I have been pretty selfish on the hamb and always take and use the info I want and leave. so i thought thats not fair so decided to post my project and hopefully it can help out or at least entertain someone. Started out with a really clean 62 falcon from AZ. Ive learned that the cleaner the car you can get the cheaper and faster the project will go and probably wouldnt have convinced my buddy to go 50/50 on it if it wasn't for the condition and price. So we got ourselves a little sedan with a straight six and no rust and what better to do with a falcon than a straight axle 1/4 mile blaster. so first off the tear down. Cleaned it, stripped it bagged and tagged whatever we might use. and then the drill bit and torches came out
Next was to get the suspension off cut out the front shock towers nicely to be sold or used later. id recommend bracing the front with some conduit just incase. Ater cutting out the towers you loose all of the strength is in the doghouse. i admit we didnt brace but i saw how much it swayed after they were cut out lifting the front with a jack and that could lead to throwing off your fender gaps and hood if your keeping the core support. I found the best way to cut out panels is to quickly go over any area where there are spot welds with a d/a and 80 grit and it will quickly show them and then tackle em with my drill and spot bit. there were still some hidden ones on the shock towers but removed it with no damage to them.
Next was the front suspension. We ordered the speedway kit when it was free shipping. we used there narrowest axle which i think was 46". the kit is pretty nice. gives ya everything rotor to rotor and the only thing ya need is the tie rod and end joints to complete the steering. We first started with the shackles in the back (so ill have to update the pics)and have sinced moved them to the front. ive looked at alot of straight axles in the past year with shackles in front and in back and the only thing i really noticed was that if the shackles were in the back the steering was in the front and if the shackles were in the front steering was in the back and there were even exceptions to that but it was the majority. Since were on a budget and were using the stock steering box, shackles went to the front. ive asked lots of owners on how there car drives on the highway and had mixed responses from both sides and some use steering dampeners and some dont and blah blah blah. so i looked at oem trucks and decided shackles in the front. If anyone has any facts to the argument please chime in as im interested to know if there what pros and cons there are to shackles in front or back. We also set the wheels slightly forward in the wheel well about 3 inches from stock
neat little gasser, nice pic's, keep them coming. reminds me of the falcons my grandparents drove, seem like they had one forever. and grandpa usually had a spare behind the garage. looks like a fun ride.
Next we needed that bracing for the front frame rails. we cut the top corners of the firewall out for the down tubes to come through and attach to the rails and a cowl tube under the dash. any point where the bars attach to sheetmetal theres a 3/16 plate plug welded and stitched around the edge in between to spread the load on the sheetmetal. I think just about every rule book will require that and i think main hoops they need to be 1/4 inch but dont quote me. The holes in the firewall will be patched up and look like we just use a hole saw for the tubes. but i need to be able to drop the cowl tube to weld all around and need the hole for the torch.
Next is the motor and tranny. were using a late model 5.0 w/ t5 out of a mustang( cheap, readily available, and huge aftermarket support). The EFI will go to the way side and just change the distributer to an 85(last year for the carburetor and first year w/ hydro roller cam) Our goal is to chop up the car as little as possible including the trans tunnel. so we set the motor back as far as we could and as high with out having to cut anything but a whole for the shifter. the original plan was to make a cross member for the motor mounts to sit on but due to the steering link and the oil pan that wasnt gonna happen. The latemodel 302 has dual sumps so that was converted to a front sump for clearance. were trying our best to not get carried away and stick to the 60s theme but its hard. most rubber mounts for the 302 are butt ugly and untill i was done with the mounts i hadnt found any tube ones.(speedway now sells ford tube mounts) so this is what we came up with. I used a quick jig (angle iron and holes vised or welded to the table) for the mounts and the brackets are simple. when tacking i always slide a piece of sheetmetal between the rubber of the mount and the bracket end that way when you weld and it moves it wont get tight on ya when its finished.
Looks great, post as many pics as you can before any paint and bodywork cause its awesome the way it is with just the front axle added. Always loved "gasser55"'s falcon on here.
Great looking project. Keep at it. But puleese, don't call it a gasser. With the wheels moved forward 3 inches it's an Altered.
Front Wheels...(or rear wheels ? ) "Altered" Look's like a Gasser to me...look at that front axle...real - slow.
yeah moving the front 3 inches kicks me out of the gasser class. but if it pops a wheelie and the shackles go back it could swing back to stock.... eh ..... so lets just call it a straight axle falcon. excuse the title. dont really want a build thread to turn into an argument. heres the wheels for the front. cant wait to get em on.
I like the front wheels - they look like E/Ts. Rocket makes one that looks similar. I'm curious what the general consensus here is on them. HAMB friendly or not? NOT looking for drama. Like your build, Keep the pix going!
looking great so far, nice work on those mounts, thanks for taking the time to post the build. keep it up! george
type in falcon in search,, you will see a major following, so im sure its HAMB friendly.. also type in falcon gasser, or altered,, another major following.. im partial to falcons, maybe not the gasser look per say, but roundbody falcons
Slow down brother.....you're moving way too fast! I cut one shock tower out of my car over 18 years ago. That was as far as I got. Maybe I need to get motivated!
64cyclone start choppin. and if you change your mine i have a shocktower to get it back to boring. and thats a sweet sprint. i thought about an axle for mine but i couldnt chop the little hardtop. im glad the coupe came along
Looks great, you are making some fast progress on it. I look forward to seeing how it comes along. Jon
Nice work man, hope to see more. It's little projects like that make ya happy to see good craftsmenship..
Gasser-Altered,who cares!!! Build it the way YOU want it!!! Let the armchair clowns fight over a name!! Gonna be a KOOL ride! ROY.
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