'78 and '79 Fairmont and Zephyr ES

Thought I would start an ES photo thread to sort of gather everything we know about them in one place.

This is from a magazine ad:


Here's the page from the '79 Zephyr brochure:


'79 Fairmont press photo. You can note the differences with the regular 4-door below the ES 2-door:


Another photo from a Zephyr brochure:


I think I got this from Stuart's Fairmont page. Clearly from an ad or a brochure too:


The ES was a special trim package for the '78 Fairmont and Zephyr, presumably descended from the ESS package offered on the Granada, which was continued as the "GLX" after the Granada shifted to the Fox chassis in 1981. On the F/Z, the ES package consisted of lots of European-style blackout treatments to the exterior. Specifically, the window frames, grille, cowl grille, rear license plate panel between the taillights, and sometimes the whole lower body side. It also consisted of a handling suspension package to further Euro-fy things and either an all black interior or black with Chamois colored seats. Where most F/Zs had woodgrain trim, the ES had grey engine-turned trim, in places such as the gauge cluster. Some came with the 6-gauge package with tachometer, where others had the standard F/Z giant 2-gauge setup. ES trim was rounded out with low-back vinyl bucket seats and a floor shifter, manual or automatic. The ES could be had with any engine or trans offered on the F/Z. If you know of any ESs, please post them! The owners are VERY few and far-between. I've been lucky to find some pictures on the web, but mostly of long-sold cars from old posts. I'd love to pull us all together and start some kind of registry.

Found this car in a link to an estate auction. Clearly seen better days. It's got all the spotting features though!



This is a guy who sold the car from FEP. His screen name is RacinNDrummin. Beautiful example of a Fairmont ES. Note the red interior and column shift.



This is from FEP too, I think. It was a guy who knew a guy who knew a guy or something.


This, I found on Facebook with no info on who or where, or anything. and is obviously highly modified. Who knows if that's even the original color. Sure looks like an ES to me though.


Another one from Facebook. May be a complete repaint with ES features added, who knows.


Spotted by Jonzo at a car show. Again, sure looks like one, but who knows.


This car is on Yellow Bullet. I'd have to join to ask him about it, but haven't yet. I don't think I'd fit in over there.


This is an owner I actually talked to on Ford Forums Online who just bought it. We had the body tag decoded, and it actually SAYS "ES" on it (so does mine).


This 4-door popped up for sale. It was owned by a dealer in Hawaii trying to sell it. This is the first 4-door I've seen outside of brochures and ads! Notice the bench seat/column shift, but correct interior trim.



Found this boxtop for sale at a dealer. Kind of inexplicable why they wouldn't bother putting carpet in it, but whatever. Notice the low-grade interior trim on this one. Also there was a nice underside pic showing the 6.7 diff and funny little rear sway bar that came with the package.




Many people identify the ES by the window louvers. The louvers were standard, yes, but not exclusive to the ES. On other F/Zs they were painted body color. There seem to be some differences between what was a "Fairmont ES" and "Zephyr ES" feature. For example, Fairmonts seemed to have silver spokes on their sport steering wheels, whereas Zephyrs had black. Also, there's a Fairmont above with a red interior, which was not offered on the Zephyr. But, at the same time, between '78 and '79, it seems Ford started to let some of the spotting features lapse. My car is not two-toned, nor does it have the engine-turned interior trim. It had woodgrain, and so does the yellow Fairmont above.

I've never noticed so many frt vent windows or even the rear 1/4 windows.
On the rear 1/4 windows is that a special 4dr glass or is it a trim option.
I recognize the alloy wheels on the gold car in the aviation scene, and the silver car in the agricultural scene, I do remember those from the European Granada and maybe even on the Mercur, is that the ES wheels you found?

Yeah, I think they came with either the "truck wheels" from the photos you talk about, or the wheel covers from the first ad. My '79 Mustang Ghia had those too. I like those "truck wheels". If my car had had them when I got it, I might have kept them! But, they were gone in favor of some American Racing wheels.

The quarter windows on the 2-doors with louvers were unique. If a guy with a regular boxtop wanted to add them. he'd need to find that glass, as well as the vents, and interior trim. With the 4-door, the quarter window glass was gone in favor of the louvers/vents. So, you'd need those, and the interior trim. You really don't see many 4-doors that have that. There are a few I've seen though.

Would it be wrong to assume that the manual transmission models went away with ES.
thanks for all the info, I had no idea about all these options, even though they are over 30 years old, they can still offer plenty of entertainment. I believe the Fairmont's and Zephyrs were one of the few cars to offer a 4, 6 & cylinder engine options.

Well, the manual and ES weren't related. You could get any drivetrain combo offered on the F/Z in the ES. I've only seen one ES that came factory with a manual, the beat up silver one above. I'm not sure when or if they stopped offering a manual. I would think you could always get a 2.3 with a 4-speed at least. I have a comprehensive history of Ford's first 100 years book. I'll take a look when I get the chance.

Updated the photo links above, and added a car.

Forgot about this one. It was on Craigslist in Wisconsin. Pretty sure the ad is gone, so hopefully it went to someone who plans to fix it up right.

I had the pleasure of meeting this guy on Facebook the other day. I guess his father was the original owner! Looks like a really nice car!

there's still a hell of  lot options to consider when purchasing one in todays environment. I suppose the only real way to identify one wold be by the deer tag.
my first one had the same hubcaps as the red one above.

Hey, if somebody made a good clone, I'd like it just as much! It would probably be as close or closer than they were actually supposed to be than some of the outliers here!

ZephyrEFI wrote:

I had the pleasure of meeting this guy on Facebook the other day. I guess his father was the original owner! Looks like a really nice car!

That one looks pretty solid with nice wheels! I think I saw almost the same rims at 4Wheelonline.