'63 Ford Falcon "Gold Digger"

[NorthFalcon]

Whats up guys,

I posted in the general discussion a couple months ago and I thought it would be time to start an actual build post. Previously it was just planning and now I'm actually starting work.



Here's what I have, 1963 Ford Falcon, allegedly 40,000 original miles, high desert car with little to no rust. Bought it stripped with no interior and no motor in the car. It came with what I was told as a 89 foxbody 302 with a t5. Its unlikely its an 89 because its not fuel injected. This motor apparently has 60k miles on it. I just received a complete Street or Track suspension kit for the car. I ordered the front coilover conversion and the 3 link rear end with a watts link. I ordered this kit because the geometry seemed to really fit what I wanted with this car. I plan on tracking the car and I think this kit will really allow me to grow with the car. The front suspension is a know kit that bolts right in. The rear suspension is unknown. From all the reading I have done, the frame rails are supposed to be 4 inches narrower than that of a 1965 mustang. I have found old blue prints of the frame layout and have made layouts in AutoCAD to support this case. After my research I decided I still wanted this rear suspension and went ahead and ordered it with the intent to narrow it. To my surprise I got all the suspension last week and I mocked some stuff up on the car and it seems as the frame rails are identical. I am blown away, this just took off a huge amount of time on my build. Now I'm just waiting on my full floating rear end from Schreiner Enterprises whcih should be here this week.

For the past three weekends I have been sanding and buffing the car. When purchased it had a very poor paint job that was badly sun beaten. I tried to restore it with a little buff but found the paint was very thin and eventually found that there is a very cool color underneath it. After finding this out I began sanding the entire top layer off the car to get to the layer underneath. I am pretty happy with the paint as this car inst a show car and will be driven hard. I think it also goes with the theme of old stock car. I'll post the photos I have of before and after.

Next weekend I plan on cleaning up the fender-wells and coating them with under body paint. As well as making brake lines so they don't interfere with the suspension.


Lots of work to be done, but here is what I am working with.

[79bird]

Awesome! So the front suspension is a falcon specific version? Keep us posted on install, looking to see that 3 link in place!!

[Boosted Falcon]

Fun project. I have found some miss information on some of the Falcon/Mustang parts crossover on my 64 project.

[NorthFalcon]

Awesome! So the front suspension is a falcon specific version? Keep us posted on install, looking to see that 3 link in place!!

The front geometry is identical to that of a 65-67 mustang and apparently is also identical to that of the rear. Although the rear end is only 56" wide so it is in narrower than the mustang

[79bird]

Yeah, I only asked because Mike Maier has a falcon specific upper control arm. I don't know if it was just his control arms or if the SOT mustang uppers had the same clearance issues in the shock tower. I really like that SOT package with all the goods, uppers/lowers/strut rods, coilover vs the MMI kit which is just the upper arm and coilover. You cant get the rest of the stuff needed for the $500 difference between them.

And the 3-link is really cool. Really want to see how this goes in!

I've been drooling over these two companies for the last year or so, not quite ready to pull the trigger though. Getting close though, so this was perfect timing for me!

[Ben@SpeedTech]

Great project! Looking forward to more updates!

[NorthFalcon]

Yeah, I only asked because Mike Maier has a falcon specific upper control arm. I don't know if it was just his control arms or if the SOT mustang uppers had the same clearance issues in the shock tower. I really like that SOT package with all the goods, uppers/lowers/strut rods, coilover vs the MMI kit which is just the upper arm and coilover. You cant get the rest of the stuff needed for the $500 difference between them.

And the 3-link is really cool. Really want to see how this goes in!

I've been drooling over these two companies for the last year or so, not quite ready to pull the trigger though. Getting close though, so this was perfect timing for me!

Yeah I noticed that, not sure why. His stuff is a little pricey for me although I know it is a good product. I'm really excited to see how everything goes. The rear suspension isnt falcon specific so I am working with Shaun to either verify that it fits or to modify this kit for him to hopefully develop a kit that others can use later on.

[rustomatic]

Maier has a Falcon-specific UCA because a guy with a '63 Falcon designed it (Craig510 on here). Note that the shock towers in a Falcon are at a different height than the Mustang's. This will mess with your ride height a lot when trying to put coilovers in there . . .

What happens is that you wind up needing to drop the bottom of the coilover through the UCA, so as to get reasonable travel and ride height. Do not just torque the snot out of the spring to make it fit.

