(first posted 11/15/2011) Drew Wescott shot this Ford Durango in a parking lot in Madisonville, KY. He apologizes for the iPhone quality; I think it adds a nice dreamy quality. Nice clouds too; remind me of ours here. Anyway, an outfit called National Coachworks built somewhere between 80 and 350 of these Fairmont conversions in 1981 and possibly 1982. Wiki’s modest write-up is here. And yes, this Durango is keeping company with another “ute”, and it’s not exactly stock either.
Looks like someone “updated” their El Camino a bit. These A-bodies are plug and play compatible, as the Oldsmopile so aptly showed.
When I first laid eyes on the new Fairmont coupe in 1978, I just knew this thing had to be turned into a ute. Never has a car screamed more for that. It looks like a ute, with a weird little cap in the front of the bed. Strange…Well, it took a couple of years, and obviously wasn’t a serious sales success, but Ford really should have done it themselves. And given the vast Fox family, think of the possibilities for a front end update.
Nice catch, Drew!
I never did like those Fairmont Futura coupes (or the similar ’80-’82 T-Birds), but the car looks much nicer as a Fuchero… I mean Durango!
So did Chrysler have to pay Ford for the rights to use that name?
Chevy had used it as well by then, as a trim level for the S-10 (one notch up from the base work-truck spec IIRC).
It was never an official Ford, so no.
Agreed. The pickup style would probably have been the best use of what was essentially a rather girly-car. Although it would have worked out better if they’d used the upright rear quarter of the stock Fairmont.
I believe there’s a name registry shared by all automobile manufacturers – if a name is discontinued, or a trademark abandoned, it’s fair game. This being a Sawzall model, with under 200 units produced, the name “Durango” might not have even been registered.
The ElCamino SS was a dealer option. Looks rather stock to me. I sold Chevys in the 1980s. Looks like about a 1984 or thereabouts.
I agree about the Fairmont. It was made to be a ute. Should have resurrected the Ranchero name for it.
I guess Ford didn’t protected the rights to use that name. (Ironically, the Falcon name was first used by Chrysler for a show-car in 1955 http://www.valiant.org/falcon.html and they wanted originally to name the Valiant, the Falcon but Ford grabbed the rights first, I guess Chrysler returned the favor with the Durango ;-))
Ford really missed the opportunity with a Fox-body Ranchero. Imagine the possible “what if?”: based on the 1978-82 Fairmont and 1983-87 Fox-body LTD. They could even extended the Ranchero lifespan by creating a Mustang Ranchero.
Willys used Falcon on a production car in1953: https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/curbside-classic-1953-willys-aero-lark-the-failed-sneak-preview-of-the-falcon-lark-and-other-compacts/
Riley used the Falcon name in the 30s its a very old badge. The little roof extension on the Faimont was copied by Holden as an accesory for their utes on the 90s saw one today. Id never heard of a Durango ute good find
Bryce, you reminded me of the Humber Hawk, which is in no way a forerunner of the Studebaker Hawk but for the name.
This would have to be my new favorite Fairmont. Nice find!
“Utes” abound in the Down Under. I wonder if the Fairmont design might have first been a Ute down there and then altered to be a two door sedan here? The four door models have a bit different look to them. Also makes you wonder who’s back window was used. The wagon or sedan rear windows are much larger.
Aussie Ford utes are completely different and follow Falcon sedan models very different to US models the name plates are similar the OZ Fairmont being an upscale Falcon on the same wheelbase but not available in ute form at least not from the factory, a lot of people swap parts around to create their own models.
No Fox-body cars came to Australia. Closest would be a few Mustang Group A race cars, and they came from Europe, before the Sierra Cosworth came on line.
Same thing for Panthers. Apart from F-series the last US Ford sold in Australia would be early 70’s Galaxies, beyond that it would be private imports only
Um, no.
The fourth-generation Mustang, which uses the updated Fox chassis, was officially sold in Australia by Ford Australia in 2001.
Tickford was contracted by Ford Australia to carry out the right-hand-drive conversion and modification to meet Australian Design Rules on 200-250 units of Mustangs.
http://www.autospeed.com/cms/article.html?&title=Converting-the-Drive&A=1211
Also the second-gen Probe, and the fishface Taurus. But for decades no US Ford cars were sold here, and none have been successful until the current-gen Mustang.
The back window is probably a flat custom piece. “Durango” was also a trim level on the Chevy S-10 for a while, so the name has been used by all of the Detroit three.
Thanks!
I knew the CC community would find this interesting. I’m always trying to learn everything I can about cars, but when I saw this, I was caught off guard. I’d never seen or heard of one, and we don’t get a lot of rare cars in this area.
I’m a long time reader (and of TTAC), but rarely comment, so I’m glad I could contribute.
Thank you!
Hey, I charge $1.00 per pic taken of that car…lol
If I could have gotten that when I first bought it, I would be rather rich today..
