Hot Rods 1961 Falcon Fun Factory

Yo! I recently sold my 1951 shoebox that was my driver for the summer, it's soon on it's way to Normandy, France to a good dude I met through the Shoebox Facebook group. I wasn't planning on getting another car for the winter, was going to focus on motorcycle projects. Fortunately, things didn't go as planned...

My first car was a 66 Mustang (still in the family), and I'd figured the next car was going to be another first gen Mustang build next year, time to get back to my roots. I was dicking around on Facebook marketplace like usual, and a crappy ad for a 61 Falcon popped up, that had some interesting details. Something about a 5.0 and a T5 swap, but the pictures sucked. It wasn't too far away, so I stopped by to take a look.


The car turned out be super nice! A Falcon is close enough to a Mustang to make me happy. It turned out to be a long term project by an older guy, who didn't really spare any expense.

Very nicely done 5.0 swap from a ~99 Explorer, and fully built. Lumpy cam, new top end, aluminum heads, Weiand Stealth intake, Holly Double Pumper, Performance Distributor, Hooker super comps, etc. Newly rebuild T5 swap nicely done. Whole car is straight, no rust, new paint, new interior, etc. Still needs a headliner (which he gave me), and gotta get rid of those 90's cougar bucket seats.

Suspension is all done with Falcon Sprint parts. Subframe connectors, sprint rear axle with 3.73's and new posi. Too much other stuff I can't think of or don't know about. Luckily the rad guy gave me a 3" binder of pictures and receipts for the entire build. Still need to sort through it all.

I'm driving the hell out of the thing and having a blast. Plan on taking it to the track in the spring, so going to upgrade and sort it out over the winter. I figure I'll post my project on here, should be cool.

On the way already are new Procar lowback bucket seats and mounts, and a Holley Sniper EFI conversion. I'll get into the details on those next.

Fuck ya Falcon Fun Factory! I can't wipe the shit eating grin off my face every day I'm driving this thing!

 

Nice car! Should go pretty good, cant weigh more than 2500 pounds.

 

Why does the word Sleeper come to mind?

 

Nice little Falcon.... I'll make some suggestions to help it out with that V8 power. I see you say the PO added subframe connectors, that's a good thing. But there's a few more bits you should add.

When Ford came out with the Falcon it was only designed for a 6 cylinder motor, so the body shell was designed to be as light as possible. When Ford looked into adding the new 260 for '63, they found the body was too flimsy for the added power/weight so they beefed it up considerably. This lead to two shells; the 6 version and the V8 version. The V8 version had thicker metal and/or additional bracing added in the rockers, frame rails, shock towers along with torque boxes tying the rockers and frame rails together. Now, you're not going to be able to add all this (short of a rotisserie rebuild anyway) but there is two available parts that will help. One is a bolt-in lower crossmember that ties the frame rails/lower a-arm pivots together, available from Delta Bay Mustang for about $100. The other is a shock tower brace AKA 'Monte Carlo brace'. You'll need to drill a few holes for this. Both of these are Falcon/Comet specific as they're a bit over an inch narrower than a Mustang so the Mustang parts won't fit. Delta Bay used to sell the shock tower brace, I don't see them in their catalog currently but there are other suppliers. These will noticeably improve steering response/precision by reducing flex, which will help prevent cracking in the body structure. Do monitor the attachment points for the upper control arms as they are known to crack there (Ford tripled the metal thickness on the V8 bodies at that point). Don't go road-racing... LOL.

I used to own a '64 Comet 302/4-speed car, it was ton of fun. Enjoy!

PS.... The EFI is verboten here, posting that will only get it deleted...

 

That's a very nice Falcon, and wont take much changing to be perfect. I agree on the seats. A number of other older or even some modern seats will look more appropriate.

 

It gets out of it's own way pretty quick. It's a lot of fun to drive.

 

haha I know right?

