My daughter's first car was a '62 Falcon that we picked up. It had sat in a dealership for years, and drew people there. Who ever shot the paint did not use the correct amount of reducer/hardner though, so it was what I called shot dry. That meant that some areas were prone to get blasted off if you hit the car with a high powered water hose or such, especially at the gas filler area. However, the car looked sharp for what it was. Any rate, I suspect your engine is a 170 and not a 144 at all. It all depends on what you want to do with the car. They are totally Y2K compliant, so no worries over computer and smog **** on them. They are a perfect driver if well maintained, and can easily draw a larger (10 times larger) crowd at a show when sitting right next to that high dollar trailer queeen Willys coupe. Yup, everyone's aunt or uncle owned a Falcon, so you will have tons of people who want to sit in the car, honk the horn or just feel the large steering wheel on the thing. Believe me, it will draw people to it at a car show. My daughter was never so angry as when I sold the car when we moved from Vernon, Texas. I just had too many cars to try to move them across country, so the little red Falcon had to go. She didn't mind getting a '72 Beetle to replace it though, as there is just something that is fun about driving an old bug, but she never forgot what I had done in selling the car though. I don't remember the name of the web sites that used to be available for the Falcon, but there were several. Most of the folks on them were great too. A Google search should bring you pleanty to look at in that regard. The neat thing about the car is that it actually is one that parts are still readily available for and the fellows at Auto Zone and such can actually relate to when you speak about cars with them. Check out the web sites and get familiar with the car through them. They are excellent resource areas. I'm no restorer or purist on these Falcon cars, so this is just my opinon only, but I'd keep it basically stock and just enjoy the heck out of ******* off those fellows with the trailer queens. It is a chick magnet as well, and is actually a fun car to own and enjoy. No, it won't snap your neck with power from the little engine, but it is easy on gas, dependable transportation, unique in looks, and just a fun car to possess. I still kick myself for selling off the little red Falcon, but the daughter actually kicks much harder. It is a great school car as well. Huey
i suggest the maverick because that's what i DID. same brakes as a grenada. the rear end bolts right in with no mods, and i may not be the brightest guy, but the engines in a maverick are the same as a grenada too. it's all the same, just different. also, you do not need to change the steering! i used some little adapter sleeves that adapt the small falcon tie rod ends to the larger taper of the maverick, i mean grenada, spindles. most of my steering was in good shape, so it made financial sense to spend the $30 for the sleeves. i guess it doesn't matter either way if DirtyT is just gonna stick a boring SBC in it. i guess that'll work, but after running mine with a tri-carbed six with sweet sounding straight pipes, i just can't imagine it any other way. best of all, it was cheap. people practically give away the inline sixes.
www.mustangsteve.com has them. I would also keep the six. I'm switching my 64 over to a 5.0 and it's a PITA unless you just fab up all the brackets and mounts. Sixes are cool, cheap, and easy on gasoline, which does not seem to get any cheaper these days.
I'd vote for putting in a 200-inch six, modding the cast-in intake manifold for two sidedrafts, and bolting on a T-5. Sounds sweet, still very light, great gas mileage, and really easy. If you go V8 you need to do a LOT of other stuff to keep up with the power. The early cars especially are structurally not up to 300 HP.
Swap the Cruisomatic ****** for a c4. Swap the master to a 67 Mustang dual bowl. If you want power brakes, a chevy sprint booster/master bolts right up and is small. I believe the Maverick 250 has a 1 inch higher deck height which may necessitate some minor hood work I have a 61 front clip (same except for grille) that I'd sell for $200
nope, no hood mods required, i did it using stock mounts, only slotted for the wider block. and i mounted my engine high for ground clearance(bagged). i DID end up modifying the rad support though, after a panic stop or two bumped the waterpump pulley bolts into the new radiator, oops. damn disc brakes!
I put a 250 in a 64 years ago I used the tailshaft from the stock c-4 trans bolted to the 74 trans but then I got a little too smart for my own good and decided to use a V8 trans (hey the stonger the better right) i had sitting around only to learn the very time consuming lesson that some C4s vent on the tailshaft........ doh! anyway the six trans with 64 ts allowed me to use the stock trans mount I also had to bolt the 64 fan right to the pulley and trim the rad support a bit to use the maverick rad other than that it was a bolt in. The early Falcons also had a single pot master cyl. so another mod was to use a 66 to 74 4 wheel drum maverick, mustang, comet falcon fairlane etc. master cyl and fluid block just be sure you use the matching push rod. The late 70s engines had electronic ign If you put the distributor and brain box in you had a pretty well updated car............one other thing up to 63.5 the upper ball joints were smaller and bolted on with 3 bolts if you have this upper control arm you cant use them with the v8 64 & up mustang falcon drum spindles or maverick-granada-monarch spindles versaille spindles require an even larger ball joint........Ray this is news to me where did you get these adapter sleeves and how did it turn out any bumpsteer issues
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