My Rides

Even though I'm only 23, I've had the opportunity in my life to own or drive a variety of classic cars. Helps having older brothers who are car nuts too.

My first real toying with classics was when I was about 11, helping my brothers work on their first old car - a 74 Ford LTD with power everything and a 351M under the hood.

After that, I helped them put a 74 Pontiac Ventura on the road by rebuilding the carburetor when I was 12. It felt really good when we put the carb back on and actually got it running! Some others included a 72 Plymouth Satellite Sebring Plus with a 318 wide block, a 73 Mercury Cougar XR7 convertible, triple white with a big block 351 ... if you punched the gas at 60 miles an hour it would lift the front wheels off the road ... and a 72 Pontiac Lemans with a hot small block 350 and the GTO rear spoiler ... car did 130MPH on the highway in it's sleep.

But the car of theirs I loved driving the most was their 1965 Ford Falcon. It was a base model Canadian built 4-door sedan with manual steering, manual brakes, and no real luxuries. We bought it in Winnipeg when they were desperate to get a car to drive and had a budget of under 1000 dollars to do it with. We spent the day looking around, and found this used car place where it was sitting. The first sales guy wouldn't bargain and they wanted WAY too much for it. The steering was shot, the engine was blown (the rods in the 200 straight 6 were bent out of shape so badly it shouldn't have started), and it needed some cancer surgery badly. 800 bucks later, it was coming home ... where it would get a rebuilt motor, cancer surgery (courtesy of bondo and many weekend hours), a new front suspension and steering setup and such. I LOVED that car. And it was destined to be mine about a month from when it met it's demise. The unibody frame had rotted and snapped ... and there's no REAL way to fix it without worrying about it.

After that I got into my own vehicles. I started by picking the sorriest project a starving part-time radio announcer ever could have chosen, but it was the coolest thing I could have found for 300 bucks - a 62 2-door Falcon wagon with no interior, no drive train, 4-lug wheels up front, 5-lug in the back, bent bumper, busted rear window crank, front to back surface rust, and moss growing on the remnants of the paint. In other words, I loved the battle bird. Still regret having to give it up, but I moved and had nowhere to store it. So sad.

After that I went with my brothers to look at a 61 Ranchero they were interested in, and I found my next car - a 63 1/2 Falcon Futura 4-door sedan. 170 straight 6, 3spd column shift manual tranny, and badly oxidized. But we got it started and I drove it away...poorly since it was the first time I'd ever driven a stick. *lol* And it didn't help that there was a problem with the head and it overheated the whole trip. All I needed was a rebuilt head though ... a minor thing on the 600 dollar purchase price really. Most of the new front end components came from the deceased 65, as well as the heater assembly. I did some custom wiring to install an accessible fuse panel (anyone with an early bird will relate horror stories if they've ever tried to get at their fuses) and added a cheapo stereo so I could have some tunes. I had many adventures in that car, including it's maiden long-distance voyage to meet the woman who is now my wife ... a trip that left the car in Indiana and me in Ontario for about 6 months. There were many stories most of the long-term subscribers to falconeers and tffn probably recall.

Then in August 99 I made a deal with my brothers, missing their old 65 Falcon, to trade them my 63 for their 74 Gran Torino Brougham 4-door. It was too good of an offer to pass up, knowing I was looking at some flywheel/clutch/transmission work on the Falcon and knowing my brothers planned on putting the 200 and C4 from their 65 into it anyway. But after 4 or 5 months I started to miss my Falcon and want to get another one ... but this time I'm looking for a Ranchero. We'll see how this story progresses. I have pictures of some/most of these cars posted here.

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