Saving Granddad's Falcon

[SmithKid]

Looks like Phil is doing a great job for you Don. The body work on my car was in the form of numerous cancer spots that needed to be cut out. Very few dents. The guy I selected to do the repair/paint took WAY too long. But it is on the road and I'm really enjoying it now. Hang in there!

[dhbfaster]

Piece by piece things are progressing...another fender and the hood primed today (as well as all the prep work.)
Picked up the last batch of sand blasting...metal heater parts, the horns, and also some small powder coated parts- generator bracket, and part of the horns.
The horns were in really bad shape- after I'm done with them they will look beautiful, and hopefully they will still work too!

[dhbfaster]

Nice weather today....got the rattle can rattling...had so many little parts out in the yard it looked like a garage sale. Painted the horns, coil, visor parts, rear view mirror, and touched up some engine parts.

Got into the trim work today too...successfully got three dents out and polished over...and successfully added three new dents!

Meanwhile, Phil laid epoxy on the body late last week...

[ew1usnr]

Hello, Don.

Wow! Your car is going to be gorgeous.

I saw this 1960 Falcon transmission cross member listed on e-bay. Does your transmission mount have one forward-projecting cantilever as is shown in this picture? Is this cross member assembly missing a cantilever piece, or is this how it is supposed to look?

1961 Falcon transmisson cross member.jpg

Or does your transmission mount have a double forward-projecting cantilever as is shown in this photo of a 1963 - 1965 Falcon T-10 manual transmission cross member?
1963 - 65 Ford Falcon Transmission T10 Mount V-8.jpg

Diagram:
rear_support.jpg

Thanks, Dennis.

[dhbfaster]

Mine is similar to the first picture...except the spring steel piece that goes to the transmission seems to be longer than that one in the picture. (AND, mine is now nicely restored...)

[Luva65wagon]

All the original Falcon cars until about '66 (don't quote me) used the cantilever springs. The first image (the ebay part) doesn't have the correct spring. It looks like a piece of hot-rolled flat steel. The spring for it is supposed to be similar to the V8 part you pictured, but without the extra support "S" piece. I think the 6'r uses only two leafs, and not 3, but this is only from what I've personally seen and that isn't exhaustive or conclusive. All my cars have had 6'rs with double leaf supports.

And I have too many of these parts piling up at home - not sure how or why I came upon them - but every time I go and open a bin, there's a greasy tranny mount.

They all take the same rubber bits, but mounting bolts may differ.

I recently finally learned enough about these and had [what I thought to be] an epiphany about why my wagon, since day one of me owning it (3 different transmissions, half-dozen differnt clutches, new driveline, new rear-end, new shocks, crank/bearing swap, new motor mounts) chatters when I try to back up against a load. Drives me crazy! So I bought all new tranny mount parts and rebuilt it like new. No change at all. This alone has prompted me to put the thing up-for-sale because I can't allow myself to invest in the change it to a V8 or newer 6. I've pretty much concluded the car is simply too heavy for a 8.5" clutch. I'd have to change engines to a later 200 to get around that and keep it a 6.

OK... Back to your regularly scheduled program...

[dhbfaster]

Got a quote for time to install the headliner...8 hrs to install the headliner and wind lace? Does that sound right to you guys?