Need thoughts on a project...

[warrioralumni08]

Well, I know this isn't the right forum to be posting this, but since it's the most visited one, thought I would post it here. :shifty:

My dad has a 68 Grand Torino Squire Station Wagon, it's his baby, thing has lasted forever. I despised being taken to school in it, and tried to avoid it when I could. Now, I think it's growing on me everytime I look at it. He wants to sell it, but I don't want him to really. When he passes, I want to restore it and beef it up. I mean, it would be the first in this town and most likely county, for anyone to see a badass wagon! It currently has this color combo, and when I ran across this picture, the rims just make it look evil. Has a different front end though. Any thought's on what should be done to it?

 

[chris2523]

bad ass wagons are awesome!
torinos are pretty cool.
a bad ass wagon torino is a fantastic idea. lol.

got any goals in mind? your goals really determine the direction of the project.

motor wise, a built up 347 could be cool. plenty of power in a small package.
or a punched out 351 for more cubes.

trans, my dads cougar has a high stall converter AOD swapped in place of the old 3 speed. 4 gears really helps on the cruising rpm.

and then a 4.10 gearset from something. you can just pull the whole axle from a Lincoln Versailles and even get rear discs!

lower it a bit and stick some sweet wheels on it (i like magnum 500s) and call it a day.

those are all things you can do really pretty cheap. compared to mark viii's anyway. plenty of hot rod pieces out there.

 

[chris2523]

or if you aren't into the power thing, you can just refresh the motor a bit, change up wheels, get the paint buffed or redone, and re-upholster the (probably pretty worn, it is 40 years old) interior.

 

[warrioralumni08]

Motor wise, 460 maybe? My brother has a 390FE in his Torino, but it's been sitting forever and he hasn't touched it in a while. :shifty: Maybe I could buy it from him lol. Current motor in the wagon is a 351C, has been rebuilt a couple years back. Think performance cams were even installed lol. It will need some rust places to be fixed, so I wanted to get to that before it's to late. I love old hot rods, just the gas mileage would hurt me probably lol. They just sound so mean though. Oh and actually the interior is pretty nice still, just worn out on the drivers side bench seat.

 

[*Maverick*]

I was about to say that looks like a '72 model- I was going to ask if you'd swapped a '72 front clip onto it before I re-read your post. My mom has a '72 Gran Torino Sport Cobra Jet fastback (63R body code), like the one in the movie "Gran Torino" or "Fast and Furious" (the 4th one), except it's in primer gray and has no vinyl roof. It has the stock 351 Cleveland Cobra Jet (351C 4V), C6 auto, and it's actually a factory A/C and rear-window defrost car. My mom's wanting to do a resto-mod on it, and we've talked about trying to modify Mark VIII seats to fit, since her interior is shot. If it were mine, I'd be swapping in a 429/460, just because I'm a huge fan of the 385-series engines, but I think she's just wanting something nice to cruise in that has just a little bit of power. Her first car was a '73 Gran Torino Sport she bought new, so the 72-73 Torino has always been a favorite of hers.

As far as ideas for your project, you can't go wrong with the 429/460 as far as I'm concerned (unless you're looking for gas mileage). My basically stock 460 I have in my '72 Lincoln Mark IV would get it on down the road pretty good, and that's with a 2.80 rear end gear in a 6000-lb car. If you want to do it right, find a set of the high-compression D0VE heads to rebuild (unless you want to go crazy/expensive and put CJ heads on), and I hear the Weiand Stealth intake is supposed to be really good on the 429/460's, if it will fit under your hood (I don't think there's enough clearance under the hood of my Lincoln). Follow it up with a good cam and bigger carb (but not too big), and on from there. I personally think having a big cruiser wagon would be cool.

 

[Roadboss]

How deep are your pockets?

 

[micahs97m8]

Love it! I had a 72 Torino Wagon with the staight 6. That thing couldn't get out of it's own way. Sold it before I did any mods.

 

[k9t8m]

I love wagons. Problem is you need a HUGE motor to get them to move at all. It would be awesome to open the hood and see an aluminum BBF though.