Freddie comes alive!

[Luva65wagon]

6105

Well, not yet, but just starting a thread to show that something's happening with Freddie now that he's been adopted. Hopefully as I add to this thread it will allow you all to feel like I do as I move Freddie forward.

Of course right now Freddie is still undercover in my carport, but the plans as they currently exist are:

1) Work to resolve the drivability issues.
It's a plain shame how much Gary spent (time and money) to get Freddie running right. Though Gary felt it was pretty good-to-go finally, apart from the dashpot, my feeling is the car has some issues still. A vacuum leak perhaps. I might be wrong, but this is the way I felt it was behaving. After some conversation with Gary it is now known that there is no intake manifold gasket in-use on Freddie - just gasket sealer - and although this might be OK if everything is machined and mated correctly, I will pull the intake off and verify there is no evidence of leakage just for my satisfaction.
2) Dynamat the interior.
I've got a lot of Dynamat coming to probably do Freddie head to toe. That way when I'm playing Doobie Wah on the stereo it will be clear and crisp.
3) Go through all the wiring.
Lots of people ask, "Show me the way" to do wiring, but it's never easy. This is a simple thing for me. I usually always gut the interior and while I'm at it (WIAI™) I pull all the wiring from the car (there really isn't that much in a Falcon) and make sure all the connectors are cleaned and polished and any nicks and cuts are mended. I then add any of my new accessories to the plan and wire these in. Generally I make a custom Ford Looking wire harness these days for each thing I add. As I work to pull apart my wagon, I see how much better at this I've gotten. I've had it since '97 and I've come a long way since then.
4) Carpet
I'll give you money, and you, and you too! That's how these cars go. The carpet is all there, and if I can clean it and reuse it I will, otherwise it will be replaced.
5) Freddie "might be" getting a V8 steering/suspension system.
Because Freddie has 6 cylinder steering and is needing a complete rebuild (it tosses you about with every wind of change), if I'm going to throw money at it I am going to update it to all V8 stuff. Far better and more readily available. Whether I put in the power steering stuff I have, or not, I don't know. I've got to pull all of that out of the shed and look at it. It's all stock '65 stuff, but have never been a fan of it because it's prone to leakage. I also have '65 Mustang disc-brake spindles (ebay) and a new 8" rear-end coming (thank's to Larry "BadBird" Smith). So, the collection of parts has started.
6) #5 requires new wheels and tires.
If I can find some 14" 5-lug wheels, I will reuse the tires. If they are not around I will sell off the rims and tires and hub caps - all are very nice - and do something different. A penny for your thoughts on the direction I should go here.
7) Weatherstripping is all needing to be replaced.
Part and parcel to the Dynamat is to replace all the weatherstripping and window tracks. Some of this I may already have, but others I will need. I'll tell you what I must do when I get there and I don't know when it will be.
8) Seat cushion foams.
The car has buckets and not a bench seat, so all the "All I wanna be is by your side" she might be saying, there will always be this console between us. The seats, though, are shot and I sink to the floor almost. Gary said foam wasn't available when he recovered these, so now it is. I have all the burlap and can fix springs as needed. This will all happen while I'm working on the Dynamat and carpet.
9) Stereo
Because I am pulling my stereo from my wagon, which was very nice, I will consider putting all of this into the car. 1500 watts of pure jumping jack flash! We'll see.
10) Griot's the paint.
The paint's not too bad for a Maaco paint job. I think with some 2000-grit and Griot's polisher this thing is going to Shine On!

So that's the initial list. More to come when it's put into the garage, but man it's no wonder I've got all these lines on my face.

;:)

[SmithKid]

So now WIAI has become WIAI™?!? How did that process go? Do I need permission from you to use it? :confused:

[Luva65wagon]

I need to make some money to pay for all this, so now if anyone does something else while they're at it, I'll get paid a royalty.

One can wish, anyway.

[SmithKid]

Have you decided on the fee for the use of your trademark? This could get costly if I don't keep tight control of my mouth! :eek:

[MacDee]

Numbers 5, 7 and 8 were on my To-Do list until the desire evaporated.
Be careful with number 10; there is NO clear-coat!
I sure hope you find that vacuum leak. I tried for several years before I gave up....
Number 6: I absolutely LOVE the aesthetics of the factory wire-wheel covers with the whitewalls on the hardtop. I went to some lengths to retain that appearance when we did the front disc conversion. Those are '63 Galaxie wheel covers on her now with the original Falcon centers adapted on. That said, she's yours now. Do what you think best!

She.. uh... he has apparently changed gender since changing hands as well. Maybe that's why he was so angry with me! ;)

[Luva65wagon]

Numbers 5, 7 and 8 were on my To-Do list until the desire evaporated.
I hope I get them done before my funds evaporate.

Be careful with number 10; there is NO clear-coat!
I sure hope you find that vacuum leak. I tried for several years before I gave up....
Me too - assuming that is it. I won't give up until I do... give up.

Number 6: I absolutely LOVE the aesthetics of the factory wire-wheel covers with the whitewalls on the hardtop. I went to some lengths to retain that appearance when we did the front disc conversion. Those are '63 Galaxie wheel covers on her now with the original Falcon centers adapted on. That said, she's yours now. Do what you think best!
I remember that and if Steve has the 14" rims he said he had, and these fit, I hope to keep them. With V8 discs I may get forced to 15" wheels though, and if so I'm sure some Falcon owner out there will love and enjoy them.

She.. uh... he has apparently changed gender since changing hands as well. Maybe that's why he was so angry with me! ;)
Freddie is a GIRL! Aahh! Maybe that's why it ended in ie. Never knew a girl named Freddie.

[MacDee]

Freddie is a GIRL! Aahh! Maybe that's why it ended in ie. Never knew a girl named Freddie.

I did a show at a Retirement Center in Woodinville a couple of years ago, and the Marketing Director there was a lovely woman named... Freddie! Apparently was named after her father. He passed away before she was born and her mother had decided to honor him by naming the unborn child after him no matter what gender!

[Luva65wagon]

We don't wanna have-ta deal with no transgendering here. Freddie can remain a girl. I'm an equal opportunity owner, so 'she' will be given the same treatment no matter what.

[Luva65wagon]

Lots of progress on Freddie since the site went down and came back. So lots to update here. After playing musical cars, which was fun...

6106

I got Freddie safely into the garage after finishing up with my depersonalizing the wagon so I can get it listed elsewhere...

6107

I then set out to look into what's up with "her" and her drivability/running issues. After not too much hunting I believe I narrowed it down to flooding. Though I've not looked into the carburetor much, it is pretty evident the car is loading up with fuel.

6110

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I also noticed the Classic Inlines intake on this, unlike most intakes having the carb base leveled out relative to the motor, was the same as the motor...

6108

To address this I picked up a base wedge to get the carburetor back to level. Hopefully this will allow the carburetor float levels to be set correctly, which may help. The plan is to rebuild the carburetor too just to satisfy my mind on that...

6109.

I then moved onto a pretty significant dismantling of Freddie; beginning with all the wiring forward of the front seats... including some unnecessary bits I found up under the dash as well as all the dssh wiring...

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I also pulled all the wiring from the engine compartment and will be making a new harness based upon the parts going back into it...

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While poking around after pulling the intake I did notice some signs of leakage around the freeze plugs and a few of the other fittings (plumbed with Teflon tape - mostly evil stuff in my opinion), so out came the headers and I have a set of brass freeze plugs coming and will remove all the fittings too and seal it all up to my liking.

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I will be repainting the motor black, which is my preferred look. This will make the other cooler items, like the aluminum head and manifold, stand out. Plus it stays cleaner 'looking' longer. Moving the battery to the trunk too - to really show off the motor better.

Nope, not quite done yet...

I then gutted the interior of just about everything in preparation for some floor repairs (thankfully not too bad) and a full Dynamat treatment - under the dash to the trunk. The car will be dead silent after this. Have a new firewall pad and a 2-speed wiper system going in as well as renewing heater. I thought it had been done, but I saw antifreeze in it when I pulled it, so WIAI...

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More to come...

[dhbfaster]

All I can say is....."WOW"

:o

It sure helps when you know what you're doing.

[MacDee]

After not too much hunting I believe I narrowed it down to flooding. Though I've not looked into the carburetor much, it is pretty evident the car is loading up with fuel.

The primary metering plate has oversized Idle Fuel Restriction ports (IFR). Pat did the mod to the metering plate a long time ago. We did this just to get it rich enough to idle with extremely low idle vacuum due to the old cam. It may not be needed with the current cam. It can be "un-modified"... Pat tapped the ports with a 6-32 thread, screwed in 6-32 set screws, and drilled a holes in them one drill-size larger than the original ports. One would only need to screw in new set screws and drill holes in them one drill-size smaller than the holes in the current plate.

It also has richer main jets. In attempting to improve driveability, quite some time ago, I experimented with the jets. I got the best driveability [with the old cam] using #57 jets. I'm assuming that's what's still in there. The carb came with #51's. The goody bag I included has a variety of jets: #53, #55, #59, and of course the original #51's.

