My New Old Car

[Flivver]

David...that's a great looking Futura!

Be glad you don't have the 144 CID engine. My endiring memory of the early Falcons back in 1960 was how owners of manual transmission models with the 144 engine had to rev up the engine and slip the clutch just to get the thing off the line. I heard this sound several times a day because my next door neighbor's dad had one. The 170 and 200 CID sixes largely fixed the problem.

By the way, there is a great 1961 Falcon Futura radio ad contained in the 1961 Crusin' series of records and CDs. These records reproduce top 40 radio programs from 1955-1969...there's one record for each year. Anyway, the 1961 album features Arnie "Woo Woo" Ginsberg from WMEX in Boston. And the Falcon ad is sung to the tune of "Hey Look Me Over".

Worth a listen.

 

[Talbot]

Arnie woo woo for you you!

Great series.

 

[Lincsong]

She's in good shape considering you're in Michigan with all that road salt.:eusa_clap Dherman; my Dad had a 1962 Chevy II with 3 on the tree and the four cylinder. He had a massive commute of 2 miles to work and that piece of garbage couldn't even handle that long of a commute.lol I'm serious, he pulled out of the driveway, drove 1 mile, made a left turn and drove a mile to work and he spent at least one Saturday a month working on her; starter, carbuerator, clutch, etc etc etc.

 

[Sleepy LaGoon]

I'm curious - are those original seatbelts? Were seatbelts even an option then?

 

[St.Ignatz]

Great looking little cruise unit David. Congratulations!

 

[Flivver]

I'm curious - are those original seatbelts? Were seatbelts even an option then?

I believe the first mainstream American car to offer seatbelts was the 1949 Nash Airflyte. They didn't prove too popular. (Tucker had offered them on the 51 cars it built in 1948.)

Ford offered seatbelts on its entire 1956 line as part of a group of optional "Lifeguard" safety features that included a deep-dish collapsing steering wheel and safety door locks. Ford advertising showed how effective these features were in a crash. Ford market share dropped sharply in 1956...research indicated that people didn't want to think about crashing when buying a new car.

Ford dropped the "Lifeguard" package for 1957 but continued to offer seatbelts as an inexpensive option until the Government mandated them as standard on all cars in 1964.

 

[Fletch]

I had a '63 (same thing) but "unfortunately", it had the added oomph! of
a hot HP289 and 4 spd.

Must've gone like Acme Rocket Skates.

The old joke about the Chevy II: it was II on a scale of X. lol

You want a good little 60s car with some longevity, look for a Dodge Dart. I knew 2 guys who drove theirs well into the 90s. My friend Karl's '67 had the turboboost button on the dash. Karl said, "Hey push this." *lurch* VAROOOM

 

[BellyTank]

This car (as well as the earlier '60s ones) was marketed in Australia and NZ, under the Chrysler banner, as the Valiant.
Same thing was popular with these- small v8 transplant.


B
T

 

[Forgotten Man]

Here in the states Plymouth made the Valiant.

Most of the mid 60s Ford's were in my opinion the car only the company could love. Some of them (T-Bird, Fairlane and Mustang excluded) resembled a man's electric razor with a hard top. In my opinion. The ford Galaxy was a sharp model too as far as late 50s and early 60s models go.

Enjoy your new retro ride, the interior looks pretty good!

PS: Has anyone here seen what the 1959 Dodge looked like? Wild lookin' thing! Original 59 sales pitch for the new '59 Dodge with seats that swing out to meet you, and swing in to seat you!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iDOpxbOi7g

 

[BellyTank]

Here in the states Plymouth made the Valiant.

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I know that but over "there", there was just "Chrysler"(Motor Company)- we didn't have separate "brands", like Plymouth, or Dodge and Ford/GM-Holden/Chrysler models comprised only the "economy" (size)body styles- Falcon, Holden(unique, local GM marque, similar to GM Europe) and Valiant (respectively). But all brands were available with V8 options.

Just FYI.


B
T

 

[David Conwill]

I'm curious - are those original seatbelts? Were seatbelts even an option then?

They are original-style seatbelts, but I had to install them myself, as the car wasn't ordered with seatbelts (as stated below, they were an option, though only for the front). The front seatbelt mounts were already a part of the floor pan, but I had to order special washer plates (an approximately 4x6 plate of steel with a lip) for the rear belts.

I got it all from a place called "Juliano's" in Connecticut.

-Dave

 

[Lincsong]

The Falcon was the brainchild of Robert MacNamara and his push for small cars.

 

[tonyb]

Falcons were a staple among my kind of people back then. Had a couple of 'em myself, including an early-body ('61 or '62, as I recall) green two-door station wagon with the straight six and "three on the tree." Great car, and one of a few I had that I now regret selling. 'Course, it was just a well-used Falcon back then. Could've always bought another one for a couple hundred. Tops. With a full tank of gas.

 

[59Lark]

falcons poor mans mustang.

