1963 Falcon Ranchero, the journey begins.

  • Thread starter Senile Old Fart
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Senile Old Fart

I purchased 2 1963 Falcons this week, a 2door wagon and a Ranchero.
The wagon is very solid for its age, the Ranchero is a rust bucket.

When Ford built the Ranchero they used most of the body panels for the 2dr. wagon.

I am planning on taking the roof, rear glass, tail gate and inner bed panels and putting them on the wagon as I think that will be simplier than changing the qp's and floor panels on the Ranchero.

To admit to being stupider yet, I am seriously thinking of converting it to front wheel drive !


Opinions?

I will be going to pick them up this weekend and will take some decent pictures of my madness.
For now the sellers ad pic is all I have to show.

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I love projects like this, way to make a great purchase!!!

Now for the front wheel drive stuff, I won't comment, so I don't get banned for use profanity.
 
Barry get banned from his own forum not! lol What would we do with out Barry?
 
Made the trip today to bring the 63 wagon home. I think it was probably the fastest that car ever climbed the Lewiston Grade, 65-70 mph and didnt even over heat,LOL.

FYI: the Lewiston grade is a 2000 ft climb in 7 miles which is a 6%-7% climb.
The cit of Lewiston is a seaport, as it is connected to the Pacific Ocean via the Clearwater, Snake and Columbia rivers.

This 63 Falcon was last tagged in 1985. Since then it sat in inside storage for the better part of the last 25 years. It has some cancer but very minimal as compared to most of the Falcons of this vintage..

I had planned to cannibolize it for parts for the 63 Falcon Ranchero I also purchased from the same seller. Now a friend is telling me the 2 door Falcon Wagon is rare.

The Ranchero is the focus of the project, so there may bery well be one less 2 dr. Falcon wagon in existance, much to someone's dismay, LOL.

Here are a couple pictures of the wagon and the Old Lewiston hiway, which is now bypassed with the newer straighter steeper 4 lane road.

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what a great project. I've been kicking around the idea of a 2 door wagon for a long time but with a diesel conversion. there's a cool old 55 dodge wagon in WA. I know about that would be a pretty smoking machine with that diesel cummins thats in your truck in it!

That Falcon could handle an isuzu 5 cyl. diesel pretty well, I dont think it weighs too much. At any rate, 2 door wagons are pretty neat & hard to find so, good score! Economical, lots of torque, great towing capacity, what more could one want.

Thats a hell of a hill BTW, that in Idaho?
 
yes it is in Idaho.

"Economical, lots of torque, great towing capacity, what more could one want." I assume you are talking about my Smarty tuned Cummins!
Round trip today 18.6 mpg which includes pulling the grade at 65-70 loaded.

I started this project because I want to build my handicapped grand daughter a car that will serve her future needs that looks "cool" .
 
whatever you do to it, it should turn out great. Those 2 door's are still cool.

I had a truck like yours for a while, thought I'd replace my GMC Savanna van but I couldn't get used to the idle/low speed noise so I sold it. Mine was the older, gen 2 louder version, your's looks like a newer model, much quieter. Boy that thing could pull though. I just thought the econo/torque benefit in a wagon for me would be good compromise between my van & my truck, maybe one day.

good luck w/the project, look forward to progress pic's.
 
This will be a cool project thread.. Im loving all these threads we have now.. I think moving to this site has generated more threads of this nature.. Awesome
 
Whether or not I part out the wagon or just resell it, the Ranchero is the project.
A very beautiful young blonde thinks early Rancheros are cool and being the old softie I am she is going to get an early Ranchero.

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this thing done yet ;););)

love to see some progress pic's if there are any! one day I'll have to drive that highway, looks like an amazing view.
 
It is hardly even started. I have a bit over 4 years to get it done, so it is just collecting snow at the moment. The beautiful blonde is only 11 at the moment, so she wont be driving any time soon :)

I did sell the wagon after switching a few pieces between the 2 vehicles.
I have picked up a pair of front fenders to use for rear wheel openings.
A very kind person on this website has helped with some custom mixed color for the project, but I have not even had time to spray a test panel to see if it is what I want.
So I guess there is a little progress..

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She is my granddaughter. Her name is Emily. She loves old cars and pickups. She is very smart & in advanced learning classes,she is being courted by Duke University to enter their program as soon as she is old enough. She has tutored kids 2 grade levels above her for 2 years now. Grandpa had to brag a bit, sorry. Now back to the regularly scheduled program:


I am currently working on a 65 Mustang and will post some pics of it soon.
 
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well you're a pretty cool grampa I must say!

She's a lucky girl to end up with a project like that. I keep trying to interest my 10 (almost 11 yr old) daughter in a project like that, she just looks at the purple 71 Satellite in the garage & say "I want to drive that one". I told her if she wants a car she'll have to build it with me, we'll see how that goes.
 
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