[Luva65wagon]

Thanks Gary. I also noticed, but didn't mention, a lot of "black soot" around the secondaries, but not sure yet it that is evident of anything yet. Gene said (while following it home) it was putting out black smoke, which is an indicator. Will focus on that when it's back together.

Spent Saturday fixing the floor. It was getting thin on the drivers side, which turned out to be caused mostly by a huge gap just above the hi/lo headlight switch. Would'a been pouring water in from the DS tire spray. Fortunately ended up being a pretty easy patch. Today started the Dynamat and should have the rest done in the passenger compartment tomorrow or Wednesday...

6117

Did open up the heater box and sure enough the heater core was leaking in the strangest location. So core is getting swapped. The rest is all good and redone.

6118

Went to crawl under it when working on the floor to see a large puddle of tranny fluid. Seems the pan is leaking like a sieve. Add that to the list.

Still feeling comfortable with this, but lots of things have and are happening elsewhere, so wish me luck.

[MacDee]

There is an adjustment for the secondary throttle plates. They're supposed to be just barely cracked open at idle. I know I messed with that many years ago. I do not remember where they ended up. Or if Randy messed with them any more.
Could they be too far open? (Or too far closed?)

[Luva65wagon]

Could they be too far open? (Or too far closed?)

Could be. As much as was done to it, and why it was done, should show itself once I get it running again. I was just so overrun by my OCD I wasn't willing to do anything with the running condition before I did a thorough investigation and rework of all the things I saw staring me down. I am pretty confident at this point it will end up being the carburetor, so I will look at it closely. I'll replace it with something else if I can't make it behave.

Almost done with the Dynamat and the new carpet arrived today, so as soon as I get the firewall pad I'll be going in the reassemble direction.

[Luva65wagon]

Making progress on Freddie. Dynamat is in the passenger compartment all the way from the trunk to up under the dash. Still plan to do the trunk and doors.

6126

Then I set the carpet in to let it relax a couple days.

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The new firewall pad came on Thursday so yesterday I got that put in along with all the carpet.

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I'm going to rework the gas pedal. This is a cable setup, but for some reason it seems to be at a pretty extreme angle when you press on it. May use a stock pedal to push the metal part. Still pondering that. It does sort-of interfere with the newer, thicker, carpet.

Of course, because it is part of Freddie's back-story, the pyramids stay.

6131

Today I spent all day cleaning and prepping the engine bay for paint, and sprayed it satin black. In a couple days I'll reverse the masking and paint the blue around this that didn't get painted when Gary painted the car. Gary supplied me with a pint of interior blue and a pint of exterior blue. The blue I'm struggling with is the color to spray kick panels and other vinyl.

6130

Also assembled the heater box to ready it for installation.

I did determine the cause of some of the steering clunk being the draglink being loose in the idler arm. Had another link, so will pull that apart and hopefully I can pull it all tight again without cost. Though the plan was to do a V8 suspension, things have changed, so that phase is going onto the back burner for a while.

More to come.

[MacDee]

Of course, because it is part of Freddie's back-story, the pyramids stay.


The pyramids were actually under the REAR seat when I got the car. I didn't discover them until I did the seat cover replacement.
I just put them back under the front seats because, by that time, I was too burned out to remove the rear....

The BEST luck will be had, I'm sure, with the pyramids under the rear seat!

[MacDee]

I'm going to rework the gas pedal. This is a cable setup, but for some reason it seems to be at a pretty extreme angle when you press on it. May use a stock pedal to push the metal part. Still pondering that. It does sort-of interfere with the newer, thicker, carpet.

That gas pedal came out of a mid-'70's Galaxie. I'm guessing the Galaxie had a shallower slope to the floorboard. I always thought it felt wierd....
It interfered with the old carpet too. On the "swap weekend" Pat adjusted the throttle cable and determined it was just reaching wide-open throttle with the pedal to the floor. However, the carpet was pulled back at the time. When we put the carpet back down, it wouldn't reach wide-open anymore....
And I never did anything about that.

[Luva65wagon]

That gas pedal came out of a mid-'70's Galaxie. I always thought it felt wierd....It interfered with the old carpet too.

I took the pedal back out and drove the pin out, flipped the pedal over after doing some underside mods, and it's perfect now - I think. Will know more when I have it all hooked up, but it's at a better angle to the floor now, and has the longer side down.

6144

Have been at this now almost 3 weeks and am amazed at all the little things I'm fixing. Pure lack of attention I'm sure wasn't Gary (or hope not). Nearly every fitting, pan, plug, everywhere was leaking. The transmission was leaking in 3 places, so it got a new pan gasket and o-ring in the filler and a rather interesting leak caused by a torn gasket on the modulator.

6140

6139 (Really? This is how Pro's seal up a dipstick tube?)

6142

What tore the gasket on the modulator (though I don't belive it was the correct gasket) was this little nubbin you see near the top of the machined surface. It was brass colored when I filed it away, so I think it was a brazing blob from when they brazed the can to the nut. It would have never sealed and was the cause for the steady drip onto my floor.

6143

There was significant evidence of tranny fluid spraying back onto the exhaust, so I hope this is all resolved. When I pulled the pan gasket, they only (seemed to) have taken a sanding disc and used it to flatten the pan as opposed to using a hammer and dolly to flatten where all the bolts went in.

I also repaired the steering. All the nuts at the idler arm were loose, so I pulled it all apart, cleaned it up, reassembled with a really decent center link, and all tight now.

6141

When I pulled the motor mount to paint everything up, found one bolt was too long. Replaced all 4 with Grade 8 replacements.

6145

Getting a lot of the other parts going back on. New freeze plugs and header gasket shown. This picture doesn't show the mounts on, or the fact I added a belly bar underneath. Water pump, 180* thermostat instead of the 160* version that was in there, reworked all the fittings on intake and head, heater box installed, fuel pump and distributor body.

6146

Tomorrow Gene's coming over to have a look at pulling/swapping the rear leaf springs using a set I got from Larry Smith - assuming they are the same. Fingers crossed.

[dhbfaster]

Holy CR@P that engine compartment is looking sweet.:WHATTHE:

[Luva65wagon]

As I mentioned, Gene was coming over today to swap out the leaf springs, but as it turns out the round body and square body hardtops used different springs. So will have to live with the ones in there for a while. I have a set of Monroe SensaTrac shocks with helper springs on it I'll probably throw in for now.

I then diverted Gene towards removing the exhaust system. I knew going in that it was a temporary thing, so will be reworking it somehow - if just to weld everything instead of 12 sets of clamps. But I really want this to have a more throaty sound, so I'm definitely getting new mufflers. I like the sound of Borla's, but they are expensive and don't do anything smaller than 2.25" pipe. So, we'll be looking around.

While crawling around down-under I noticed the rear brake hose/line connection, which is supposed to be on a hanger, was flapping around in the breeze. Almost looked like it was removed to clear either the exhaust or the rear seat belt mount bolt. Anyway, that got fixed.

The greatest discovery of the day was my investigation into why one cylinder was not just sooty, but very wet/oily too. So I popped the valve cover and had a look. It appears that the valve stem seals on #2 were both off their guides allowing the intake vacuum to suck oil down the guide. As was the intake on #5. So I pulled the rocker rail and pulled the springs and pushed them back down and over the guide. I suspect this is going to be short-lived, but if it happens again I'll be replacing all of those. I think, or so it seems, the inner spring is too small for these to fully clear and they are getting grabbed and lifted up.

Spent the rest of the day working to get the new master cylinder in, but I need a new line to the passenger front after finding what looked like a deep gouge in it in the center. And I need to get a new 3-way tee as I'm converting to an inside brake switch.

The fun continues next week.

[MacDee]

...the inner spring is too small for these to fully clear and they are getting grabbed and lifted up.


Inner spring??
I had compound (dual) valve springs in it, and I think that may have contributed to the cam/lifter failure. I don't know what was done in the Long's rebuild, but I had assumed they had just put in conventional (single) springs. The receipts show new valve springs. Randy Long's machinist did the head rebuild. I don't know if Randy assembled the head, or if his machinist did.
In any case, if it still has dual springs... I would be very anxious about continuing with them... If I were you....

[Luva65wagon]

They're very light inner springs, so not so worried about that. I read about needing smooth edge .500 seals if using inner springs, but not sure these are that. I'm just going to watch them to see what happens. You need to have a certain amount of spring pressure and I'm hoping these professionals knew what they were doing deep inside, but based upon the stuff I can see outside... I'm not so certain about that.

I'm not freaking or anything. Just shaking my head often and thinking who else is getting this level of service from these guys. I'm thinking of doing this sort of work for my new job. Seems like there's a need.

[Luva65wagon]

Have been hard at it - though with a few interruption days mixed in. Mostly a lot of cleaning and painting things to prep them for reinstall. Here's a few pics with text explaining them.

Here's the steering column being repainted, and then installed with some major reworking on the turn signal wires - as it seems they had been routed into a much smaller hole up top. Once I redid those the rest went quickly. New rubber sheet at the floor made from an inner-tube I had.

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Also repainted the shift lever and turn signal lever.

6186

I then shifted to putting in the new brake lines and master cylinder. I'm converting to a pedal mounted brake switch to eliminate the hydraulic switch under the hood. It's in pictures like this I think I should have employed my firewall/engine bay secret weapon (AKA Gene).

