Resto Modding a 63 Falcon Futura Hardtop - Interior, 5.0 and AOD, Headers

[Roughdog63]

Hi All!
First time here for me. My father in law and I are going to restore a 63 Falcon Futura Hardtop. Planning on going with a 5.0 with AOD Tranny and putting in deluxe interior. Need some help though.
1) Does anyone know if the interior on the Futura Door,Rear and quarter panels are the same size as the sedan or maybe the convertible. Found a deluxe kit for the Convertible, but am not sure if I am going to have to modify it to make it fit?
2) Any input with exerience putting in a 5.0 with an AOD tranny would also be helpful. Read that the input shafts on these are trouble and a hardened input shafts helps reliability. Any fit issues? Also planning on going with the B&M shift kit - street.
3) Speaking of fit, I read some other post that the Doug Thorley 661Y Headers will fit on the 63 but it’s tight. Something about adding a 1/4 spacer to the motor mounts to help clear?

Any help would be appreciated. Hope to join the club after I get get her done!

Thank you for your help.

[Luva65wagon]

Welcome!

All two door Falcons have the same shape door panels of the same body style (60-63; 64-65; etc). So if you stick with the round body (60-63) door panels you'll be fine.

Don't know much about the AOD. I know it's bigger in shape than say the C4, so you may find yourself needing to modify the tunnel. I suggest contacting Melvin's Ford Parts for the cross-member. I'm pretty sure they make one.

I've got Doug's Headers and yes, they are tighter. Tighter now that I did a 347 stroker (5.0 block) with some aftermarket heads. Only did the swap last summer/fall and due to a garage build I've not had the opportunity to see if I can tweak things to make them fit better. But they are currently touching on both sides, whereas prior to the 289-347 swap they were tight, but didn't touch things. So, that's that. They are a great header in general though, so you may want to contact them and talk to one of their support folks prior to purchase.

Good luck and we hope to follow what you're doing!

[Roughdog63]

Thanks for the quick reply! Very helpful advice on the interior door panels. Hoping I do not need to modify the tunnel. Maybe someone else can help direct me if they ut in an AOD. Sounds like a hassle nd sot sure what this entails?
On the headers, I have heard of modifying the motor mounts with spacers to get them above the frame a little. I won’t be putting on larger heads, but I will call the folks at Thorley. Thank you again for your help.

[Luva65wagon]

I've read for years about putting the AOD in a Falcon and between the TV cable setup (and no, not to get Wheel of Fortune) and pounding the tunnel in places - or not having to pound the tunnel in places... there is nobody out there, it seems, saying do this and that and TaDa it's in. I don't think anyone here has ever posted doing one because they are sort of a PITA. I'll do some looking around out there and see if I can find anything definitive on the subject. I went from an automatic to a T5 and would never go back.
I've played around with shims, swapping mounts to move the motor forth and back, but right now none of that (I think) will resolve my header issue. But as I mentioned, it was better - with shims, yes - before I did the swap. Can't believe they changed the shape of the head when I went aluminum heads, but they must'a.

[Roughdog63]

Thanks again Luva65 wagon! Fund the crossmember part at Melvins as you said. Important info. You shared about the TV Cable and I read about it, sound like the adjustment is critical to prevent failure along with what I read about replacing the input shaft to a hardened one, should be bulletproof when I am done. Very helpful and thank you again.
When you were mentioning that all the 63 panels were the same, we were talking about the interior trim panels right?
I am going to try and search for a 5.0 conversion kit and see if I can find one for the 63 1/2 Falcon. Hopefully another member has done this. If it’’s way too much hassle, I may have to go back and consider the 302 again. The 5.0 is much wider in dimensions that the 302 from what I’ve read, but I know people put the in them.

[Luva65wagon]

There is a lot of differences in hard trim parts between the sedan, hardtop, and convertible. The door panels, or door cards (as they say on Wheeler Dealers) are the soft bits and these are the same "shape" as each other. So they'll all swap out. In the round body cars I don't think I ever saw differences other than colors.

And FWIW, the 5.0 is just an '80's way of saying 302. A small block is a small block in all dimensions, except for the 351W, which has a taller deck. Not sure why anyone would indicate they are wider, or much wider. The 5.0, with the big fuel injection intake, still fits OK in a Falcon. If you search here for user posts from Doghows or FalconCobra, they both had them and showed pics of them in their cars. Doghows sold his car (a 63 sedan delivery) and FalconCobra (63.5 hardtop) passed away a few years ago, so neither of them post here anymore, but their threads live on in infamy.

Many of us have done the swap to a V8 from a 6. I did it to my 63 Ranchero using all 1965 Falcon suspension, drive train, and engine mounts. Parts to do it are everywhere, and even reproduced now. The only thing I had to have "made" is the drive-line and the rear trans mount, mainly because there were no factory mounts for newer transmissions in a Falcon and finding an exact length drive-line is more trouble than the $225 it cost for a new balanced one.

Hope this helps.