Eschewing Technology: 1966 Ford Falcon

I agree with you on the difficulty in hopping up the little Ford I6.  It's a great engine but it's not a high performance engine and it's hard to make it one.

A 289/302/5.0 is just such a great fit for this (and many other) cars.  And that exhaust note will be worth ALL the effort you put into swapping ;)

I bought my first Fairmont (wagon) with the explicit plan of swapping to a 5.0.  And it's going to be glorious.

Then I got my second Fairmont (Futura) and have just been driving and enjoying it with the 200 I6.  It's fun in its own way...but I wouldn't be able to leave it alone if I didn't have the other one as a V8 project ;)

Falcons are cool, looking forward to seeing more of this!

ClemSparks said:

I bought my first Fairmont (wagon) with the explicit plan of swapping to a 5.0.  And it's going to be glorious.

Then I got my second Fairmont (Futura) and have just been driving and enjoying it with the 200 I6.  It's fun in its own way...but I wouldn't be able to leave it alone if I didn't have the other one as a V8 project ;)

Lots of WIN in this photo from your thread:

I like all long roofs. Fairmonts...man, haven't seen one of those in years.  That would make a nice replacement for the truck I love to hate ('93 Lightning).

My eyes literally got bigger when you said '93 Lightning.  

I'm a sucker for 60's style (and that's why I love this Falcon of yours) but I'm also kind of happy that the stuff I've been able to afford and collect the past 10 years is starting to become "classic" in some circles, lol.

Also...funny how we like short-bed trucks and long-roof cars ;)

Straying hopelessly off topic...I like short/wide trucks. Not a fan of flairsides, except the mid 80s ones. This was a solution to my car towing problem. I have a love/hate relationship with it. It's nice enough, but has endless little annoying problems (fluid leaks, things that randomly quit working) that I'd be happier if it were replaced by a nice dentside.  But, it's tripled in value since I bought it, which is nice.

Yes, I can imagine owning a 30 year old Lightning might be an exercise in worn out seals, broken plastic trim clips, and faulty electromechanical stuff.  So very cool, still!

The Falcon and the Lightning are going to be right at home together :)

twentyover said:

If you are going to embrace the primative technologies, then EMBRACE them.

Original design SU Carb adaptation to the Ford six by Ak Miklker in the early sixties

And a modern interpretation (I saw this car in fall 2020 in Wenatchee WA. The owner indicates the car drives well

And there is dedicated Ford Six website and aprimary supplier (not clifford) that developed an improve aluminum version of the Aussie 2V head.

 

Nothin; like good six to clear your head

 

 

I would love to see that engine with a triple sidedraft weber setup. Not that anybody was crazy enough.

Then a set of Panasports for wheels.

In reply to Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) :

What about six Mikuni carbs?  Founder of FordSix.com did that.  Used an Australian crossflow six head and put it in a LoCost.

ddavidv said:

In regards to the six, I'm generally a fan of straight six engines. It's not a consideration here, as the entire purpose of this project car was to get me the V8 'hot rod' I never had in my youth.

Well you definitely said that in your opening post, so it's hard to argue with that logic!  That and the fact that SBF engines plug right in, so it's the easy button + the cheap button at the same time.

If you're needing some 14" rims in a 5 bolt pattern let me know, I've got a stack of 4 in the garage. :)

Do they have the tangs for the dog dish caps? And I guess location would be important.

Yep they do, and I used to roll with dog dish caps when I first got my wagon.  They're original 1967 wheels and probably have date codes and parts numbers if I were to look around.

I'm near Tacoma WA though, which might be kinda far. Feel free to DM and we can discuss weight and if shipping is reasonable or not. 

Yeah, the distance isn't worth it. Those beeotches are heavy, and not exactly rare.

I was browsing wheels and it appears Holley of all people make these faux Panasports.

Konig rewinds are similar, as are multiple others out there. I think these are more 'period' than a lot of modern wheels and, although Torq Thrusts stir my nether regions, they are a bit too common.  I like the dog dish/trim ring/body color wheel combo that is currently on it as a 'for now' solution but will eventually move to an alloy. Then the question is, what size?

I already own a set, but they are being used.

Those OEM Pirellis SUCK when they get worn. I nearly died in the rain a few times from no-traction understeer. I run BFGs now.

I believe wheels make or break how a car looks so there won't be compromise when the time comes. Those Holley wheels are really inexpensive. I'm not set on them, but they seem like a good option.

Anyway, working on it this weekend. I'm having a little project ADD, trying to keep focused on one area but alternately wanting to pull off the fenders, tear down the front suspension (to order parts), gut the interior, fix the front structure rust, do the rear brakes, etc.  If I'm not careful I'll have a stripped car by Monday, LOL.

I'm messaging someone on FB about a 8" rear and five lug hub setup. I also found a guy parting a Fairlane that has the same parts plus the engine mounts I'll need but he seems to want a bit much for stuff that's been sitting in a field for 30+ years. The other parts are cleaned and painted/powder coated for about the same price, but 2.5 hrs away.

Well, the ADD kicked in today. I decided I couldn't stand the gross carpet anymore. It was literally falling apart in places and had a musty odor that I'm sure anyone who has opened the door of a junkyard car has smelled.

As David Freiburger would say, my floors are MINT!  Only one hole at bottom center of photo above (not the dark spot in the right).

