1964 Falcon 2-door Hardtop

"My brother purchased the car around 1975.  He is a professional mechanic, a darned good one I might add, and he got the car early on in his career.  I believe the intention was to race it.  He built up a strong engine, but then had trouble stuffing it into the car.  So, being the young fool hardy person he was at the time he pushed it in the woods behind the house and it sat there for a long time.  I had owned a Falcon when I first got out of high school, but it had long since been run into the ground.  Anyway several years later my Dad called and asked if I wanted it.  Said that he’d struck a deal with a guy at work for an engine.  Knowing my Dad I had to ask.  Turns out that this guy he knew had bought another car and was having trouble with it.  My Dad said that he’d fix the car for him on one condition.  Turns out his old car was a Comet and my Dad knew that the engine and transmission would fit in the Falcon.  It cost Dad about $30 dollars in parts to fix the guy’s car and now he had what we needed for the Falcon.  So, how could I turn that deal down? The first two pictures are pretty much what I started with after we got the engine and transmission in the car.  That was in 1978, and the engine was a 170 6 cylinder. I have had some experience with body work, so I prepared the car for painting, with a lot of bondo to address the sheet metal issues.  My next door neighbor painted it in his back yard.  I drove it pretty much in this condition for almost 10 years.  Had to have a head put in the engine after a few years. Then one day got a call from, you know, Dad.  Said a friend of his had an engine and transmission from a ’69 Fairlane if I wanted them.  A 302 with a c4.  Said it ran pretty strong, so hey, out comes the six and in goes the V8.  I ran it that way  until around 1988/9.  The reason why I think that is the case is that is the last Maryland registration card left in the glovebox.  I decided at that point that the body cancer was taking its toll, the transmission had begun to slip, so it was time for restoration number two. You could see through the floor, the battery tray was pretty much missing, and there was cancer in pretty much all the usual places on the outside, the doors, both rear quarters, and the back of the front fenders.  When I tore the engine down I found out why it ran so strong.  Turns out it is a 302W block with 289 heads.  My understanding is that the head chamber is smaller then the 302 so it raises the compression a bit.  I had the block and heads hot tanked. Had the heads milled 30 thousands under, and had it sleeved so that I could burn unleaded gas.  Things were moving a little slower than I planned but things really came to a screeching halt in 1993 when I was transferred to England for a three year tour.  I asked my brother if he could take the car and work on it while I was gone.  He did so, and I sent him money each month for expenses and when I returned from England in 1996 he had the engine and transmission rebuilt and reinstalled.  He was kind enough to also drop a 9 inch positraction rear in the back, with 3.71 gears.

    I did not want to repeat the exercise in bondo so I took the car to a person I know who has a shop in Annapolis Maryland.  That was in June of 1997. To make a long story short he had the car for six months and never found the time to start working on it.  I did some internet research and found a couple of fellows in Fredricksburg Virginia who seemed to know what they’re doing. So we hauled the car down there and they started the process.  Some of the best metal work I have seen anywhere.  They stripped the car down completely. Took off all the paint, replaced the drivers side rear quarter, put on a new passenger side door skin, and welded in new metal in various other places. The one nice touch is that they moved the rear fender lip forward about a half an inch.  This gives a little more room for the beef on the back, yet really isn’t obvious at all.  I had seen the ChromaLusion ™ on a mustang, so I asked Tommy if he could paint it with that.  Said he could, but it took two tries. In his first attempt he painted it like you would a normal restoration, i.e. painted each part separately.  Much to our surprise this caused each piece to be a different color.  Not cool when he put it back together.  So for those who were at the All Ford Show at Carlisle in 1998, that is why I left the doors open.  Made it less noticeable.  He completed the second try and I got the car back in the end of August 1998, and am VERY pleased with the job."