65 Ford Falcon Squire Wagon

[PBR]

my dad had an sho when i was in high school and my brother and i drove the shit out of that thing! the torque steer was insane! super fun 4 door!

[ntsqd]

My very first full lap around Willow Springs was in a SHO.
And speaking of SHO's, Todd Z recently sent me a pic of a Shogun. Hadn't even heard about one those in years.

[PBR]

i saw the shogun pic on the cheeze the other day, crazy little rides!

[ntsqd]

TT ruined it for me.

[SteveG]

The Shogun is awesome. I would love to blow doors off in one of those.

I'm over the engine swap for the Falcon. My ADD has struck again and I'm in rat rod mode. The plan is to keep the Falcon simple, finish it and move on to the next project. The major points are adding air bags in the rear so I can haul junk on the rack and get some paint on the exterior. Prep work for paint starts this weekend. A few other very small details and it'll be time to move on to the rat.

[SteveG]

Paint work has begun! Well, more like paint experimenting has begun.

I did a couple test patches over the weekend and did a half-ass polish job on one to see if I'm going to be happy with the color and finish. I'm not sure on the color but it looks like the finish will be great. I didn't have fine enough sand paper or actual paint polish but even with using 800 grit sand paper and coarse aluminum polish, it shined right up. This patch is also a lot thinner than the final product will be, so you can see some of the layers underneath.

[SteveG]

I finally got started on stripping the Latex paint off the Falcon. What a pain! It went pretty fast once I started using an 8 inch variable speed grinder/polisher and 40 grit paper! I ended up going to virtually all metal as it was tough to only cut through the Latex without trashing the stuff below it.

[SteveG]

Having a hard time uploading a photo from my phone.

Flat white for now as it's fast and forgiving.

[SteveG]

Well the trans laid down on me a few weeks ago. I stuck a used trans in it that a friend had but it was a no-go. So, I'm going to go through the trans that came out of it and have the torque converter rebuilt. This will be my first trans rebuild but the good news this is about as simple as they get.

I'd really, really like to put an overdrive trans in it but that would require an adapter plate and I'm just not willing to spend that kind of coin on this car.

This is the trans after I'd already been cleaning it for a few minutes. Several decades of oil leaks and grime = one hell of a mess!

[SteveG]

Rebuild time.

[philofab]

Does that trans have a front & rear pump?

[SteveG]

Nope. Just the front. It's a C4.

[SteveG]

The Bronco is finally out of the garage and the trans rebuild has begun.

[SteveG]

I don't know much about transmission internals but I'm pretty sure these aren't supposed to look like this.

[Agui-E7TE]

Awesome Falcon! My uncle used to have a '65 Ranchero with a hopped up 302. The FMX never worked so we swapped in a T5 and even used the Mustang clutch quadrant. It ran like a beast for sure. I've always liked this body style of Falcon

I'd love to build one with a hopped up 300 c.i. inline six and a T5... either way I love that you're keeping the six, that's true hot rod style.

[SteveG]

Thanks, Agui. The T-5 is a good swap. The later 200 6 cylinders can be converted to the T-5, too. It's not a bolt-on option for my engine but this is a cruiser anyway. It's way easier to pretend to be cool in an auto!

Pretty much everything is torn down. I need to clean everything up then start going back together. I'm going to try to have it done and installed by Friday. I have to drive to my parent's house this weekend and would like to take the Falcon.

I wish carb or brake cleaner worked like it used to. It would make clean-up a lot easier. These days, though, it just rinses and doesn't cut through anything... frustrating. I'll probably end up using Simple Green and drying VERY thoroughly or maybe just use gasoline. We'll see.

[philofab]

Soak the parts in Gasoline. Works well.

[SteveG]

Soak the parts in Gasoline. Works well.

Will do. That seems like the easiest solution at home.

[Agui-E7TE]

Soak the parts in Gasoline. Works well.

Haha, that's how I used to clean parts when I worked at my uncle's shop when I was 15. It cleaned everything really great but my clothes always smelled like gasoline and auto shop freshness in the end.

Curious to see how it goes building the C4. I've always wanted to build a C6 for my Bronco.

Coincidentally I thought I had smoked my C6 earlier this week. It was about 104 degrees outside and half my radiator was blocked by mud and eventually I ran the engine hotter than normal after almost three hours through Los Angeles traffic. Eventually it got so hot under the truck that the trans started puking oil and jumping out of gear at stoplights. Just when I thought it couldn't get worse, I overheated the gas tank (not bad enough to warp it) enough to get vapor lock. Dropped the truck off at a trans shop to see if the trans needs rebuilding and they told me that since it was running fine I should be okay. I did have to put almost 5 quarts of ATF in it though. It shifted fine but if everything turns out okay, I'm putting in a Trans Go shift kit to firm up the shifts a bit. I had it built in 2009 and have abused it quite a bit but it just keeps on taking it.

Sorry for the thread hijack.

[300]

I don't know much about transmission internals but I'm pretty sure these aren't supposed to look like this.

Nope, but that's kinda what they look like after 40+ years! You have a source for them don't you? It will actually work (but don't do it!) if you put them back in like that, but you kind of have to rev it up to get the rollers to catch when you put it in R. The rollers provide a one way clutch to engage reverse.

I think the Powerglide was the only trans to ever have a front and rear pump. There was a two speed Ford trans in the early 60's, but I have never seen one and don't know what the internals were like.

I think you got your money's worth out of those clutch disks...........! They're done!

The C6 is similar, just all the parts are a whole lot bigger. C4 has two bands and C6 has one.