Features Doing Falcons Right

Although I've always liked the round body cars, I've never been a fan of the little rear wheel wells, and you can forget wide tires. For gasser's it's easy, just radius the fenderwell. But for a street roadrace flavored car like mine I don't care for that. I am currently running a 9" wide wheel that i made fit with a bit of hammering, but the tires still rubbed and the bulging from the sledge didn't look that good.


So after looking at many different styles of fender treatments and flares, I decided to use front fender openings on the rear.
I started by cutting out the opening to about the radius of the tire.


I then modifed some front fender parts - I took 1" out of the center of the opening, and then pie cut the rear edge to tighten up the length of the opening as the fronts are longer than a normal rear. I then butt welded them in and metal finished them. I still had a little work in this picture to do on the bottm rear but it was close to done.


I like the more agressive look, but it still looks like it could have been factory original.

 

Those look real nice! Nice job. Had to be hard cutting it up with what looks like a nice paint job.

 

Thanks - it WAS a nice paint job But to be honest, I F'd up the other side when I bulged the fender for the wide tires and found an old rust repair that had a little plastic filler that cracked It made the decision to cut away really easy

 

Looks good. Looking forward to a picture of the complete car when it is painted..........

 

Looks good Don! I've always liked that mod on round body cars.

 

Nope. Mine has a 200/C4 combo - it's '62 also! I have a '62 wagon, Ranchero, and 62C coupe. I've always been a bit nuts for them. I ran my coupe for quite awhile with a 2.79 in the rear, but even with a way modified 200 on board it was so slow out of the light that a septugenerian nun on roller skates could put a car length on it... Lots of top end though. I can't help but think there has to be an auto over drive combo adaptable out there somewhere. The frustrating thing is that I have a t-50 overdrive and an adaptor that I made and set up the clutch for waiting to go in the ranchero, and I can't throw it in the wagon because my female (who I screwed the wagon together for but has yet to drive it) won't learn to shift a trans... AAARRRGGGHHHHH!

 

My '65 wagon had the same 2.79 rear. It was an original 289/C4, but now has a 5.0 HO / AOD (yea, I know, not old skool). Anyway, I was cruisin 65 on the freeway one day and decided it was lugging along, so I decided to clean it out. It hit 100 in nothin' flat and wasn't even breathin' hard.

 

Finally got a garage rented, so progress can be made. Convertible is prepped for surgery, and should be going under the knife tomorrow.

 

Love the radiused look. Nice work!

 

So i have a 67 falcon and am looking to get the rear end a little lower to the ground im thinking of just running blocks anybody know were to get a set of blocks? are there lowering blocks for other makes, models that will work? do they have to be fabricated?
Thanks in advance for any help.

 

Ebay.

 

Should be 2 1/2" springs, so damn near any commercial blocks should work for ya. The U-bolts might be a different deal altogether though. Check the diameter of your rear axle housing and see if it will be compatible with the spread of the bolts in the kit you order. Worst comes to worst, most local spring shops can make you a custom set of U-bolts pretty quickly.

 

Great work on that rear wheel opening!! You rock.

 

Thanks - Now I gotta do the other side

 

Hotroddon
I used a portapower and moved the rear wells out about 2 in for tire clearance. Using a 2 in block in the back. The only way you can tell is by looking down the side from the front. Right where the rocker panel meets the rear quarter you will notice that the sheet metal has a noticable curve to it.

 

I did that first, and the rust repair that was previously done cracked all along the wheel well opening. I didn't really like the look as well as this anyway, but was originally hoping to not have to repaint the car.

