1969 Falcon Build

[Bradfords_garage]

Howdy folks. New guy here. I posted an introduction in the new members area. But for those of you who didn't see it, I'm Brad and I'm building a 1969 Ford Falcon Futura Pro-Touring car for daily driving and weekend autocross/road course stuff. I've been a lurker for a few months and now that the project is underway I figured I'd join and share the progress and hopefully you guys with more experience than I have will give critiques when necessary.

Here she is on the trailer after pulling the I6 out.

173269

Getting the first look with the 285's under it.
173271

And out with the old...
173272

Braced up the body with some 1x1 and mounted it to the rotisserie that I built.
173273

Finding some rot. Its like this on both corners or the firewall and the cowl. But its a 50 year old Michigan car. All things considered its actually in pretty good condition
173274

Braced up, on the rotisserie and the floors removed. I'm just about ready to start building the tube chassis.
173275

Thanks for looking and let me know what you think!

Brad

[Peanut1959]

I love outside-the-box projects. Subscribed!

[slimjim]

Very cool project, similar to the falcons released in Australia

[Boosted Falcon]

Nice

[egoman]

I get excited when somone does a frame replacement style build!
173285173286

[Bradfords_garage]

I love outside-the-box projects. Subscribed!

Thanks!


Very cool project, similar to the falcons released in Australia

Yea! I’ve been watching a lot of the Australian Touring Car Masters races since starting on this car. I’ve seen very few of these cars here in the states, so it was kinda cool to realize it is a staple in the Australian Touring car scene. And a four door at that!


Nice

Thanks, exciting project


I get excited when somone does a frame replacement style build!
173285173286

That your ride? That frame looks super rigid! I’m using corvette uprights also. Looks like you used the whole front subframe., very nice!

[egoman]

Yes a build thread will be coming soon. I have a school commitment that should be completed this summer and then I will start posting daily/weekly. I have at least 2 years of posts already but I don't want to run out LOL. If you are using that style of subframe I can send you a lot of technical info that I cant post online.

[Bradfords_garage]

Sweet man! I appreciate the offer, I’m only using the uprights, though. I’ll be fabricating controls arms and connection points along with the chassis. Looking forward to your future build thread!

brad





Yes a build thread will be coming soon. I have a school commitment that should be completed this summer and then I will start posting daily/weekly. I have at least 2 years of posts already but I don't want to run out LOL. If you are using that style of subframe I can send you a lot of technical info that I cant post online.

[jaybee]

Cool car! When I was growing up Dad had a 1966 Falcon Ranchero, effectively a Fairlane with the front sheetmetal of a Falcon. I think it's one of his 2 favorite cars ever and it was the first car I ever worked on.

[chunger]

Nice project! Good to see another Fairlane based car on here.

What's the plan with the Cougar body?

[Bradfords_garage]

Cool car! When I was growing up Dad had a 1966 Falcon Ranchero, effectively a Fairlane with the front sheetmetal of a Falcon. I think it's one of his 2 favorite cars ever and it was the first car I ever worked on.

Thanks! Good memories!


Nice project! Good to see another Fairlane based car on here.

What's the plan with the Cougar body?

Thanks! The Cougar isn't mine. Not sure whats going on with that.

[Bradfords_garage]

Hope everyone is healthy and doing well!

I was able to get some more done on the Falcon. I decided to take the inner rocker skin off and replace it with a piece of 16ga. That way I've got something a little thicker and more solid to weld the frame rails to. I also wanted to remove the lower pinch weld and clean out the rockers and do a rust treatment inside before closing it back up.

Question- What can I use inside the rocker to seal it up/treat the rust before closing it back up? Something that won't cause a lot of grief when welding the rocker back together, hopefully.

Anyway, here we are-

Drilling out all of the spot welds on the inner rocker skin
173916

And separating with a chisel and hammer
173917

The spot welds drilled on the upper pinch weld and the lower pinch weld cut off flush
173918

I cut the pinch weld just above the radius and then used a hammer and dolly to roll the metal back over. I wanted to keep from grinding it flat which would result in the metal coming to a sharp, thin point. I figured that would make it hard to weld.
173919

And then just used a file by hand to true it up nice and straight. It took a while...
173920

Prepping the metal for welding
173921

The replacement piece. One small spot to trim out at the front still. But it fits nicely.
173922

Well thats where we are. Once I get the rust treatment/primer inside the rocker I can weld it up, so let me know what you guys use for that. I'm working on the next YouTube video update, too. I'll let you know when its up. Thanks!!

