'63 Ford Falcon "Gold Digger"

[rustomatic]

Bolt-ons make performance improvements so easy! This is how my Falcon became a Corvette . . .

[NorthFalcon]

Well its been about two months since an update and unfortunately I haven't accomplished too much as I've been busy with some other fabrication projects. I finally got my front brake situation figured out. Turns out that granada spindles are identical to 70-73 mustang spindles so I ordered the wilwood 6 piston front brake kit, bolted right on despite being told by wilwood that they would not work. So the front suspension end is almost done. I've never driven the car before so I am going to drive it with manual steering and see how it is. If I need to change it later I'll put in a power box. As for the rear suspension, I did all the finish fabrication work on the rear end, all tig welded. Mounted three link mounts, brake line tabs, brake caliper mounts, and then painted. At first I thought I would have to do some serious modifying to the rear suspension. I ended up only cutting out one of the mount systems for the third link and tig welded the third link mount directly to the frame rails. The street or track kit has worked out extremely well for me and felt it saved me a lot of time. I have one of the wheel tubs mocked up and in the car now it just needs to be welded in. I also put the motor in to see how everything is going to fit. Might be challenging to use the headers I have but it might work out. Going to pull the motor and rebuild it just to make sure it was rebuilt right. The previous owner said he built it for this car but based on some previous work I ahve seen, I dont trust it. I also moutned the wilwood reverse mount pedal assembly under the dash. Fabricated a mount that mount to a firewall welded plate with studs to make it removable. Other than that not o much has happened. Just ordered tires and next will be ordering wheels after I determine the offsets I need, as for tire specs 245 up front and 275 in the rear should be plenty of tire for this little car.

[79bird]

Cool the 3 link stuff worked, lets see some more pics of it all together and mounted!!

[wfo guy]

Just as a thought, try a 16 - 17 inch steering wheel before you give up on manual steering.
Nice parts.

[rustomatic]

You can always just add electric power to the manual steering. That's the way my old setup worked, and it was decent. It's much cheaper these days . . .

[NorthFalcon]

(WFO Guy) I will definitely, I didn't really know what size of wheel to go with and this gives me a good idea, thanks. (rustomatic) I have looked into this and will definitely consider it. Seems to me that everyone uses the saturn electric column.

[NorthFalcon]

Some updates, Got the entire brake system plumbed from the reverse mount Wilwood pedal set under the dash, not to fun. All fittings are tight and ready to be bled, should be pretty interesting. I really hope they don't leak. I'll post more photos of the brake lines later. Finally mounted the hood with modified mustang hinges. Also got my wheels in. Our wheel fitment tool really did a great job and the wheels fit perfect. I'm going to have to roll the front fenders but I knew I would have too. Super stoke don the way they look. Like a lot of others I went with ET wheels, Lt-III. Great looking wheel. The entire rear suspension is ready to go to. Everything double checked for tightness and the rear end was filled up with diff fluid. Hopefully getting the wiring on the car started today, that way I can put the motor back in. I pulled the motor and did a quicken freshen up and put all new seals in it. Inspected most of the bearing journals and they all looked really good. I didnt know the condition of the motor so it helped me determine if I was going to use it. Now to put all the trim back on and make it look more complete. I also mounted the seats and should be ordering carpet soon. really happy with everything and the way it is going. Should be able to drive in the next two weeks. Here are a few photos.

[Boosted Falcon]

Great progress the car looks great. What size tires did you end up with front and rear?

[NorthFalcon]

I ended up with a 245 in the front and a 275 in the rear, 245 is wide as I'll be able to fit but i think I can go as wide as a 315 in the rear. 8" wheel up front and a 10" in the rear.

[LowFast]

Definitely the "best" wheel choice. All the cool kids have them

What sizes did you end up going with?

[Boosted Falcon]

Like the wheels too. I am doing mini tubs on my 64 with the hope of fitting 265 on the rear 245 front on 8 on the front and 9" or 9.5 rears. Impressive that you can fit a 315.

[LowFast]

I have 245's up front, there just isn't a lot of room under the front fenders, and 315's out back. On my 65' it required moving the frame rails inboard 1.5" on each side to have enough clearance, that is on an 11" wide rim with precise custom backspace.

[NorthFalcon]

Yeah 245 is maxed out, Its not necessarily because of the tire for me but the wheel doesn't fit over the upper control arm because i kept stockish geometry. I considered going to 11" wheel in the back but it doesn't really gain too much. I would highly recommend picking up borrowing a wheel fitment tool. 1/4" either way and my front wheels wouldn't fit.

[Boosted Falcon]

I plan on buying a http://www.thewheelfit.com/ Trying to control project creep (ok I am laughing too) so I am resisting moving the frame rails.
Once I have the firewall done, motor and trans mounts done next on the list is the rear wheel tubs and rear 4 link. Then I will have to get serious about wheels and tires.

[NorthFalcon]

Some pretty giant updates. I decided I wanted to get the car driving by last weekend and that's exactly what I did. Between wiring the car, running the fuel system, assembling all the accessories on the motor, finishing and bleeding the brake system, got a driveshaft made, fabricated a battery box, modified the radiator I had on hand, we got it done. Approximately 200 hours between two people in two weekends. Endless modifications to literally everything and dealing with an array of water pumps to try and get the pulleys to work. I was super stoked to finally drive it, like anyone else who has built a car there are endless adjustments that need to happen but at least it moves and stops on its own power. The dashboard is temporary but at least I have some gauges to tell me if anything is catastrophically wrong. The motor fired right up after flipping the distributor 180 degrees DOH! The car is definitely loud even with the flowmasters. I think I might even dynamat it under the carpet, but who knows. That will be down the road.

[LowFast]

Awesome! Tons of work for sure but I bet it was worth it once it rolled under its own power.

[NorthFalcon]

Awesome! Tons of work for sure but I bet it was worth it once it rolled under its own power.

It was beyond worth it! Even though I drove it 1500 feet. I forgot to put the speedometer sender in so the trans puked out about 2 qts of transmission fluid. Also gave me some reassurance that I have an idea of what I am doing.

[Boosted Falcon]

I have been torn on which wheels to get for my 64, your photos have sealed the deal for me. The car looks great.

[neongreen]

Gotta love those high desert cars! My Falcon came from Hesperia. It's got a lot of character rust, but no real rust. I think I'll also go to the LT III someday when I can afford to dump money into my car again... houses are expensive! (wives too)

[rustomatic]

Great progress so far--there's nothing quite like the first trip down the road (or driveway) in something you put together yourself. It's a reliable thrill.

Don't feel bad about the temp gauge setup; it's leagues nicer than mine, and I've still got to fit boost and wideband gauges in the near future. Functionality is so underrated . . .

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