I saw a rather well made sawsall MK3 Cortina ute recently but thanx to my data cap I cant upload any photos so I didnt bother shooting it now we are having ute week it woulda fit right in.
I don’t know what else to say on this, but I like it. The sharpest Fairmont coupe I have ever seen. At least the fixed window is gone – there – I said it, don’t all of you feel better, now?
Does it have a tailgate that lowers, or is it a “heave-ho” cargo bed?
The ones done by National Coachworks have a hinged tailgate, according to the piece; but there are homemade impostors out there that do not.
The whole back panel lowers. You can see the cut line just past the corner of the wraparound taillight on the side. It looks like theres a pretty good sized gasket to keep it from rattling.
So, you can’t drive with the tailgate lowered, or at least you shouldn’t, because you then have no visible taillights or brake lights. As I recall, this was one of the reasons why Ford decided against production. To actually get it past NHTSA as a production car, they would have had to do major re-engineering in back, either narrowing the gate so you could have lights outboard of it, or moving the lights to the bumper (as on every El Camino from 1973 to the end).
I remember seeing one in person. It looked like a Ford Fairmont Futura with a bed attached to it. I found it more attractive than its predecessor, the Ranchero, which, at that point, was a behemoth, based on the Torino/LTD of the early to mid 70s. I would’ve preferred the Durango any day over the Ranchero.
That reminds me of the homemade little Ranchero that someone around here was driving for a while…a cut Pinto Squire wagon with a 302 V8 stuffed into it. It even had a chrome Pinchero nameplate on the back.
Sweet looking ute. I’m afraid I’ve never seen one in person. It’s an unforgivable shame Ford didn’t continue production of this model.
This should have been a regular production model. I really like that red/dark red paint combo too. I did also like the regular Fairmont coupe with the basket-handle roofline – a shared design theme with the 1977-79 T-bird.
When I was in community college (a technical/trade school up here in Canada) in 1984 a classmate traded in his old ’72 Superbeetle for a ’78 Fairmont coupe, red with a white vinyl roof and red & white checked cloth interior. It was a nice car, roomy, comfy and rode well, a heckuva lot better than his old beetle.
An old friend back in the 80’s was trying to sell his 84 El Camino. It was sharp, being painted in black and he had some nice rims with raised white letter tires on it. He was asking a fair price for it but it wouldn’t sell. He said “The trouble with selling an El Camino is that truck people buy trucks and car people buy cars and El Camino people buy El Camino’s but there aren’t very many of them.”
Quite nice! Thanks for another great find Paul.
The El Camino is a Choo Choo Customs… They were made like that from the factory, Choo Choo Automotive Styling. I think they were offered thru select Chevrolet dealers from 1985-87.
Although, I prefer the look of the rarer Ford Fairmont Durango… I can’t forgive those paper thin doors and cheap crap plastic dash on there.
I owned a 1979 Mercury Zephyr, and that car was cheaply made. I couldn’t believe Ford allowed such thin doors on a mid size family sedan back then… Reminded me of the wafer thin doors on my friend’s dad’s 1980 VW Rabbit.
Jeez, the doors on my 1981 Toyota Corolla are thicker than the ones on my old 1979 Zephyr.
I can’t believe, that POS was supposed to be the rival to the A/G body Le Mans, Malibu, Cutlass, Century.
The doors on the GM cars were twice as thick and very heavy, too.
It wasn’t supposed to be a rival for the A/G those were considered intermediates while the first iterations of the Fox were compacts.
I’ve never owned or driven a Ford Fairmont or Mercury Zephyr. So I have no way of knowing what they’re like to drive.
Nor have I driven LeMans, Malibu, Cutlass or the Century.
YES, they were to be rivals, what do you think compact meant in 1978?
Not small, not large… In the MIDDLE. Compact cars were meant for cars smaller than the B body full size cars, when GM downsized in 1977, then down the line in 1978.
I have the 1979 issue of Consumer Reports, and the “Compact” offerings were the Pontiac Le Mans, Mercury Zephyr, Dodge Aspen, and AMC Concord.
Midsize NOW, applies to cars that were once compact, in the case of the Accord, subcompact in 1976(77), that have grown in dimension.
The midsize class in 2015, includes the Toyota Camry, Nissan Altima, VW Jetta, Honda Accord, etc.
By the looks of some of these cars, they could’ve bordering on full size. 😛
Is the term compact even still used today?
Scoutdude, this is the Jan 1979 issue that the Compact sedans comparison was in…
Pontiac Le Mans
AMC Concord
Mercury Zephyr
Dodge Aspen
* I have this issue sitting in my office.
They considered the LeMans a compact?? That’s just odd. In that case, was the Phoenix a subcompact? The Sunbird a city car?
A 3100 lb, 198″ long car that didn’t offer any smaller engine than a 3.8 V6–a compact? Seriously.
The only way I can even fathom any rationale for that would be that the Nova and its platform-mates were on the last year of an old platform for ’79. But even that is a mighty stretch given that the Aspen was cancelled only one year later.
