Hello from CT

[John Barone]

Hello,

My name is John Barone and I have recently joined this forum as I own a 1963.5 Falcon Sprint. I purchased the car in 2016 out of Louisiana. I have some of the history from the beginning. The car was manufactured at the factory in San Jose, CA, sold in Los Angeles, CA then to Phoenix, AZ and finally to Louisiana. The car is painted the original Peacock Blue, original 260 V8, rebuilt in the mid nineties and original Fordomatic, rebuilt in 2019. The car remains rust free and drives great for a 58 year old car. The car was outfitted with an aftermarket A/C while in AZ.

I always wanted that car after seeing an ad in Life magazine when it first came out. Unfortunately, I was stationed overseas so I had to put it on the back burner. When returning stateside in 1965, I purchased a new '66 Mustang. Many cars later I never lost my desire to own that '63 Falcon hardtop with that beautiful roof line. It only took 52 years to realize my dream and it was well worth the wait.

I belonged to the TTFN forum since purchasing my car and am a member of the FCA and local Falcon chapter. I enjoy these forums as they are a great source of info. Unfortunately, the TTFN website closed and that is why I joined this one. I hope to use this forum as both a user and a contributor.

John
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[gtaroger]

Welcome to the forum. That is one fine little car you have. My wife bought me a 63 1/2 Falcon for Christmas about 20 years ago. When it was delivered to my house I looked it over. I was very happy with it. It was red inside and outside.It had bucket seats 4 speed with a 260. The brakes didn't work and didn't run. I changed the oil,cleaned out the gas tank. Put new points .wires,plugs and battery. It started right up and ran pretty good. Smoked a little at first ,but cleared up after awhile.I pulled the seats and carpete. That's when I found all the rust.The whole floor from front to back were rusted . I spent a year trying to find someone to install new floors and frame rails. I even tried to get a tube frame made for it. I got tired of the bull crap from all the shops and sold it the Leo from the Falcon FCA. He used it for a parts car. The shame was the body looked so good and it was a factory 4 speed.GTARoger

[Jeff W]

Welcome. My wagon was also born in San Jose.

[Luva65wagon]

Welcome John.

Beautiful realization of your dream sitting there! Feel free to share as much about it as you can. We enjoy seeing what others are doing.

As is the case with TFFN many have gone to the Facebook groups after the writing was on the wall there. We expected the traffic here to increase when we discussed it 3 years ago or so, but Facebook really absorbed a lot of the crowd. Personally, I like the utility of a forum over Facebook for maintaining a build thread and focused discussion. It's hard to do that there.

I had my first Falcon, a 62, in High School when a buddy got me into them. He had a 1960 and it was a hoot - so I had to get one. We built a few of them in just a couple years just to flip them. One we built actually did flip, but that's another story.

I had to sell it in 1979 to move to WA state and always wanted to get another Falcon, but just never did until I was riding my bike home from a fireworks display. July 4th, 1997. On my way home I stumbled onto a 65 Tudor Wagon sitting along the side of the road with a For Sale sign in the window. I was just going through the ending of my first marriage and thought and needed a distraction badly. So I (sadly) maxed out a credit card to get the car. Don't regret that decision. I had it 20 years and eventually sold it to a lovely local couple here and get to see it occasionally.

When I saw your car, and that you were in Arizona, I thought for a second it was Freddie, which was a car built by another member here, who after a long battle with the car finally let it go... to me. I planned to keep it because I too love the hardtop 63.5, but 3 weeks after buying it "the job" of 37 years ceased to exist and that really precipitated a lot of change. So I built it, fixed the issues it had, and it went to a fellow who lived in Arizona, but had family here, which is how he learned about it. Anyway, the loss of the job/career forced the sale of the wagon and the 63.5.

The ship eventually righted itself and now I'm down to one Falcon; a 63 Ranchero. I do still get hints from other members that I need to buy another Falcon when one comes up for sale occasionally. Don't know why they do that.