6183

I cleaned up the horns and one didn't work, so I studied it a bit and made the repair needed. Both work now.

6182

Then I thought I need to fix that cutting torch hole in the shock tower, so I made it rounder to fit this plug.

6188

And I stripped the fan and gave it 4 coats of 7777 Satin Black. Not powder coat I know...

6187

Today I rebuilt the carburetor and determined the things that were done to it. I left the change Patrick made, for now (lacking a pair of new brass 6-32 set screws to drill), but did go back to the #51 jets as a new starting point. It was running ultra rich when I got it, so this will get a new set-point to move forward from.

6180

Mounted the dashpot and operated it with no "mechanical" issues. It functions as a dashpot should. Did seem the kick-down was set way early too, so that was adjusted. Need to run the cable to the pedal again and make a heater hose bracket and tower brace strap - as I'll be running the heater hose between the carb and valve cover.

6181

You can now see from this angle the wedge plate keeps the carburetor level relative to the angle of the motor.

6179

After I mount a few other items I'll be moving to the wiring harnesses and reworking all of them to fit the new arrangements being made.

:sawzall:

[pbrown]

Today I rebuilt the carburetor and determined the things that were done to it. I left the change Patrick made, for now (lacking a pair of new brass 6-32 set screws to drill), but did go back to the #51 jets as a new starting point. It was running ultra rich when I got it, so this will get a new set-point to move forward from.



I'll pull out my small carb tools and blanks so you can tune the idle circuit. You can use my wideband O2 tool as well. Gary had an O2 bung welded in for this purpose if I remember correctly. I think Gene still has the wideband tool.

[Luva65wagon]

Thanks Patrick. I assume you have "blank" 6-32 set screws or know where you got those from? Do you know the stock hole size? According to Gary I would need to just go smaller one size, which I take to mean # drill size.

And yes there "was" a bung, but I'm redoing the exhaust so right now there is nothing under there. I will put one back in, and yes, Gene mentions often of still having your wideband tool.

I just wish Holley gaskets didn't have glue on them. You can no longer pull them apart without using all new gaskets.

Also, though I think we debated this long ago, there were two screws missing in the base plate on this carburetor. I noted when pulling the secondary plate off the back side the large cavity behind those plates was fuel logged. The missing screws were just below this and the similar spot up in the front. These screw holes were also in the vacuum paths. So... I put some in. May have no bearing, but should have really plotted that out WIWAI.

:confused:

[Luva65wagon]

Also, though I think we debated this long ago, there were two screws missing in the base plate on this carburetor.

I guess I should have Googled. These screws are left out because they could fall out into the engine. Hmm! :doh:

[pbrown]

Thanks Patrick. I assume you have "blank" 6-32 set screws or know where you got those from? Do you know the stock hole size? According to Gary I would need to just go smaller one size, which I take to mean # drill size.

And yes there "was" a bung, but I'm redoing the exhaust so right now there is nothing under there. I will put one back in, and yes, Gene mentions often of still having your wideband tool.

I just wish Holley gaskets didn't have glue on them. You can no longer pull them apart without using all new gaskets.

Also, though I think we debated this long ago, there were two screws missing in the base plate on this carburetor. I noted when pulling the secondary plate off the back side the large cavity behind those plates was fuel logged. The missing screws were just below this and the similar spot up in the front. These screw holes were also in the vacuum paths. So... I put some in. May have no bearing, but should have really plotted that out WIWAI.



I have plenty of blanks. I don't remember the size. I have a set of tiny drill bits and a pin vise. I also have a set of Holley style reusable gaskets. Maybe they will fit that carb. You can check.

[Luva65wagon]

I guess I should have Googled my Googling. The screws that were missing on Freddie were those holes circled in RED, whereas the ones they say to leave out are those holes circled in Yellow. So I will pull the carburetor and verify what is really exposed. And, as you can see, the ones in RED are right in the vacuum paths and may have (I suppose) allowed for some vacuum leaks, or worse. Will need to study that more.

Image off Internet, not Freddie's.

6190

[pbrown]

I have a box of carb tuning parts and tools in my car. I'll bring them to the meeting tonight. Hopefully they can help you get this thing dialed in.

[Luva65wagon]

I have a box of carb tuning parts and tools in my car. I'll bring them to the meeting tonight. Hopefully they can help you get this thing dialed in.

Hopefully. Thanks again.

I did some vacuum checking with a vacuum tool to see if I could pull a vacuum on the two holes that should have had bolts, but didn't. I could on the secondary hole, but not on the primary side hole, which means it, being where it is, was a source for a vacuum leak - a big one. And I think it feeds to where the power valve is too, so who knows the effect of manifold vacuum on that spot. So I removed the two bolts with the red X and left the others.

6191

I then moved to the shift lever at the transmission, which has been bugging me. I hadn't looked too close at it until today, but what I was seeing from above was confirmed; they may have extended it as Gary asked them to, but what a stupid mess. They were enlisting only friction to hold this lever in place - and though I have one nut off, you can see on the end of the lever they didn't tighten the bolt behind the Heim joint. So it was a sloppy mess. Just a mess.

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So I used the extension they made and welded dog ears to it to wrap the edge of the transmission lever to keep it from ever rotating. And bolted it hard to the lever. I may shorten the bolt, but couldn't pull it out easily. It's not interfering with anything. I then used the shortest setup I could for the other hole. After a few adjustments, and new grommet in the shift lever on the column, it is working OK now.

6194

The extension was a bit too short so the lever was centered in neutral to offset the error somewhat, but it goes into all gears good. The pawl in the column and the pointer marker is for the 2-speed automatic, so it's all relative anyway.

What next....:cool:

[MacDee]

Wow, Roger! You have accomplished more in just a few weeks than I would have able to do for the rest of my life!! I am in awe...
[BOW]


The pawl in the column and the pointer marker is for the 2-speed automatic...

On swap day... seven years ago... you were so busy with other tasks that you probably didn't realize I swapped those out for 3-speed versions.

Go, Roger, GO!

[Luva65wagon]

Prior to starting the wiring I pulled the e-brake parts out and got them repainted and redone. The handle is one I made for the wagon, but swapped it out so I could keep it. Took me a few hours to make, made out of solid steel, so decided to keep it. Freddie is the new recipient.

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Gene came over Friday and put in some new rear shocks for me. I had a set of new Monroe SensaTrack shocks that have overload springs, which I pulled off the Ranchero. As you may recall I wanted to swap out the leaf springs, but the ones I got from Larry were too long, so because the whole 5-lug swap is on hold, maybe these will help with Freddie's sagging underside.

6211

Then onto the wiring. I'm making a hybrid 63 and 65 wiring for this. Thankfully I save, and look for, wiring harnesses to scavenge from. You need lots of bits and pieces to do this sort of thing.

6207

There are some advantages to moving up a couple years in wiring. The main one being the better fuse placement - OFF the headlight switch! I'll use the 65 headlight switch. I'm adding in a couple extra power terminals as well as another remote fuse block on switched power.

Some of the other differences are that the horn on a 63 uses a under-hood switch, which I will maintain (horn button carries ground circuit, not being the 12v switch itself). Also the 63 turn signal wires use bullet connectors and the 65 use a Molex style connector. To maintain the 63 horn and the turn signal switch, I had to change all the wires going to the column. I also removed the pink resistor wire since Freddie has aftermarket ignition (mostly) and can use full 12v there. Also the 65 harness has the internal brake light switch connector, which I prefer.

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So here's the finished harness. I also reworked the under-hood harness to feed the starter solenoid, heater motor, and sending units (if I use them). Not sure on the later.

6209

So the next wires to do are the other under-hood wires going forward to the headlights and horns. With the one-wire alternator there will not be as many wires used in this - and I am adding the headlight relays I removed from the wagon too (stuffed into a stock regulator can). More on that when I put it all in.

6210

Getting closer!

[Luva65wagon]

Quick 'it's been a week' update on Freddie.

I got all the wiring reworked during the week and am awaiting some of those wire harness straps so I can route it all and snap some pics of it all wrapped up. Sadly I know I have some of those straps here, but heck if I can find 'em. So for now I wait.

In the meantime I started putting all the bits in the dash I can. I'm going to put the original radio back in the dash, so I decided to clean it up the best I can and see if it works. It works as good as a 1963 AM radio can!

6221

Also, one of my signature "Falcon" changes is to split out the turn signals. Easy enough to do except for the high-beam indicator. Learned from doing it wrong on Steve's car to make sure to use an LED for this so the speedo pointer doesn't whack into it at 42MPH.

6222 6223 6224

While I wait for stuff I'm clearing out the trunk to do look-over and apply more DynaMat back there. Going to convert to a trunk-fill for the gas, but want to make sure the tank is sound as well. Gary said it was POR-15'ed, but not sure if that was external or internal. I know using a Mustang tank helps with this conversion too, so as cheap and abundant they are - that may happen.

[MacDee]

Gary said it was POR-15'ed, but not sure if that was external or internal. I know using a Mustang tank helps with this conversion too, so as cheap and abundant they are - that may happen.
It was internal. I did it the first winter I had the car (2001-2002). There was a puncture from damage on the top of the tank, so it needed to be sealed.
Probably a good idea to replace the tank. No idea how long a Por-15 repair will last!

