77 my dad traded the 74 on a new pinto- talk about opposite ends of the spectrum- funny about that, I recall him complaining cigarettes cost 50 cents a pack about the same time gas hit 50 cents a gallon...time flies.