Projects Just got my falcon!! Looking for help and ideas!!!

So i finally found a falcon!!! 1961 2 door with a straight 6!! it will be my daily driver year round!! i want to make it unique so im looking for some ideas!!! Im a V8 girl so this whole 6 thing is new to me! im excited to save gas and be stylish thanks
Jess

 

Try this:

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=80033&highlight=falcons+done+right

 

Sounds like a nice car. I've owned one just like it. Is it a 144 cid or 170 cid?

 

its a 170! its so cute lol...my father said the car is so ugly...i continued to tell him he is ugly and the car is adorable and perfect for me!!!

 

glad there's another Falcon enthusiast popping up; welcome aboard!

ditch the single reservoir master cylinder first, then upgrade the ignition. check the underside of the cowl for leaking into the floorboards. i've repaired this area on my '62 and it's a chore. resist the urge to cut coils and add lowering blocks until you've gotten used to how the car handles and drives stock. keep the underside clean and dry. check the fuel filter often and replace the gas tank if it is cruddy. it's false economy to try to save the original once it's gone rusty/****ty inside.

they're fun cars and run forever if taken care of (and they are very forgiving of NOT being taken care of) and simple as a 2 by 4 to work on.

 

pictures please

 

There's a ton of Falcon threads on here. Try the search function but maybe include (-g***er) as there seems to be way too many of them lately.

We will want to see this car....

 

i bought one formy wife once,63 i think,black 2 door.i did the back seat hadnt got the front done,my brother told her she looked like a mexican driving a mouse trap.had to sell it ,got a 61 unibody on trade.both gone still got her after 41 years,good luck

 

loves me some round body birds. check this site out

http://www.fordfalcon2000.com/

and also the Falcon Club of America (google it)

don't know much about the 6's, but had a buddy once who built a WICKED 170 in a maverick.

i do vote for a change to 63 grill--it just looks better I think. and i always thought stock mustang gt wheels (68ish) looked good on birds too--period correct and easy to find at swaps for a reasonable price. i'd also swap to disc brakes on principle along with the master. 67 mustang master's a autozone part and bolts on. fyi any mustang tank to 72 will work depending on how much gas you want to hold and they're all cheap.

my old 63 sprint's on the thread mentioned above. wish i'd never sold it. have fun with it.

 

I'm a big Falcon fan, the last I had was a '65 with the 170 and 3-on-the-tree. It got 28 MPG even beating on it. Easy to work on, never let me down and parts were reasonable. Many Mustang parts swap into it easily.

Bob

 

I built a 62 for the youngest boy a 2 door coupe used the running gear out of a wrecked 65 mustang, 200 engine C4 trans and the bigger rearend, he drove the piss out of it, O yeah it's for sale now if anybody interested, he moved up to a 300E mercedes, some hot rod kid I produced!!!!!!!!!!!!!! little *******. Cliff

 

The car is still at the owners house that is where i took the pics!!! picking up later this week!!!!
The p***enger side is a tad rough but it comes with two like new fenders so i really just have to touch up the door and we (my daddykins and i) are ordering the rear lower quarters next week!!!

 

i agree what a little *******!!! well the only new thing id possibly drive is a new F350 ford pickup!!! never anything like a benz lol!!!!

 

WELCOME! I love the 60 and 61 Birds. I've got a 61 heading the g***er route.

rick.

 

Guilty! I have three, or I should say my girlfriend and I have three... My car is a '62 62C sportsroof car (the ultimate footnote that no one cares about!) that I have had since April 21st, 1982.

Then we have the Wagon and the Ranchero, both '62s. The Wagon will be up and running soon as it cools a bit, and will HOPEFULLY replace her '90 SL300 Mercedes as a daily driver, dog hauler, home Depot runner, and general duty car. We have done a rebuilt 200 / C/4 combo with a Weber carb and a later exhaust manifold for some improved breathing. A set of 2.79 gears out back will make it quite a bit more freeway friendly, and disc brakes on the front will make sure that hitting stuff will be kept to a minimum. Oh, gotta get the A/C done before next summer, too.

The Ranchero will get finished up soon after the Wagon rolls. I have built a three carb 170 for it, and built an adaptor for a Borg Warner T50 five speed behind that. I'm looking for that to be my general purpose shop truck.

i have posted several pictures of both the Ranchero and the Wagon on different threads here on the H.A.M.B., so I won't bore any body with seeing them again. If you are looking for some ideas, set yours up like the wagon, only with a five speed, and it doesn't get much better for a daily knda driver deal.

