buddy of mine stopped by today in his 63 to shoot the shit for a bit. car still has the original paint and interior, got it when he was 18. found pedals and a 289 for it, has the hi-po heads and an original ford-affiliated tripower, he told me the name of the fella that cast it but i forget... i think the same outfit cast carrol shelby's intakes for him. also has a holman-moody solid lifter cam in it that ran at lions in the 60s. his dad, who has a hopped up 63 fairlane that he bought new, bought the cam for his car and sold it to a buddy of his with a full on loco straight axle mustang with somethin like 5.60 or so to one gears in the back. dude with the mustang took it to california, ran it at lions, and took it out when he returned to ohio, and 25 or 30 years later, my buddy has it. it has a late 60s mustang toploader, bias ply cheater slicks, bias redlines up front. dude with the mustang was a local legend in the mid 60s, bought the mustang new and promptly made it evil... but that's another story, maybe for later. at some point in the near future, the straight axle from that mustang will be going in my buddy's car. i love this thing though. damn if it isn't mean lookin, mean soundin, and got rubber in all four gears when he left my house.
ha, we actually talked about that today. apparently those things don't respond well when idle and rpms change with bigger cams and the like? his dad went through a few of em anyway and passed the knowledge onto my buddy. he's got it re-pullied to keep it from losing its lunch. i've gotta scan some pictures of his, too. that mustang, his dad's car, the mustang guy's 61 ford with the 390... they've got loads of car show pictures too. said there's even one of the dream truck with the little compartments in the doors full of tools, which another book said were never placed in there. i personally saw a picture of the kopper kart and i think the hirohata in the collection. cool as hell stuff.
Cool Fairlane. Looks like it has a Thunderbolt hood. A 62-64 Fairlane is on my list of things to do. I had a 62 2-door for a while when I was a teenager, had a 170 six and a 3 on the tree. Totally stock, black with red interior, no a/c. Kept me nice and warm all through the summers in south Texas...
Had one I use to drag race in the early`70`s, Roll bar, 11 to 1 289, toploader ,9" with 5.43 gearing and the biggest slicks I could get under it. Sure miss it and the`63 straight axle Falcon I raced . But I`m building an another straight axle Falcon now . Good looking car , Gasserman
Tasca Ford built the first Thunderbolts in 63, thats when Ford noticed them. Great looking car. I had a 64 h/t 271 car. wish I still had it.
Tom, A '62 looks essentially like a '63. The front grill/headlight area is slightly different as is the front edge of the fenders. Other than that and some trim...I think its basically the same as a '63. The '63 pictured looks great! Very tough. It kinda makes me sad about how I've butchered mine.....naaah, not really.
I had a 63 4 door fairlane with a hi-po 289 in it it came with a 260 but that wore out and was replaced with the 289.I got it to replace my wrecked 63 1/2 galixy put the wheels/tires from the galixy on it bolted right on 900-15 rear 550-15 fronts in place of the 13s .if i tromped on it hard the engine would rock over and break off the screw on fuel filter.it looked like a mini oil filter and screwed to the bottom of the pump.I was at Taska ford a couple of years ago for one of their annual shows one of their restored thunderbolts was there with the origional driver he was making passes in the parking lot .that 427 was setting off every car alarm in the place. They had to send people out and turn them off for the day!
Mike looked like this except with stock wheels and hub caps. If I can find a photo I'll scan it and post it.
The Jalopy Journal