[Luva65wagon]

Thanks Gary. I'm sure a new tank makes sense after 54 years no matter what.

Got the trunk all cleaned and what minimal rust there was has been addressed. Seems the drivers side had the most, but it was worse under than outside, so I had to patch a few larger holes on the inner left-rear wheel well. DynaMat back there is next.

[Luva65wagon]

Man... crawling into a trunk is not fun! That's where I've been the past few days. But it is all fixed-up and ready to go. Still going to swap the filler when the original gas cap arrives to use as a mock cap. The original trunk mat sort of didn't survive being pulled out this time, so it got replaced. It's in there relaxing, but may come out one last time when I do the filler neck change. I'm torn about changing the tank right now.

Though DynaMat does wonders to deaden a car, it's not the prettiest stuff; so I made some wheel tub covers out of some sound insulation I had. Needed to make a template to get the shape right...

6225

Also made some to go up against the rear quarters. Just cleaned it all up.

6226

Here's the trunk mat. Summit racing of all places was the cheapest and it got here in 2 days.

6227

I got all the stuff I need to do the engine compartment wiring install, so that is next in line after I make a new back seat bulk-head panel, which will be out of masonite and sealed off a bit better. Keep those trunk fumes in the trunk.

[pbrown]

Working in the trunk is a lot easier without the tank... just sayin' ;)

It's coming together nicely.

[Luva65wagon]

Working in the trunk is a lot easier without the tank... just sayin' ;)

Don't think I didn't contemplate that...

I'm reaching that milestone where things have mostly all been reworked now and stuff is going in at a faster pace. Gene was over at about 5PM today helping.

Last night I pulled the radiator up onto the rack to begin the process of straitening all the fins. It was a mess. I guess this happens when you have to pull the motor out a few times.

6228

Nearly 3 hours to get them all straight, but looks gooder now.

6229

I am relocating the battery to the trunk and that left a hole in the front I thought would look good, but it dawned on me that there were slots in the core support to, I guess, cool the battery, and thought that would be a great cold-air feed source. So I changed to the long plenum and snorkel air filter. Still have a lot to do, but the lions-share of the engine bay is in-place.

6230 6231 6232

Anyway, I'm trying to do it justice and make it live up to the vision Gary may have originally had for it. And Gary, I hope you'll be up for going for a ride in it when I'm done.

[dhbfaster]

Holy cow Roger...that is looking good.

[Luva65wagon]

Holy cow Roger...that is looking good.

Says the guy who set the bar! :p

Like you were, I'm looking forward to being done. And hoping I've fixed something along the way. Fingers crossed.

[ew1usnr]

Cool! It even has your famous heater hose strap!

[MacDee]

And Gary, I hope you'll be up for going for a ride in it when I'm done.

YES, PLEASE!! [thumb]
Deb wants to come, too. She'd always hoped to ride in her and not say "What's that noise... are we going to get there?"

[Luva65wagon]

Cool! It even has your famous heater hose strap!

Well of course. In this case, it, along with the bracket I made, keeps the heater hose out of the throttle cable.

The strap is a Ford thing, in case anyone cares; I just choose to make my own. These have even been sent across the country!

:BEER:

[Luva65wagon]

YES, PLEASE!! [thumb]
Deb wants to come, too. She'd always hoped to ride in her and not say "What's that noise... are we going to get there?"

OK Gary, you're on. And I guess I better really shake it out beforehand if Debra is coming!: Needless to say I don't think, at this point, a bolt or nut will be left untouched. I know of a few that are loose I need to get to.

Next I will be reworking the transmission cooling lines and measuring for some exhaust work. Plan to have true 2" dual to the rear. It had dual exhaust but whoever made the x-pipe actually made the passage smaller, or as small, as a single pipe.

I was shut down at the first exhaust place I went to to make me something to replace that. They'd only make something if they had the car there. Hope I can get a couple S-shapes made to get something good enough to run it and get it to a shop to make a final setup. I noted, also, both the rear brake line and hose and the axle-tube vent were disconnected, and dangling, to install the last exhaust. Both of those have been put back into place and any new work will have to route correctly though that maze.

The fun continues.

[Jeff W]

I have to take credit for the dangly vent tube. My apologies:rolleyes::rolleyes:

[MacDee]

I have to take credit for the dangly vent tube. My apologies:rolleyes::rolleyes:

No, I remember you told me to fix it! But I never did... :o

[Jeff W]

No, I remember you told me to fix it! But I never did... :o

Yes, I was surprised it wasn't the top item on your list :ROTFLMAO:

[Luva65wagon]

And here I am trying to figure out how I can extract that credit from y'all.

:bicker:

After 9 weeks of waiting the seat foam finally arrived today!

:banana:

Bending the transmission cooling lines are nearly complete. I'm trying to make them as though from the factory. Hehe.

:ROTFLMAO:

:sawzall:

[Luva65wagon]

Bending the transmission lines and getting them to lay where I wanted them was a pain, but 4 hours later I finally got them where they needed to be.

6233 6234

Gene needed my help today welding in his new traction bars, but afterward we swung by a muffler shop I had scoped out and the guy there was very helpful and willing to make parts for me from my provided artwork, unlike the DanFast Muffler shop guys who simply were not willing to do anything without the car being there. So I've got the main exhaust mocked up with only minimal tweaks to what he made from my sketches. A couple hangers and it will do. When it's driving again I will take it back to him for tail-pipes.

This muffler shop (A1 in Everett) isn't much to look at, but he was fair and willing; and today that goes a long way.

6235

Gosh, only a couple things to do before Freddie does come alive again.

[Luva65wagon]

Freddie has come back to life again today. She's running pretty well, in fact. Way different than before, that is for sure. I wasn't really at the point where I was thinking I would start her today, but I couldn't stop looking for the missing radio knobs to put the original radio back in (nearly 10 hours spent hunting where I put them). I'm beginning to think I imagined their existence. So I shifted to doing a temporary hook up of the battery and tested for shorts and after finding the horn circuit is faulty somehow, I disconnected the relay and tested everything else. After certain there were no hidden gremlins I fired her up. After some timing and minor carb adjustments she just purred.

So onto finishing up my part of the exhaust. Most of any noise I don't like is from the pipes rattling on the jack stands. I'm also trying to decide whether to do an h-pipe or just leave it alone. Leaning towards adding one. And have to add a bung for a sensor.

Very pleased I have resolved the engine run condition. Hopefully all the other work pays off as well.

I shot some video, so will try to upload it later and post a link.

[Luva65wagon]

Hopefully this link works. Yeah, seems to.

https://youtu.be/sGyvB9o2Xoo

I wasn't wanting to rev it up too much because the exhaust was just barely attached and rattling pretty bad. Once I finished the test run I pulled the battery and exhaust back out and went to work on the H-pipe and cutting the O2 sensor bung out of the old exhaust pipe - and then welded it all up. That did me in for the day.

[SmithKid]

Congrats! I SERIOUSLY like the sound of six cylinders with dual exhaust!

[dhbfaster]

Man...lookin and sounding good Roger!
It was making my iPad shake.:3g::3g::3g:

[ew1usnr]

Dang. That engine sounds smooth. You have a winner!

[Luva65wagon]

Thanks guys, but I've listened to these videos I have and none do it justice. It sounds really good in person. So if you think what you hear sounds good, then what you will hear (those within ear-shot, anyway) will really impress you. Gary, I think, will know better than anyone if it sounds good now, or not.

:shift:

[MacDee]

Gary, I think, will know better than anyone if it sounds good now, or not.

YEAH it sounds good!! :rocker:

I marvel that it doesn't try to quit when you let off the gas. Did you actually get the dashpot to work, or do you think the problem was just the way-too-rich jets I had in there?

[Luva65wagon]

I really fought to determine the route to access the fast idle screw, because it was way fast. Once I did adjust that, and let it cool enough to test, I was happy with that.

Yes, the dashpot is functional and adjusted pretty close. Will know better when it's on the road whether it can use a bit more decel assist.

I'm still leaning towards the vacuum leak caused by the two misplaced screws, but it is idling way lower than I could adjust it to before. When I get the exhaust done and battery mounted, I'll start it up dead cold and see where It's at. Stay tuned.

[MacDee]

I really fought to determine the route to access the fast idle screw,...

1. Remove carburetor.
2. Turn screw.
3. Install carburetor.
4. Do cold start.
5. If you don't like the result, Return to step 1.

That was the only route I could find! :mad:

[Luva65wagon]

The right length screwdriver and the correct path (it's hard to find feeling upside-down and backwards, but the path is there nevertheless) I can adjust it without doing all of that. Also leaned the choke out a bit as it came on again fairly soon.

Now if only I could find those radio knobs! :doh:

[pbrown]

Hey! What's going on? I need my Freddie fix.... :)

[dhbfaster]

9 days since last update? Hopefully there have been no deaths in the family or medical problems....otherwise:
:~:

[Luva65wagon]

I did take a few days off to go down and visit my mom in Oregon, but otherwise I'll blame the Easter Bunny.