Are you sure those Elkys are factory? From what I understand they were drop-shipped to Choo-Choo in stock form, and they did the rest.
No, I meant to say Choo Choo made them from their “place of operations”(After, receiving stock El Caminos, from certain Chevrolet dealerships). Not really a factory, per say.
Sorry, for the confusion, Roger. Didn’t want folks to think Chevy, themselves, manufactured them that way.
Nice looking ute. Not as good-looking as an unembellished elcamino but still good.
Saw this Mercury version on Craigslist .
http://harrisburg.craigslist.org/cto/5162428358.html
Nice-looking conversion; add me to the “should have come from the factory this way” camp.
The El Camino, on the other hand? I prefer the factory version. I like the G-body El Camino, and I like the Monte Carlo SS, but I have no desire for a hybrid of the two.
Go here for a bunch of Durango pictures.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=ford+fairmont+durango&kh=-1&ia=images
This was a missed opportunity for Ford, mainly due to the Fairmont station wagon having a cheaper one-piece hatch rear cargo access instead of a more typical separate tailgate/window glass like the 1978-83 Mailibu station wagon had.
If Ford had went that route, it would almost have been a no-brainer to offer a 1980 Futura Ranchero (the intermediate Ranchero’s last year was 1979).
They most likely would’ve had it a year or two sooner, possibly as part of the 1978 Fairmont launch lineup. In turn that would’ve made the LTD II Ranchero one-year-only meaning that like the ’77 wagons it would’ve carried over much more of the 1972-76 body, but unlike the wagons which used the Mercury Montego rear fenders the Ranchero would’ve had no other (cheap) option than to continue with the “Torino crease” on its’ rear fenders.
Seems like an LTD II Ranchero with the previous, carryover ‘Torino-crease’ in the quarters would have been fine until a new Futura Ranchero was ready for production.
But it wasn’t in the cards, mainly due to the expense in coming up with a dedicated tailgate assembly exclusively for a Futura Ranchero. That’s where a Fairmont station wagon with a Malibu-like real tailgate would have come into play.
Too bad, since it would have harkened back to the old, early sixties Falcon Ranchero, only with a lot more flair. Might even have had more success than the similar 1982 Dodge Rampage, only in a more useful RWD configuration.
This post was bothering me, because I was sure I had commented on it before—but no, that was actually in this other post about the Ford Durango.
I was scanning the comments for mention of non-compliance due to tail lamp and license plate visibility with the tailgate down. I didn’t think that warning to “just not drive with the tailgate down” would cut it.
It’s kinduva neat vehicle otherwise, though.
I think the comments that Ford would have productized this if the wagon had a split tailgate, are backwards. If Ford wanted to make a Fox Ranchero and not tool up too many new parts, they would have designed the wagon differently. But in any case, despite the demise of RWD car based utes here, and the indifferent response to the Subaru Baja and first Ridgeline, they may be coming back. The 2nd gen Ridgeline is doing OK and the newly launched Hyundai Santa Cruz and Ford Maverick seem to be getting some buzz.
If Ford thought the car-truck business were big enough, making a truck specific rear quarter wouldn’t be a big deal. Alternatively, the rear end could be cut off and fitted with a diecast cap and regular wagon lights. Any factory truck tailgate would be specific to the application, not fabricated from other parts.
Can’t really argue with that since it’s precisely what much smaller Chrysler did with the Dodge Rampage/Plymouth Scamp, and sales were dismal. As pointed out, sales of the El Camino and Cabellero weren’t exactly setting the sales charts on fire, either.
So, yeah, although a factory Futura Ranchero would have been cool, it’s not likely it would have sold well enough to warrant the effort. That whole market was being taken over by small trucks, and Ford wisely put all of their small truck eggs into the Ranger basket for 1983, and it lasted all the way until 2012 with just minor styling updates (and has now returned to the NA market, as well, albeit only in extended- and crew-cab formats).
Not just the small trucks but small SUVs took the market for a distinctive personal vehicle with utility. The car-trucks were a combination of personal style and modest utility. A butched up Cherokee or S10 blazer did likewise. Certainly anyone who put a topper on an El Camino would be very well served by an SUV. I knew a service station owner who switched from El Camino to S10 Blazer as personal vehicle for that reason.
Ford probably dodged a bullet by not offering a 1980 Ranchero. Virtually every sport, luxury, and specialty vehicle took it on the chin in the 1980–1982 recession, including the El Camino and Caballero. Despite the lack of competition from Ford, GM’s sales dropped. The El Camino and Caballero were rare exceptions that didn’t bounce back. Car-trucks no longer were the only alternatives to traditional big trucks and vans.
No one mentioned the spoiler on the El Camino’s tailgate. Never seen that before, either.
Cool little truck, I have a 1980 Fairmont Futura with a 2.3 and a 4 speed. I had a 1980 Mustang 2.3 turbo before and the way they drive is very similar but the Fairmont feels much more like a large car, possibly because of the soft suspension instead of the TRX suspension the stang had.