Any Ford EXP fans around here?

Well, my grandpa has been scrapping cars all weekend. Among them, three old Honda Accords, a couple of old Mercury Lynx's, a Dodge Omni, and a old early 80's Oldsmobile 98. When we came to the old '83 Ford EXP, we both had reservations about scrapping it. I just couldn't let it go to the crusher, I'm a fan of somewhat offbeat cars, so to me it's a neat little car, plus you don't see them around anymore. 2 hours and $75 later, I've got the signed over title in hand. What can I say.

The car has been parked since 1993, when the head cracked. That's these car's real short fall, they have the same completely gutless 1.6 4 banger as those old 80's Escorts had, with the infamous head cracking problem. This car in particular has the optional 1.6 H.O. engine with the optional 5 speed manual trans, making it a pretty rare car. The car has been sitting with the head off the engine since 1993, so the engine is junk, cylinders completely rusted up.

I've done some research on it, and the car is on the same basic frame as the Escort, which means it's also the same frame as the Tempo. The Tempo could be had with an optional 3.0L V6, which is the same engine that came in Tauruses, Rangers and Aerostars. The 3.0 V6 will bolt into this car using Tempo motor mounts. I think that 3.0 I have out of the '01 Ranger that didn't work out in the Maverick, just found itself a new home.

The body is rust free aside from some very light surface rust on the roof. The interior needs to be taken apart and throughly cleaned, but it's all there for the most part. The car is dark blue with light blue interior. I'll try to clean the car up and get some pics up next weekend if I can find time between working on the 2.3 Mav. I'll get around to working on it sometime in the next 2 or 3 years, but after the Maverick, my '80 Capri RS is either going to get done, or get sold, before I move onto anything else.

 

cool, so now it'll be an american hot hatch! Damn, Jamie you have cars and parts like LEGO's.

Take pics of the building process!

EDIT: what about dropping and SHO V6 in that little car?

 

Yea, the SHO was my first thought as well. I found a site on google where some guy put a SHO engine into a Mercury Topaz, which has the same engine bay as the EXP. Unfortunately, it requires frame modification and a lot of other work, whereas the Vulcan V6 is basically a direct bolt in.

I've got a lot of cars and junk sitting around, but I've only got 4 real project cars, the Maverick, the Fiat Spider, the Capri, and I guess now this EXP. The Maverick is the only one I'm in any real push to get done right now.

 

They were pretty neat cars. My sister had an 85 EXP Turbo. That little car ran good.

 

ive never even heard of a ford EXP so i had to do some research on yahoo images

not a bad looking car. if one fley by me and i happened to see it out of the corner of my eye i would have probably thought it was a FOX

 

yeah, they had a long hood like fox bodies, but these are fwd.

 

I know there was an early model and later model. I remember wanted to get an ESCORT EXP when I was younger ... I thought they looked pretty cool ...

 

haha... the Spider wasn't a project car until you tore it up

 

Another fine St.Thomas built Ford!! I remember the green ones looked like Kermit the frog coming down the road.
There is a story around town here, that the first EXP's had a back seat, some big wigs from Detroit came to St.Thomas to have a look at them, one guy climbed in the back seat to see how it felt, (while the hatch was open) Someone else decided to close it at the same time, and his head went through the glass, so the back seats were removed..sorta like an urban legend...

 

yeah i also hadn't heard of the EXP..cool car tough..the tempos 2.0 was also a great engine, pretty fast for a 4.

 

That's a later one, mine is an early one, that looks kind of like a frog. Looks like this one, except dark blue, and really dirty:



The interior shares a lot of the same parts as the early fox Mustangs.

 

Careful with that vulcan 3.0 my understanding is that the RWD and FWD blocks are different when it comes to tranny mounting and engine mount boss locations.

 

I nearly bought one of those back in the early 80's. It was dark blue with blue interior also. My wife didn't like the fact it was only a two seater, so that idea got nixed...

 

So far from what I've found, the only difference is the FWD engines have a reverse driven water pump, and the intake is rotated 180 degrees. I'm still researching that though. I know the 3.8 is different.

 

I just verified, the FWD and RWD 3.0 long blocks are the same, aside from a slight head gasket difference. I just need to swap my water pump and upper and lower intake for the ones off a Taurus, and it's set.