I am thinking of buying another falcon four door to help with the rebuild of my 62 four door. I was thinking of instead of just parting out the car to make instead an unassuming sleeper out of it. I was thinking of small block (302 or 351), frame connectors, Monaco braces, disk brakes all around, fiberglass hood, fenders, bumper, and deck lid. Improved suspension, steel wheels (larger size), quiet exhaust with dump tubes. Stock paint and body work. That's all I got so far, any other ideas?
That sounds like a project all by itself. Exactly how do you figure its going to help you finish your current project?
Sleepers are the best. The idea is to hide as much of the performance stuff as you can but still get it to hook. I always ran dog dish caps and semi quiet exhaust. It was so much fun to surprise the guy in the next lane at a red light when he was thinking you were driving Grandma's car. We had a 68 Mustang coupe that was outwardly very stock, but I ran a built 351 Cleveland, top loader four speed, and 4:88 9 inch rear . Surprised a lot of cars, including a 427 Vette one night on rt 51 coming out of Pittlsburgh ! Here is a sleeper I think is pretty cool. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8Hd93tosCs
The 62 is almost finished, I mainly need this and that parts, this car is $300 which is less than the parts separately. I figured to use the car for a sleeper when finished taking parts off.
Sounds like you have the right ideas already. Just being an old Falcon is going to let you sneak up on a lot of people. Keep an eye out for sneaky guys in Mavericks.Good Luck!
I think it is a fabulous idea. Consider an AOD transmission. It will allow an aggressive rear gear to get those hot rod starts and satisfactory engine RPM on the freeway. A T5 or Tremec would work as well, but you lose some of the sleeper vibe by having the floor shifter.
Sleepers will always be cool, but I have an observation. Maybe it's a local thing. I have a friend who street races and while I don't condone it, I do admit to enjoying watching it. The last time I went, it seemed like the jig was up as far as the "grandma's car" theory goes. I could spot them a mile away because they DIDN'T look fast. I also noticed that the slugs were the cars with all the fancy shit going on. There was a mid 90's camaro with tubs, fat ass rear rubber, a half roll bar and a hood scoop, but I could have walked quicker than what he was. So, if I was to build one, it would have a set of 5 spokes, a hood scoop (whether it needed it or not), thin rubber on the rear and a modest interior. It would have the look of a car put together by someone who shopped from a J.C. Whitney catalog. maybe slap a JEGG'S sticker on the quarter glass for fun. Be the 'in between" guy. In between the played out sleeper look and the off track bracket car.
X2, that or a mid '70s- mid eighties Corvette. Oh, and dog dish hubcaps are about as un-sleeper as you can get. Its like a neon sign saying "look, this car is a sleeper". I have a set of dog-dishes for my chevy II wagon by the way, but I am NOT suffering under ANY illusion that they make the car a "sleeper". If I was after "sleeper", I'd put full wheel covers on it, and paint a 1" whitewall on the sticky mickeys.
I was planning on a set of FoMoCo hubcaps with some decent street tires since this will mostly see the street, the only thing that may tip people off would be the tail pipes... No way of hiding that.
Correct me if I misunderstood, but you're thinking of buying a second four door to take parts from to finish your current project. Then you're going to make a sleeper out of what's left of the "parts" car? What parts are you taking off of the "parts" car that will not be required for the "sleeper" car?
Most of the parts are trim items, maybe a fender... All of which the other car has. Basically I am taking better parts off the basket case car and putting them on my ready to go car.... As it is I would be replacing some parts with fiberglass an others would be deleted.... The reason I am Even considering this is because the other car is in great shape, its just a basket case where a guy tore the suspension apart and never put it back together... That is why I thought of making it a sleeper since its too good for scrap and all the components that would be changed are already apart, would be replaced with fiberglass, or be deleted like a government issue car.
Think I'd use a bench seat w/tattered orig interior, stock column shift w/a beefed auto, hydraulic lifters to help keep the engine quiet, painted valve covers & manifold, turbos to help quiet the exhaust - & large mufflers to help quiet them... faded stock paint, old parts off the 1st car, maybe slightly rusty chrome rims (gotta hide the discs)... Sorta like a seriously near-broke dudes' car - just don't have the $$, but is trying. . I'm not a falcon guy, but what the heck: this'd work on almost *any* many-door. Esp my favorite: a *Studebaker* ! . Marcus...