I've been changing my mind on some things regarding direction and have decided to go back to battery under the hood. I had a new tray to replace the one that had rotted away, so that got put in yesterday. This change meant I needed a riser for the air plenum to direct it over the motor towards the driver-side. That riser came yesterday and doesn't fit the Holley without a slight modification, so will finish that change today.

Exhaust is in for what I'm going to do myself. Tailpipes will get done in a shop.

I'm going to install the same radio Gary had in it (since the original Radio knobs vanished into the ether) but will upgrade the system a bit with a amp in the trunk and kick panel speakers and dash speakers pulled from my wagon, but nothing like I was going to do. K.I.S.S!

Gene is swinging by this morning to help me bleed the brakes, and with that done I will start the seat rebuilding. New foam has arrived and will really help firm Freddie up in important places.

Hopefully that satisfies an addiction or two. Will post some pictures soon.

[Luva65wagon]

I find myself getting distracted often and doing lots of tedious little things, but nothing to speak much of, or photograph.

As I await to hear back from Patrick on radio stuff I've moved on to doors, which I have been avoiding. I took the passenger door apart to first fix the lock Gary said was undone, which it was, but of course that opened a whole can of WIAI™ that used up the rest of evening. I removed the rear glass channel (not fun) and put some new felt in it; it had gone metal-on-metal. Then pulled the door weatherstripping, cleaned the interior of the door, cleaned up some surface rust issues - and then applied POR-15 to treat it all. Also POR-15'd the lower door panel track. Fortunately the exposed chrome was all very good and no POR-15 should be evident, but caught it just in time. I'll eventually paint all this and other areas that didn't get the new blue before putting on the new door weatherstripping.

I did finish up my part of the exhaust, as I mentioned, and this is what it's like until I get it to the shop.

6248

After installing the new battery tray and relocating the air plenum towards the driver side, this is the way it will be.

6249

I ran it again when Gene was here to help bleed the brakes, and it sounds and runs really nice. Tailpipes will be better, but it's very cool sounding. Oh so close to being done.

:~:

[pbrown]

There is a mandrel bent tailpipe kit that works well on the Falcon.

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/flo-15807/overview/year/1965/make/ford/model/mustang

It 2.5" and is for early V8 Mustangs. You can use reducers to connect these to whatever size muffler you have.

[Luva65wagon]

There is a mandrel bent tailpipe kit that works well on the Falcon

I used similar on the Ranchero. I'm wanting to have them bent to fit, I think.

Thanks for dropping off the radio. I was in the garage when you came, but now that I have it I'm in a quandary. It has no option other than using their CD player, whereas the one Gary had, with the cassette deck, had a cassette adapter for aux in. So, which to use... Going to see if I can trace out the connector to see which three wires are left/right/ground for LL-input.

I spent the past couple days working on the doors to get them ready for some touch-up painting, as well as the fender/cowl. Sadly the paint Gary supplied as touch-up was not exactly the same shade. Not sure why. As I was working on the door jambs I saw the same color there, but sprayed over stickers and hardware. So all that got cleaned up and I resprayed - here came that color again. Oh well; looks better than before and maybe nobody will notice. I can now put on the remaining new parts; i.e., seals and other rubber parts. Seats will come after that... and that will do it for this round.

[pbrown]

I see what you mean on the color. It looks too green.

Regarding that radio. The company makes other adapters that interface with the CD in port. They sell a new BlueTooth kit for ~$80. I had an iPod kit with the older style Apple connector but that's pretty dated. As a stand alone it's only good for basic AM/FM.

You may be able to build your own aux in if you can figure our the CD port pinout.

[Luva65wagon]

Now that I got all the touch-up painting done I was able to put the new cowl seal and hood bumpers on with cleaned-up bolts. I also scrubbed the underside of the hood to make it presentable.

6271

One thing I discovered when I first opened the hood on Freddie was the absence of the safety catch for the hood. So today I made one...

6267

...so this could hook onto it...

6268

...like this...

6269

...in case the hood came un-done while driving it will catch like this...

6270

I also removed the hood pin to straighten the the nut in the hood since the pin was askew. While the pin was off I lowered the hood to check alignment and adjusted that somewhat and set the front rubber bumper stops. Once adjusted I reattached the pin and safety and set the latch. When that was all good I put the grille on after getting it cleaned and straightened up again. Freddie is nearing to be Freddie again.

6266

[pbrown]

It looks great Roger. You do know that you need to paint the bottom side of the hood now. [thumb]

[Luva65wagon]

I'm thinking something Peter Maxx like to keep with the era. I don't want a sea of aqua greenish blue.

:doh:

[Luva65wagon]

I'm officially down to one thing - the seats. Gene stopped by for a visit on Thursday and I asked if he'd take them apart so I could start the work on them when I was done with the interior work. He was happy to, so this is where they sit awaiting that. Should be able to stat that on Monday, and hopefully they go fast. I've got all new foam for them and new burlap. The springs all seem to be unbroken.

6279

Since my last update I DynaMat'd the doors and reinstalled the door panels and speakers Gary had installed into it. The kick panels with speaker holes were in my wagon and I painted them up and installed some decent speakers I had laying around and chased the wires to the back where I've got an amp installed (got it in a free box at a garage sale!). When I was done with all of that I installed new weatherstripping on the doors. I do have a couple rubber things to install in the window track just above and behind the wing window.

6280

While I was running the power wire to said amp, I pulled the defroster tube off to better access the place I was bringing that wire through the firewall - and out fell the zip-loc baggie holding the radio knobs. I guess I put that baggie on the dash while the defrost cover was still off and down they went. At least I know I'm not going crazy... about that anyway.
:doh:
So I sort'a went back to my original plan to add a better radio, which happens to be a marine radio I got at an estate sale. I'm sorry Patrick for having you drive all the way up north, so I owe you one. If you don't want the radio back, I'll make sure to donate it to someone else who's in need.

6281 6282

I see a test drive in the very near future! [yay]

[dhbfaster]

Wow, great progress Roger. Love the updates. It's amazing how much you are
Getting done. :3g:

[MacDee]

Sadly the paint Gary supplied as touch-up was not exactly the same shade. Not sure why.

I know why....
When I got the car painted (Maaco in 2003?), I opted not to pay the extra $$ to get the sills and underhood painted. Boy do I regret that decision!! I did get them to give me a little bottle of the paint. I was intending on painting the sills and hood myself, but I never got around to it. The bottle sat in the console for seven years.
As the swap approached, I was desperate, again, to have some paint to paint the sills, etc. The bottle, by that time, was nearly solidified. I don't remember what I did, but I managed to get enough paint out of it to spread some onto a piece of metal with a brush. I took that to Wesco and had them mix up a pint to match that. That's the paint you used. It had been sitting in my backyard shed, unopened, for six years. I had no idea if it was usable or not. I suspected not, but gave it to you anyway. I was most surprised that you were able to use it, and I am very sorry (and embarrassed) that it doesn't match. At least now there's a story behind it....
Admittedly, I have a slight color-blindness, but I thought it just looks grayer than the rest of the car. I don't see the green...
:confused:

[Luva65wagon]

I was most surprised that you were able to use it, and I am very sorry (and embarrassed) that it doesn't match.

Color matching is tough when you have paint that has mostly dried up. Some pigments would have settled out of the mix just sitting there. I'm surprised it was even as close as it was. And yes, it mixed up and sprayed just fine. Sealed as it was.

I'm OK with it, but not so much to use it to paint the whole under-hood. I'd probably go get a color match from off the car. Maybe... if it gets another full respray to make it all the same.

Again, appreciate the history.

[Luva65wagon]

Oh my gosh; and pardon my language, but these seats are kicking my butt!
What a pain! Getting the covers off of just one set took about 2 hours - mostly just to find all the hidden hog-rings. Once you get the covers off, this is what you see...

6294 6295 6297

Also noticed one seat hinge had been repaired by someone making a whole new hinge. Seems OK, so not going to do anything with it at this point.

6296

I then ran some new burlap strips over the each piece.

6298 6299

These are my first seat cushion replacements, so wasn't sure how they'd go, but getting hog-rings onto the listing wires was impossible. The new foam isn't made the same way as the originals, so I made these long tie-wires to hook over the listing wires on the inside of the covers and pull them into the cracks of the seat foam.

6300 6301

I then gently pulled the vinyl over the cushions and then came the fun of compressing the (I'm sure it is extra-thick) foam enough to get the hog-rings installed. The seat-base was easier than the seat-back was - by a long-shot, but eventually got it all on. After I took the picture of the seat-back I found I needed to stretch the cover a bit more, so I'm still about an hour away from finishing one set and get it into the car. 9 hours and counting!

6302 6303

[Luva65wagon]

Did I mention how these seats are kicking my butt? Killing my hands, fingers! But I am learning some secrets should I ever want to take on upholstery again. Won't be my first choice for a new career.

To give y'all an idea of what I'm working with here are a couple pictures of the seat-back foam - old and new:

6304 6305

The foam, you see, is very thick. The seat bottom isn't too much different, though a bit thicker, the seat back nearly negates the springs by compressing them fully. To get the cover on I needed to fully tie-down the springs and once the covers were on and hog-ringed I then cut the tie wires. And using my heat gun to soften the covers really helped too.