 

Thanks Steve, some great advice here. I checked out that Delta Bay Mustang lower brace, I think I'll pick one up.

https://deltabaymustanginc.com/inventory/ols/products/1960-1965-falcon-lower-cross-member-assembly

I'm going to add an export brace and Monte Carlo bar as well. Looking at them from Falcon Parts:

https://www.falconparts.com/ford-fa...60-1965-CURVED-MONTE-CARLO-BARS-V-8-p1084.htm

And it looks like they make a lower brace as well:
https://www.falconparts.com/ford-falcon-auto-parts/pc/1960-1965-UNDER-ENGINE-BRACES-V-8-p1151.htm

I guess I won't cover much of the Sniper EFI install. I'm in Northern Colorado and plan on driving this car year round. The aluminum heads make for pretty long warm up times, and I think the Sniper will help with cold starts. I've had Holley double pumpers on other motors, and I don't mind them, but not my first choice on a driver.

More updates coming soon as parts start to show up!

 

Thanks I agree. The interior is all new, but those current seats and no headliner kill it for me. The headliner install will be interesting, it was supposed to be done before the front/rear glass was put in. Since that didn't happen, I'll make it work with contact cement around the windows. It has new glass and rubber on the windows, not going to take them out right now.

Here are the seats I went with:
https://procarbyscat.com/product/pro-90-lowback/

 

I just took a look. The car already has a bottom brace. No clue if the PO made it, but I can't find one online with square tube like this. I think I'll add a monte carlo bar and export brace up top though.

 

The Delta Bay crossmember is square tube and very rigid, that looks like the one you have.

 

Wow ! Great car some guys have a lot of luck ! Enjoy it , it’s a super nice looking car . The rear springs are not v8 rated also , add 1 long leaf to each side and let it eat . The second part of Luck is the area where you live . I was at the Royal Gorge a year ago when a sad sole jumped . So sad to get into that state of mind . God Speed him to a happier place .

 

You're probably right. Hard to tell from the pic on their website, but that's gotta be it.

 

The rear springs have already been replaced with new ones. Not sure what they are yet, but the guy did the rest of the car up right for the motor/trans swap so I think they're fine. I'll get it up in the air soon and get pics underneath it. Been driving it too much lately to worry about checking them out so far.

Sorry to hear about that at Royal Gorge. Cool area of the state, but that's a bummer.

 

I'll also note you have the early '63-to-mid-'64 V8 steering linkage. Parts for this linkage are expensive and some are very hard to find. Ford changed this on the Falcon/Comet when the Mustang came out in April '64, unfortunately there's no interchange between them. The late design uses most of the same parts as the Mustang, with only the center link being different.

 

Good to know, thanks! It works great for now, but when I need to replace, can I swap the whole setup over to the later design? Does it require any modifications to fit?

 

You can, with one caveat; you need the right steering arm at the box. Ford used several different sector shaft sizes, not all of the matching arms are reproduced. You may have to swap boxes, which will require steering column/shaft mods.

 

Sleeper, for sure! You have a Great plan, who says you need a Tbird to have Fun, Fun, Fun?

 

You can swap in '65 steering parts and get the benefit of the longer tie rods. You'll need center link, inner and outer tie rods and the pitman arm.

 

Understood, thanks. When I'm under the car sometime soon I'll get good pics and measurements on the steering box and pitman arm so I can figure replacements in the future.

The steering is great and tight, but there is an annoyingly large dead spot in the center of the wheel before it steers. I'm guessing slop in the steering box since the whole steering linkage underneath is new. Does anybody rebuild these boxes, or is there replacements available?

 

Nice '61!

 

Thanks! I've been following your Falcon gasser thread, the build is super cool. Keep up the good work!