I have had three falcons, a 69 sedan maroon, with 20,000 miles on a 200 straight six, 68 falcon two door for parts, the motor is still in a drive shed in a swamp my friends parents own, and a 67 futura sport coupe, with a 289, buckets seats. By the late sixties all the problems they had with the earlier models had been solved you know studebaker fanastic sales of the lark 59 caused all these big companies to come up with their version of compact, the falcon were really my favourite fords, good on gas, neat to look at and easy to fix, and really a working mans car. Now there is hardly any left. enjoy your falcon your poor mans mustang, the undercarriage of a mustang is totally based on the falcon subframe. ie poor mans mustang. my 67with its round taillights and 289, was a hot little number painted in candy apple red, its still alive now painted black, saw it ten years ago at a car show. 59LARKfftopic:

 

[David Conwill]

Hmm, I’d always thought of it as a reaction to AMC’s successful re-introduction of the original Rambler as the Rambler American in 1958, combined with the growing threat of imports like the Volkswagen Type 1 “Beetle”.

Driving the Falcon around, I suspect it was much more effective at competing with the Rambler American and Studebaker lark than it was with the Volkswagen. I parked next to a Beetle the other day and the Falcon dwarfs it, so if you were already a Volkswagen-type person, you were unlikely to purchase a Falcon instead. On the other hand, if you were just looking for a smaller-than-normal car in 1960, you’d probably pick the Falcon over the Beetle, whereas in 1955 your only choice would have been something like the Rambler or the Willys Aero.

Speaking of the Willys Aero, I really like them and was looking for one at the same time as I was looking for the Falcon. I looked for a lot of different small cars from the 1950s and early 1960s, actually - Valiant, English Ford, Vauxhall, Opel, Rambler American, etc. But ultimately, I’m glad I ended up with the Ford. Due to the aforementioned Mustang connection, not to mention the continuation of the Falcon platform with the Maverick and Granada, parts availability is excellent for the Falcon.

I also turned down a 1962 Lark Regal back when I was in law school because it was beyond my means to get it back on the road at that time, but speaking with the seller and doing some research convinced me that if you want to drive a Stude, you can’t do much better for parts availability than a Lark as there’s quite a bit of NOS still floating around.

-Dave

 

[topango]

SWEET

To bad its to late to pick the options, the 260 with the 3 on the floor Hmm

 

[GClark]

That's a real cream puff. Congrats!

My first car, back in 1983, was a '64 Ford Falcon. It had been meticulously restored and was a real beaut'. Straight-six and three-on-the-tree. Brings back memories...

Funny Gene - My first car, back in 1980 was a 66 Ford Falcon. Mine was an automatic. A bit ashamed to admit, I did not much appreciate it then.

 

[Flivver]

I learned to drive in a '67 Falcon that belonged to our high school driving teacher.

Regarding compact cars, GM, Ford and Chrysler were all planning compacts in the late 1940s...inspired by the small cars the GIs saw in Europe during the war. But their market research indicated that Americans didn't want small cars so the projects were scrapped. (actually, one of the proposed GM compacts became the first Holden 48-215 in Australia, while the Ford became the Ford Vedette in France). The independent manufacturers cought wind of what the Big 3 were doing and initiated small car programs of their own. Unfortunately, the independents carried their small car programs to fruition, which led to the demise of some of them.

So we saw the 1950 Nash Rambler, 1951 Kaiser Henry J, 1952 Aero Willys and 1953 Hudson Jet. None were initially successful and all except the Rambler were gone by 1955. But, then Rambler introduced a larger 4-Door model in 1955 and an attractive all new Rambler for 1956. Sales took off just as sales of the VW Beetle and interest in small foreign cars in general were increasing. In response to this, in 1957, GM, Ford and Chrysler began working on the Corvair, Falcon and Valliant and for 1958, Rambler re-introduced the 100 inch wheelbase 1955 Rambler as the Rambler American.

Studebaker quickly created a short wheelbase version of its fullsize car...the 1959 Lark, and got a 1 year jump on the Big 3 who had started from scratch.

Corvair, Falcon and Valliant were finally introduced for the 1960 model year followed shortly by the Mercury Comet. 1961 added the Pontiac Tempest, Olds F-85 and Buick Special, as well as the Dodge Lancer (later Dart). The last of this round of compacts, the Chevy II was introduced for 1962.

But, by this time, the market for U.S. compacts had about peaked, and by 1970 most of them had grown to intermediate size or had disappeared. The Chevy Nova, Ford Maverick, Plymouth Valliant, Dodge Dart and AMC Hornet were the lone compact holdouts by 1970.

 

[David Conwill]

SWEET

To bad its to late to pick the options, the 260 with the 3 on the floor Hmm

Floor shift (for the Dagenham 4-speed) didn’t come along until ‘62, and the V8s weren’t available in the Falcon until ‘63.

In actuality, I wasn’t after a V8 car, as I’m interested in the economy and simplicity of the 6.

-Dave

 

[topango]

My mistake....I often give people gifts I really want myself, and in this case the fact that they were not available did not stop me. Its a fantastic automobile