 

those rocker panel trims are worth about 150 bucks to replace. don't lose them. that grille looks absolutely perfect; another holy grail Falcon part, don't let it get trashed. BTW only a '60 or '61 can swap grilles back and forth due to the front sheetmetal shape. that right front fender looks real bad... but there are some good one to be had. again, only '60-'61 use the same contour sheetmetal; '62-'63 has a different core support, aprons, valance, hood, and bumper. here's a tip, if you have damage to the cowl (visible by looking up behind the heater box and above the left air vent) you can get by for a while by sealing off the cowl vent. i used aluminum foil tape to do mine while it's sitting idle, to keep **** out of it and making me have to redo the repairs i did. '60-'61's have a habit of the hood latch popping loose while driving; make SURE to keep it closed or you will be buying a new windshield and probably a new hood. i see, too, that you have the two speed Falcon-matic trans; they almost all are air-cooled (no lines to the radiator) and will blow the front pump seal if they get too hot. add coolant lines and a trans cooler for insurance. they work pretty well for in-town driving, not highway cruising at 70mph.
almost every piece of trim and hardware for a Falcon is still available either NOS or reproduction, and they will accept a LOT of heavier duty Mustang parts.

not to diss the HAMB but you might want to fly over to "The Ford Falcon News" or TFFN and sign up there on the forums as well. we have a diverse group of members who share this disease happily. LOTS of tech and lots of answers.

 

Heres my dyno proven Falcon.They are fun to drive.I'm sure your 170 could out run my 144 with 44hp.

 

how did that line go in "Return to Macon County".....

"I don't turn a cam for less than fifty bucks..."

the horses were bigger in those days, remember? yeah, that's how i remember it. besides, 55 feels like 70 with no seat belts and vinyl bench seats and bias ply recaps! vroooooom.

 

hey hey falcon friends!!! i have a silly question!!! we are looking for floor pans for my falcon....are 1960-1965 floor pans interchangeable?? I really cant afford to pay $230 bucks for the full front to back ones from mac's....WE might just make them from scratch but i figured i would ask around! thanks

 

When I built the 63 Ranchero for the oldest boy I looked at floorpans from a Maverick, it looked like it would fit with a little t*******, never got to try it, boy sold it for a Mazda. The pan in the 62 is cherry so I I left it alone. I do know the running gear out of a 64-5 Falcon and the floor pan will work on 62-3, but I believe the 60-61 has a smaller trans hump,you can make anything work with a little work. Cliff

 

Thanks, jcwhitney has them for a 1964 and on for a dirt cheap price so my dad said if they semi fit he can work with it!!! worst comes to worst he will make them!!! i figure id ask...my dad wanted me to ask around lol

 

i don't know how far you need to go in replacing your floors, but it's been proven that a Fox-body Mustang floor pan almost fits right in there....AND it gives you extra trans space, a floor shift, and e-brake setup, not to mention already having mounts for better seats and seat belts....

just providing another avenue for ya. it's not a one-day job, for sure. just finding a good enough Fox body might be a stretch, these days.

 

Rad Rides by Troy even thinks there cute....I have 5 Falcon's Love'em all

 

There is a great thread on here by Tinman out of Illinois about building floorpans for his wife's Falcon. I think it's called Caveman tech or some such. Just do a search under his screen name and pick it out. He and his wife did an excellant thread on going all the way through her car about a year and a half ago that was several pages of good reading.

 

haven't priced pans in a while, but check out Melvin's Cl***ic Ford (GA) and Dearborn Cl***ics--always had good experiences with them. Dennis Carpenter's out of Charlotte, NC also has a good selection of bird stuff. I THINK pans are interchangeable, but won't swear to it--my experience is with 63 and 65's--thus my premature comment about the grill--when you posted your pics I realized it wouldn't work

 

Falcons are great lowbuck alternatives to Mustangs and Fairlanes.
Just remember, these cars don't have frames, they are unibody so floor and frame are integral. The frame boxes which mount the suspension in the rear are often rotten too. One thing leads to another.

 

I just got this little Ranchero over the weekend! A 170/with a c4 trans, new brakes/a duel master,and a 67 Mustang bench seat! Ya sit a bit lower, but it fits nice!

 

the "frame rails" are usually galvanised where the actual floor pan isn't.. while i have seen my share of rotten Falcons, Comets, and Mustangs, it's usually the floor before the rails. the '60-'61's had a reputation for the rail beneath the upper control arm rusting out because Ford put a mud catcher there that they omitted from later cars. cars from up where i came from in Virginia often had rotted out rockers and bad floors; making them damn tough to save. the '61 i bought for $65 here in SC in 1982 had been sitting with one window out for ten years.... and the floors were solid as stone. the '60 i bought for an engine also had a solid floor, although the front support was pushed back 8"..... thinking back, i could have taken the parts off the '61 to fix the '60 instead... ahhhh ********. not with the shipboard work schedule i had at the time!

 

I spent most of my youth at Dover Drag Strip in Wingdale, N.Y. Ever run there?

 

Go to my public profile page to see pics of my Falcon dirt modified i'm building to run in Vintage cl***. Don't worry I got this body out of a junk yard wasn't any good for restoring.