Doug Schultz' 1966 Ford Fairlane

September 2009

With the high concentration of Chevrolets in the Street Machine of the Year competitions and the ’69 Camaro’s popularity in the G-machine trend, Doug Schultz found himself wanting to build something different. The ’66 and ’67 Fords have long been a favorite of Doug’s and, to him, they represent the pinnacle of the muscle car era.

He put the word out and scored a rust-free, 289/automatic runner from a buddy. He admits that he didn’t mean for the car to go as far as it did. The vision of a simple, big-wheeled, fast car snowballed into a full-on build that left only the outer skin and a portion of the front frame rails intact.

A new frame was made from 2x4 and 2x2 rails that allowed the exhaust to be tucked under the car. With the smooth new floors in place, the factory firewall began looking a little too bumpy, and it too was trimmed out and re-fabricated. The core support followed suit. Thankfully the front portion of the frame rails had already been treated to a Heidt’s Super Ride II conversion, and they remained intact.

Doug hung a Ford 9-inch on a handmade parallel four bar setup and then fabbed a Watts link and a sway bar to go with it. Air Ride Shockwaves were used on all four corners along with big Baer brakes, and the very first set of 20x12 “Hot Rod” wheels from Boyd Coddington were installed.

A massive 635 horse, 514cubic inch Ford big block was ordered from Ford Racing, to which Doug added his own fuel injection bungs to an Edelbrock Victor Jr. intake. He topped that with an Accel throttle body and fabbed up his own fuel rails and scratch built the headers. The engine and its surrounding area were detailed with Doug’s “no bling” policy. Everything is either Titanium, black or red - there is not a speck of chrome or aluminum to be seen. Turning to the body, the handles were shaved, a custom rear wing was added and a scooped R-code hood was installed. He was all set for a blue paint job until he saw a Salsa Red 2006 VW Beetle. He had found the perfect match for his Titanium accent color.

Doug says that he was going for clean, simple and fast. With thoughtful planning and a clean execution, the end results speak for themselves. This is one intelligently built car that also runs as good as it looks.

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