 

Septuagenarian, hummmm...I looked that one up in my "Oxford Universal Dictionary", (Don't trust Webster's anymore, too P.C., LOL) Hell man at my age, that's not OLD!! Ha!! But seriously, I believe these engines suffer from having such a short stroke and rod combo. An auto is just gonna sap off the already low torque! But having said that, I recall helping a friend in the early 80s get a '66 Mustang back on the road. 200 and C-4. We put a Maverick engine in it, '71 or '72 vintage, MAN, that thing ran like a V8! Of course, a 289 would have eventually eaten it, but it ran like no other 200 I've been around. Like I said, the later head has a lot to do with that; '68 and up. My wagon is getting a later head, I'll open up the exhaust a little and I might do something different with the carburetor. I'll put a centrifugal advance distributor on at some point too. Mom's '62 sedan, 170, stick would almost get 30 highway. 29.4 being the best! This was in the early 80s, I really think the same car with radials, 5 sp. and open the exhaust just a little would get 32, 33. P.S., Can't give you any female advice; even though they have really perfected the modern motor car, there are still 3 unpredictable things on them; the Tires, the Battery and the Female driver!! ; (

 

Depending on year, the 200 can be a pretty powerful motor, comparable to the 250. Also depending on year, you can get rid of the points type ignition and simply install a factory electronic ignition for pretty cheap.


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Septugenerian, octogenerian, Hamlet, omlette - It's all the same thing! The sad fact of the matter is that little comment actually has it's basis in real life about twenty years ago with my 62C coupe. She cheated a bit though and started across the cross walk before my light dropped!

I hear you loud and clear with the later head deal. Bigger everthing will help, and your right about automatics sapping power. This has killed me to put this together with one when I know what the better options are... Hell, I have a better option in hand! By the way, I have set this thing up with a Weber 32/36 hidden under the stock air cleaner and a Dura-Spark II ditributor that I recurved. Much, Much,Much better!

When I was puting this thing together, knowing my go fast past (my daily for almost twenty years has been my somewhat over 400 horsie avatar!) my buddies were a bit worried about how light and NON-performance I was building this car. My common answer was "The only thing I'm worried about is how strong the left turn signal will be..." She is after all a cute asian female...

 

I've even all but stopped refering to it as the "girlfriends" car... Hell, she isn't going to drive it!


Must be about time to throw the t-50 in.............

Just kidding. My wife wanted me to by an automatic so she could drive as well.

She has only driven it once. For about 5 minutes.......

 

Ahhhh ya nailed me Alfster! That's about where I am right now. I had to drive to an appointment here in town yesterday that was about twenty miles away. By suface streets it took me almost 45 minutes. By freeways it would have been about 20 or so. Overdrive it is....

 

I will tell you right now that if Mrs. Cheese won't drive her '61 gasser with the auto, it's getting a 4-speed. I already have an extra set of pedals.

 

ok so my falcon is having more problems she wont start again it has gas has compression and has spark the timing is set right and still wont start even with popping the clutch and after cranking on it for about 15 seconds the battery cables get pretty hot so now im pretty much stuck and dont know what to do ive had a few people come look at it and they have no clue either so any help would be great

 

Have you looked down the carb throat and pumped the accelerator to check if you have fuel? Are you abosolutely sure your timing is where it should be? Have you tried to pull a spark plug wire, hold it to ground and have someone crank it to verify that you have spark? What were you doing when it ran last?

 

Just picked up this 65 wagon. These falcons are sweet little drivers

 

sweet wagon! Nice trailer in the back as well. I don't think you'll find much surf in the snowy woods though...
peace

 

Cool wagon! Looks like a 3 year newer brother to my '62. I'm still trying to figure out why guys so far from surfable water continue to put surfboards on their cars?

 

Nice looking wagon! You and I are in the same boat as far as color and trim are concerned...



Interior looks to be Palomino Brown? What engine/trans is it running?

 

I'm still trying to figure out why people continue to make such a big deal out of it. It's a theme.

No different than someone who builds a pro-street theme car that never hits the track...... or a retro style altered/gasser car that never gets off the trailer. Just because......

 

j.r. Nice, I am partially kidding about that, and I do like your wagon a bunch. But what people east of the coast don't get is that surfing is damn near a religion, not a theme. I as a Phoenix native spent most every weekend of the eighties driving 400 miles one way to surf all weekend then drive home for school or work. I did this competeively for a lot of those years, too. As soon as the boards were unloaded on Monday morning though, the rack was stowed until Friday after work out of respect for those that really do live the lifestyle. It's kind of as if I displayed religious artifacts in a negative way in front of a church. That's all, and that's why it's a big deal. You can't just "BE" a surfer, it has to be earned.

Sorry man, not aimed at you in particular, it just seems to be a fact some don't know.