So here is the driver seat in and I should have the other seat assembled and installed tomorrow.

6306 6307

Though technically that nearly completes the list, I noticed when I drove it home, and when I reinstalled the steering wheel, the alignment for steering wheel centering was off quite a bit. So while it's still in the air I'm going to shift the wheels to the right while maintaining steering wheel center. Oh, and I still have to do the fuel tank fill modification, which is all done, just not installed. These two things should go pretty quick.

[Luva65wagon]

Well... it's fully assembled again. That much is true, though not with a little two-steps forward, one step back thrown my way a couple times; the most recent being the water pump leaking. So that got swapped this morning.

6315

Last night I added the trunk fill and put the stock gas cap on, but you can't unscrew it from the outside.

6318 6317

Of course, though I'm sure these seat hinge covers can be bought new - I forgot to order anything for these. So instead I mended a couple cracks and sprayed them. They look pretty good.

6316

Seats feel really firm now. Quite a difference between sitting on the floor as the old seat foam didn't do a bit towards eliminating that.

6314

So, am I done? Not quite. Though Freddie starts quickly and runs really well - there is something not quite right yet. Though it idles beautifully... when I drop it into reverse, or drive, it's both a pretty hard shift, and then stumbles and dies. I can feather the gas and keep it running, but I've not spent enough time checking other things yet. I'm not yet sure why there is such a harsh shift into gear though. That concerns me. It almost seems wrong to me. I'm going to call Hughes (the torque converter maker) on Monday to get some specs on the part they made for Gary. I couldn't find anything in what he provided other than a part number. There may be something in the notes given me, but have to read those again to see if there was anything pertaining to the transmission issues. The way that transmission leaked like a sieve, I hope the internals were done better. Would not be able to afford a transmission right now. And if I could it would not be an automatic.

But she sounds and looks good. If I can only get the going part working now!

[Luva65wagon]

Having nearly no working experience with performance automatics - apart from adding a few shift kits to improve shifting - the concept of what a stall converter does, and doesn't do, has as many interpretations as there are web sites. I found the following explanation I believe may be one of the most logical I've read. So it gives me some things to try while I await a call from Hughes Performance who made the torque converter.

http://www.onallcylinders.com/2015/12/04/ask-away-with-jeff-smith-cam-size-and-its-role-in-torque-converter-selection/

[BadBird]

I read that material. I already knew all of that. :ROTFLMAO:
Just kidding. I now have a headache.
I am really amazed at what engineering goes into these parts and usage. In rebuilding the C4 that I originally had in my Falcon, it fascinated me to no end. Larry

[Luva65wagon]

After chatting with the Hughes guy (though he didn't offer any help, only specs) - I now know it has a 2500 stall converter.

I used the information from that page I posted yesterday and a timing 101 sheet Gary had in his files, and after a few tweaks Freddie appears to be running as I would have expected all along. I then checked timing curves. Though shifting is still somewhat harsh into reverse, I believe that is just a condition of the rear-end taking up play. Going into drive is not harsh at all. It no longer stalls when going from park or neutral into gear and only drops a couple hundred RPM and not the 500 RPM as before, then dying.

So what I initially did was just to increase base timing to 15 and that allowed it to go into gear. Vacuum is hovering only around 15 inches max, but drops to about 7 in gear. But it ran!

I also noticed total mechanical advance was up into the high 40's, which would be a bad thing. And mechanical advance was coming in at a very low RPM, like below idle it was having an effect. So I pulled the distributor apart and found the mechanical weight stop in the 18L spot (you double that to deter what the max advance will be, or in this case 36 degrees mechanical). Add that to a base of 15 (or even 10) and you have 46-51 total advance! Yikes! So I rotated everthing to the 13L side, pulled the distributor flipped the rotor around 180 degrees (you have to do this when you change the max advance stops) and now I can see normal peak advance with mechanical limited to only 26. With the 10 baseline that's 36 total advance. Also had two light springs allowing very quick ramp up to max mechanical advance; like max reached by 2500 RPM. So put back in one heavy spring to see how that was.

Seems very normal now, but driving it may cause some adjustments to happen.

Plus, there is a huge debate about using manifold versus ported vacuum for vacuum advance. Shifting into gear with a base timing near 10 will only happen right when using manifold vacuum, which increases timing at idle to about 20 degrees. So that's where it is. From what I've read these differ only at idle, so we'll see.

Next comes a road test. Maybe tomorrow if I can get cars swapped around.

[yay]

[MacDee]

Roger, I am glad that you've attacked the distributor. I did some radical stuff in there (as you've discovered) to try to get driveability back when I was struggling just to get it to run! With the new build, I was certain the "curve" I had put in wasn't needed... indeed was probably dangerous... and I wanted to go un-do it. I just couldn't psych myself up....
I feel much better now!
Go, Roger, GO!

[dhbfaster]

:confused::confused::NERVOUS::NERVOUS:
Wow, my brain must be too tired for all that tonight....

Looking forward to the road test report though!
Take some video if you can.
:shift:

[Luva65wagon]

Roger, I am glad that you've attacked the distributor. I did some radical stuff in there (as you've discovered) to try to get driveability back when I was struggling just to get it to run! With the new build, I was certain the "curve" I had put in wasn't needed... indeed was probably dangerous... and I wanted to go un-do it. I just couldn't psych myself up....
I feel much better now!
Go, Roger, GO!

Gary, I didn't see anything ultimately dangerous. Would have only been if the driver ignored the rocks rattling around in the motor climbing hill or accelerating hard. I only found double light springs, and maybe some extra-bent spring posts. Because the heavy spring was longer than the lighter one I chose the spacing that matched the spring length, as a starting point. The distributor really should just go somewhere to be curved, but I'll do that only if I find it suffers greatly.
FWIW, After watching your struggles all these years and wanting to be able to help, but knowing it was just out of my reach to help you, I feel much better now too seeing it come to life and light.


:confused::confused::NERVOUS::NERVOUS:
Wow, my brain must be too tired for all that tonight....

Looking forward to the road test report though!
Take some video if you can.
:shift:

It's been an education, for sure. I relish this sort of challenge though, so to me it's all good. But getting straight answers... from places such as this, a forum on the Internet... leaves a bit to be desired. But if you dig enough and read enough you start to find the things that make sense and discard the rest.

I wanted to test drive it today, but a trip to the dump... which ended up being a trip alright... made for a long day not test driving the car. So, with the weather on the change again, we'll see how and when that happens. It's that dang-ed musical car problem.

[Luva65wagon]

I keep finding little things to do as the weather fights me to put everything out in the rain. Yesterday I replaced the sway bar and bushings with one I had laying around and today I addressed the one last leak I was putting off until the end - the drain plug on the oil pan. And just like almost everything else, I look at this and scratch my head...

6341

I guess if one washer is good, two worn out ones are better. Not. Why wouldn't the folks who changed the oil last (and it wasn't Gary) address this? Like the transmission leaks I found.

And I'm also surprised at how filthy the oil was for something with so few miles, and all relatively new. And it seems to me it was not that many miles (according to the notes I read) that this oil was changed... or was it?

6342

I got a wild hair last night and laid on my back and nearly scrubbed the entire underside of the car. There was so much oil residue under there from all these leaks, but I guess it kept it all from rusting - the paint was all pretty good except where I fixed a couple minor rust issues on the driver side. No picture of this, but it came out very nicely.

So here it is all defrocked of covers and spare parts. I still need to get six screws to put the seat hinge covers on, but I can drive it without these.

6343 6344

Freddie is retiring. I know it will always be Freddie to everyone here, and even to me, but because I wanted the car to have period-correct plate holders, and it having collector plate now, I had a set of nice plate frames and put those on. The "Fred's Fine Cars" frame holder will remain with the car as a memorial for the history and story.

According to the original owners manual, still with the car, the car was sold by Titus Ford in Tacoma in 1963. I'd love to find a pair of those frames, but for now... these will be from when it got traded in to William O. McKay Ford in 1965 for the next Falcon the guy had. Yeah, that's what happened.
:rolleyes:

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[beerbelly]

Your car looks GREAT Roger, especially nice work on the seats; they look like showroom.

I also have my original owner's manual, with two previous owners documented. The car came from the Good-Reichman dealer in Yreka CA. It looks like someone was interested in a Protect-O-Top judging from the note on the cover. It would be fun to find a couple of plate frames from that dealership too.

And speaking of "Why??", here's a shot of the oil pan patch that came with the car when I bought it. Looks like a J-B Weld job to me. It worked OK, but jeez, that's tractor-fixin' stuff!