Brad

[Bradfords_garage]

Got a little more work done on the ol' Falcon yesterday. Here in MI most of the plants are on lockdown so the tool shop decided to follow suit. So, I've got some time on my hands for a little while!

Alright, I got the rocker skin off in the previous post, and yesterday I did some more cleanup, and ripped some strips of 18 ga. to spot weld to the inside of the bottom of the rocker panel. With the bottom now being a corner joint, that should give me a little more meat to weld the new inner skin to. I also found a rusty spot in the rocker and figured I'd go ahead and patch that while the rocker was open so I could get in behind and dolly it out.

Remembering to stop and take photos for this thread while also shooting video and actually building the car is just about more than my brain can handle! I'll get better. For now, here is a few photos.

Here is a 3/4" wide strip of 18 ga vice gripped to the inside of the lower rocker. I drilled a hole every 3 inches along the bottom side that I'll puddle weld and metal finish from the bottom side. Should make it easier to weld the corner joint on the new inner piece.
174000

The rusty spot cut out
174002

Started wire brushing away the rust on the inside of the rocker and ended up seeing daylight. Heres the piece I cut out to patch.
174005

TIG welding the patch in place. This is my first time patching a body panel, and figured since I had the TIG welder I might as well dive right in!
174007

Some grinding...some dolly work...some more grinding. According to the YouTube tutorial I watched I did it right...;)
174009

I need to get a body hammer...but I have my dad's old dollies to work with.
174010

The finished piece. It will need some body filler, but all in all it's alright.
174011

Thanks for watching!

[Bradfords_garage]

Helloooooo again! Just a quick update on the falcon. First, Episode 2 is up on the YouTube's. Check it out HERE! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saH-jOf9SfE&t=374s)

Second, have you seen the videos of InnovaSpeed's (sbeck09) Road Race F150?! He did a great job! Looks like a lot of fun to drive! He's posting videos on Instagram if you haven't seen them.

And finally, here are some photos. I ended up having to patch two spots on the rocker. Both spots were directly above the drain holes in the rocker which I find curious. I guess the salt was splashing up through them and inside the rocker.

I have the rocker all patched up, though. I ended up treating the rusty spots where there weren't holes with POR15 and then did a weld-thru primer over the hole inside of the rocker before putting the new piece of 16ga on the inside. It looks good. I still have to weld the bottom corner and finish it, but the spot welds are all done. I hung the door on it too to make sure the rocker didn't warp or anything and it still fits well, so thats a relief. Hopefully get going on the actual chassis in the next couple of weeks here.

The rear patch after I TIG welded it in.
174487

Before tacking the bottom corner of the new inner panel I flipped the car over and set a level across the rockers to get it level, and checked the inner panel for plumb.
174488

Door still fits..whew :woot:
174489

174490

Thanks for watchin!!

[chunger]

Nice progress! Keep it up!

[Chad-1stGen]

Good stuff. What are you using to take pictures? Some of the pics the in focus area is pretty small. For fabrication stuff I'd like to see more in focus. Just my opinion.

[Bradfords_garage]

Nice progress! Keep it up!

Thank ya!


Good stuff. What are you using to take pictures? Some of the pics the in focus area is pretty small. For fabrication stuff I'd like to see more in focus. Just my opinion.

Thanks, Chad. Funny you should mention that, I have noticed it too and just this last week I worked on finding better settings. (If you care or understand photo junk- I closed the aperture a bit for a less shallow depth-of-field and better definition.) The shallow depth of field is nice for dramatic effect, but not really doing the detail any favors here. I'm using both a 7D and a 5D MarkII, and 35mm f2.0 and 50mm f1.4 lenses.

I learned to use a camera while building guitars and shooting weddings with my wife, and for that work, almost exclusively at wide open aperture. But I'm finding with the lack of contrast and also the smaller details of the metal work the wide open aperture leaves much detail to be desired in the photos. I'm still working out how to shoot this stuff. The barn environment is (covered in foil with florescent lighting and concrete floors) very cold and is testing my limited photography skills trying to pull some warmth out of these photos! Totally different than my wood shop in that regard. I need to find some editing software for my computer, too. My wife is the real photographer, maybe she'll help me learn photoshop :).

But thank you for the feedback, I appreciate it.

Brad

[chunger]

Thank ya!
. I'm using both a 7D and a 5D MarkII, and 35mm f2.0 and 50mm f1.4 lenses.
Brad

Nice bodies and real nice lenses!

[454bug]

Great project! Looking forward to your updates! :twothumbs

[Bradfords_garage]

Howdy folks! Heres the latest on the Falcon project. Thanks Chunger and 454bug for your recent comments and interest!

