1966 Ford Fairlane Convertible - Restored, 428, 4 Speed, NO RESERVE AUCTION!

NO RESERVE AUCTION for my restored 1966 Fairlane Convertible - just about everything new or rebuilt -- fresh paint, all new GT interior, freshly built 428, freshly rebuilt 4 speed wide ratio toploader, rebuilt 9" rear differential, runs and drives, but needs a few finishing details.
I bought the car in December 2005 in Louisiana. It had been sitting in someone's garage for 13 years with a busted leaf spring. It had been painted white when I bought it, but from the factory, it was a Fairlane 500 convertible, Emberglo Metallic with Emberglo interior, built October 1965, DSO of Atlanta. The original drivetrain was a 289, C4 automatic, 8" rear differential. I drove it for a few years as purchased before it was completely disassembled and restored.
The engine starts with a 390 block bored to 4.13" and using a factory 428 crankshaft, so it's 428 cubic inches. The block was sonic checked prior to overboring to make sure the walls were thick enough. The rods are factory Lemans rods with ARP bolts. The pistons are forged aluminum and the compression ratio is 10.3:1 (dynamic compression is 7.82:1 so it runs great on pump premium). The heads are Edelbrock aluminum, but the logo has been milled off and the heads painted so they look like factory heads to most folks. The mild roller cam is from Barry R. at Survival Motorsports. The intake is a ported Holley Streetmaster (also painted with the logo milled off) and the carb is a Demon 750. The distributor is an MSD Pro Billet and it runs off an MSD box; I believe it's a 6AL. The headers are from FPA. The exhaust is 2.5" mandrel bent with an X pipe and Magnaflow mufflers. The engine was built by noted FE specialist Billy Caudle in Manassas, VA. The engine was run on the dyno after building, and Billy recalls it made 450 hp. I'm pretty sure that was more of a break-in run with no tuning. I have put about 20 miles on it since it's been done; it runs great, and the hottest I've seen it get was about 195 and that was driving slowly in 100+ degree heat in Texas.
The radiator is a new 3 row from U.S. Radiator -- it's made for a big block '66-'67 Fairlane. It does not have a radiator shroud but these are available for $100 or so from the aftermarket. The water pump is an aluminum Edelbrock Victor, also with the logo milled off and painted.
The transmission is a wide-ratio HEH-CL (correct for 1966 Fairlane GT) toploader 4 speed that I rebuilt. It has a Hurst Competition Plus shifter and the engine transmits power via a Ram 11" clutch and pressure plate. It shifts great and the clutch pedal depresses with minimal effort.
The 9" rear end is an original 66-67 Fairlane housing with Yukon 31 spline axles, 3.25 gears, and a Detroit TrueTrac differential.
The car has drum brakes front and rear with a dual reservoir master cylinder added (66 came with a single reservoir originally). The emergency brake is hooked up and works fine.
The car has manual steering, but most (or maybe all?) of the pieces necessary for an OEM power steering swap are included with the car, should you choose to go that route. Frankly, with the aluminum heads, intake, and water pump, the 428 weighs about the same as a small block, so the manual steering isn't bad at all.
A good friend of mine who modifies, races, and restores vintage Fords did the body, paint, and assembly (he's a body and paint guy and a hell of a wrench and fabricator, too). The car wasn't a rustbucket, but it did need some metal work -- after the car completely disassembled and taken down to bare metal, any rust was cut out and replaced with new metal, so it's a super solid car, top to bottom. I would say the paint job is at least an 8 out of 10; very nice, but not perfect. The bumpers are re-chromed originals. A correct 1966 GT hood was added. The car doesn't have the original radiator support; the old one was tweaked in a fender bender, so it was replaced with one from a 390 equipped car. This killed two birds with one stone - fixing the radiator support and since the replacement radiator support was from a 390 equipped car, that allowed us to bolt in an original style 390/FE engine radiator. The 390 car's VIN is still stamped on the replacement radiator support, but the car's VIN (which matches the title) is stamped on the body on both the driver's side and the passenger side just under the lop of the front fenders, as you can see in the last two pictures. I don't see this as being an issue since the two body stamped VINs and title VIN match, but I just wanted to point it out in the interest of full disclosure.
The car has welded in subframe connectors, so it's noticeably more stiff and solid than it was originally.
The wheels are new Magnum 500 style and the tires are new BFG Radial TA with redlines. There is a matching spare, too. I do have the correct jack and most, if not all the components that go with it (tire iron, jack base, etc), but the jack and components have not been restored.
The interior is all new GT style interior, including the lighted armrests. The plastic dash trim was restored and re-chromed but two long pieces were broken at some point, so I didn't install them. I'll leave that up to the next owner to decide whether to glue or plastic weld these (they're both clean breaks) or source new ones.
The convertible top is new. It has a power top and it works great.
The car has all the hard-to-find convertible pieces - cocktail shakers, belly pan/tunnel brace, hockey stick convertible trim, convertible specific sun visors and mounting brackets, etc. It's only missing the export braces under the hood, but these are available new for $125 or so. The hockey stick trim around the convertible top is nice, but not perfect, but I am including a restored and re-chromed set that I had done for the car. I still need to unpack it, but it should be just about perfect.
Issues that should be addressed - horns are not working, blinkers are not working, it has an exhaust leak, a short hose needs to be run from PCV valve on valve cover to the base of the carburetor, one of the front suspension castle nuts is missing a cotter pin (no room for it so the nut was torqued and then a small tack weld added to hold it), wipers need to be installed, the lighted armrests aren't lighting up (I can't recall if they were wired or not, but I'll included wiring harnesses), and the windows either need to be adjusted or swapped -- there's a space between the top of the windows and the convertible top, so it may have the shorter hardtop windows. The car comes with a pair of convertible specific windows just in case these need to be swapped. The paint has been buffed, but not polished, so it will look even better once polished.Bottom line - the car can be driven and enjoyed as-is, but with several days of work sorting out the little details, you'll have a fantastic car to drive and show.
Odometer shows 65,396 miles, but these odometers only have five digits, so it could be 165,396.
The car comes with several boxes of parts, including the OEM power steering setup, new and original emblems, red GT stripe kit, the front dash trim, restored convertible top "hockey stick" trim, extra convertible door windows, lighted armrest wiring harnesses, etc, etc.
I haven't kept track of what I've spent on the car, but I'm guessing it's at least $60k. The restoration took several years and there were a LOT of new and used parts to source. I probably have over 100 pictures of the restoration process, of course, but I don't have room to post many with the auction.
I'm only selling because I just retired from the Army after 26 years and I'm trying to start a business that needs some start-up funds.
Clean title in my name.
Full payment due within 7 days after the auction ends. Wire transfer preferred for payment. If for some reason you are unable to do a wire transfer, I can also accept an official bank check or money order, but it will have to clear my bank before the car departs, and this may take up to 2 weeks.
Buyer is responsible for all shipping arrangements.
The car is sitting in my garage in San Antonio, Texas. You're more than welcome to come see it in person.
Sorry for writing a book, but I wanted to be thorough. Let me know if you have questions.