Thinking about restoring a Falcon

jgressley2003

Founding Member
Sep 21, 2002
73
0
7
Indiana
Hey guys I just looked at a 1964 Ford Falcon tonight for possibly 250 bucks. The car is pretty solid, but it does have some rust on the fenders, doors, and quarter panels. It is an inline 6 cylinder and an automatic. My question is if this car is worth restoring. I looked on Hemmings.com to see what they are worth fixed up, but they are either a convertible or have the V8 in them. Right now I am already over a grand just in replacing two fenders and both bumpers. Any help is a appreciated.
 
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Nobody else has said anything, so I'll jump in.

Falcons aren't that popular; which also means there aren't that many of them (almost rare). Yours would be worth whatever you want it to be worth - what are you going to do with/to it?

There's a guy here in Yuma that has finished out a couple of Stangs - including the one he would take his HS sweetheart (now wife of thirty-odd years) out on dates. He also has the almost-obligatory '61 Galaxie with the also almost obligatory 500-odd-inch punched out 460. Now he's getting hung up on Fairlane wagons. Has a '67 289, almost concours; there's a '66 BB he has timeslipped in the mid-11's; another one has $5600 in paint. Why, because he likes them and they're his new niche. The weirdest thing is that he's turned down some really BIG offers, "Because they're so much fun!" Another guy in town has 3 Falcon Rancheros. Two are in various states of buildup, the third (his DD) doesn't look like much, but a lot of guys haven't seen the front of the li'l truck; only the tailights.

Why not a Falcon coupe? If you like it and you can find affordable parts, go for it!
Hey, I'm now in the hunter-gatherer stage for parts for a honkin' HUGE '73 Cougar. It's not gonna be fast, 'cause it's for my 16-yr-old daughter. But it's gonna be nice!
And if she gets tired of it and doesn't kill it, it's gonna be "Daddy's turn" :D
 
as you can see by my sig, i have two falcons now. the 64 is my favorite body style, mine is the futura hardtop with the six. rather than restore a car with an eye to selling it, restore it because you like it. while falcons are not as popular as mustangs, they are gaining in popularity, and parts are getting much easier to find for the 65 and earlier falcons. the 66-70 falcons are still hard to find parts for though.
 
Before I got my license (in '78) I used to ride to school sometimes with an older freind who had a '64 or '65 Falcon Futura. The car was yellow with a 289, top loader and 14x6 slot mags in the front and 14x8's in the back. It was raised about an inch all the way around to clear the tires in the back, kinda made it look like a '60's gasser. It was a bitchin' car and I'd love to have one just like it someday. I probably would try to find as rust free a car as I could, but I say go for it.
 
StangDreamin' said:
Why not a Falcon coupe? If you like it and you can find affordable parts, go for it!

Realmongo said:
I always liked the lines of the '64 Falcon.

rbohm said:
as you can see by my sig, i have two falcons now.

zookeeper said:
It was a bitchin' car.......I say go for it.


Yes.......Join us! Come to the dark side! We haven't made our monthly quota of corruptions yet!
 
krash kendall said:
Yes.......Join us! Come to the dark side! We haven't made our monthly quota of corruptions yet!

the dark side? remember that mustangs were built on the falcon chassis. also remember that the round body falcons were the first car in history to sell 1,000,000 units in 26 months, a record that stod until the mustang came along.

now if you were talking wbout getting a chevy ll or a nova, THAT would be going to the dark side.
 
Darn, been tryin to hunt it down for a while, I know he was sellin it. Funny thing, he originally was going to repaint it red!! Cool anyway, they are neat cars. We bought ours to be a DD too, but a friend decided he didn't want to see us use it as a DD and sold us his olds toronado for $50 so we didn't! Was a FL car, 302, a/t.

I would say if you want to buy it to enjoy, go for it-but you will never get the kind of cash for it you would get for a Mustang. I used to like the earlier Falcons more than the later, but then after seeing the Wagon I decided I liked the later ones too!!
 
You know, a few days ago I would have agreed with your statement about Falcon value. But this thread got me thinking and I headed over to my personal value estimater, also known as "ebay" and did a search on completed auctions. I found that the '64-ish Falcons are just about even with early Mustang coupes in value, given a comparable car. A few years ago I saw a cream-colored '64 Futura with a 289/C4 and American 5 spokes sell for $7,200 locally. I haven't seen many Mustang coupes bring that much, at least around here.
 
rbohm said:
the dark side? remember that mustangs were built on the falcon chassis. also remember that the round body falcons were the first car in history to sell 1,000,000 units in 26 months, a record that stod until the mustang came along.

now if you were talking wbout getting a chevy ll or a nova, THAT would be going to the dark side.

Me thinks you have misinterpreted me!
 
zookeeper said:
Hmmm...My guess is the '63 Falcons that raced in the Monte Carlo rally. What do I win?

Don't know what YOU win, but the Falcons (which were laughed at by the Europeans) placed 1st, 2nd and 3rd (there were 3 of them) in the Rally!!

My own first <u>new</u> car was a 63 1/2 Flacon Sprint (260 and 4-speed, hardtop). [The only time Ford designated a car as a 1/2 year - caused lots of problems with insurance companies and DMVs, so they didn't do it again]. Great little car - I would lOVE to have another one.