1964 Falcon Futura two door sedan.
 

Purchased sight-unseen in 2013 from neighbor at Sears Point Raceway. No engine or trans, minimal interior. Shipped to Oz two days later when my wife and I relocated.
I had a LOT of Chevy parts already here with the intention of building a '68 Camaro Sunoco recreation, but figured the '64 Falcon would be a period correct towing vehicle for my '64 IMCA Midwest sprint car (and a hitch on a racecar would be so wrong!).
I was prepared to make the build bigger than it really needed to be as I was retired, and had the time and reasonable skills.

First priority was installing the SBC...350 with cam, mild head work and blueprint. Custom headers. That weird housing on the carb houses the propane mixer mounted on a Holley 4160 squarebore base. Edelbrock dual plane intake. Cam and ignition timing optimized for propane so zero loss of power.
Coolant pump is Davies Craig electric, which removes 10# of ugly cast iron from over the front wheels. This setup requires thermostat to be removed so that pump is not dead-headed before engine gets to operating temp. Pump is mounted where the steering box used to be. Some pics show a narrow radiator from supercharged v6 Jaguar that turned out to be inadequate. Now has four core aluminum with shroud and single electric fan. Runs great.
Engine accessories are alternator, a/c compressor and p/steer pump. Mounting brackets are my own design lasercut blanks tig-welded and bolted to existing SBC tapped holes. Alternator bracket blanks off the old fuel pump opening. Packaging required the alternator belt to run over a Subaru tensioner INSIDE OUT.....probably the first time ever attempted, fingers still crossed on that one!
Engine paint colors are a nod to Ford's 260/289..... I tell some confused folks that it's a Ford Marine engine, that seems to calm them down a little.

Early days...

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Trans is a T400 with shift kit...T350 would have been ok but got a deal on the dynoed 400. T350 case is noticeably smaller tho.
Custom length propshaft with safety loop drives a Holden fine spline 10 bolt. Seventies/eighties Holden one ton utes were equipped with those h.d. axles for hauling heavier loads. They are rare these days.

Chassis modifications started with cutting out the round tube crossmember and replaced it with 2 x 1" rectangular tube. Bolting thru the original Ford engine mounts and towers tied the chassis rails together to retain strength. The new crossmember incorporates steering rack mounts and a vertical gusset up to the new strut tower. Reworked oil pan to clear the steering rack.
WTF are those strut towers u ask? I'm old enough to remember those squeaky horrible Falcon front suspensions, and wasn't going to endure that in my own car, so in went GM Holden Commodore V8 struts, PBR 'Corvette' calipers and rotors, lower control arms, master cylinder and booster, steering column brace (that's what the brake/clutch pedal bracket is really called) along with collapsible steering column and power rack........ALL UNMODIFIED. The caster rods are Commodore, straightened slightly at the front and mounted thru the original Ford chassis brackets using Ford rubber donuts.
Over here we have strict engineering certification to be met before registration, and using those components unmodified is the best way to gain certification as they are ADR'd for series production(Australian Design Rules). This project has sailed thru....just got to do a laptop braking efficiency test asap.
You guys know a Commodore as Chevy SS or G8.
Engine bay braces and Export brace are 0.75x 0.65" 4130 tube with 7/16" rod ends. Note that it's a perfect triangle....I'm yet to see another. Firewall bracket spreads the load across most of the width of the engine bay. There are 1" square tube diagonal braces in the shotgun area from strut top to firewall.
The original Ford torque boxes were trashed as usual, so I digitized the floor side-to-side and lasercut a full width top hat section incorporating a propshaft safety loop. Gearbox crossmember same story.
Exhaust is currently 2.25 two into one but it's too quiet and will be reworked eventually.

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Attachment 71852...........

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Rear suspension is my own 4-link. Lower arms were fabbed from 1.125" X .156 dom tubing and McMaster Carr 4130 hi angularity rod ends and their left/right threaded inserts. These are installed in the Ford leaf spring pickup points. The uppers are Jaguar IRS forged steel lateral (camber) links. A packaging bonus was that the curve in those links clears the standard rear axle crossmember at bump, thus achieving the best side view location for the upper pickup point without removing that crossmember. 4130 rod ends ride smooth and quiet so far.
AirRide 4" airbags on my own lasercut* axle brackets, with the top of the bag mounted against the original floor pan. A new fabbed crossmember above the floor takes the load of the airbag as well as top mount for the Monroe gas OEM shocks. Airbags allow me to raise the hitch to load my sprinter without highcentering on the trailer frame.
Panhard bar is a shortened Range Rover steering tie rod which already has a left/right threaded adjuster and swedged tie rod ends.

*I am ex-GM body group cad designer so lasercut designs are what I do to keep my sanity.