 

Steering boxes are a trouble point on these. There are places that rebuild them, but I personally didn't have much luck with them. I had a '65 Sprint that I had the box rebuilt twice (by two different vendors) and never was happy with it. I was going to attempt a last, final rebuild myself but sold the car before I got to it. Info on these is a bit sketchy, as while the '60-65 Falcon/Comet supposedly share the same box there's apparently minor differences in the shaft length between years. There's two sector shaft sizes (1" and 1.125") and two ratios; 14:1, generally used for PS, and 17:1 for manual IIRC. The '64-65 Mustang uses the same box but a different shaft length. The one to find if you can is the '64-65 Comet box as Mercury used the quicker-steering 14:1 box for both manual and power steering applications. This ratio was also used in the GT350 Mustangs, along with a shorter steering arm for even quicker steering. I was told that the '62-65 Fairlane shared the same box but was never able to verify that.

Borgeson makes a replacement integral PS box but you'll likely have issues with exhaust and clutch linkage clearance plus having to add a pump. AFAIK no one makes a new OEM-type direct replacement box for these.

At the end just before I sold all mine, I was eyeing a rack-and-pinion conversion but they're pricey. The best one IMO was one that used the late-style OEM tie rods connected to the rack as this reduces bump steer to a minimum. But this requires some pretty extensive mods to the steering column.

 

You can try and tighten the box a bit (with the adjustment nut on the cap) and see if that helps. Make sure you tighten it a little at a time and with the wheels pointed evenly straight forward. The boxes are designed to be loose in the middle and get tighter the more you turn them, so if you tighten it too much in the center, it will get really tight in sharp turns and will wear out the pivot and sector shaft pretty quick.

 

A goldmine of info there, thanks Steve. I'll start doing some research on this. Nothing down below needs replacing anytime soon, its maybe got 1k miles on everything. I'll piece together a steering upgrade for the future, plenty of time on that.

 

I thought about this, I've done it on other cars and trucks, sometimes with better results than other times. I might give it a shot here and see if it helps just a bit. Seems hard to find a replacement steering box, so I don't want to wreck the one that's in it.

 

The guy you want to get involved is Gimpy (@Gimpy), I'm a bit surprised he hasn't seen this thread. He's got a '62 Falcon IIRC with a full boogie suspension under it along with extensive body structure reinforcement and is more up on what's out there currently. I sold the last of mine 10 years ago, the repo market wasn't as extensive then... it took me two years to find a replacement idler arm...

 

ya done good - great to have input from others that know the strengths and weaknesses of the Falcon

 

Right on, thanks Steve. I'll see if I can get ahold of him for some info.

I agree Joker this thread has already been super helpful! I was pretty well versed on Mustangs, but I'm really liking this whole Falcon deal. This cars gonna be a hell of a lot of fun.

 

Made some good progress on the car tonight. My new seats and brackets showed up, and I got started on the headliner.


Tore out the old seats and mounting brackets. They are actually really nice and comfortable seats, just not a good match for this car. Anybody looking for a set of late model Cougar power buckets? Gonna put them up for sale locally.



Got the headliner mounted in place on the bows. Still alot to do, but it's hanging in the car. I know the headliners are supposed to be installed before the front/rear glass, but that was obviously not done here. I don't want to remove new glass and rubber, so I'm going to contact cement the headliner in place on the front and rear. Hope it turns out OK! This is my first headliner job. Any tips?

Anyways, car is looking good with the new carpet inside and ready for the Procar mounting brackets.


For anybody wondering, Procar makes the 65 Falcon mounting bases, but they don't list them for any earlier model Falcon. They line up perfectly (at least on the passenger side I checked tonight) with the 2 outer original seat mounting holes. Will have to drill 2 new holes for the inboard mounts. They should work great.






And of course I had to temporarily dump one of the new Procar lowback buckets in the driver side to get an idea. They look awesome and are super comfortable. Should be perfect height after putting in the mounts and sliders. Probably sit about 4" higher than this pic.



Hope to get the headliner done and seats mounted over the next few days. Will update!

I've got a new set of Jegs lap belt hook/latch harnesses that should be great too.