62 Falcon - $5k challenge, how will it rise from the ranger's ashes?

[milner351]

Two toned dash.

No more trim holes.

No more reverse light holes or trim holes between tail lights.... and no more holes in trunk lid. Latch will be remote release, same with hood.

[STINEY]

Groovy!

I also notice filled shock tower holes, filled firewall, maybe trimmed wheelwell lips?

What method was used to fill the trim holes? Copper backed mig? Nice job!

[Beagle]

nice! I was just about to tease you about the pics... looks great!

[SuperBuickGuy]

looks really good.

with the cowl vent gone, how are you going to get cool air to your feet?

[milner351]

Thanks to the M2 - no more shock towers and a peanut engine - I can put the headers in from the top! We made the shock tower fill panels with an eastwood bead roller and plasma cutter. The trim hole filling was all mig with a brass / copper block behind.

As far as ventilation - in this stage - that's what windows are for. In the future when I finally get around to installing the southern air hvac kit - they take all the inlet air from the cabin, no outside air, so - the cowl vent would have served no other purpose but gathering water and debris where I don't want it and can't clean it out.

[STINEY]

SBG has a point for the short-term though.....might want to throw a temporary trucker fan on the tunnel aimed at your tootsies?

I hear it can get pretty stuffy on parts of dragweek.

Good call on closing off the cowl vent. Looks cleaner too.

[1946Austin]

I really like the looks of what you've done to customize the Falcon! The cowl vent filler is a nice touch, and I think I'll do that to mine when I tear it down for paint this winter. Is your trunk release operated from inside the passenger area, or somewhere hidden?

[milner351]

Not sure exactly where we will locate the release cables - may depend on what I can find at the junkyard - but the plan is to put both the hood and trunk release cables inside the car - probably the trunk one behind the driver door near the floor - and for the hood, likely under dash or on the kick panel. I ordered a universal / street rod hood latch set up for the hood, we're putting a 60 grille and headlight buckets in it which will make it all but impossible to fit the stock or an early mustang style hood latch / release set up in place, and I don't want to run hood pins (I gave some thought to the 70 mach1 twist lock set up but... nah)

[Russell]

Looks great! I know that took a lot of work! I should ship yall my falcon!

[pintoboy77]

Looking great John looks like it will be at drag week this year.

[gearhed1971]

Wow, looks awesome, I like the black/white. That's funny, I just closed off my cowl vents about 2 months ago, it gets hot, but wing windows take the edge off. A little dynamat probably would help too, maybe on the bottom side of the tunnel too. A pontiac sunfire trunk cable is just about the perfect length and mounts on the floor by the seat.

[Bob Holmes]

This is fantastic.

[SuperBuickGuy]

I'm so stoked that you're getting this done!

[TheSilverBuick]

Go John GO!

[milner351]

The trans is in.
Had to modify the mounts I fabbed last year but it's in and looks to be AOK, also got in the dipstick tube and ran the slightly modified fox stainless trans cooler lines. Still have to mount the cooler - which may have to wait until the modified front bumper is here to see where I have space to run the lines.

Discovered that the pretty stainless tri-y headers I bought won't work - the driver side collector is pointed squarely at the AOD shift linkage and the passenger side runs right into the pan.... sure they could be cut up and re-worked but since they are still new - I went to plan B - these are on craigslist.

Plan B is a set of long tube headers that came with the 69 mach1 when I bought it - I think they are black jack or hedman - they are longer - the collectors are further back than the tri-y, so they are past the shifter cable area. The collectors needed some work - but a bit of pie cutting and welding - then into the sand blaster, and a few coats of VHT and they are ready to install. They clear the starter nicely - the shifter and speedo cables on the driver side will be a little tight - I may have to use a bit of header wrap to try to manage the heat.

The rear end set up needed a bit of tweaking to get the angle of the shock right - I started plasma cutting the shock mounts in the body - had problems with the plasma cutter - saw the error of my thinking, welded them back up, and just bent the bottom mounts on the caltrac plates. Shocks are in - for now just cheap monroe gas matics.

Drive shaft work will happen this week - I have the right yokes, Aaron has a shaft that's the right length - just need to take all the pieces to shaft masters to have it assembled and balanced - and I will see if they have an AOD front yoke without the balancer ring.