65 battery apron in a 62

[Jon Richard]

I did a search for battery apron and came up dry. My question is; has anyone attempted to put a 64/65 falcon battery apron in a 60-63 falcon? I have already removed the 62 apron and aquired one from a 65 however they are slightly dissimilar. It doesn't appear to be that big of a chore but if someone has pulled this off it would be nice to see how you went about it.

[pbrown]

What is a battery apron?

[Luva65wagon]

The apron is the part that sits in front of the shock tower that has the battery space allocated to it. The 60-63 cars have the battery sticking long-ways fore/aft and the battery sits lots into the engine compartment (don't have a picture), but the 65/65 have it long-way going left/right and inset into the wheel well a little. Less crowded in the engine compartment.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y156/whoaaanelly/wagon/audio1.jpg

As for putting one in the other will just require some fabrication work, but shouldn't be too hard.

[pbrown]

I think the 63 is like the 64 and 65. I know it's different than the 60-62.

[Luva65wagon]

Could be. I've only had a 62 and 65. I'll have to go look at that 63 Hardtop again... but man I'm so afraid I'll leave with it. :NERVOUS:

[Jon Richard]

I'll take pictures as go and share exactly how I do it. Mine is a 1962 2-door wagon and was pretty well hacked so I don't mind modifying it. If it were a prestine example I would be more inclined to preserve it.http://www.geocities.com/turdblowbro/falconfrontdr.jpg

[pbrown]

I have a 62 with the battery in the trunk so I don't hav a battery tray in the way. I could take any photos you need or you can drop by and look.

[Jon Richard]

I appreciate that but I'm down in the southern part of the state about 30mi south of LA. It doesn't appear to be that great of a chalenge. I just suspected it might be a popular change over as I'm sure you value the extra room you have gained by moving yours to the trunk. Unfortunately I don't have that option being that it is a wagon.

[Luva65wagon]

I understand the limits of moving anything to a new place in a wagon. Makes life rough for anything you do. More space doesn't necessarily equate to better space. I'm still trying to come up with speaker locations from the doors back without it being a hack-job or have it look too in your face. So far nothing has looked easy to do.

I think the battery tray change should be a very simple conversion since the area under the hood it exactly the same except for that corner. The core support and the fender/grille mounting locations are about the only areas that differ.

Hey, though, I really like your wagon!

[thumb]

[Jon Richard]

Hey, though, I really like your wagon!

Dido, I was concerned about the pimpy wheels as I was more going for the look your sporting. With 12.19" brakes at all four corners I needed at least 16" (those are 17") wheels and I had to have 4.5" back spacing to accommodate 7" wide rims with 215/50/17 tires. 15" steelies w/ whitewalls are my preference.

As far as speakers I am installing a 5x7 dual voicecoil in the stock dash location with a pair of tweaters in the A pillars and run all three off a single 2 channel amp similar to what is discribed here http://www.bcae1.com/ see pg. 94.
Not exactly the same as the 5x7 isn't a sub woofer but the idea is to achieve good sound separation where voice level frequencies will come from center, highs from left/ right, and perhaps a sub in the spare well. My hope is that this will sound good for four passengers.

Anyway I'll post pic's when the battery apron is in.

[Luva65wagon]

Jon,

You may want to check out the thread I did on my wagon, if you haven't already:

http://www.rainierfalcons.com/forums/showthread.php?t=492

I did a fairly similar thing stereo wise as you suggest, but I am not happy with mine at all. I'm staring at the car at this point and dreaming of what I can do. I want it to sound like a concert hall and right now, as I told the guy at the stereo shop (after he made the suggestions I followed and has attempted to tune it as well), it sounds like a $3000 AM radio.

I sold my 1956 F100 Panel about a year ago, which I had had for over 25 years, and it had a stereo in it that blew everyone away. I built and designed it and tuned it. It wasn't so much that it was booming or loud (though it would do both), it was the clarity and presence you felt inside and it didn't have to be loud to hear it. That's the high I'm trying to feel again -- for a lack of a better way to describe it. This Falcon setup just doesn't come close, though I spent almost 60% more for the stuff I bought for the Falcon than I ever did on the Panel.

Anyway, that's a nice web page you posted. Great information! You may want to edit the link because it somehow linked the word "see" into it and I had to edit it on the web browser.

As for wheels, I'm OK with what I have, though I'll likely do something different someday. I've found the correct 65 hub-caps and will polish and repaint those this winter. I would like something that fills the wheel-wells better than the 14"ers do. At the rate I drive it I'll never wear out my tires though... unless I start doing some of this:

:3g:

Indeed, post more pictures! :)

[Jon Richard]

You had a 56 panel and sold it:WHATTHE: The 56 f-100 is my all time favorite, My father still has his pick-up and I look forward to a father/ son restoration project.

I grew tired of starring at the falcon's battery apron musing over how to tackle it and broke out the plasma cutter and just went for it. No pic's as of yet but I aim to have some for you tommorrow.

In the mean time here is a shot of the rear complete with composite Flex-A-Form mono leafs and a custom watt's link.

http://www.geocities.com/turdblowbro/wattslink.jpg

[Luva65wagon]

Yeah... I didn't have a garage for both the panel and the wagon, and was growing ill at watching it sit out in the weather. So I found someone who would take it to the next level. I had already done a total frame swap, rear door hatch-back, and tons of other mods. Here's a pic from when I just finished the frame swap and paint (did all the work myself):

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y156/whoaaanelly/panel.jpg

So you just whipped out the plasma cutter. Wish I could say that :(

[Jon Richard]

Your old 56 panel is almost Miller blue
http://www.geocities.com/turdblowbro/plasma.jpg

A shot of the apron coming together. I am mating the upper part of the 62 apron to the 65 so as to retain the slope and curve of the 62. The parts are different enough at the top and front corner that the fender won't bolt up without doing so.http://www.geocities.com/turdblowbro/batapronfull.jpg