Out for a spin.

[ew1usnr]

With my young family duties, rough city traffic, and other obligations, I don't get my bird out very often.

Hello, Jeff.

Every time I look at the photo of your car it reminds me of the Falcon wagon that I drove while I was in high school (1978-1979). Darn, I had fun with that car! I pulled out my old photo albums and took the following photo of a photo of that car. I was taking a photography class and had to develop a black and white photo as a class project. I developed this photo and pinned it to the classroom wall. My friends added embellishments:

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Here is a color photo that I took with a Kodak 126 Instamatic. Notice the Ford racing stripe and the CB radio antenna mounted on the roof. My CB handle was "Ramblin' Wreck". I was rolling double nickles on that super slab, good buddy!

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Here is my only known photo of the my 1963 Futura Sport Sedan that I had from 1984 to 1986. I was living in an apartment, going to a community college, and working nights as a security guard. I would have loved to have been able to keep it, but I didn't have the time or money or facilities to repair and maintain it. I sold it and bought a 1981 Plymouth Horizon (which I actually thought and still think was a nice car!).You can see my brother's gold 1984 Dodge Charger 2.2 in the background. He bought it new and it was a nice car. I've read on the internet where young guys are restoring those cars now and someone is selling reproduction graphic decals for them

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[Jeff W]

Looks like you put on a few pounds since then

What color was it?

I like the FORD stripes on the rocker.

[ew1usnr]

Looks like you put on a few pounds since then.
What color was it? I like the FORD stripes on the rocker.

Hello, Jeff.

My 1963 Falcon Fordor Wagon was a beige color and it had little cows heads molded into the upholstery. I bought the racing stripe decal from JC Whitney. My car had a 170 Special engine and a Fordomatic transmission. Gosh, that car was nice. I used to fold the back seat down and pretend that I was driving a two-seater. It was fun to drive with all with the windows and the tailgate window down. Open air all around!

When I graduated high school I was 5' 8" and weighed 115 lbs. I joined the Navy and they told me that I was at the minimum weight for my height. The Navy fed me well and I gained 30 pounds by the time that I finished my hitch!

I sold my blue Futura sport sedan in 1986. I waited 26 years and in 2012 I saw my black Futura hardtop for sale and my mind snapped.

[Luva65wagon]

I saw my black Futura hardtop for sale and my mind snapped.

LOL - I know how that is!

[Jeff W]

My 1963 Falcon Fordor Wagon was a beige color and it had little cows heads molded into the upholstery.

Like this?

[ew1usnr]

Like this?

Yea! That's it. I liked the little cow heads. That was a really unique touch.

I stopped to get some gas on my way to work this past Friday morning. While there, a guy in a pickup said “Nice Falcon”. He smiled and told me that his grandmother had a Falcon convertible. When he was five years old she would let him sit in her lap when she drove her car. That was a nice story and it is nice that he remembers having good times with his grandmother. Then another guy stopped as he was pulling in and said that he liked my Falcon and that he has a 1963 Pontiac Grand Prix. I didn't know what they looked like so I googled an image later. It is a nice looking car, but too large for my taste. I like the lady in the background who is wearing the 1963-style elbow-length white gloves.
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I drove my Falcon to work again this morning and was surprised to see a buddy's 1970 Mustang in the parking lot.
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The car had not been running for some time and I like to think that my Falcon and my other friend's 1967 Fairlane provided some of the inspiration for him to get the Mustang going.

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He said that I will need to re-take the pictures when he has the car painted. I told him that having the car painted in primer makes him look like a bad a**. He liked that.

