Projects '63 Falcon, and '39 Chev gassers

Three months ago I bought the neighbor's '63 Falcon when he lost his storage after 20 years. He had to sell the Falcon, and I made him an offer he accepted.
This was the Falcon when I purchased it in March for $500. Not a beauty, but pretty solid, and fairly straight! Stock 6 cyl. 3 speed, Futura. Not running, and mice had taken over the whole car!




After three months of almost daily work in the Costco canopy in my backyard, I took the Falcon for it's first test drive! Now powered by a 464 c.i. BBC with Edelbrock performer heads, Weiand tunnel ram, twin 600 Holleys, and Tri 5 fenderwell headers. Super T10 four speed, 8.8" limited slip Ford rearend, with 3.73 gears, Econoline straight axle, and Ranger steering box. No interior beyond the recovered MII buckets, and a Taurus bench backseat.
I put a heavy wall box tubing frame under the Falcon's pinch frame, like what was done on the Strange Bird Falcon gasser, and also added subframe connectors, with tube braces to the rockers and from firewall to frame up front. Probably added a lot of weight over stock, but it's not noticeable with the big Chevy engine.
Here's a few pics after today's test drive:





Still have a lot of work ahead of me to finish it, but today is a major moment in the build!

 

Looks like it would be a wild ride...Great to hear you are moving ahead.

 

Love it!! Only thing I gotta ask is why is the moon tank offset?

 

Here's a pic of the new instrument cluster I built. Hooked up a Speedway 20 ckt harness with all new wiring. Also a late model column out of a Camaro to replace the funky Falcon column. Still have to dress up the wiring later. Lots of soldering and heat shrinking, but it all worked the first try when completed!







Had the MII buckets reupholstered, and new foam put on. Also had the headrests deleted.

 

To let air go through the radiator probably ?

Love what you have done with it. What a change from Grandmas car to what it is today. Simply badass.

Don

 

I offset the tank to make sure the radiator got plenty of air. It's a triple pass, but with a BBC engine, I didn't want any air restrictions to a 24"x19" radiator. It ran steady 180 today, even idling, so it seems to work well with the triple pass.

 

My jaw hit the desk when I saw the 'after' photos.... I was not expecting a gasser. That is bad ass.

 

Thanks Don! My neighbor stopped by when he heard it running, and was tickled to see the change in his old Falcon. That made my day, as I wasn't sure how he'd react to the major facelift from what he sold me!

 

That makes two of us!!!! HOLY SMOKES, MAN!!!!!!! That is just too cool!!! EXCELLENT WORK!!! i can't imagine how fun that would be to make a pass or two in!! DAMN!!!!!!

 

Anyway we can see and HEAR a video of it????

 

I have just one short video after cam breakin, but I was running on fumes so it wasn't very long!
Here it is:
http://smg.photobucket.com/user/marlinguy/media/DSCF1091.mp4.html

 

Thanks! Appreciate that!

 

Haven't got into it yet, but a little blip of the throttle breaks the Hurst 10" slicks loose easily!

 

WOW..... I like it , just like the others I wasn't expecting a gasser.
Would like to have a ride some times, it looks like it would be a wild ride

 

Lovin' it... looks like a ton of fun. Got a name for it? I vote for "Sick Ticket".

Bob

 

Wow quite the change! Bad ass.

 

Thanks guys! No name yet, but I'm mulling over some things. Thought maybe something along "Jekyll and Hyde" might be appropriate with the Ford body, and Chevy engine?

 

Holly crap man. All this after just three months. Damn this machine of yours is awesome. thanks for posting this. Great work after all.

 

Thanks!
Yeah, I couldn't finish it any sooner, as I was remodeling the bathroom! Being retired gives me lots of free time to build cars!

 

Any chance of a few build pics ? Awesome Ride

 

Awesome looking car. Amazing how some people retire and say "I don't know what to do with myself".

 

Thanks! I've got a few, and I'll load them up.

 

Demolition time. Front metal and suspension stripped.


Heavy wall box tubing relief cut and tacked to the bottom of the frame rails. Firewall braces tacked in.



Mocking up the axle, and checking the placement in wheelwell. It was more like an A/FX car, so I moved it back to nearer to stock wheelbase.


This was my homemade wooden engine to check if I needed firewall setback, and how the headers fit. It actually worked very well, and was a lot easier to move around than a BBC!


Checking header fitment.

Beginning the test fitting of the '93 Explorer rear axle.


Out with the old.


Tacking together my ladder bars.



Test fitting the real donor engine.


Test fitting the early 80's Ranger steering box.


Dissecting the trans tunnel for the Super T10.


Swap meet specials! Full set of ET Spokes for $300!!!


Checking out the Mercedes fender lips before radiusing the wheelwells.


Fabbing up the steel tilt frontend, and bracing tubes. Test fitting the radiator.





More later.

 

Yeah, I've got friends that say exactly that! Bored to death, or "too old" to lay on the garage floor and build hotrods. If they only knew how much fun we're having!

 

That thing looks BADASS!

 

Did he offer to buy it back...lol

Nice job and a very short turn around time for sure.

 

Funny! Another neighbor was there talking to me and he turned to the previous owner and said, "Don't you want to buy it back now?"
The old owner said, "Hell no! I'd kill myself if I had it now!"

 

What a nifty idea for the engine mock up... Big block of wood pieces!

 

I wanted a plastic engine for Christmas, but wife said I couldn't spend that much on myself! My fir big block worked as well, and was easy to store once I removed the sheetrock screws! I traced the silhouette of the 464 Chevy on cardboard, then transferred it twice to plywood. Then cut 2x4's to length, and screwed it together. Used header gaskets to lay out the bolt holes, and in 30 min. I had my mockup engine.
Really helped in determining the firewall setback, and marking the area to be removed and setback.

 

I was never a fan of Falcons, even when new, however, I really like this one, it looks right and from the video it sounds great, nice job, looks like it would be a good (and quick) ride!!