First off, here's a little sneak peek at the ride height. The track width will be 5" wider than this, so I still have to decide what route I'll take to widen the body.

175435

I got the lower corner of the new rocker TIG'ed and finished. Came out really nice. These photos were taken before I started playing with camera settings so the detail is still lacking a bit. Bear with me.

175429

175430

I ground the corner to a radius with the roloc discs and then finished it off with a DA.
175431

I took all of these measurements before cutting the car apart, but now that I could actually set a tube against the rocker I wanted to double check the length so my kick-ups would line up with the firewall.
175432

Everything looked good, so I started cutting up some tubing, and got the outer rails and the turn-ins tacked onto the frame building table.
175433

Just a few things in place, but I had to set the tire on there, just for kicks, really.
175434

I'm heading out to pick up some more tubing today to make the front kick-ups, k member and rear cross beam. Should start looking like a car again pretty quick here.

Also- I posted this in the suspension section, but I'll ask it here as well- Is there any reason that the engine/trans and pinion can't be set level if their centerline's are the same height? I'm drafting it out and if I go with a dry sump I can get the engine low enough so the crank centerline will match the height of the pinion. Is some degree of tilt preferred? I've read everything I can find on the matter, and they all mention keeping the pinion angle parallel to the engine angle, but no information on whether or not they can just be in-line with each other if possible.

Thanks for watching!

Brad

[rixtrix1]

You need to run some angularity in the driveline as the pinion will rise on acceleration, how much depends on type of transmission, auto/stick, but having the pinion at least 2 degrees down in relation to the driveshaft with a matching angle at the trans junction is a good start. if you make everything straight inline at rest, it can bind on acceleration. There's tons of discussion online about this. I love this body style and it's often overlooked; great choice!

[rixtrix1]

You need to run some angularity, up/down, in the driveline as the pinion will rise on acceleration, how much depends on type of transmission, auto/stick, but having the pinion at least 2 degrees down in relation to the driveshaft with a matching angle at the trans junction is a good start. if you make everything straight inline at rest, it can bind on acceleration. There's tons of discussion online about this. I love this body style and it's often overlooked; great choice!

[rixtrix1]

You need to run some angularity, up/down, in the driveline as the pinion will rise on acceleration, how much depends on type of transmission, auto/stick, but having the pinion at least 2 degrees down in relation to the driveshaft with a matching angle at the trans junction is a good start. if you make everything straight inline at rest, it can bind on acceleration. There's tons of discussion online about this. I love this body style and it's often overlooked; great choice!
My S10 is lowered 4.5" in the rear and it took a 4 degree shim under the leaf spring to get the pinion low enough to achieve a 2 degree down pinion angle. as the pinion is now higher than the transmission( whose mount is also raised 3/4").

[Bradfords_garage]

Thanks! I've read somewhat conflicting things on that theory of angling the pinion down because it will wrap upward under torque. This was/is true of leaf spring cars but a few things I've read state that this is not necessary in a link suspension setup. Especially since I will be running some sort of rod ends on my 3 link. This is the reason I started to wonder if they could/should just be aligned. An article I found on drag racing builds stated that some cars are built this way but they are dedicated drag race cars.

Adding to that, though, my uncle came to see the project the other day and confirmed something I thought I had read before, but didn't quite understand what the writer was trying to say, which is that the slight angle in the u-joint is what causes the needle bearings to rotate inside the cup. Otherwise they stay static and will wear out faster.

Glad you love the car! Thanks again for your comments and for tuning in to the build. I'm enjoying myself thoroughly.

Brad

[Bradfords_garage]

Well things are rolling right along. I've welded a few components up and cut and fit a few more. I'm taking the opportunity to weld any joints I can before the pieces are fit into the chassis to keep warpage and tension down to a minimum. Right now I'm also debating using 2x4 tubing for the k-member or fabricating one from 10 gauge sheet stock. And leaning toward the latter.

Anyway, on with the build photos.

