1963 1/2 Ford Falcon aka Martha

[nlped]

Well, I thought I'd do a quick intro of my latest addition to my 'collection'. It's a red 1963 1/2 Ford Falcon Futura Sprint. I've always had an affinity for these cars but hadn't ever owned one...until October 7th of this year when that finally changed. I found the car through an old friend of mine who now lives in Texas. I had mentioned to him that I'd sold several of my 'toys' & really thought that for my. Ext project I wanted a Falcon. And, low & behold, his buddy had one he wanted (maybe not wanted, but needed) to sell. After a month of negotiating we finally struck up a satisfactory solution for us both. I then drove out to north central Texas and made the deal.

Here's what she looked like on day #1...

A little about the car on day one. It has a mildly built 302 with GT40 heads and a FMS e303 camshaft, AODe transmission, aluminum driveshaft, and 8.8 rearend with 3.73's & 31 spline Cobra TracLoc. I was truly impressed with how well it ran. It also has a/c, power disc/drum brakes and power steering with quite a few suspension upgrades. The car ran 8:20's in the 1/8th mile on these little 14" white walls.

My wife and I were very pleased with our new acquisition.

[nlped]

After 2 days of driving around the local Mineral Wells/Weatherford we set off. My wife followed me in the 'chase' truck and we set off for Memphis TN to visit my mother. My mom's first car was a 1963 Falcon so I wanted to show her my new toy. Then I drove it the last 240 miles home for a total of 810 miles without much issue. It did seem to be using a lot of oil, but I figured that was probably something simple. Boy, was I WRONG!!! About 2 miles from home the car made a small 'bAnG' & quit running. It was a catastrophic bAnG. Turned out that the crankshaft broke in 2 and cracked the block, destroyed the timing gear cover etc and bent some rods and valves.

[Ziegelsteinfaust]

Originally Posted by nlped

After 2 days of driving around the local Mineral Wells/Weatherford we set off. My wife followed me in the 'chase' truck and we set off for Memphis TN to visit my mother. My mom's first car was a 1963 Falcon so I wanted to show her my new toy. Then I drove it the last 240 miles home for a total of 810 miles without much issue. It did seem to be using a lot of oil, but I figured that was probably something simple. Boy, was I WRONG!!! About 2 miles from home the car made a small 'bAnG' & quit running. It was a catastrophic bAnG. Turned out that the crankshaft broke in 2 and cracked the block, destroyed the timing gear cover etc and bent some rods and valves.

I had this happen 20 years ago to a 521 cubic inch Cadillac in a 68 Nova I had at 5000 rpm getting on the freeway very quickly for fun. It took the crank, 6 of the 8 rods, pistons, cam, and block were destroyed. The heads were in all likelyhood trash since a few pistons hit them at speed, and lifted both heads up off the block. Intake manifold was a 1/4 out when warped. Plus punched holes in the oil pan.

The crank shoved into the trans cracking its pump, and locking it up. Sheared the pinion in my 8.2 rear-end, and twisted the driveshaft almost a full revolution.

Only thing useable was the water pump, carb, and accessories.

With all the carnage it was amazing no accidents happened as I bloodbathed 3 lanes of the 10 freeway at Temple City on ramp. I had like 8 quarts of oil in the engine, and something like 2 gallons of tranny fluid. With all the coolers, and lines I had. As I spun out doing like 2.5 complete turns ending up backwards in the slow lane mostly.

[nlped]

Originally Posted by Ziegelsteinfaust

I had this happen 20 years ago to a 521 cubic inch Cadillac in a 68 Nova I had at 5000 rpm getting on the freeway very quickly for fun. It took the crank, 6 of the 8 rods, pistons, cam, and block were destroyed. The heads were in all likelyhood trash since a few pistons hit them at speed, and lifted both heads up off the block. Intake manifold was a 1/4 out when warped. Plus punched holes in the oil pan.

The crank shoved into the trans cracking its pump, and locking it up. Sheared the pinion in my 8.2 rear-end, and twisted the driveshaft almost a full revolution.

Only thing useable was the water pump, carb, and accessories.

With all the carnage it was amazing no accidents happened as I bloodbathed 3 lanes of the 10 freeway at Temple City on ramp. I had like 8 quarts of oil in the engine, and something like 2 gallons of tranny fluid. With all the coolers, and lines I had. As I spun out doing like 2.5 complete turns ending up backwards in the slow lane mostly.

GeeZus!!! Makes me feel bad about my diatribe.

And, I would absolutely love to find a 4 door station wagon to restomod and drive as my daily.

[Ziegelsteinfaust]

I think a regular 4 door would be cool too, but a wagon makes fishing trips nicer.

[nlped]

Worked on the interior some today. The ACC carpet doesn’t fit very well, so I’ll have to do some ‘fitting’ to get it right. Also got the seats back from being recovered.

[nlped]

After assessing the damage and looking closer at all the systems, I realized how truly lucky I was to have made it home (well, almost home). The bottom end of the motor was worn out, the heads were worn out, the wiring was a mess etc. so I've started collecting parts.

