63 Ford Falcon Sprint rally replica

Spurred on by Paul B's amazing work on his 64 Falcon I thought I would post some details of the 63 Falcon Sprint I'm currently using and upgrading between events, here in the UK.

The car is a genuine 4 speed manual 63 Sprint that has spent most of it's life in Austin County Texas, so it had the usual hot climate issues of rock hard rubbers, no wipers or screen washers and ineffective heating. All issue I needed to sort out for the slightly damp climate here in South Wales. The good thing was an almost total lack of rust, just some surface rash underneath that's easily treated. The car has a 1979 302 5 litre V8 with 74 heads so it goes well but this may need to be changed back to a 260 to be period correct. I recon the car has at some time in the past done a bit of drag racing as it had some awful tramp bars on the rear springs and has a 289 Torker inlet manifold that I need to change for one that will give me better low range power.

I've had the car for just over a year and aside from the above I've upgraded the front suspension, Mustang GT coil springs, thicker anti roll bar, Shelby drop, and 4 pot disc brake conversion with dual master cylinder and adjustable bias. At the rear I couldn't fit Mustang leaf springs as they are longer and wider than the 63 Falcon's (but OK for the 64 Paul), so I had the original 6 leaf springs re-tempered and re-cambered by 3/4". I couldn't get poly bushes for the car in the US so I narrowed a set of Mustang heavy duty rear shackle bushes and had to source a set of Whiteline front eye bushes off a Falcon XK/XL from Australia. Koni shocks were fitted all round, the fronts also sourced from Australia with the correct top mount for the US Falcon.

I was fortunate to be able to get hold of a set of 15 x 5.5 Ford Galaxie Station Wagon steel wheels which were used on the rally Falcons back in 63.

The interior of the car had white upholstery when I got it, I've since fitted a set of Corbeau Classic front seats with custom mounts and four point racing harness. The Corbeau seats weighed in at 7Kg, 13 Kg lighter than the original bucket seats.

Next job on the car is to fit a set of rally air horns and period Lucas spot lights. Followed by an under engine brace onto which will be mounted the sump guard.

Lou.

Attachment 59687

Hi Lou,
That's super cool, love the style of the 63s, in some ways they are a nicer looking car than the 64.
It is getting very hard to find factory Sprints now as 4 speeds and prices are rising fast.

I like the steel rims, it makes it look the part, some of the steel rims from the 60s had either 8 rivets or 8 large spot welds holding the wheel center to the outer rim, these can fail in competition use but you can add 4 welds to the inside edges where the center rim meets the outer rim. This was done on later rims for DOT compliance.

The 63 MCR Falcons also had a Girling inline brake booster (same as a Austin Healey) mounted on the left front inner guard or apron, they also had Girling calipers same as E type Jags. The 4 pot Kelsey hays conversion will work better for sure.

There is some info on Ford performance on 260 V8s and they really got some power from these engines as ford was doing much development on this engine for the Indy engine.
http://www.suddenlink.net/pages/jonk...rdv8/indy.html

The Corbeau seat are very nice, good choice.
Thanks for posting your pic of your car.
Cheers

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Leadfoot

Spurred on by Paul B's amazing work on his 64 Falcon I thought I would post some details of the 63 Falcon Sprint I'm currently using and upgrading between events, here in the UK.

The car is a genuine 4 speed manual 63 Sprint that has spent most of it's life in Austin County Texas, so it had the usual hot climate issues of rock hard rubbers, no wipers or screen washers and ineffective heating. All issue I needed to sort out for the slightly damp climate here in South Wales. The good thing was an almost total lack of rust, just some surface rash underneath that's easily treated. The car has a 1979 302 5 litre V8 with 74 heads so it goes well but this may need to be changed back to a 260 to be period correct. I recon the car has at some time in the past done a bit of drag racing as it had some awful tramp bars on the rear springs and has a 289 Torker inlet manifold that I need to change for one that will give me better low range power.