The exhaust will be routed through the rear cross-beam. It gets punched out to 4" and some sections of 4" (1/4" wall) tubing are welded back in place to bring the strength of the beam back.
175640

175639
I'm fortunate to have access to a machine shop. Not that this couldn't be done on a drill press. But, the mill is so much more rigid and powerful. I lowered the RPM down to about 80 and poured the cutting oil to it. Worked like a dream.
175641

175642
Working my way around. I clamped the piece to two other pieces of tubing to help with warpage, but it did pull up a little. I'll fix that when I make the cut-out for the drive shaft.
175643
Fully welded. I'm no pro, obviously. But I'm doing the best looking welds I've ever done. Practice practice practice!
175644
The rear cross beam and inner rails sitting in place.
175645
Next was on to the front kick-ups. I didn't want to just weld the turn-ins to one side of the tubing, so I'm notching the kick-up around the turn-in and I'll weld it down both sides for some extra strength. It was a bit of work getting them to fit well, and I ended up doing one side twice, but I'm happy with the outcome.
175646
And also decided to notch/miter the kick-ups to the engine bay rails this way for the same reason. It adds a few inches worth of weld and also a direction change, so the stress is spread out and handled in different ways. Just a theory. Like I said, I'm no pro...nor am I an actual engineer, haha. But I figure the more surface I can get touching on these, the stronger the joint will be.
175647
Copying for the other side.
175648
Fit is pretty good and the angle is right on with the rail level. I'm happy with that!
175649

175652
Now gotta cap those turn-ins. Just some 1/8" cold rolled set in flush, welded and ground to finish.
175650

175651
That's it. Tacked in place and ready to build the crossmember.
175653

It seems to be moving along without any real snags, though we're in the early stages, haha. But I'm having a blast as always! Thanks for following along and let me know what you think! And also any guidance is welcome. Cheers!

Brad

[Peanut1959]

Looks like some great work, there! Carry on.

[Bradfords_garage]

Ah, thanks!


Looks like some great work, there! Carry on.

[Bradfords_garage]

Did a little cardboard mock-up today. I landed on a seat and drivetrain position. Now I can move forward on the chassis.

Those plastic blocks are stupid expensive. I'm not making any brackets based on this one here, but it sure gets the job done to visualize things. And is way easier to move around than cast iron ;)
175734

Decided to scoot the engine back a few inches. It sits back under the cowl almost 3 inches now. I'll have to jockey some things around. But this should help with the weight split. It also means some rails in the chassis need to be cut out and moved around to allow the exhaust to pass by the transmission. Thank goodness for mock-up!
175735

Also mocked up a masking tape bell housing and set the trans in place.
175737

Sitting in the seat the trans feels like its in a good place, and is about 5" back from where the factory seat mounts were.
175736

And the axle in place...sort of. The jack stands put it about .550" below where it needs to be. I need to fabricate something to hold it in its exact location. But for today this did help to sort things out as far as engine/trans driveshaft angle. And to decide how much needs to be relieved from the rear cross beam for driveshaft clearance.
175738

As for my last question regarding driveline height/angle- someone reminded me that the height of the engine would ultimately be decided by the bell housing...which I am sort of embarrassed to say didn't even cross my mind. Not sure how, but it didn't. But, thats why these forums and friends are such a good thing to have in your corner when doing something like this. It's so easy to miss the forest through the trees. Building a car from the ground up, theres a million details to consider. And while this seems like a ridiculously simple detail, it was overlooked. I'm just glad to have you folks to help keep me pointed in the right direction. So, THANKS!!

Either way, I'm having the time of my life!

Cheers!

Brad

[jaybee]

Nice work. There's sure nothing wrong with your welding, but they say if you can't weld well weld a lot. A little more length to the joint always adds strength.

[andrewb70]

Did a little cardboard mock-up today. I landed on a seat and drivetrain position. Now I can move forward on the chassis.

Those plastic blocks are stupid expensive. I'm not making any brackets based on this one here, but it sure gets the job done to visualize things. And is way easier to move around than cast iron ;)
175734

Decided to scoot the engine back a few inches. It sits back under the cowl almost 3 inches now. I'll have to jockey some things around. But this should help with the weight split. It also means some rails in the chassis need to be cut out and moved around to allow the exhaust to pass by the transmission. Thank goodness for mock-up!
175735

Also mocked up a masking tape bell housing and set the trans in place.
175737

Sitting in the seat the trans feels like its in a good place, and is about 5" back from where the factory seat mounts were.
175736

And the axle in place...sort of. The jack stands put it about .550" below where it needs to be. I need to fabricate something to hold it in its exact location. But for today this did help to sort things out as far as engine/trans driveshaft angle. And to decide how much needs to be relieved from the rear cross beam for driveshaft clearance.
175738

As for my last question regarding driveline height/angle- someone reminded me that the height of the engine would ultimately be decided by the bell housing...which I am sort of embarrassed to say didn't even cross my mind. Not sure how, but it didn't. But, thats why these forums and friends are such a good thing to have in your corner when doing something like this. It's so easy to miss the forest through the trees. Building a car from the ground up, theres a million details to consider. And while this seems like a ridiculously simple detail, it was overlooked. I'm just glad to have you folks to help keep me pointed in the right direction. So, THANKS!!

