I'm Back. 1964 Ford Falcon 289 Futura

Well,  I picked a 1964 Ford Falcon 289 Futura 3 on tree.  It was my grandfather's, then my uncle's, and when he passed away he left it to me.  

It was a chore to get it on the trailer.  It had rained heavily, there were two other dead cars directly behind the Falcon that were in park, and we had the keys to nothing,  Luckily, I have some good resilient friends, and we got it on the trailer.  They were less than happy.

Before I had even left I had had several people stop and make outrageous offers.  Sorry, not for sale.

Even at the car wash, a guy snuck up on me to ask about buying it and then went to my friends and asked them if it was for sale.

After we got it cleaned, we set in it's new temporary home.

Plans are first to get some 15: wheels and new tires for it.  Then fix the column shift as it's not engaging or disengaging gears.  I was told the linkage has a problem by the transmission. 

After that,  I'd like to make a good driver.  Upgrade the carb, intake manifold, headers, heads,  five speed tranny, upgrade the rear end,  shocks, springs.  brakes.

So,  if anyone had parts that would apply to my needs, I'd be happy to talk with you.  What's the current budget upgrades for these cars.  There's the Shelby front control arm modification.  What's the route for disc brakes?  Koni adjustables the way to go?

Thanks

John 

I feel like I might be behind in that there may be some new brake options, but for my '63 Ranchero, I grabbed one of the Scarebird kits that includes brackets and a list of pretty "normal" parts to assemble a front disc setup. Certainly easier at this point than trying to find Granada spindles, which was the prior route to front discs.

At the rear, grabbing an Explorer 8.8 rear end and an additional short (right?) axle then lets you cut the housing down 'til it's symmetrical and the right width for the Falcon (A quick search will net you lots of howtos). Depending on shopping around, IIRC this can get you limited slip, discs, and a couple (a few?) ratio options. It's been so long since I rounded up the parts that I know I got Trac Lok and discs, but don't recall the ratio... But the bits weren't too bad at a wrecker.

Congrats!

Scarebird has a great reputation and is cheap as hell.  Lets you get the basics and gather your own, or you can buy it all right there.

As for wheels, Torq Thrusts are fairly cheap.  https://www.cjponyparts.com/american-racing-original-torq-thrust-wheel-17-x8-vintage-silver-with-machined-lip-1965-1973/p/W367-V/

That cleaned up nice !

there should be lots of used wheels around off Mustangs , but check about tires you like  before  buying the wheels , 

The 15 inch tires back then were tall and rounded edges , it may not sit right with the more square edged tires  of today.....

Good Luck

californiamilleghia said:

That cleaned up nice !

there should be lots of used wheels around off Mustangs , but check about tires you like  before  buying the wheels , 

The 15 inch tires back then were tall and rounded edges , it may not sit right with the more square edged tires  of today.....

Good Luck

Mustang wheels may require a 1" adapter up front in order to clear the suspension.  I know they do on Mustangs of that era, but I'm not sure for other Fords of that time frame.  Worth checking before buying

In reply to redvalkyrie :

Sweet Cannibal Corpse shirt!  I saw them live a couple years ago in Baltimore.  Great band.

My parents had a 64 Falcon Futura when I was a kid.  It's such a stylish car.  Looking forward to seeing what you do with this one!

So, I knew this was true for the '67 and '68 Mustangs, but I wasn't sure for the other Fords.  Apparently you already have disc brake spindles, you just need to bolt on the discs and the calipers.

Disc brakes:

http://www.chockostangclassicmustang.com/discbrakefacts.html

64 65 66 67 68 69 MUSTANG FAIRLANE COMET DISC/DRUM BRAKE/ SPINDLESIf your Mustang, Fairlane, Falcon, Comet has 5 Bolt Factory Drum Brakes, You already have Excellent DISC BRAKE Spindles on your Classic.

The 5 bolt 65-67 Mustang Fairlane, Spindle, is the SAME EXACT Spindle Ford used to install the Disc Brake setup on the Assembly line, as well as Drum Brake----Only one Spindle for both application.

The 68 69 Drum Spindle is the same C6OA Spindle as used on the 67 Mustangs, So Yes, the 4 piston K/H Style Disc Brakes will bolt on the 68 69 Without changing spindles as well. You won't even have to change your Alignment settings!!!

So in other words, you can use your present 5 bolt spindle, install the "Bigger-Stock-, Factory 11 19/64" rotors, 4 Piston Caliper Disc brake setup without changing spindles.

Why Put on Smaller, Yes, Smaller Granada Brakes???

That's a nice inheritance!  It appears to be the same high-grade version of white-ish as my '63.  Nobody offers me money for my Falcon.  They honk at me quite a bit, though . . .

What were people offering, if you don't mind?

While you are shopping for parts, maybe you should check out this for possible ideas

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-projects-and-project-cars/68-mustang-on-a-crown-vic-chassis/180083/page1/

The square body Falcons and Comets are my earliest favorite cars! Nice to have the family history on that, as well.