I've had the car for just over a year and aside from the above I've upgraded the front suspension, Mustang GT coil springs, thicker anti roll bar, Shelby drop, and 4 pot disc brake conversion with dual master cylinder and adjustable bias. At the rear I couldn't fit Mustang leaf springs as they are longer and wider than the 63 Falcon's (but OK for the 64 Paul), so I had the original 6 leaf springs re-tempered and re-cambered by 3/4". I couldn't get poly bushes for the car in the US so I narrowed a set of Mustang heavy duty rear shackle bushes and had to source a set of Whiteline front eye bushes off a Falcon XK/XL from Australia. Koni shocks were fitted all round, the fronts also sourced from Australia with the correct top mount for the US Falcon.

I was fortunate to be able to get hold of a set of 15 x 5.5 Ford Galaxie Station Wagon steel wheels which were used on the rally Falcons back in 63.

The interior of the car had white upholstery when I got it, I've since fitted a set of Corbeau Classic front seats with custom mounts and four point racing harness. The Corbeau seats weighed in at 7Kg, 13 Kg lighter than the original bucket seats.

Next job on the car is to fit a set of rally air horns and period Lucas spot lights. Followed by an under engine brace onto which will be mounted the sump guard.

Lou.

Attachment 59687

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I just love everything about this car Lou, and especially the steel wheels and the nice subtle stripes which suit it so well.

Over the last few months I've fitted a set of "Tour de France" style air horns, like the one's you hear on the cycling team cars. These were fitted in the same location as the 63 rally cars on the left side of the front panel. As they were red plastic I sprayed the trumpets black so they'd blend in with the background colour.

Attachment 61821

Attachment 61822


I also fitted a custom sump guard which was mounted on a rear engine brace and bracket on the crossmember under the radiator. The cooling holes were drilled as per the guards fitted in 63.

Please excuse the formatting, tried to correct it but got nowhere!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Leadfoot

Over the last few months I've fitted a set of "Tour de France" style air horns, like the one's you hear on the cycling team cars. These were fitted in the same location as the 63 rally cars on the left side of the front panel. As they were red plastic I sprayed the trumpets black so they'd blend in with the background colour.

Attachment 61821

Attachment 61822


I also fitted a custom sump guard which was mounted on a rear engine brace and bracket on the crossmember under the radiator. The cooling holes were drilled as per the guards fitted in 63.

Please excuse the formatting, tried to correct it but got nowhere!

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Leadfoot [ Lou ] and Paul B - both your projects are brilliant - such attention to detail .. Great Stuff Guys !!

Hi Lou,
Nice work, I like the skid plate too
Cheers

Thanks guys, although Roger my efforts are well behind those of Paul's.

I had a Limited Slip Diff fitted last week at Hauser Racing in Northamptonshire. I went for a True-Trac unit.
When they opened up the old diff it was absolutely filthy, caked in 56 years of sludgy oil residue. It looked fine after a good clean and the new unit was fitted.
I'll be trying it out on a 2 day regularity rally in Stafford next month.

Attachment 61917

Attachment 61918

Attachment 61919

Attachment 61920

Leadfoot, if you need a hand on the rally I am very close (Tamworth)

[QUOTE=Leadfoot;70297]Thanks guys, although Roger my efforts are well behind those of Paul's.

I had a Limited Slip Diff fitted last week at Hauser Racing in Northamptonshire. I went for a True-Trac unit.
When they opened up the old diff it was absolutely filthy, caked in 56 years of sludgy oil residue. It looked fine after a good clean and the new unit was fitted.
I'll be trying it out on a 2 day regularity rally in Stafford next month.
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Hi Lou,
By no means is it behind my project at all you have 2 very nice Sprints. Your stock original 63 sprint is a beautiful example of how to keep these cars and your race car is also a very fine example of a historic race car.
More pics please :)
Cheers