Mechanic recommendations?

Hello helpful falcon owners!
I recently came to be a proud owner of a 1961 2door Falcon with a rebuilt straight 6 170.
It has been running badly and needs an experienced look over.
this is my daily driver for getting to work. About 12 miles a day 5 days a week. My girlfriend and I have a newer vehicle for long travel and driving.
Any Go-to winners for mechanics that anyone would recommend?
thorough and smart about older engines?

I know that I have an exhaust manifold gasket leaking as I can hear it. And I have heard that getting a carb rebuild or replacement is something to do asap.

any helpful advice would be greatly appreciated.

I have been looking to see if there is a Thread anywhere in the forum for helpful advice for new falcon owners???

In my travels and chats with fellow Falcon Van owners I keep hearing real good things about Gorman Auto in Magnolia. They did a rebuild on a 170 for a guy I know who works in Ballard and it runs great. I called them to get some numbers for a couple of jobs I didn't want to tackle myself and they seem to have a good knowledge of older vehicles. Real old time/neighborhood garage and genuinely nice. Their Yelp reviews are great too.

Also I live by Hilltop Automotive on 15th near Mercer and they always seem to have some pre70's vehicles in their lot. I have never talked to them but they have a good buzz on the street, always seem to be busy and again their online reviews are great.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the tip!
Wow, yeah they have an awesome yelp page!
I think I'll give Jason a call.

really appreciate the advice.

Finding a good mechanic can be tricky. Give us some feedback when you're done. I have a handful of good local places for specialized things like tires, alignment, machine work, etc. but I don't really have a general mechanic.

If I did need one someday, I would take it to this place called The Shop on 15th in Ballard.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/the-shop-automotive-seattle

I've heard good things about them from a neighbor. And they got a cool logo! :rocker:

What part of town are you in?

I live in madrona/madison park/capital hill? Ha, I love having to answer that question as we kind of live in a neighborhood border limbo.

I took the car into Gorman Auto in Magnolia. My experience there so far has been great. Good honest guys that you feel comfortable talking to.

I'll keep this thread posted on the rest of the experience with them on the mechanical work end of the deal.

been thinking of replacing the carb while it's in there. Any suggestions?

it's a rebuilt straight 6 170. I need to look into it some more but those are Holly 1 barrels on there I think?

anyways....

The Autolite 1100 is used a lot as well. They have different teflon (?) inserts in the venturi for the 144/170/200 and also, if you have a Load-O-Matic distributer (no mechanical advance) it must have a spark control valve to work properly. And it has to have a dashpot if you have an automatic.

Or if you have an extra $430 burning a hold in your pocket you can get an Autolite 1100 Vaporizer from Pony Carbs and tell us what you think!

I have a 2 into 1 adapter from a place called Stovebolt with a Weber DGV 32/36 and like it a lot. It was a lot of fiddling around to get the linkage right so if that's not your thing I would avoid it.

Vaporizer 1100 eh? It IS tax return season.....
I'm gong to look into it and run it by the mechanic and see if he thinks it's something he would do for me.

I see 1964 referenced over and over again with all descriptions of it tho. It is designed to replace most any old 6cyl engine carb tho right? So it should be an easy swap? Sounds like the pay off would be huge in getting old "miles" purrrring.

I never noticed the application years! I would call before plunking down the money. I'm guessing it has something to do with the distributor it's designed to work with. In `64 they started using a distributor with a larger, 5/16" oil pump drive shaft. Not sure if that's when they switched to a dizzy with a mechanical advance or not??

You might do a little searching on the Ford Six Forum http://fordsix.com/forum/ and see if you can find a thread about a Vaporizer on a pre-`64 engine. Warning: A lot of people find Pony Carbs to be a little like the "Autolite Nazi". If you don't do exactly like he says you're doing it wrong. So YMMV but they've been around a long time so they must be doing something right.

Howdy! Yeah it's been a while for me. I have been away and busy. I thought I would post an update.

GORMAN AUTO: The guys there are real straight up nice guys. It's Jim and Jason. A father son duo I think. I think they seem a nice couple of friendly neighborhood mechanics who are nice to people and not about the money. It's a shop where you sacrifice timely service for cheap and good service would be my initial response. Jim fixed my accelerator linkage assembly with some homemade good old fashioned engine know how, and got the car running again. He had it for a LONG time but had a family emrgency with his wife and I had other things going on so I really didn't mind at all. The cost was next to nothing!

All in all I have nothing but good things to say really, but at the end of the day i am still looking for something a bit more.

Any advice on other mechanics to try?

My car still is running crappy after it's warm, and I want to be able to trust this as a daily driver, which I don't right now.

side note:

What I'm really looking for is a place that ideally works in restoring old cars from the ground up. A place I can go to as I have the cash to fix project after project on the car. Right now I'm focused on the engine as i want it to drive well enough to rely on it. the body and interior are actually in quite good shape. I'd like to keep working to restore the car over the years, so the interior I would like to fully re-upholster in the future, as well as upgrade engine parts, bumper re-chrome work etc.

Any advice for who could do the work or teach me would be great. Any do it yourselfers out there who would take a look and help a novice out is appreciated as well. I brew my own beer, so I can trade, pay, or trade labor as in help with work on your car as a second pair of hands and student. I am a hard workeer and smart.

I grew up with a step father who rebuilt old model Ts and As and worked on restoring old thunderbirds, so I have been raised wanting my own old car one day. I never was taught anything about engine work, so I can't fix anything myself and feel a bit out of my element.

I love the journey though, and will continue to work on this car, and make it my own as well as a damn fine Falcon.

thanks guys

Joe,

I missed this thread somehow. It think most of us are do-it-yourselfer's and are all working on one of our cars all the time it seems. I don't know of many who take their cars to a shop, which is why you may not have seen other posts offering suggestions where else to go (or they missed this too, for some reason). I have not taken a car to a shop in many years... unless I was being very lazy.

We've all heard tell and witnessed first-hand how shops these days seem to be rather inept at fixing these all-too-simple cars. Most throw out outrageous diagnoses when all that might be needed, when it might actually be a $5 part. If you are not savvy, then you will be at their mercy.

I think the best option is to come to some meetings and tech days when we have them and we'll all have a look at it and put our collective heads together. That's what it means to be part of a club. Some cases are easier than others, but we won't be able to tell without having a look.

Again, sorry nobody posted a reply before now.

I think I have found the right place!! I will start a new thread in the "Local Resources" section as I think that will be a better place to keep the thread and updates about how things go. The shop is called Bell-Kirk Mustang and it's in bellevue. Look for the thread titled Bell-Kirk Mustang in "local resources" for more about them and my experiences with them.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Luva65wagon

I think the best option is to come to some meetings and tech days when we have them and we'll all have a look at it and put our collective heads together. That's what it means to be part of a club. Some cases are easier than others, but we won't be able to tell without having a look.

Again, sorry nobody posted a reply before now.

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Thanks for the advice. What exactly is the skinny on being a "member"? And what are the meeting schedules? I'd love to be a part of the club. right now with the car barely running I'm hesitant to try and drive it anywhere but to a mechanic. I'd love to come to some meetings regardless and in the future drive the car to them. So, yeah, whats the deal with the club?