My Grandma was the original owner on a plain jane 64 Falcon tudor. I think the absolute only option it had was the AM radio. Must have been the cheapest car on the lot that day... no way they'd have spent money on an optional radio! She didn't sell it till 1983.  Would not sell it to me, 'cause she knew what I would do with it... I couldn't complain - she wasn't wrong!

That's a lovely looking car!  I like your plan to not change much.

Sorry if it's just a typo and I'm being a pedant, but are you sure that isn't a 65? Appears to be based on the side trim.

One of my favorite old 60's cars, subscribed!

In reply to rustomatic :

I don't know if they were bs-ing me but I had an offer of $8,000 as I was at the car wash cleaning it up.  The guy that made the offer even went to my friends and asked them to talk me into selling.  Fortunately,  I've had those friends in the pic since 1989 and they knew my uncle and he knew them.  My friends quickly said there was no way I'd give up a car that was my grandfather's and then my uncle's.  

Ford made many versions of the 8.8 axle , in a variety of widths. You may be able to find a suitable one without resorting to narrowing a housing. The narrowest Mustang units are the width of a Miata axle, for example.

She looks remarkably straight. Good luck with the build. 

In reply to Will :

Yeah,  I had to recheck the vin and title--it is indeed a 65.

DeadSkunk (Warren) said:

Ford made many versions of the 8.8 axle , in a variety of widths. You may be able to find a suitable one without resorting to narrowing a housing. The narrowest Mustang units are the width of a Miata axle, for example.

You are seriously overestimating the track width of the early falcon / comet / mustang. They did not look like tiny cars, by todays standards (or eur-o-peein, for that matter) but the axle was A LOT narrower than any mustang new enough to come with a 8.8. Now, IIRC, the offset 8.8 with the housing shortened to use two short side axles comes out doable for not a lot of extra effort. I haven't had a early falcon since the 8.8 came out, so I've never done one, just sorta remembering what I've read. YMMV

Well, anything I've seen so far says a '64 Falcon axle is 58" WMS to WMS.  The 8.8s start at 56.5" and go up from there . When I was looking for a rear end I ignored internet info for the most part . Some sites list flange to flange, others use WMS to WMS which doesn't make it easier. I used a measuring tape. I think my Mustang axle (drum brakes) is 59 or 60 inches, all I remember for certain is it's 70" to the outside of the wheels.

I don't remember measurements from so long ago, but the first place I googled just now says 52-53'', closer to what I remember. I had a 64 sedan delivery that had  discs in the front a hot 289 and a 9'' in it in the 70's. Most of that was gone by the time I got the shell, but it had a 69 mustang rear put under it, just to roll it around. Don't remember the width on it , either, but with tiny narrow tires, ya still could not have driven it. about 3-4" too wide. And IIRC, the 69 was known to be a quite narrow rear, by other cars. Like said, I know very little about any rears as "new" as a 8.8 I know the Lincoln Versailles 9" with discs was popular in the 80's for how narrow it was, and google says 52 1/4. Ya needed higher offset rims to not rub the tires on falcon (or the more popular mustang) with it in.

In reply to 03Panther :

You just found a Versaille 9" at 52.25" with Google, I just found the same axle at 58.5" with Bing. That's the problem with the internet info. I'll bet your info is the flange to flange dimension and mine is WMS to WMS. And, at 58.5" it would still be narrower than my Fox body drum braked rear. It seems like there's info out there for two different needs...if you want to build your own rear end you need the flange width....if you want a bolt-in solution you need the WMS width. In any case I'll be watching to see if  redvalkyrie measures his at some point.

In reply to DeadSkunk (Warren) :

I thought about the difference in where to measure from, being a part of it as well. And all my hands on is from many years ago. I'm almost positive a Miata is much wider than the old falcon , but can't tell ya measurements. 

Falcon would be around 56-57" WMS-WMS. Pretty similar to a Maverick.

What a cool car with an equally cool story behind it.  The build sounds just right.  Add enough performance and capability to make it fun and comfortable and confident in modern traffic, but not monkey with the envelope or character. 

I recognized your screen name right away from the good old days of the MR2OC.  I used to hang out there a lot under a different SN.  Good to see you are still monkeying with fun cars.

You Lucky little Bastard! I got a 64 sedan from my grandfather when he passed. I didn't get it till I was 18 as my dad kept it at his house until I did. 

I had a blast even thou it had a 200 six and a 3 on the tree. Only real mods I did was a floor shifter and a Sun tach on the column. Drove that thing for a while then something happened with the timing and I parked it at my dads until I had the extra funds to rebuild the motor. 

Come back 6 months later to pick it up and he had sold it to a neighbor. WTF I asked how come he did that? Stepmother didn't like looking at it so it had to go. That really killed me and his relationship for a long time.

If he would have called me I could have gotten it earlier but he didn't. Out of all the cars I've owned that one is truly the one I miss the most.

Oh yeah I didn't even get the money he got paid for it.

I have found out there are a plethora of suspension upgrades they make for those year mustangs so they all work on the falcon. That would be my only thing to want to do is to make it stop and handle like a modern car. The rest I'd leave as is and just drive the snot out of it.