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63 Falcon


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I haven't decided yet exactly what direction I'm going with it.

 

When I bought it about 6 years ago I had big plans to stick a V8 in it and make a hot rod out of it, then I found that I liked driving it around and hitting all the cruise ins. The car gets awesome gas mileage so its nice to cruise around in.

 

Any more I don't worry so much about going fast so I have been considering leaving it a 6 cyl car, the stock 170 isn't bad but I think a modern V6 would make a nice cruiser. I also have a 351 I could swap into it, just have to make up my mind.

 

For now the plan is to strip it down and see how bad it is, I think what I find is gonna help direct the build. Already from the rotten rear wheel boxes Ive decided its getting mini tubbed. The car had a very bad restoration done at some point and has a lot of serious issues hidden under bondo.

 

Currently I'm thinking the car is gonna end up a combination of hotrod black and school bus yellow, but that could change too as the build goes.

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What an awesome project. I love seeing the old not-so-popular cars getting the kind of love they deserve. And I am more of a GM guy. IMHO that car would be slick with a fuel injected V6, air conditioning and a reworked suspension/steering built for road cruising. 

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That's kinda what Ive been thinking, the car weighs almost nothing so it would perform well with a modern V6 and still get great gas mileage.

 

Personally I like the less popular or oddball cars, I get tired of seeing the same cars done over and over.

This is also why I bought the MJ.

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My late wife's first car was a 61 Falcon (same body as your car).  Had the 170 6 and Ford O Matic 2 speed autotrans.  Her grandmother was the original owner.  Helen got it in 1967 with 23K miles.  We loaned the car to a friend, he wrecked it and that was that.  The hot ticket for that car is to find a 200 or 250 cubic inch version of the same engine ( it came along later in the 60's)  Ak Miller built one or two with three stock carbs and a few other "goodies".  Brakes are a big weak point, but you just want it for crusing, so not a big deal.  Remember the 64 Mustang was based on this Falcon.

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First thing I did after buying the Falcon was buy a 63 Falcon V8 wagon parts car, so I have the bigger brakes and everything to convert it to 5 lug wheels.

 

I've seen some pretty crazy 200s and 250s but I'm thinking I want something modern with fuel injection, another issue is mine is a 3 on the tree and I'm not sure I want to build a performance inline and stick it in front of my non performance 3 speed so I will probably swap transmissions as well if I do a repower at which point it won't matter much what bolts in.

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  • 1 month later...

I had a 65 Falcon Sprint for years. Great cars and plenty fast with the 289 V8. Except when it rained because the rear end would spin out easily. I did always prefer the original 63 body style with the Sprint package though. Never could find one that wasn't rotted out.

 

lenard1.jpg

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  • 4 weeks later...

Got some time to work on the Falcon this weekend. I cut the rust out of the drivers side rear inner fender /wheel well area and made patch panels to rebuild it.

 

Hopefully I can get the rear quarter panel patched up soon, I've already made a new section of quarter panel for it but I've had to wait till I finished getting rid of all the rot that was behind it.

 

 

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First thing I did after buying the Falcon was buy a 63 Falcon V8 wagon parts car, so I have the bigger brakes and everything to convert it to 5 lug wheels.

 

 

I owned a 63 Falcon 260 v8 wagon in the mid/late 1970's LOVED that car!  Since it had 5 lug 13" wheels on it I put 14" wheels on it with 70 series tires, and it really improved handling. I started to build for it when the 260 was tiring out a 289 that would have the hydraulic version of the 271 hp camshaft, 4 barrel regular fuel pistons, a dual plane high rise with a 289 Autolite 4bbl, and headers. But, family issues meant selling the engine. Guy that bought it put it in a 65 'stang and said on the highway he would get 23-25 mpg, but when he needed so go, it had go!

Given you are in Washington, and I owned that falcon in Coos Bay, Oregon and sold it around '77 or '78, any chance your parts wagon was white with red interior?

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I've seen some pretty crazy 200s and 250s but I'm thinking I want something modern with fuel injection, another issue is mine is a 3 on the tree and I'm not sure I want to build a performance inline and stick it in front of my non performance 3 speed so I will probably swap transmissions as well if I do a repower at which point it won't matter much what bolts in.

If I remember correctly, the 170 and 200 are the same block, but a 250 is different.  A 200 would be a good way to go, and "freshen" it up with a light cam for better breathing.  I had a 200 in a 1979 Fairmont wagon with an auto and we pulled a 8' open trailer pretty well loaded and the car having a 3rd and 5th grade kids with wife and I and two dogs and a cat from Indiana to Florida, and it did fine.  Tried to overheat once, and would slow down on larger hills, but it chugged right along!

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Not very good pics but this was the parts car, it had been hit in the rear and some one had used it as a drivetrain donor.

I don't remember what the seats looked like but the interior parts that i kept are brown, it also had the stock 5lug 13" wheels on it.

 

Looking back i should have kept it and fixed it, it had way less rust then the one I'm building

 

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  • 10 months later...

Havent updated this in a long time. The Falcon project has gone on the back burner so I can focus on the MJ, but I have still been slowly gathering parts,I have a brand new drivers side rear quarter panel waiting to go on and although I had already repaired the rot in the roof I stumbled across an entire rust free 2dr post roof from a drag car that kissed the wall at 150mph so it looks like I'm gonna be replacing the roof once I get back to it.

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  • 6 months later...

We have these down under 3 models XL XM and the XP, your roof line around the back window looks like a four door car. Our 2 doors were a little more stylish and had the lines of a coupe. I'll snap a coupla pics next time I see one.... 

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