Either way, I'm having the time of my life!

Cheers!

Brad

Brad,

Great build. It's amazing how similar this body style is to a 67-68 Cougar.

Andrew

[Bradfords_garage]

Thanks!! I appreciate that! I've been working hard on it. The consistency of the bead size and overall aesthetics can improve, but I'm confident in the welds themselves, structurally. But yea, that's kinda where my head was at, as far as length of the weld seam.


Nice work. There's sure nothing wrong with your welding, but they say if you can't weld well weld a lot. A little more length to the joint always adds strength.

Thanks, Andrew! This body style is so much less prevalent than the earlier year Falcons, but I love it, and how it's so relatively uncommon that you can't help but see other cars in it when you look at it.


Brad,

Great build. It's amazing how similar this body style is to a 67-68 Cougar.

Andrew

[Tsaints1115]

Very cool.

[Bradfords_garage]

Thank you!


Very cool.

[Bradfords_garage]

And another update! Things are still moving along nicely. I'm about a day away from actually starting on welding the whole chassis up. I'm a little nervous, to be honest. I've been reading up on weld sequencing and what not, but I'm still pretty concerned about warpage. Any tips there would be greatly appreciated and accepted with open ears!

So here's where we are-

The drive shaft relief cut out and the new cap made up.
175910

And fully welded.
175911

Finally got to use my shop-made press-brake to fold up some 3/16" plate for the torque boxes. It worked great!!
175912

And the K-member welded up and sitting in place.
175913

One of the welds. I decided to weld the miter's fully, then tack the bracket plates in place and weld them fully once in place on the chassis. But, I'm happy with that one, even though I wish the dab consistency were better! Gotta find the rhythm.
175914

And the gussets I added to the sides of the k-member to stiffen against fore/aft stresses. The chassis tubes are 1/8" wall so I thought it would be a good idea to spread the load from the k-member and stiffen that area with the extra plate and gussets. It will be in-line with the lower ball joint.
175915

Well, thats where we stand today. Tomorrow will be finishing up the rear section of the frame so I can start the weld-up process. Thanks for watching!

Brad

[Boosted Falcon]

Great build.

[Bradfords_garage]

Well, sure has been a busy summer! Firstly, my second son was born! Among other things, I've been busy with track days and making small upgrades to the Mustang here and there. So the Falcon has been sitting idle for a bit. But I closed the track season out a couple weeks ago with a bracket race that was a ton of fun. And now I can get back to the task at hand.

I realized that I actually have some photos that I never shared from where I left off a couple months ago. Where we stand now is that I have the chassis all welded up and I'm ready to start fabricating links and brackets for the suspension. I have flat stock, R joint rod ends, PU bushings and a pile of DOM. The plan for the rear links, because this is not a dedicated race car, is to do R joints on one end for the extra articulation, and a PU bush on the other end. I'm going to start with the rear, get the car sitting on the chassis, hang a fender and then fabricate the front arms and pickup points. I have some freedom with wheelbase, as I'm cutting out the wheel wells for the flares, but I want to retain the OEM wheel base or at least very close to it. More to come on that, but for now, here's where we left off.

Here are some photos. Though, if a picture is worth a thousand words, how many is a video worth? Here's a link to the last episode I was able to post on my YouTube. Bradfords Garage- Falcon Restomod Episode 3 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x85I47vW9NQ)

Rear subframe rails. As identical as I can possibly make them.
180491

180492

180493

Underside of the front torque box
180494

Torque box, top.
180495

Finnagling the inner rails around to make room for the exhaust to be tucked up next to the transmission. I don't want anything hanging lower than the chassis.
180496

Before the finnagling...mockup and marking out the sections to be changed.
180497

Once it was all fitted I went to work welding it all together. As mentioned in the video, I found a guy on YouTube who made a video on the weld sequencing for minimal distortion in square tube, picture frame style frames. I followed his advice and sort of filled in the blanks on the rest. In the end, the chassis is still square, so I'm happy. Here's a few weld shots.
180498

180499

TIG welding overhead while sitting on your butt is hard...I definitely left the garage that day with a neck/headache.
180500

180501

Overall, I'm very happy with how the chassis and welds came out. I think once I get it on the rotisserie for paint I may grind out some of the welds on the bottom and go back over them, just for the sake of cleanliness. A few of them came out rather gross, I'll be honest.

That's all for now. More to come soon.

Brad

[chunger]

Any updates on this project?