[MacDee]

According to the original owners manual, still with the car, the car was sold by Titus Ford in Tacoma in 1963. I'd love to find a pair of those frames, but for now... these will be from when it got traded in to William O. McKay Ford in 1965 for the next Falcon the guy had. Yeah, that's what happened.
:rolleyes:



I have a couple of stories about previous owners.
First, there was the guy who came up to it at the Greenwood show in about, um... 2003(?). He said "I know this car. I was with the girl who bought it when she bought it." He told me her name, and it was the same person I bought it from, but had a different surname. I said "Oh, yeah! Her last name is, uh..." He stopped me and said "I don't want to know." and walked off.
The other encounter was a girl at the Greenwood show a couple of years later. She said "I've driven this car. It belonged to a friend of mine." I asked who her friend was, and if I could get a chance to meet her. "No," she said "she died a few years ago."
So my story goes that the original owner sold it to the gal who passed away, the car ended up at Fred's Fine cars and the gal I bought it from bought it there... in the company of her boyfriend... whom she subsequently jilted! We'll need to figure out where the guy who got it from Wm O Mckay fits in. Maybe he's the guy that the gal who passed away got it from!

[Luva65wagon]

It is driving me a bit crazy how crazy busy I am! Right now I'm embroiled in swap meet (and tonight's club meeting) preparation, but if I'm to believe then the weather reports are looking really good for both these events as well as a test drive, real soon now. If things go well I might get this car on the road the evening after the swap meet. First stop next week will be an exhaust shop for tail-pipes.

A story of my own... I was telling someone the other day how, I realized recently that since I moved here I've had nothing but absolute anxiety when it comes to doing test drives now. And I've done quite a few since being here. Never really focused on it until recently, but I recently faced that as a real-deal issue for me. I know it is not because I don't trust my work, but for those who have never been to my place I have two driveways, one to a car port and one to my garage - and both are about a 40 foot long 10% grade from the street. So it's easy to get down them (assuming failing brakes don't make that 'too easy'), but it will not be easy - or has it ever been - to get a car that doesn't run correctly - or at all - up these hills. So I always struggle now to be absolutely sure I trust whatever it is - is going to go down and back up again. I realized when I built my Ranchero, and when I chose to part out the better of the two I bought, the only reason I chose one over the other was simply because one was running and one wasn't. Hind-sight that was a foolish move, but it was caused by this anxiety.

I need a couch.

:NERVOUS:

Right now the car is surrounded by swap meet goodies I'm pulling from my loft. As I look up into my loft - it looks the same. I have too much stuff!

:doh:

Gary, appreciate the history. One of the two plate frames on it was from McLendon hardware. Some previous owner must have also been a handyman!

Beerbelly, Appreciate the comments. Gary originally put new seat upholstery in, but said seat foam wasn't available then. I've gone from sitting on the floor, literally, to rubbing my head on the head-liner!

As for your pan-patch, you gotta do what you gotta do sometimes. JB-Weld seemed to be working! But there are temporary things where the problem comes when those become permanent. Or temporarily permanent! Or permanently temporary!

[thumb]

[MacDee]

I put on the McLendon's license frame. As I recall, the car didn't have a frame on the back, and one day McLendon's was handing out license plate frames as a promotional item, so....
Of course!

[beerbelly]

Roger, I hear you about long driveways on a grade; here's mine- 140' down to the road. After I put the Chockostang disc brakes on, it took some "manning up" to take a test drive. I had it in reverse, clutch in and one hand on the e-brake handle. No drama though- whew!

[Luva65wagon]

here's mine- 140' down to the road.

You win!

Brake jobs are the worst, but stalling down the hill I can't tow it up without the tow vehicle being stuck between house and car. I do have a chain bolted to my loft and have pulled a car half the distance with a pair of come-along's. Wasn't fun. Should keep an eye out for a winch.

[Luva65wagon]

No, I haven't. When I got home from the swap meet last Saturday I had all the driveways clear to back it out and at least swap places with the Ranchero in the carport. So I jumped in and... it is spit and sputtered and died over and over. It's been running great for days and just when I wanted to drive it - Kreddie Kruger - came back out to play with my dreams. So, on and off this last week I pondered, and stared at it, trying to decide what to do. I determined it wasn't running out of gas. Checked all the wiring. Even got a new cap and rotor and stator for the distributor.

After swapping all those out I tried again and it spit and sputtered blowing fuel out the carb like the timing was way out of whack. Checked to see if I messed up something changing the stator, but it was installed right. I even check compression.

Then I pulled the carb off the Ranchero, but found I couldn't make it fit (Summit carb with dual fuel inlets), so after messing up the Ranchero I was at a $450 or a $300 cross-roads. Do I get a new carb or a new CDI Ignition module - or both. Or just list it on Craigslist. Then I got a wild hair and thought maybe the coil was bad. I had a couple of those square mid-80's coils and set one up temporarily - and VROOM! Only ran it a couple seconds, but it was long enough to know the issue was the coil. An Excel coil at that.

So off to the parts house because I didn't want to hassle with making a bracket for that square style coil. Then I got confused at the store what the specs needed to be, so I went home empty-handed, checked the specs, and crawled up into the loft just to make sure I didn't have a coil stashed up there. I actually found a new coil up there, so on it went.

I had been playing with the timing while it was misbehaving so I hooked up the timing light and could not get the timing mark anywhere near where it needed to be. And, as if that wasn't enough, if I hooked up the vacuum advance tube the timing retarded and it died instantly! What the heck is this thing doing! It's supposed to advance the timing when vacuum is applied, not retard it??!

:doh:

So, since I knew the stator wasn't the original issue I decided to reinstall the other one again. At least get my $40 back. New wires needed to be added to the old one since they were getting pretty short from efforts to adapt it "before me," then my cleaning all that cobbled mess up a few weeks ago, and now me cutting off the connector to use with the new one today. A couple crimps later, and it was all back in; all the while convincing myself there was no way this new one I had just put on earlier could be bad. Well, it was. Once the old one was back in the car fired up, timing adjusted correctly, vacuum advance advanced the timing as it is supposed to do. And I called it quits for the day. Test drive will have to wait again.

From today on Fr$%^ie is a 4-letter word. It has no name that shall be named from now on.

:WHATTHE:

[BadBird]

Roger, this is going to sound bad, but at least it is happening to someone who can fix this mess. I would have given up with all the problems you are having. Maybe Freddie Krueger is the right name. Larry

[Jeff W]

Roger, glad to see a post from you. I read a news report this week that Roger Moore had died. Glad it was just Fake News. Welcome back!

#rogercomesalive

[SmithKid]

Could it be possible there is/was another "Roger Moore"? Nah! Musta been an imitation!

[Luva65wagon]

I got a very odd text from Lila's B-I-L, Dennis, on Wednesday saying "Sorry to here about your demise" and I was like, "What?" What the heck did he mean by that. What did I do? And then 15 minutes of waiting for him to tell me. Meanwhile I recalled memories of a text I received from a friend of Lila's right after we started dating, I was in Hawaii for work (3 hours behind over there) and I get this at 3 in the morning, waking me up, saying "They know what you did. I'm so sorry." And when asked what she meant, she said "You know what you did" with no further reply. I was freaked out, not knowing what the heck she meant so I had to call Lila at 6 in the morning, waking her up, to figure it out. Stupid game. Suffice it to say that friend got a side of me I don't expose often.

But yeah, sad to here of the other Roger Moore's passing. I remember my first "connection" to him when I was about 10 and it has been nearly nonstop since.

As for the car that shall not be named, I expected most of it. It's just... when will it be satisfied? What sacrifice will satisfy its thirst?

[BOW] Oh great car that shall not be named. How may I do your bidding?

[ew1usnr]

Even got a new cap and rotor and stator for the distributor. Then I got a wild hair and thought maybe the coil was bad. I had a couple of those square mid-80's coils and set one up temporarily - and VROOM!

Well, gee.

I had to look up a picture of a "stator" to see what you were talking about.

6374

The stator is a mounting plate. How can one wear out?

You also made me wonder about coils. Do they go bad gradually, or all at once? I looked up "when to replace an ignition coil" and found the following"

"The ignition coil on your car is supposed to last around 100,000 miles or more. The following are some of the warning signs that you will notice when it is time to get a new ignition coil:

The car will not start
The engine is misfiring on a regular basis
The Check Engine Light is on"

[Luva65wagon]

Dennis,

The stator ie a rare item to fail, and it hadn't, but got the least expensive parts to begin with. Was more odd the way it behaved with the new one. It's similar to a magneto, so they usually fail when a winding of wire in it goes open, or shorts out. The stator is used as a inductive trigger for the STI ignition box Gary installed.

A coil is a similar thing to how a stator is made, but with two sets of wire windings in one package isolated from each other and one side gets a charge and when the field collapses it does so to the other winding, which like a transformer - amplifies the voltage a lot; like, 12 volts (or 9 volts) amplified to 45,000 volts. Some coils can handle a full 12 volts and some must be used with a ballast resistor (drop voltage from 12 to 9). As I learned, this CDI (capacitive discharge induction) ignition works with most any coil. Or so they say.

A coil fails when it gets too hot usually and the normally insulated wire fuses together and shorts out. Shorts in any wiring ends its life. Coils are often oil filled too to help it stay cool.

[Jeff W]

Coils are often oil filled too to help it stay cool.

Apparently some are also filled with soup...:WHATTHE:

[Luva65wagon]

...back where I started.

