I bought a '63 F85 last week. It runs and drives, pretty well for the most part. Needs to be cosmetically restored. The funky auto transmission is actually shifting fine and working thus far. I do interior work and plan to do a very nice resto-mod style updated interior. I'm liking the 215 V8 and would like to keep it. The transmission will get swapped out for something more reliable. Thinking about using one of D&D Fabrications adapters to install a 2004R. It's a cruiser and I want to keep it an auto. I'm going to figure out a front disc brake swap soon. The brakes will need work and discs are a no brainer upgrade. I found a set of '61 Tempest 5 lug hubs, which would make the scarebird disc brake/5 lug swap pretty easy. Leaning this direction for the brakes. I'm thinking of using the 54.5" wide S10 rear end. I welcome any info, advice or whatever. I'm new to this car and they aren't super common. I have read every thread I can find on here about them. Anyway, here it is
Very cool! There's a lot to be said for a car you can drive while getting worked on. I'm trying to judge the size of the car from the photo. It looks like it's bigger than my '62 Buick Special, more along the lines of the later GM "A" bodies. Does it have a full frame? Easy on that resto-mod stuff, ya don't want it to break out in "street rod rash" LOL. How about metalflake on the roof only? Black steelies, thin beauty rings and spider caps with a set of lakes pipes would look killer to my eyes. The bellflower pipes on it already look good, too.
The car is on the same chassis as your '62 Special. The slab sides make it look a little bigger. You might check out the Oldsmobile Club of America: http://www.oldsclub.org/ But it sounds like you're on the right track. Upgrade the trans, leave the 215, put discs on it. Then give it a general consumable rebuild - bushings, tie rod ends, hoses, belts, basically anything that can fail, replace. For those cars, it's cheap as hell and will give you a lot of peace of mind. You probably already know this, but the 215 later became the Rover V8 and was used in Range Rovers up until about 2000; it's a hell of a good little engine.
Neat power, might pay dividends to keep the coolant corrosion inhibitor fresh. Have run across some over the years that wound up with overheating problems as a result of corrosion in the blocks. Ed
X2. I had to replace the original motor in my 62 because the water that had been left in the cooling jacket while the car sat for 30 years had corroded through the side of the block.
Watch the Disc conversion. I did one on my 65 F85 and it widened the track 1" on either side and now the tires rub in a hard turn.
slo-dat: I am not sure that our disc setup will fit a Tempest hub. 1/2 done: Ours does not move the wheel that much.
I got a set of '63 Tempest hubs. You list them on your website. Worst thing that will happen is they won't line up. I'm willing to take that chance. 1/2 done has a '65, I'm working on a '63. The front suspensions are very different. All of my research indicates the Tempest hub on the F85 spindle will be just fine.
slo- we don't sell the hubs, just the brackets. Biggest issue for the 61-63 Skylar/F85 going to 5 lug is which pattern? Ford or GM?
Understand. What I was saying is I bought a set of Tempest hubs to use on my car. So, the bolt pattern I'll have will be the Tempest bolt pattern which I think is 5 x 4.75.
Early tempest hubs are 5 on 4.5 bolt circle. Rotors from a 70 chevelle will fit the stock spindle. Caliper brackets from the same can be made to work. This setup works fine on my 62 F85 with 15x6 rally wheels with 4 inch backspacing. 61-3 tempests are quite different than the Buick and Olds. Doc
I already spent the cash on the '63 Tempest hubs. Plan is to try the Scarebird Tempest brackets on my stock F85 spindles. If they don't work, I'll modify them. I'm thinking of using a SN95 Mustang 8.8" rear axle. It gets me the same 5 x 4.5 bolt circle in the back. Should be able to mount it by fabricating new rear control arms.
I got a hell of a deal on a '94 Mustang GT 2.73 locker rear axle and the entire braking system. I have a set of Tempest 5 x 4.5" hubs. Using the Cadillac rotor that Scarebird uses in his setup. I'm going to look at using the Mustang front calipers and master cylinder. This will hopefully get the hydraulic volumes correct and give a good starting point for brake bias. The deciding factor at this point will be whether or not I can get that rather large Mustang caliper behind a 14" wheel. I have two nice sets of 14" stock hubcaps and intend to run them for the time being. The mustang rear has similar mounts to the stock rear end. I'm thinking I'll be able to make new link bars to mount the rear. In the mean time the car is a blast to drive while I go through things one at a time. Returning the car to running condition after each small project is really keeping things moving. I upgraded the alternator to a CS130, replaced belts, hoses and flushed the cooling system. I bought a '63 two door parts car last weekend. It is really nice to be able to refurbish things and install them ready to go. Makes for a lot less down time.
Our brackets will not accept the stock rims to my knowledge, and certainly will not use the M2 calipers, which are only 1/8" bigger in size than the GM metric units.
As you know, "similar" is not "the same". The 61-63 cars have unique suspension control arm locations. I've been struggling with this on mine for a while now. If the angles and attach locations of the arms are changed from stock, the whole suspension geometry changes. I was planning to use an S-10 axle and weld the tabs to the center section for the upper arms. It's a cast steel center, not cast iron. I'm planning to build a jig from the old axle so the attach points can be easily welded in the correct locations.
I mentioned in my most recent post, the brake calipers are from a '94 Mustang GT. I'm hoping I can fit them behind a 14" disc brake style steel wheel so I can run the hub caps. If I can't sort that out, I'll either use a different caliper to get the 14" wheels to work or run a larger wheel with the Mustang caliper and scratch the hub cap part of the plan. Summit Racing lists a bracket to fit their 7" booster to the '63 F85. I'm going to check in to this. Power brakes would be nice, but aren't a must. Joe, I'm on a similar path with the rear end. I chose to start out with the Mustang GT 8.8 because of price, availability, it has the 5x4.5 my Tempest front hub has, I like the 2.73 ratio and I got the entire rear end and brakes from the GT for next to nothing. I'm thinking I'll cut the rear suspension pick up point portion of the floor pan out of my parts car for mockup. If necessary for suspension geometry, I can make an adapter for the upper mount. I'll most likely weld the lower mounting brackets from the parts car rear axle tube to the 8.8. Current plan is to run QA1 single adjustable coil overs front and rear. The front is very straight forward. The rear coil over will go in the shock mount location. I'm considering a helper bag type of setup in the stock spring location to minimize parking lot scars to the car from it being somewhat low. I appreciate the insight and feedback guys!!
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