[ew1usnr]

This morning I went an Insty Tune & Lube “Cruise In” that they have the second Saturday of each month. I met a guy who has a 1964 Pontiac Grand Prix. That was interesting after having talked to a guy last week about a 1963 Grand Prix.
1964 Grand Prix.JPG

I left there to visit a Mustang show at a local Ford Dealer. There were a lot of cars there.
Mustangs.JPG

This 1970 Mercury Cyclone was nice:
1970 Cyclone.JPG

While I was at the Mustang show this guy and his wife showed up with their 1964 Falcon. I chatted with the Falcon guy and he said that there was an all Chevrolet show going on about eight miles down the road.
Falcon FQ.JPG

I drove to the "BCCC OPEN BENEFIT CAR SHOW 8:00 AM - 2:00 PM Hosted by the Tampa Bay Classic Chevy Club" and the first cars that I saw were a 1966(?) Falcon and a Galaxie. They had all kinds of cars there.
1966 Falcon.JPG

It was a fun day.

[ew1usnr]

The temperature this morning was 59 degrees and there was a heavy overcast with a slight rain. I took I-275 south to I-4 and drove east at 65 mph to visit Dinosaur World in Plant City. It is a tourist attraction that is alongside I-4 about 20 miles east of Tampa.
See: http://dinosaurworld.com/florida/

The park had not opened yet when I got there and I took this picture at the front gate.
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Shortly there after, a girl showed up and unlocked the gate. I didn't actually go into the park. I just wanted to take pictures at the front gate and in the parking lot.
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There is also a winery near there that is famous for their blueberry wine. See: http://keelandcurleywinery.com/ Going home I took I-4 west and then I-75 north. The Falcon ran great.
Winery.JPG

[ew1usnr]

There is an area in Tampa with a concentration of Middle Eastern grocery stores and restaurants. I was driving though there on my way home from work and a young guy about fourteen years old in the back seat of an SUV on my left said "Nice car!" as I stopped at traffic light. I said "Thanks" and noticed that they were a Muslim family as I coasted a car length past to stop. A couple of women in the car wore head scarves. I stopped and thought about it and then backed up and motioned to the kid to roll his window down. Then I briefly explained before the light changed that it was a 1963 Ford Falcon and it had been the compact car of its time. The girl in the front passenger's seat looked about eighteen and must have been the kid's older sister. I said good bye when the light changed and she gave me the most wonderful big, beautiful, beaming smile as I drove away. It had made her happy that someone had taken the time to chat with her younger brother. That was nice.

[ew1usnr]

My wife and I drove The Wonder Falcon on a 195-mile round trip from Tampa to Kissimmee today to visit Gatorland.
It was HOT today. It was a record-breaking 85-degrees! Christmas is next week!

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We drove on highways going there but we drove back on Interstate-4. That was the longest distance that I have driven the Falcon on an Interstate so far. We held it at 70 mph for about 80 miles and the Falcon performed like a champ. Yaaay! An older guy driving a new BMW convertible honked and waved at us.

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[ew1usnr]

My wife and I drove The Wonder Falcon from Tampa to Orlando yesterday on a 219-mile round trip to visit Disney's Animal Kingdom.

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We drove there and back on Highways 60 and 27 at mostly 55 - 60 mph. I filled the car with 10 gallons of gas when we got back near the house and found that the Falcon had gotten 21.7 miles per gallon on the trip!!!

Whoohoo! That is my best gas mileage to date. I have hit around 19.5 a few times before, but never above twenty. This is with a 260 V-8, an Autolite 2100 two-barrel carburetor, and a Ford-O-Matic two-speed automatic with a 3.25 differential.

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[Luva65wagon]

Dennis,

You're having way too much fun! Good to see they give those 'gators plenty of birds to eat.

85 degrees in December... I think we may have a white Christmas instead.

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[Gitanesteel]

I guess those of us in the cold, snowy northwest and live vicariously through you. Nice to see the Falcon is running so well.

My wife and I went to Gatorland back in 1992 - loved it

[ew1usnr]

Hello, Jeff. Every time I look at the photo of your car it reminds me of the Falcon wagon that I drove while I was in high school (1977-1979).

