So, my wifes lease on her pontiac g6 is up in a month or two so we decided to get her something older so that we would not have a car payment and she could have something fun to drive. I ended up trading my 59 sportster for a 65 falcon. Here is a couple pics of before we bought the car. It has a 170 with 3 on the tree in it and I drove it home from LA to Bakersfield over the grapevine and it did not faulter one bit! I actually liked the car so much I started scheming....man we could put a 250 or 289 in the car, we could do this/do that/etc...when it dawned on me no this is my wifes car. She wants it for around town and to take to Bakersfield. All she wants is a floor shifter, stereo, and a paint job. Here is a picture of me driving it home from LA So, first we are dealing with paint. I had heard some good information on a shop that has great prices so we went and worked out a deal to weld up the trim holes, fix some dings, and paint her. My wife picked out the colors. A really dark blue for the body (since the jams/interior/trunk/engine bay are dark blue). And a shiny silver metalic for the top. Where we can't decide on is the dark blue. should we go a suede/almost flat look with the clear or go shinny with it? Right now the shop has been told to go with the suede look...but we are having second thoughts. Our thoughts are it will make the top shine more...also with the top it is a metallic sparkle...not flake. if we are not happy with the top I am assuming we can have it cleared with flake on it. Here are a couple pics of the car in the body shop... After the paint we are going to put in a stereo. The AM radio still works so it is staying. I am going to put some front speakers in the lower kick panel and some in the back tray and a sub behind the seat with two amps to drive it all and a cable up to the front seat for my wife to plug an ipod into. That way it will have a stereo without messing up the dash. and oh yeah...even though it is my wifes car that did not stop me from scheming...I sold my 55 chevy truck project and picked up a falcon of my own. It has some issues but will be a fun car (that the whole family can fit in vs my truck). http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=337331
Nice little Falcon. Make it shine, the suade thing is getting old. That from a guy who has driven in primer or tinted primer and one of the first non shiny (not intentionally) painted rigs around for a lot more miles than he has driven any shiny painted rig.
I am saying make it shine. My wife likes the suede look. Here are a couple of pics she tossed out at me when picking colors. She likes this blue but wants it darker. and if we were painting the whole car she LOVES this green. EDIT: I am going back over the falcons done right thread to fine some shine to change her mind. are there any other two tone paint threads/kustom paint threads on the HAMB that i can reference to show her?
In my opinion anything past 62 looks silly in suede. It kinda of like putting red wheels and whitewalls on an S-10 that being said its your car and you should do what you want with it. Try to find a 65 with suede paint on it already and see if you like it, or some other similar car thats boxy like that Falcon.
What about painting it to look like a Rallye/SCCA racer from the early 60's? Lower it a bit, put some 14" wheels painted body colour with a slight rubber rake, chrome lugnuts with no caps, gloss it up with Guardsman blue and Shelby style stripes from front to back. Oh, and a split manifold with duals on the six.
With mine I was thinking of doing black with silver metallic shelby stripes. I want the mustang stance (butt a little lower) with black wheels and chrome lugnuts. I have some 15 steel wheels that I am going to paint black and put either 195x60 R15 or 205x60 on...not sure what will fit/rub.
Nice falcon! I hope you can talk your wife into shiny paint, cause that would be my vote. There are so many suede cars now, the few shiny cars around really stand out. I agree with dannyego in that suede doesn't really fit the mid 60's vibe but as has already been stated what wife wants, wife gets. It's just cool that she's into this whole thing and excited about the project. Keep us posted with pics of both your projects.
all your v8 questions will be answered at www.tffn.net, give a donation, it's a really great site. Just my opinion, leave it as it untill the motor pops. But do start collect the parts need fo the V8 conversion. I would also change the suspension to v8 suspension.
The 170 was recently rebuilt so we are keeping it till it pops and then I will probably only move up to a 100. I recently signed up with tffn.net great site! paint/stereo/wheels/floor shifter is all we really have planned for the wifes car at this time. It is a solid car!
well my wife has been looking at pictures and I told her the choice is HERS...she is going with shiny blue on bottom...but she joked that there is no way you guys are talking her out of her colorful mexican blankets because she is getting a Trophy Queen mexican blanket purse to match. haha. (this is in the red...she is going to see if she can get the top in blue).
Well the car is getting closer to being ready to be painted. There have been no hidden surprises yet during the sanding process which is nice!
I say Make it Shine! Falcons make great little get-around-town cars. Here's one I had. Good luck with yours.
I thought the lime gold and white top looked nice, but shiney...Good luck with the project. I once bought a really cherry '68 Ply. Satellite with a 383 thinking my wife could drive it. WRONG. I quickly learned I can tolerate the quirkness of an old, oddball car, but she wasn't impressed...
I know that if I let my wife jump in it with the bias ply and loose 3 on the tree she is going to be less then impressed. I am going to put some radials on it ASAP and I want to convert it to a hurst floor shifter quickly so that she can start driving it and enjoying it.
I'd also recommend so disk brakes. My 65 Dart was pretty crazy to stop when it had the 9" drum brakes. Pull this way that way and then fade out like crazy. I would address any suspension issues. I always like 3 on the tree. She may actually like it once she gets use to it. But do what you gotta do...this car is cool and is a lot cheaper than a new one.
Here is my wifes car painted up. Not a show car job...but it is a nice driver paint job. Once we can save the money we want to get the roof flaked.
Yup, cool driver. I wish MY Chickee would drive an old car again, but she's hooked on her late model..
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