Jay, when I built my FE powered Fairmont back in the mid 80s, there were no aftermarket K members available, so we did some minor trimming on the factory K member, and it worked fine for 30 years, but now that I have a tubular K member, it would make building headers some much easier, not to mention the decent weight savings. On my car, since it tends to wheelstand pretty good, I retained the (heavy) original lower control arms with factory style coil springs. I just don`t trust the thin strut towers to survive such forces, like dropping the nose down from a 2 or 3 foot wheelstand for very long. Concerning bumpers and hoods, for Fairlmonts, they are available, but to be honest, I doubt they save all that much weight. The bumpers themselves are aluminum, once you remove the steel reinforcement bracing, and the energy absorbing "shock absorbers", my bumpers were about 5 pounds each. My car has the "bare" bumpers with no bumper guards or rub strips. The hood is a pretty light item from the factory, years ago I bought a fiberglass hood, and never used it, as the weight difference was only 7 pounds less than the stock hood. The stock hood uses hinges with no springs,and a prop rod, and other than when the car was painted over 30 years ago, the hood has never been removed, as it can open straight up, so not in the way during engine Re & Res. The Fairmont/Zephyr have 5" longer wheelbase, so Fox Mustang subframe connectors are too short, but personally, I always have prefered 2x3" subframe connectors that run thru the floorpan , and are welded in. The Fox body cars have much more space between the strut towers than a 66-69 Fairlane or 67-70 Mustang, which allows the headers to come out of the heads without needing an immediate bend, like the shock tower cars. Much more room for header installation , spark plug and valve cover access, etc. The Fox also uses a rear sump oil pan, which is better for drag racing, and so much F&R suspension availability to make it work. My 85 Mustang had all bolt in factory replacement rear suspension, and went mid 1.3 second 60 foot times, running 10.3-10.4 ET 1/4 mile times on 9" tires weighing 3100 pounds with a mild 331 SB Ford (pump gas, flat tappet cam, "all motor"), with all the factory glass, complete full stock interior, and all factory steel body components, stock gas tank etc. Jay, would you plan on using the factory style heads, or the heads with very different exhaust configuration? If standard configuration is used, I have 2 pairs of custom headers from my Fairmont, as well as the oil pan, and motor plates and a mid mount for the FE that are just sitting in my garage......