I found another photo of my first car. The hood is open a little because it was hooked to a battery charger. I like the tan color that the car was painted. It looks like it could have been in Rommel's Afrika Korps. I must have been sixteen when that photo was taken. That was a gloriously magnificent car. It was so roomy that I could have carried the Grand Canyon in the back. I did carry a large part of my high school water polo team to practice in it.
1963 Falcon Wagon.jpg

If I ever get another Falcon it will probably be a '63 four-door wagon.

My older brother had that car before me and he had rolled it while driving too fast around a curve. My brother was not hurt, but the roof was crushed in over the windshield. My father put a jack inside the car over the transmission hump and jacked the roof back up and hammered it back into shape. Then he had a junked abandoned Falcon towed home and put its windshield into the station wagon.

I look at the photo now and I am amazed at what a good job my father did. The roof looks smooth and straight. I took things like that for granted back then, but now I am astounded by his capabilities and accomplishments.

[ew1usnr]

I usually do not drive my Falcon on days where the chance of rain is greater than 30%, but we've had at least a 50% chance of rain every day for the last month. This coming week and a half looks to be more of the same with rain every day.

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So, this past week I said to heck with it and drove the Falcon anyway. It rained at about 1:30 and the streets were still wet when I drove home from work. The skinny P175/80/R13 tires on wet pavement made clear that the Falcon does not have automatic traction control or an anti-lock braking system.

The car fishtailed back and forth maybe three times while I made an accelerating right turn from a red light. Yee haw!! A guy in a new Mustang evidently thought that I was peeling out while drag racing him and went zooming past me. I was really just trying to get the car back under control.

Then I made a gentle "power slide" while making a left turn through a green light. I had slowed down so it was not much of a slide, but it was enough for me to feel.

When I was further down the road, the rear wheels spun while I was starting out while from a red light while moving straight. I had to press and the ease off the gas pedal a couple of times and then very gently pressed it down before the car finally took off. The guy in the van behind me was probably wondering what I was doing.

You have to be really careful while driving this car on wet roads. Making a quick stop without sliding would be difficult. I will pay the extra money and get a set of the bigger P185/80/R13 tires whenever my present set wears out.

And for some general gripes about other drivers:

On a different day I was on my way to work and driving the Falcon and in the center lane. I need to move to the left and saw that there was plenty of room and the car behind me was a ways back. I turned on my left turn signal a courtesy and began to move over while watch the car behind me in my mirror. The instant my turn signal came on that turkey (driving a Mitsubishi) suddenly accelerated to close the gap and cut me off. I had already started moving over so I went ahead and completed the merge anyway rather than yank back into the center. He irritated me.

On another morning, I was driving the Falcon to work and a guy in a Mustang crossed in front of me from a center turn lane to go into a McDonalds. The guy saw me on top of him ... and he stopped! I was going maybe 40 mph and had to stand on brakes hard and came to a screeching, smoking stop. The guy in the Mustang gave me a startled expression and when my car came to a complete stop, THEN he moved and finished crossing the street to the McDonalds. If you pull in front of someone, don't just STOP and sit there!

And on another day, I was driving my Honda CRV home from work. The weather was nice with a 77 degree temperature and I had all my windows down. I was waiting at a red light under an overpass and a twerp in an Acura coup wearing a backwards ball cap was blasting some obnoxious "music" so loud that I couldn't hear my radio. Then the light turned green and this yahoo floored it and darted around the car in front of him. He had straight pipes (no mufflers) and the reverberating sound under that overpass was as loud as a bomb exploding. And my windows were down. He knew what he was doing. He sped forward and we stopped at the next light that was just one block further down. RRRRRRR!!! I was not thinking nice thoughts.

But, the idiots are offset by a lot of nice people. I liked the woman who was driving a Mercedes and honked and waved and gave me a big smile while I was driving my Falcon. She was driving a Mercedes and got excited about seeing a Falcon. What a nice person.