I reinstalled the 4 barrel today after trying two different 2 barrel carbs. I believe both were a bit too big, considering the 4 barrel is 195 cfm primary and either of the 2 barrel's would be 350 cfm, maybe more. A good explanation of this, if you're interested, is here:

http://www.badasscars.com/index.cfm/page/ptype=product/product_id=440/category_id=13/mode=prod/prd440.htm

Before putting the 4 barrel back on I opened it up and, using a note Gary wrote a few posts back, removed the idle-bleed screws Patrick added, drilled a pair the next size smaller, and put the power valve in the carb came with. This should have theoretically put the carb back to its original specs. After a lot of tweaks I have the car running reasonably well. Have not driven it, and have run it for maybe 20 minutes without the behavior I had when the 4 barrel was on last week (runs, but then dies like running out of gas). But (yep, I have a but) I'm still a bit derailed over something.

Going through the conversations Gary passed on to me, the engine builder was asked to degree the cam to the Clay Smith specs. Gary had supplied an adjustable timing gear setup of some sort (no evidence I have of what it was), but the builder indicated that it was unusable for some reason. The note goes on to say the builder had troubles degree'ing the cam due to, they said, the cam having the dowel pin alignment hole drilled in the wrong spot. This caused them to move the cam gear one tooth to degree it to spec.

For reference, this is the (second) cam Gary bought:

http://www.claysmithcams.com/ford-144-170-200-250-good-vacuum-good-idle-good-economy/

It runs good with the performance timing, but what a pain figgering out what others did.

[BPVan]

Roger -

I finished reading through this on my break today (began a few nights ago), well done on your efforts. As a compliment, you have inspired me to fix some carb related items on my van as well as one of my motorcycles. In case you need any Holley parts I have a couple parts cases of them (jets, gaskets, o-rings, float, valves, secondary springs, crush washers, etc...).

Early on after my engine swap with the 4bbl Holley I had a symptom where suddenly the engine would barely stay running, but it wasn't consistent. I found that the secondary float had a hole in it and kept the needle valve open dumping fuel down the intake from the overflow tube. That carb was a "rebuilt" when I bought it so I assumed it was fine and kept looking elsewhere. What does Jeff W say about assumptions....

You'll get it. You always do. [thumb]

[Luva65wagon]

What does Jeff W say about assumptions...

Jeff has sayings? :D

Thanks Brian, no doubt it will get figured out. Have been otherwise preoccupied and have not yet called Clay Smith, or been out there to start it again to see if it is still on its meds, but I suspect I'll be told I need to degree it myself rather than speculate what other mechanics did. And seeing already what other mechanics did, I think it is probably suspect work anyway. All I can think about is, "Great, I need to take things apart again..." But I really need to move onto other things as well, so it's a rock/and/hard place.

As for the Holley parts, I have a box of parts from Patrick, which I used a bit of them to make new idle bleed screws. So I think I've got that covered for now.

[Jeff W]

Jeff has sayings? :D



I was at the Amazon brick and mortor store in the U village today. In the new release section they had a book my kids would have written: "Sh*t my Dad Says".

[Luva65wagon]

Today the car finally came out of the garage to play.

6403

Have been waiting for a decent day where Gene could come and tag along behind me and tow it if it gave up the ghost. It didn't; in fact it did surprisingly well. No real hiccups and it pulled a couple hills OK. Didn't do much more than drive around the neighborhood (~5 miles worth) and see what noises might appear, how well I adjusted the steering wheel center, etc. Seems I found a rattle in the rear view mirror, which you hear in this video. Otherwise, other than still needing tailpipes, though it is pretty quiet as you can tell in the video, I think I can let it, and perhaps this thread, rest. I started polishing on it to get rid of a lot of pollution on the car, but I think the best I'll do is to make a 20 footer into a 18 footer.

https://youtu.be/fc9QEv9n0iE

[Luva65wagon]

I started polishing on it to get rid of a lot of pollution on the car, but I think the best I'll do is to make a 20 footer into a 18 footer.

I was very surprised to see this car had no clear coat on it. I thought it was supposed to be a base-coat/clear-coat system, but if it was, the clear-coat was air thick. As such I set out and did a lot of wet-sanding on it. Then cut and polished, and then waxed on it. Mostly all up-facing surfaces so far. It is a good 15 footer now!

[yay]

Not that these pictures say much, other than you can see reflections you usta-could-not see.

6404 6405
6406 6407

[MacDee]

I was very surprised to see this car had no clear coat on it.

Um... I believe I stated in an earlier post that it did NOT have clear coat.

It is amazing to see what you've done with her! [thumb]

[Luva65wagon]

Um... I believe I stated in an earlier post that it did NOT have clear coat.

Why yes you did. Great, I can sand it even more then! [yay]

Everyone should be happy to know that Gary and Debra came by today and had a look-see and we went for a little drive. I think it was helpful to them, and me, to close this loop for them.

I haven't announced this until now, but I've decided to put the car up for sale. Sort of kind'a decided a month after getting it. Far too many things changing, so need to liquidate a bit. Some folks were coming by today, who saw the wagon at the swap meet, but found out through someone who didn't buy the wagon that Fe@@!* was for sale, and so I contacted Gary last night and told him his chance was now. The guy who came by, with his girlfriend and his father who is a long-time mechanic (who was pretty impressed with all my work - or at least said so), is thinking on it for a couple days, but will let me know on Monday, maybe. We'll see. His Girlfriend was eyeing my Seahawks scooter too, so I guess I better get that finished.

[thumb]

[Luva65wagon]

here it is on Craigslist.

https://seattle.craigslist.org/sno/cto/d/1963-falcon-hardtop-futura/6363839327.html

Pray for me.

[Luva65wagon]

Had a guy drive over from Spokane to look at her last week. He also has a nice '63 Ranchero (at least based upon pictures on his phone). Sadly it's not going to go over there to live, but told him (Paul) to share his Ranchero experience with us and to contact Nathan over there to keep him in the loop.

Sadly, as well, I seem to have misplaced the keys to the car and have looked just about everywhere for them. No doubt they'll show up in the last place I look - or right after I've spent the time and money to re-key the thing.

Freddie [Krueger] lives on.

[SmithKid]

You prob'ly should renew the CL ad.... expired.

[Luva65wagon]

That would probably help!

:doh:

[dhbfaster]

Did you find the keys?

[Luva65wagon]

Have not been home much to look; since I am remodeling the southern estate so I can move down there. I will be home a little on Friday and am always turning things over to see if they show. I am rather baffled by their disappearance.

[Jeff W]

Perhaps Gary has an extra set on a gold chain around his neck?

[Luva65wagon]

He was the last one to drive it...

...but I'm sure I opened the trunk after he and Debra left, which required the key.

One thing is for sure, I'm not looking forward to having to pull door cards and "pick" the locks to get the tumblers pulled out.

[BPVan]

Or you can have a locksmith make you a new key to fit those cylinders.

I lost the key to my Motorcycle about 6 years ago. Locksmith came onsite and made a new, double sided key in about 30 minutes using some feeler tools, a vice, and a file. A single sided, 4 tumbler key can't be too hard to make.

Option 2, see Jeff's Guinness sized ring of keys, one of them is bound to fit :o

[Luva65wagon]

I have quite the pile of keys too. Should go try them all.

You know, that may not be a bad idea; re: locksmith. The cost of new parts is almost $100 with shipping and then the work to remove it all. If they are equal, give or take, would be well worth it.

[Jeff W]

I would first reach out to Gary. He may have a spare set he forgot about. I recently found a spare key for my van sold last year. You may be lucky.

[MacDee]

Alas... I do not have another set. I thought maybe there was a spare set when I was selling the car, but never found another set. I probably had a spare set of the ORIGINAL keys, but only had the one set with the new set I put in during the three-week makeover.
I wasn't the last person to drive it.... Roger drove it up into the garage after I got out.

[Jeff W]

I wasn't the last person to drive it.... Roger drove it up into the garage after I got out.

I wouldn't have attempted driving up is driveway either. That 45 degree incline is scary.

[Luva65wagon]

I wasn't the last person to drive it.... Roger drove it up into the garage after I got out.


I wouldn't have attempted driving up (h)is driveway either. That 45 degree incline is scary.

Yes- you are both correct. The keys thing I will find a solution for if they don't turn up. The 45 degree incline will be solved when I move from here. I'll eventually get to both of these.

[Luva65wagon]

I am happy to report the keys turned up today!

That's all. Back to what you were doing... :banana:

[Luva65wagon]

Freddie has left the building. A gentleman who splits time between WA and AZ will be taking it to AZ. He had his grandson and son in law look it over and drove it away. I'm of the understanding he had one in his past and it was baby blue as well. Though I never got to doing a performance tune on it - he had no issues having that done at some point before or after it gets to AZ.

:BEER:

[BadBird]

Congratulations. Glad someone who knows Falcons got the car. Again. Congrats. Larry

[MacDee]

Glad to see her go to someone who will appreciate her.
AZ is where all those go-fast parts come from. I'd bet she'll show up in some way on the Ford Six Performance Forum.
:)

[SmithKid]

Yaaaaayyyyyyy! [yay][thumb]

[ew1usnr]

The Falcon really looks little when it is parked in front of that big SUV:

6589

[dhbfaster]

Nice to see it go to an appreciative home...

Roger, Southern estate?:WHATTHE: