You have spoken, and we have listened! Steve Magnante is back for another episode of MotorTrend: Working from Home . This time, hes tackling some issues that have been plaguing his altered-wheelbase 1981 Ford Fairmont Funny Car for too long. Related: Sign up to the MotorTrend App today for $2 per month to stream the best car shows and binge on burnouts! Watch 3,200+ hours of the best in automotive entertainment, including every episode of Roadkill , Roadkills Junkyard Gold , 25+ seasons of Top Gear , and more! Steve likes to call his Fairmont a, match batch creation. The idea behind the car was to build a replica of a mid-1960s-style, altered-wheelbase Funny Car, but with modern parts that are more readily availableand cheaper. Then he decided to get a little weird with it and use a 1981 Ford Fairmont as the base. Ford Fairmont Funny Car Front Suspension Like all self-respecting Funny Cars, Steves Fairmont has a straight front axle. Ditching the stock, heavy MacPherson strut front suspension was a necessity. The Specialty Cars front tube axle was originally hung on short and stiff leaf springs, only 26 inches eye-to-eye and probably harvested from a golf cart, but those were too stiff to drive down the road comfortably. He replaced those springs with a set of 36-inch leaf packs from Eaton Detroit Spring that were much more supple, but since doing so has experienced some severe wheel shimmy. Now its time to fix that shimmy once and for all. The shimmy could be caused by any number of issues: the wheels could be out of balance, the bolts holding everything together could be lose, there might not be enough caster on the front wheels, or all of the above. Addressing each of those individually will definitely help to tame or eliminate the shimmy, but for good measure Steve is also installing a steering damper like you would find on a straight-axle, four-wheel-drive truck. Voil! No more shimmy. Fairmont Funny Car Front Seats In the last Steve Magnante installment of Working From Home catch up on the whole series for just $2 per month, btw! Steve did a little bit of revitalization of the front bench seat in the Funny Fairmont. But no Funny Car from the 1960s ran down the track with a bench seatespecially a padded one like Steve hasso its time to ditch the couch in favor of some lightweight, period-correct bucket seats. Steve had already fabricated a set of mounting bars and run cheap plastic buckets, but the thin material started to tear soon after installation. To replace the cheap bucket seats, Steve bought a set of heavy-duty, hand-laid fiberglass buckets that would stand up to the forces of a full-grown man shifting around with the motion of the car. But the new seats have a rounded bottom and the plastic seats were flat-bottomed, so out comes the grinder and the welder to reposition the mounting flanges. Now Steve can mash the go pedal without fear of seat failure! Steve Magnante is a living, breathing automotive encyclopedia and has much more to say in this episode than just talking about some improvements on his 81 Fairmont Funny Car . Little-known facts about the 426 Street Hemi, why you should (or shouldnt) build an aluminum-block Chrysler Slant-6 engine, and what you can do with a Vortec 4.8L V8its all there for your enjoyment! --> The post Steve Magnante Is Fixing Problems on His 1981 Ford Fairmont Funny Car appeared first on Hot Rod Network .