Hello from Argentina

[jptucuman]

Hi,

I'm from Argentina.

I own a 1962 fordor Falcon since last February

My father used to have a 1969 Falcon and I remember that as a child. It was the first car I can recall... we owned it for 10 years as the main family car.

Since February 2012 I restored a very well kept Falcon 62. It's the first model introduced in Argentina. It was made in this country with imported parts from USA... Soy it's identical to the Ford Falcon 62 you Know.

The Ford Falcon is quite an icon in Argentina. It was built from 1962 to 1991!

From 1964 on, your Falcons difer from argentinian's brothers... We use the original design of your model 63 till 1966. From 1967 on, Ford Argentina made 4 redesigns till 1991.

That's all for now.... Thanks and good bye

[SmithKid]

Very interesting about the Falcon's development/history in your country. Please post some pics of your Falcon and maybe others to depict differences.

[jptucuman]

http://imageshack.us/a/img593/3013/p1030407q.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img543/3330/p1030412y.jpg

[Jeff W]

Welcome. Do you think the extra bumper bits (rubber nerf bars and top rail) are typical of that bird or are they added by some previous owner?

The car looks wonderful. Nice work.

[jptucuman]

Welcome. Do you think the extra bumper bits (rubber nerf bars and top rail) are typical of that bird or are they added by some previous owner?


In Argentina, Falcons leave factory with standard bumper and almost 100% of owners ask the dealer to mount those extra bumper bits...

That was a normal issue even with other car model/brands... This "extended" bumper device is a must considering normal behavior of argentinian drivers...

So, it was mounted in dic. 1962 by the dealer before the car reached the first owner...

When I was restauring the car I considered taking off this items, but then I thought they would be quit usefull even in this day when almost all other cars have plastic bumpers... They protect the light lenses in some extent...
I can say that in my country, the price of a pair of rear ligth lenses is 10% of what I paid for the hole car!

Talking of dealer instaled options: my Falcon used to have a vinyl cober on the seat and door panels that saved 100% of the original material even 50 years later!
When restauring the car, I took out the plastic cober for good! I wanted to feel the original touch of the upsholtery ...

Bye

[jptucuman]

Interior photo:

http://imageshack.us/a/img94/3833/p1030415x.jpg

[Jeff W]

I would have kept the bumper bits also...

Is that a Ford oval in the rectangular badge on the passenger door in front of the door handle?
What about the chrome thing mounted on the column under the steering wheel?

[SmithKid]

Very nice looking car. Congratulations on the job you did!

[redfalken]

I've always loved the Falcons from Argentina. And you've got a nice one there! You don't see too many with rubber mats either.

Should I ever give mine a paint job I will probably go with a white roof. I think it's a nice touch.

[jptucuman]

The a Ford oval in the rectangular badge on the passenger door in front of the door handle is a factory installed item only present in argentinians falcon 62.
It's very well documented by the car collectors... Interestingly, it's only present on that door (one badge per car)

The chrome thing mounted on the column under the steering wheel is a security device. It has a lock and a key. So you move it up and the steering wheel fisicaly "locks" on that device. Then you turn the key and thiefs can't go anywhere but one direction!

Rubber mats are the only choice here in Argentina. Every Falcon have them.
Note that there is a rubber mat (over the floor metal) and then you put a "mat cober" made of rubber too. Front and back "mat cober" are in one piece each.

I painted my car with OXFORD BLUE and the roof in TUNISHAN WHITE. The choice of blue was a factory option. The white roof was a tipical aftermarket owner choice... The car has not deluxe trim (as the VIN number indicates)... but dealers used to install items like the hood ornaments you can see on mine.

Engine is a 170 cid and the transmision is the usual 3 manual. On that days, that was the only option you could have in Argentina... and with 4 doors.

On the first 6 months of Falcons 62 in Argentina, factory used a 170 cid imported from USA. Mine is from the second semester... so it's argentinian made. It's the same engine with less compression (7.2:1 instead of 8.7:1) and of course less power (96 hp SAE instead of the original 101). Probably that was to take care of argentinians bad fuel on that time. From outside you could distinguised the engine from USAs version by not having de big FORD name on the valve cober. It was orange painted.
Only 5200 cars of this model were produced in Argentina.

Bye

[Luva65wagon]

The a Ford oval in the rectangular badge on the passenger door in front of the door handle is a factory installed item only present in argentinians falcon 62.
It's very well documented by the car collectors... Interestingly, it's only present on that door (one badge per car)

Very nice car! Thanks for showing it to us and presenting us with a little history. We've all read about or seen the Argentine Falcons (look on YouTube and you see a lot of them in their various incarnations), but it's nice to have someone from there posting to us from the other side of the world.

I singled out the comment you made above because these little rectangular Ford ovals were also installed in the USA in 1962. I'm not sure what determined who got them, but my 63 Ranchero has 62 doors on it and the passenger door also had this emblem - as seen in this thread:

http://www.rainierfalcons.com/forums/showthread.php?p=10131#post10131

You mention parts availability there. Do they still sell a lot of parts for these early falcons? Can someone in the US make his own Argentine Falcon clone? :D

Again, welcome and thanks for posting.

[jptucuman]

That's very interesting... actually early 62 falcons in Argentina where just assembled here but all the parts were imported from USA except:
- battery
- tires
- upholstery

A noticeable difference would be that the speedometer is in kilometers/hour instead of miles...

My 62 -being a late 62 version- allready have many little changes cause they started to substitute parts with local suppliers.
ie:
- engine (as I posted earlier)
- a mix of "languages" in the dashboard: the instrument cluster reads in english but the heaters knobs have spanish labels. The handbrake knob reads "FRENO" instead of "BRAKE"
etc

Talking of parts availability in Argentina, I can say that it's a blessing!
Remember the car is an icon, and it was a best selling many years in it's 30 years life!
Helping with that is the fact that Ford Argentina made few changes from year to year. So I can say that some parts from the 1991 Falcon actually fit my car! And of course many parts from the sixties models are exactly the same that the ones imported for my car. Remember that your 63 model was carried with little changes til 69 in Argentina...

This is a link to an excellent web site describing the falcon saga in Argentina:
http://www.todofalcon.com.ar/modelos.htm

If you look carefully you can see that the seet metal is practically identical from 62 to 91!

All models sold in Argentina where 4 door... Nearly all where inline six: 170, 187, 188 and 221 cubic inches... Total production was about half a million (a lot for Argentina)

There are many falcon clubs here... And also a couple of very active internet forums...

____

Thanks for the comments

Bye

[ew1usnr]

Your Falcon is beautiful!