The idea behind a sleeper is to make people say "HOLY SHIT" only AFTER you make a run, not before. Don't give anything away prior to the run, everything needs to be discreet. You don't need wide tires...there are cars in the 7's on 275-60's these days. No stickers, no scoops, no visible gauges, keep the exhaust mellow, maybe with electric cut-outs if you need to open it up to make power. Fuel injected turbo engines are great because you don't have to run a nasty cam, the turbo doesn't make noise at low RPM like a blower's whine, and the turbine wheel chops up the exhaust pulses which helps reduce the exhaust noise. Although I hate 4-doors of any kind, I think a stock appearing '62 Falcon 4-door with a 600hp turbocharged fuel injected 351w would go by unnoticed until you drop the hammer. A tightly tucked rollcage will help keep you safe, but will also reduce chassis flex and help with traction. Get creative with the rear suspension, making it hook is key. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVKt1rebIi8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAosMd74lUs&feature=related Here's a stock bottom end 302 with the stock cam with a simple single turbo and an automatic trans... I know it's not HAMB friendly, but pay attention to the Fox Mustang guys because they are basically the same size/weigh/chassis design as the old Falcons... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji6VD19dej4 Another Mustang, stock block, 5-spd manual, single turbo, 570hp...low 10's in the quarter... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji6VD19dej4
A Falcon sleeper is a cool concept. I would think that tires and wheels would be hard to work around. I'm thinking for any performance the 13's have to go, but if you go to a bigger wheel you immediately go from sleeper to obvious.
OT truck, but the ultimate sleeper??? Check out the ET/Speed at the end!! http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/redneck-farm-truck-dragster/1jrr4stc3?cpkey=45c40bc8-4d03-4f56-a431-4c4d441174ed||||
Nah, just stepping up to a 14" opens up more options for tires. Drag radials and other stickier tires can be had in a 14" and it's not a big enough difference in wheel size to look obvious. Stock style hubcaps or dog dish caps would help conceal the wheel. Hell, even a set of rear fender skirts would hide the tire even more.
Here's an Aussie version of what you want to do. Mitsubishi Sigma, compact 80's sedan, much loved by lawn bowlers and grandmas as grocery getters. They have nice big engine bays though.. This one has a turbo LS1 in it, I've seen a fully street legal one with a 351C in it too... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vm9oLzLwwDs Running 10.2's, imagine pulling up at the lights against this! Cheers, Glen.
Best sleeper I ever saw was a '66 Chevy II, refrigerator white (patina'd), steel wheels with hubcaps. It looked bone stock unless you noticed the Cal Trac bars. I happened to know the owner, who is a mechanical genius. He was choosing off a '69 Chevelle SS with a BBC in a heads up race. He popped the hood and there was a grudgey looking 283 with ram horns exhaust and a 2 barrel. The guy with the Chevelle couldn't figure why a stock Nova would want to race. It scared him off. When the crowd thinned, I asked him what he had done. He said the short block was an LT-1, the heads were ported and polished, the intake was from a 400 (bigger ports) and the 2 barrel was 500 cfm. The trans was a switch pitch and the tires were recapped Caldwells. He oiled the outside of his engine and emptied the contents of his vacuum cleaner to give it that old look. His other car was a mustard colored Vega that ran a flat top pistoned sbc with a single 4 barrel tunnel ram. He dialed in a 12:00 to run brackets with the secondaries disconnected and no nitrous. Switch pitch trans and G78 Caldwells. No one new how fast that Vega was because he was so good at sandbagging. However, he did choose off Popular Hot Rodding's Vega High ( first BBC Vega) that ran 10:30. Here's my favprite sleeper......... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVKt1rebIi8
When I went to GMI another freshman had a nice blue Chevelle. Thru his GM co-op sponsor he got hold of a new L88 motor. He painted everything on the engine Chevy orange. Even then I appreciated his low key approach
The Sleeper deal is a lot like the "Street Gasser" deal. If you do it, it had better be fast (11s or better??) or it's just another old car.
I was thinking of running 14's in either Steelies or simple mag that would make it look like what most people do with cars = dress up the car a little. The engine would be 302 or 351 with 260 stickers to disguise the car.... Make it look like grandmas car or the family sedan with a very small V8.... The car doesn't need to be 500hp, 300hp with dump tubes or exhaust cut outs would be enough to be be fast.... Badging it up as a 260 and putting quiet exhaust on it would put it in an unassuming vibe because although it has a V8, it's a small V8 and in a four door sedan.
Well 'we're the old dudes',the young guns aren't going to know WTF a falcon is or have an idea what the hell a real sleeper is,1 of the best 'sleepers' i ever built had a stock oily looking engine (400+hp) with a 2 barrel (500cmf's) with reworked stock manifolds,it looked like 'stock' daily driver,but HELLO to the camero & stangs,man were they pissed when they demanded to see my engine here sat this ugly old ass looking engine, Right now there is a early 60's valiant running around with no badges & a haggard ass paint job with a nasty small block killing everything around,as an old guy i wouldn't play but the kids sure do Oh yeah i also ran mis-matched cheap dented hub caps,
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