I have been looking for a 63 hardtop for awhile.Ran across this last winter.I was up that way this morning and it was still there.He wants 3200 for it. It's a 63 futura .All the glass,trim,bumpers,grille are good.Has some rust in rear quarters.Still has all the interior in it,floors have been repaired, converted to 5 lug It has disc brakes on front and has the v8 motor mounts in it .no motor or trans but he does have the old 6 banger .The place was closed today so I am going back up this week cash in hand and see what kind of a deal I can make Is 3200 a good price?Heres a few pics I took today
My favorite body style Falcon that shares the same look with the Sprint but it looks like there could be a lot of rust. I would hope you could get the car for around 2 grand or less. HRP
This is a unibody, so make sure you look at the underside for rust issues, mainly where the rear springs attach at the front of the springs to the "frame rails", and the torque boxes..if this car was a 6 cylinder, it had 6 cylinder suspension, V-8 is different, unless the futura was different. I just converted a '63 Ranchero 6 to a '66 289. You can use mustang parts except the center link, unless you use mustang II. Make sure you find out what was used for the disc set-up. Then contact the falcon web site for more info than you cn handle and good luck. If the frame rails are good, the car should easily be worth $3200...IMHO
HRP,thanks,no one was around today so I had a chance to look it over pretty good for rust.only rust thru was on rear quarters behind both doors and a little on both back quarters,hood,fenders, doors roof and around windshield and back looked good .Last time it was tagged was 83,so it has been sitting 30 yrs. Thought I would start around 1600.All the falcons around here pretty rusted up.
I just imported a 63 convertible,i had to replace the rhr floor pan,apart from that underneath was xclnt,when I lifted the hood I found rust along the skirt on both sides where the guards bolt on,it's a double panel,so check it out thoroughly,just to be safe.
Spring pockets and torque tubes looked good.He bought the car from previous owner so not sure what brakes are.I figured I would just blow it all apart see what I could use. the center link is missing unless it is in trunk.
Not sure of your market, and the stock up there, but for the asking price, you could get a running driver, with no rust through, for that asking price. Aim low, and go from there.
Same here in my area. When I was looking I found a lot of 1st gen Falcons not running, with or without engines for under $1,000. All were either 2dr hdtps, or 2dr. sdns.
3200 is way to high. You are looking at 2 to 5 grand to get in safe running order putting the total price at 5 to 8 K. You can get a great running Falcon for 5 K.
For three grand around here you should be driving one home. I would only buy a motor less falcon for that money if it is pretty close to rust free. Or if it had something special about the car, mint interior, trim, 260 sprint, etc and was complete but needing resto. With that said there are a lot of rust bucket money pits going for $1000 that could be the biggest waste of time to the wrong person. Good luck falcons rule
that quarter rust is a bitch to get rid of. it usually means there's a hell of a lot more elsewhere. get under the dash and look HARD up at the cowl bottom; hoping to find it all still there. the cowl is a KNOWN rust out area and creates all kinds of floor rot from there. the correct center link for a v8 is getting hard to find. if the PO changed brakes to 5 lug, you're pretty much okay; the V8 isn't that much heavier than the six. other problem areas for your region would be the frame rail between the lower control arm and the upper; anywhere salt is used on the roads, these are bad rust traps. the front crossmember under the radiator, under the battery tray, is often rusted out and lets the right front radius arm flop around. the rear rails are often rusted out from the inside due to leaky trunk. I've seen spring eyes poking through the trunk floor on Falcons and Mustangs. almost every Falcon I worked on in Virginia was missing it's rocker panels. check behind the front fenders in front of the doors for the end of the rocker panel; it should NOT be an open space.hardtops have other problem areas as well; all of the trim around the windshield and back glass is a dirt trap and causes rust to form. the divider trim between the c-pillar and quarter often hides bad rust.3200 would buy a running car imho. a rolling shell, even a hardtop, shouldn't be more than 1500, and any rust issues at all knocks it down in my eyes.
How come these thing are so much cheaper where I'm not 63 1/2 hard top's are hard to find around here.
This is all very good advice. I used to work at a Mustang parts store and we saw the very same things on them.
If the center link is missing, there is a good chance they changed the spindles etc to the V8 stuff, probably using Mustang parts. The v8 falcon center link is unique to that model and hard to find, not reproduced
Also be aware that's there's two different body shells; a six and V-8. The V-8 will have torque boxes tying the frame rails and rockers together, the six won't. That's not the only difference; the frame rails on the six cars are much lighter gauge metal (same as the floors), while the V-8 cars were stamped from thicker metal, as were the shock towers and other structural members. Installing a V-8 can lead to cracked/broken frame rails and/or suspension mounts. There were two exceptions to this; the convertibles all got the 'V-8' body shell regardless of motor, and the six cylinder wagons/Rancheros got the V-8 rails at the rear only. And I'll agree that this car is overpriced. If all the trim is there and in excellent shape, $2500 would be the absolute max I'd pay
SUPER RUST OUT floors, trunk,rear quarters,rockers,no motor/trans.has good trim & glass thats about it. not worth the time.....think he told me 5500. All of his stuff has been there quite a while..
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