Battery is in the rh trunk dropoff, master fuses on the trunk floor, battery positive cable runs to drivers seat pan with Cutoff switch accessible at front of driver seat cushion. There are more fuse boxes under the driver seat. I decided to convert the Falcon to right hand drive because I have the time and also makes the car easier to sell eventually.

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That's a lot of cool ideas, Jim! This car is really a master class in old-school hotrodding, which is something that really needs to be revisited more popularly, especially with how cheaply a lot of modern parts can be had, so long as one is willing to cut and weld some stuff. The use of factory parts throughout gets a big thumbs-up, as nobody needs (actively moving) heim-jointed crud in a car that actually might get driven more than once a year.

The propane thing is kind of confusing, although I guess you do still see it being applied to some Jeeps and buggies here and there (if you're looking). Beyond the thrill of smelling like a trailer park about ready to burn, what is the advantage of using propane over a simple (factory) EFI conversion?

If you haven't looked, you'd probably get a kick out of the GrassrootsMotorsports forums . . .

Falcon
 

Yeah Paul....the propane install seems weird to you guys but it's readily available in gas stations here as most taxis and a lot of contractors' pickup trucks use it.
Both my cars have been built as daily drivers, the Camaro has 100,000 propane miles on it despite being in storage for seven years while we were in Bay Area.
Because I started from scratch with both engine builds, I've optimised cam profile and ignition timing to suit propane. Timing needs to come in earlier than normal.
I paid $600 for new tank and used mixer vs $1700 here for EFI carb.
Camaro gets 28 mpg (equivalent) suburban driving. It burns clean because its already gas and doesn't condense on intake runners nor cylinder walls, so doesn't contaminate oil (oil stays clear and clean indefinitely, but needs changing eventually because it always loses it's additive package).
Emissions are tiny amount of CO2 and a drop of water. I'm waiting for the day that I can park at the front door of the mall in the ALTERNATIVE FUEL spaces. :excited:
I didn't have a gas tank with either of my builds so buying a propane tank was a wash. Camaro has forty gallon capacity in two stainless tanks consuming the entire trunk space but for a space saver spare. Needless to say the fabrication/welding on a stainless tank is an art form. X-rayed pressure vessel.
I have air/fuel ratio gauge in both cars so I can tweak mixture occasionally, so nearly as good as fuel injection in that respect.

:catfight: BESIDES, GASOLINE DON'T SMELL ALL THAT GOOD EITHER! :catfight:

PROPANE.....what could go wrong?

Interior.....
 

Interior is a mix of Scat sport seats in rear, full length console is custom cut plywood case with armrests/storage bins front and rear. Console is fully sealed as a subwoofer bin for Sony 12" sub. Mids are in sealed enclosures in front console. XJ6 Jaguar Jetsons-type shifter for period correct.
Vintage Air for heat/cool/demist.
Front seats are Commodore buckets with height/rake adjustments intact, cut and retrimmed to match the Scat stitch and pad design. Instrument panel is foam and vinyl padded. Originally it was, of course, body color steel. Instrument panel fascia is a fiberglass panel taken from a mold of the Futura garnish panel between tail lights. It is painted bronze (not wood grain as it appears in photos). Instrument fascia has no gauges nor speedo, just shift position lights in a recess ...... four colors for Park.Rev.N.Drive. An air/fuel ratio gauge and temp gauge are in overhead pod above interior mirror.
GPS speedo will be on package tray visible in the interior mirror (cos it's reversed HUD format)....it works ok, have one in dd Camaro.

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Paint is a strange mix of gray primer and blue tinter.
It's gonna stay ALMOST as-is with a famous racecar livery worked into it. Hand signwritten ..... cos racecar! More pics as that progresses.
Wheels and tires are undecided.....probably will end up with 15x7 and 15x8.5 Daisy = American Racing T200.

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This is a cool build. Love seeing the ingenuity.

Thanks for the propane explanation, Jim. Perhaps one day, before I'm too old, I can make it down there and huff propane fumes at a gas station, then complain that the entire continent reeks of propane. I'm kidding, of course.

The interior stuff is killer! My Falcon will probably never even have carpet, but then again, it's not meant to get groceries . . .

Paul...strangely enough my Camaro has aluminum punched panels in lieu of carpets and being a daily driver, it gets groceries just fine!
Carpet is the only Falcon item I have yet to resolve (cut up some resto supplier molded carpets or get some cut-and-sewn) and it's really a dilemma.
Should I buy $500 worth of molded carpet and cut $100 of useful pieces out of it?
The full length console covers quite a lot of floor area but creates problems where it transitions back to the factory floor, and the molded carpets are only bench seat configuration and don't overlap proper in the door opening.

Australia smells of eucalyptus....nature's own aromatherapy.
I know that you're winding me up about the propane smell...but industrial propane has a bittering agent in it so as folks don't use it for enclosed-space room heating. No NOx equals no acid rain.....I'm doing my part :thumbsup: