1963 1/2 Falcon Futura Convertible

This little beaut belongs to John Hetherington (e-mail pdq@emag.on.ca ) up here in Canuck-land. Here's the story:

"I bought this car in the spring of 1967 when I was 18 years old! (Almost a lifetime ago!)  I got it from a used car dealer on Dundas Street in London for $850.00 - NO tax! I drove it until mid summer when one day on the main drag here in St. Thomas the engine decided to BLOW! So much for that 144 IL6! So there I was, going to college in September and no car. As lady luck would have it a friend of mine from school managed to roll his parents 63 Mercury over a couple of times coming down the hill into Port Stanley and totaled their car. It had a 260 - 3 speed, SO my buddy and I ripped everything out of that car (I got it for $50 bucks!) and put mine back on the road! It was A LOT faster than the 144 but I had to carry 2 spare tires, 1 - 13" 4 bolt for the front and 1 - 14" - 5 bolt for the rear! Drove her like that with a Foxcraft floor shift for about a year until I managed to BLOW up that engine. By then I had quit college and was working full time for Bell Canada so I put the car in storage in a nice old ladies garage in Port Stanley and left it there for about 5 years. So long in fact that I actually FORGOT all about the car! In between time I got married, moved etc, etc.  By the time I remembered that I still owned the car the battery had burst and ate a gaping hole in the fender and the brake fluid had turned to dust! So, after paying off my overdue rent,  I built a new garage at home and moved her in there where she sat until 1987 when I FINALLY decided to restore her properly. I got real lucky and picked up a '63 1/2 Sprint 2 door HT that was totally complete - even had the original tach and spinner wheel covers for a grand! So I decided that the FUTURA should also have a metamorphosis and become a SPRINT! With the exception of the seat covers, door panels and chrome rocker covers I have everything else to finish her up this winter. I PRAY to get to drive her next summer - although I've been saying this for the last 2 YEARS. I've gone just a tad beyond what I originally planned but as you can see it's been worth the effort. AND I'm NEVER gonna do a project like this again....EVER!!! I'm really glad that I sold all my other old cars or I'd definitely be totally BROKE by now!  The engine is a re-built 260 bored .40 over. A Holley 570 - 4bbl, dual equalized exhaust. Complete new front end, re-built rear axle, and the body was totally rebuilt from the ground up. The only parts we did not remove was the dashpad and wiring and the convertible top hardware. EVERYTHING else was removed and re-built or replaced with new. She won't be a DAILY driver but hopefully will see lots of car shows and cruises. At present she's appraised at $15,000 Canadian and I'm awful close to that amount invested. MORE if I ever added in MY time! LOL! I believe she'll be a real head turner both in looks and performance!"