This was caused by a welded bracket on the underside of the floor that reinforces the seat mount. The bracket is in bad shape, and would have to come out to fix this hole. Unbelievably, AMD just started making them in the last year.

The only real annoyance is cutting out the spot welds on the old one. Ugh.

As I'm putting together a parts list about a week ago I think, "You know, every Ford older than ten years needs a heater core, because Ford inexplicably can't make ones that last longer than that. I should probably order one".  Now, after I cleaned the floors they still had some dampness from the carpet padding. Somehow, in the last few hours, the drips started hitting the toe board.

I love it when my gut is right. So tomorrow I may try taking the heater box apart. Based on the multiple other mouse nests I found so far I'm SURE there is one in the blower assembly.

Current dilemma:  do I tackle the headliner now? It would make sense, with the interior out. On these, it requires the back window to come out. Which means calling a glass guy between the moldings and the 50+ year old goop holding it in.  At which point I know I will find the bottom corners rusted out, but would need to fix to keep the new package tray from getting ruined. Ugh, project creep.

I ordered another $200 worth of stuff from RockAuto.  The shipping was painful, because I wound up getting stuff from 3 warehouses but the total cost was still less than I'd have paid anywhere else. Usually I can get creative with my parts selection to keep it to one location but RA doesn't see fit to stock 1966 Ford parts at every location. Can't imagine why.

I can't remember if I mentioned the leaky left rear brake. I ordered parts for that, and then thought I'd better check the fronts. Brand new brake hoses up there and nearly new linings...but one leaky wheel cylinder.  I love people who replace only what is bad today and not plan ahead. Letting the wheel cylinders go is dumb, as it will ruin the linings once the fluid starts to come out of the cups. Fortunately, these weren't that far along. So, more parts added to the order.

Uh oh...you've got  can full of cans full of worms ;)

Looking forward to whatever happens next.

Having gone through this recently with my ranchero I would just bite the bullet and get the axle/brake setup you want right off the bat and don't waste any time/$ on the stock junk.

If you have any fabrication skills narrowing an 8.8 is a piece of cake, and it gets you disc brakes and a good variety of gear ratios to choose from.

Match that with one of many 5 lug disc options for the front.

If nothing else do it for the wheel options.

Love the car btw, I really like that vintage falcon.

I'm doing it 'wrong', wasting money on wheel cylinders to use what is there for now. The reason is the rear will take me awhile to get, rebuild and add a limited slip. Plus, I'll need a driveshaft. And then there's the issue of the leaf springs.

In the front, I could move to disc brakes but I haven't decided on a master cylinder as I want to add a power booster to the system.

For the paltry $50 or so in parts I can make it still drive for the next year or so. If I tried to do it all now I'd have this thing beached in the garage for an eternity. I'm already doing far more than I expected to at this point. While I do want a long term project I know I'll have waning interest in it if I can't take it out every now and again.

For the paltry $50 or so in parts I can make it still drive for the next year or so. If I tried to do it all now I'd have this thing beached in the garage for an eternity.

You got your priorities straight brother, keep it out of project jail as long as you can!

I came to find out what new aero tech an Esche wing was....  

In reply to ddavidv :

This is a very good approach.

Oh yeah, if it's just $50 and a few hours to keep it on the road I'm all for it- if anything you are doing it "right" by keeping it on the road.  Most people throw it on jackstands for an eternity if it so much as hiccups.  Props to you for actually driving it!

Don't get my post wrong, I have serious jackstand anxiety.  Stack parts and do all the prep work you can while you're still driving it.

Heck I disc/5lug swapped the front of mine one weekend, drove it for a couple weeks with mismatched wheels, then 8.8 swapped it over another weekend.  I put over 1000 mi on the stock stuff that sat for 16 years before I got it.  I liked driving it so much that I wanted it to be my primary 200mi/week commuter, which forced my hand to upgrade.  Modern cars have awesome brakes and modern drivers don't realize that, it was only a matter of time before that got me in trouble.

I guess my point is that a trustworthy brake setup and the right rearend gear transformed my car to a real nice driver even with the stock 170 inline six.  

I removed the heater box yesterday, because Ford won't let you replace the core with the assembly in the car. It's blissfully easy to remove though; only a half-dozen fasteners from the engine bay side and it comes out. I wouldn't want to do it with the interior and carpet in, however.

Brake and suspension parts are trickling in from Rock Auto.  Despite the shipping costs of coming from multiple warehouses I still saved $$ over getting things locally or from the Falcon specific vendors.  I will have to make an order from Autokrafters soon.

You all are subscribed, right? Falcon Pt 5

My previous job was selling Auto Parts to installers.  I really grew to love the Centric brand brake parts (that you showed in your part 5 video).  Most of what we stocked was for newer vehicles (things people are paying pros to maintain) so if I needed something that we didn't stock for one of my projects, I'd find Centric through another source (Rock Auto, Ebay, Amazon, etc) and  have always been pleased.  

I also support your current leaning/idea to put the headliner off until later.  It doesn't matter if I support it but, lol, maybe it helps.  When you mentioned earlier that you thought pulling it out would lead to more rust you would find I winced at the thought of not being able to keep driving the car soon.  I didn't want to mention it then (again, because it doesn't matter what I think) but what the heck...I'll say it now ;)