Hi Folks, I was originally searching for information on origins of a class of racing called Modified Production that I engaged in the late 1960's. Well, actually the racing part wasn't really as important, but the final build on the car took it a little over 100,000 miles, $4,000 and 7 years to complete. During my few visits to the strip here in southern Ontario the car ran C/MP in the 14's and 94 mph (not consistently) in the quarter. I wanted to keep the vehicle as outwardly stock as possible by avoiding a straight axle up front. The factory powertrain setup was pretty much gutted the first year of the project. The car was special ordered for a Doctor's wife, originally with red leatherette buckets and rear seat, console, lap seat belts, padded dash and a full factory padded vinyl roof. When I showed it to my Dad (who was a mechanic and a Ford man) I told him it had the makings of something special. And the only real negative comment he made was, 'If you're going to make it go, you had better make sure it can whoa!' By the time I bought it in 1967 for $475, the engine and transmission were shot, the brakes needed repair and the column shift was worn out. So my Dad and I went about making it road worthy again by fixing the brakes, rebuilding the engine, trnasmission and solving the problem of the worn shifter linkage. We did some bodywork and repainted the entire car Corinthian White and I drove it for about a year while I scouted around for a small V-8 to put in it. It was a sharp looking vehicle. I actually bought two completely disassembled 260 V-8's (that had been raced and blown) for about $175 (including a '56 Ford 3 spd standard trans) and brought them home for Dad's inspection. Well, we managed to make one good engine from the two groupings of parts, and combined the 4V intake with an AutoLite 4100 4 barrel carb. The list of left over parts had included 289 HiPo cylinder heads, exhaust manifolds, 4V intake manifold, racing bell housing and a heavy duty clutch. To complete the powertrain and make the car 5 bolt pattern on all four corners, I scavanged a 1962 Fairlane - 8" open rear end (3.50 ratio) and the front spindles and brakes from the same '62 Fairlane. There were slight discrepancies between the stock Falcon and Fairlane suspension parts but nothing that was insurmountable because my Dad was also a machinist. Now, I could also make the Falcon stop on command and Dad was happy. He helped me rebuild the first V-8 engine but somewhere along the way he got the impression that I knew (or thought I knew) more about mechanics than he did and he stopped helping me. He would offer advice, but never touched another wrench again with me. Sorry Dad for being a know-it-all 20 year old. So in the early summer of 1969 I took the car off the road, ripped the entire powertrain out and began cleaning and preping the vehicle for reassembly. The 8" rear end went in first but would eventually have the spring perchs moved slightly to line up with Falcon's leaf springs. Later in that first iteration of the project that meant taking the car up the gas sattion at the corner of our street to have perchs welded back up, ensuring that the pinion angle lined up with the splines on the '56 3-spd. It also meant taking it for its first front end alignment with a V-8 that weighed about 125 lbs more than the original 170 ci six. Without new front coil springs the front end sagged terribly and a new set of '63 Falcon V-8 front springs solved that problem (and then some!). One of my goals was to run 14" rims with chrome reverse hubs and that necessitated a modification to the rear fenders to accommodate the new beefer wheels and tires. I studied the profile of the car and realized I could obtain the wheel clearance I needed by cutting the wheel opening from two front donor fenders and welding them to the inner wheel houses and quarter panels. (I forgot to mention that I shortened the front end twice between 1968 and 1969 when I didn't actually stop in time and folded the front fenders and bumper up a bit!). Dad wasn't impressed. After all that, it got complete paint job 'number two' . But the Falcon was slowly becoming the vision I had for it, except it still didn't have the 'punch' I wanted. In the spring of 1970 I sold the 260 V-8 complete, removed the '56 Ford 3-spd and bought a low mileage 1968 - 302 V-8 and 1966 - Mustang close ratio 4-spd. Also bought a 289 / 271 HP Cobra cam kit with hydraulic lifters, a medium highrise intake, and a custom 10" heavy duty clutch and pressure plate. Then I modified the distributor to a dual point design with no vacuum advance. A 600 CFM Holley 4V sat on top. By now the car had H70x14 rear tires and G70x14 front tires on 14x6" rims. The kids in the neighborhood thought I had built a 'gasser' and in a way I guess they were right. It was probably 270+ HP (never dino'ed) but it would almost lift the front wheels on the 1-2 powershift as I will explain. Shortly after buttoning it back up I took it down to the end of our street, turned around and floored it in first and power shifted into second. My brother swears that the entire underside of the vehicle, including the mufflers and the rear end were visible as it went into second, and all I remember is having to look up over the hood to see where the road was. What did I learn from this? A whole lot about being a machanic and a machinist, that I certainly didn't know and wouldn't have learned about without my Dad. I learned that while the Falcon platform became the basis for the 1964 Mustang, the two platforms were completely different; - the Mustang having a much stiffer unibody. I broke so many pieces with that car, once almost ripping the left shock tower out when I braked hard, Then a few years later I screwed the pinion right out the front of the carrier on a 1-2 powershift. In that one incident, someone said to me, 'I think you dropped you muffler, and I said, 'No, I just dropped the driveshaft!' Dad wasn't impressed again. So, what happened to it? In 1974 I sold it (for just $800) to a young couple who planned to use it for their camping trips, but they hadn't specified that they would off-road it and broke part of the suspension doing so. It eventually got sold to a group of kids in the neighborhood who didn't appreciate what it was and it probably landed in the scrap yard a few years after that. But while it was 'alive' and with me it was a shiny, snappy mechanical marvel, and testiment to what you can do even when people say you can't (or maybe shouldn't). Funny, my Dad never drove the car, but my Mom did and she could really put it through the gears at a stoplight.
Cool story & welcome to the Hamb, at 74, are you planning on building another Falcon or what? Just a heads up, the Hamb is a traditional hot rod site up to 1964, your 1969 Thunderbird 1978 Dodge Diplomat are off topic. HRP
Well, just a heads up then! LOL Guess I can't answer your question about my next project, or how far along since 1992 I am ... Sorry!
Nice story. I too have one of those 20 year old sons who also thinks he knows more about cars than his Dad. There have been a few times I've given advice only to have it ignored and a problem arise. I just walk away and let him make his mistakes. Sooner or later he'll learn.
The Jalopy Journal