The list of new parts are:

347 shortblock, Trickflow Stage 1 camshaft & roller lifters, new double roller timing set and EFI ( ) timing cover, aluminum heads & roller rockers, and the related pieces to go EFI. SVE aluminum crossflow radiator and matching aluminum shroud & dual electric fans. American Autowire complete wiring harness and a Ron Francis Cobra EFI hotrod harness. And finally an EFI fuel tank for the win.

I'm waiting on the last few parts and then assembly will begin. I've pulled the motor/trans, the butchered spaghetti mess known as the wiring harness, and emptied the freshly filled (20 gallons of 93 octane ethanol free gas) for the Polaris Ranger, the mowers and a little went in the Audi.

This concludes my past month and a half with Martha.

[nlped]

Last one

[flashed]

Wow, congrats ,love those cars .

[Rickysnickers]

Well, the good thing is that you were really close to home.

[nlped]

Originally Posted by flashed

Wow, congrats ,love those cars .

Me too. Thanks!

Originally Posted by Rickysnickers

Well, the good thing is that you were really close to home.

Damn Skippy!!!

On another note, I bought my Dakota Digital gauges from LaidBackRecreations during the Black Friday sale. Thanks Sarah!

[nlped]

Will be assembling the 347 short block this weekend. May even try to completely assemble the motor this weekend. I'll also start installing the wiring harnesses.

[NONHOG]

Wow! 1st off cool car! 2nd how funny I see this post today, I was daydreaming last night during the ballet I got drug too(was nice only because we were there to support a friends daughter) Anyway my mind wandered about cars during the show and an early falcon with a healthy SBF and EFI w/ an O/D trans kept going through my head. LOL. Now this.
3rd I have never known SBF to break crankshafts but it also happened to my parents 81 Bronco while they were headed out towing there trailer.

Thanks for the thread! I'll be watching.

[nlped]

^^^ Thanks NonHog!!! I'm pretty excited about it too. I've had a BUNCH of Fox body Mustangs, but always wanted a unique vintage Ford with the newer drivetrain. And this car sorta 'happened'.

Today was spent assembling the new short block. .40 over with 3.400 crankshaft and 5.4" rods actually calculates out to a 349 (roughly), so with the new aluminum heads, Trickflow hydraulic roller cam and Trickflow EFI intake setup, the WWW seems to calculate about 425-450 crankshaft HP. That should be pretty peppy in this light little chassis. I'll post up some pics tomorrow before & after paint and finally assembly (heads & such).

[nlped]

Didn't get to do any painting because we are finally getting some rain, but it came along with cold weather. So, I'm going to have to wait for a dry day to get the block painted.

I did start on the American Auto Wire harness install yesterday, but didn't get very far on it R/t the weather either. I did get the upper Trickflow intake, valve covers and serpentine brackets & pulleys to the powder coater though. Hopefully I'll be getting this thing reassembled in the next few weeks.

[nlped]

Some pics from today. Because we all love pictures.

[flashed]

I see new parts ,now it gets fun.

[nlped]

Originally Posted by flashed

I see new parts ,now it gets fun.

Not really. I'm still waiting for pieces/parts to be able to assemble the motor. The Canton oilpan, pickup, studs & Lokar dipstick all showed up, but not the one piece Ford Racing oilpan gasket Also got the EFI timing chain cover, but not the dowel pin kit (that also has the head dowel pins). So, hurry up & wait is in full effect.

[nlped]

Motor is getting closer. Still need to do some cleaning and/or painting on the bolt on pieces.

[flashed]

Going to be a bad little car .

[nlped]

I did get a few pieces blasted and powder coated a gunmetal.

Upper intake, valve covers, acc brackets, and a few other pieces.

[nlped]

First test fit of the new motor...

[flashed]

Looks good in there .

[nlped]

Well, I have been working on ole Martha, but I don't have any pics to show. I have also ordered a bunch more parts to get me through this part of the build. What started out as only a new motor has snowballed into more....Stunning!?!

I've obviously decided to go EFI and more powerful motor, new wiring throughout the entire car, but now I've also decided to completely redo the interior and trunk. I spent 2 days stripping, scraping, sanding, treating, sealing, priming and painting the interior floorboards (which were actually in FANTASTIC condition). I placed a rather substantial order with SoundDeadenerShowdown.com (Don is great to deal with BTW) for heat and sound deadener etc, purchased new ACC carpet with mass backing, backseat to trunk divider and a new trunk liner so the inside of the car should be pretty quiet and easy to heat & cool. I also ordered new interior panels, seat covers and a few other sundry pieces. And finally, I ordered new floorpan drain plugs, a cool Lokar automatic shifter and the appropriate bracketry and cables for the drivers side throttle body placement too. It's coming along, and I plan to spend quite a bit of time working on her this weekend.

[GR8-68]

Martha is a good looking ride For a ford