[NorthFalcon]

Maier has a Falcon-specific UCA because a guy with a '63 Falcon designed it (Craig510 on here). Note that the shock towers in a Falcon are at a different height than the Mustang's. This will mess with your ride height a lot when trying to put coilovers in there . . .

What happens is that you wind up needing to drop the bottom of the coilover through the UCA, so as to get reasonable travel and ride height. Do not just torque the snot out of the spring to make it fit.

Well that explains why my kit doesn't require a falcon specific upper control arm. The SOT kit has the coilover mount to the LCA. I'm guessing the upper control arm mount changes in relation to the top hat mount and the lower control arm mount on the falcon. I'm not worried about it working because other falcon owners have used this same kit.

[groho]

You're referring to Craig Johnson's ford falcon, awesome car!! Bumped into him at GoodGuys. He worked with Mike to design the Maier setup. Anything coming out of Mikes shop is top notch. Well designed, well planned. https://bangshift.com/bangshiftapex/...ty-perfection/ A must read if you have a falcon. Love his skid plate. I personally have SoT in my mustang coupe, and very, very happy with it.

[NorthFalcon]

I was wondering if someone could help me ID the motor I have. I've heard if it has the 137 firing pattern its a foxbody 302 but I dont know if that the best way to ID it. I really want to know a year etc. I also cant find any numbers that math with any other part numbers. Also, I got my rearend in today. Dont know what i think about the brake adapters.

[NorthFalcon]

Just finished up the inner wheel wells, grinded off most of the paint, sanded, and de-greased.

[andrewb70]

Cool project!

Andrew

[RMMiller]

I would wager you have the late model block, there is no provision on the left side for the bell crank that the early block had.

[NorthFalcon]

Got one side of the front suspension together today. I had to clean up the spindles and paint them so that took most of the time today. Turns out that they are granada spindles. They are tagged 5D8AA and based on the little research I did they seem to be the ones you want. Please let me know if you think I should go to other spindles or why these might not be ideal. Also got my rear brake calipers brand new from a guy off craigslist. Another step closer to building the rear end. Anyway here are some photos.

[bstory62]

Love it dude, I wish I was smart enough to get my photos on here correct. I have a 62 almost ready to cruise, sheet metal should be going in soon. I started a thread, but couldn't get my pics to line up correct and got frustrated. well good luck

[NorthFalcon]

Well a little bit of an update for you guys. We've started the rear end install, tacked the shock and lower link mounts onto the rear end and tack the front lower link mounts on to the car. I have fully welded the support brackets on to the tub where the lower links mount. This is where we have started to run into problems. The third link is far to short to ever reach where the third link mount wants to sit. On top of that the angles for the third link mount are all twisted and will definitely have to be modified. As I get deeper into the third link it makes more and more sense to just make a third link myself and tie the mount into the roll cage. I can go buy chromoly tube and weld in plugs and use the current heim joints i bough t with the kit. The more I build the car the more I wonder why I bought the kit in the first place. The watts link does in fact fit in the car on the frame rails though. With that being said the watts link arms arent long enough to work with the housing I have. They don't reach out far enough on the housing to have any adjustment. The middle linkage is almost horizontal to the ground to get them to fit in position. So I'll have to make my own or see if Shaun will make or provide some. I also cut out both rear wheel tubs to make room for some big rear tires. Hoping for 295/30/18s. With all of these complications happening I decided to just start modeling all of my rear suspension geometry. I just work better by playing around with stuff. Here are some pictures.

[79bird]

So it sounds like you need a different length / bend upper 3rd link and longer links on the watts? If the top is short, are the lowers also too short bringing the rear axle in closer? Were you forced to cut the trunk to clear your upper mount?

[Jstang86]

Block is 1981 up as it has dip stick provision. Before that they went in front cover or pan. Seeing lifter valley is easiest way. All later model have xxx and tapped holes for spider for roller lifters. Heads appear to be e7te that's the date stamp part stamp is on underside between pushrod holes. Picture of ends would help some. One piece or two piece rear Main will narrow it down a good bit. If it's 86 back and original it would have true flat top pistons and very limited on cam choice. Cam determines firing order most all aftermarket performance cams use 1-3 firing order of 351 as early 302 1-5 loaded front Main to much.

[chv0606]

Nice Build!