Vintage Fords

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On April 26th, there will be a Ford FE race and reunion at the Beaver Springs Raceway in Central PA. The "FE" is fordspeak for the 390/406/427/428 series of motors, used in Galaxies, Fairlanes, Mustangs, and Cobras. I went to this last year, and was in awe of the cars and the people who drove them. This is the 50th anniversary of the Ford Thuderbolt, so there will be a contigient there for that. I have a 66 Fairlane GT with a 428. It is in a 1000 pieces, so I'm going to watch and help run the car show. Here is a flyer:
http://www.fairlanet.com/FE/

http://www.fairlanet.com/images/FE_Reunion_flyer14.jpg

 

[fcurrier]

I just found out why I don't remember hearing of the Ford Thunderbolt:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Fairlane_Thunderbolt

 

[dfrisk]

FRANK - Please leave your Ford Blue Oval FAN Club card with the gentleman at the door when you leave. You REALLY never heard of the ThunderBolt?!?!

SCOTT - Couple other members of the FE family, 332 & 352, and technically, the 360 pickup engine is too. If I remember correctly, there were FIVE versions of the 427 alone, the low, medium, & high riser, tunnel port, & SOHC.

SON & I went to several of the World Ford Challenges years ago, and a Lightning Fest or two.

Really amazing some of the cars & trucks you see at shows like that.

 

[stanner]

Dennis,
I didn't list them all so I wouldn't bore everyone...lol... don't forget the 330,, 361, and 391 truck versions...

my 428

the car

 

[dfrisk]

The truck versions, like 361 & 391 are more HD variations with forged crankshafts, rods, pistons, etc according to my old service manuals. FMC even made a Heavy Duty 300-6 for use in medium duty trucks like F600's.

My Buddy had a '70's vintage F700 farm truck with a 370, not sure if it was an FE or not.

I made the comment over on the RPM forum a month or so ago about how the Ford H-D trucks used to blow past the IH trucks 50+ yrs ago every night on the way to the Chicago Stockyards. Guy Dad drove for had mostly 450-6 IH Red Diamond powered trucks.... and the Ford Super-Duty 477's would fly past us like we were tied to a tree stump. Lot of guys didn't like that, but the guys who hauled livestock from farther away from Chicago ALL ran Ford's because they could make better time with them than IH or GM powered trucks. The BIG 60 degree GMC V6's ran better than the IH's, but not as hard as the Ford's. Took several years of big diesel power to convert most of those trucks away from gas Ford's. Livestock trucking co's were the last vocation to give up on gas trucks, lots of old farmers thought diesel exhaust was harmful to livestock. Many livestock trking co's kept a gas truck or two around way into the 1980's.

ANYHOW.... I should hunt up my 1972 vintage "Ford Off-Highway Parts Book", the great-grand-dad to the Motorsport catalog of today. Some REAL interesting stuff in there. Just wished I could still buy the stuff for the published price!

 

[stanner]

a 370 is a short stroke 429/460...

everyone has that wish with the prices....

 

[kide]

Scott - friend of mine..... This is supposedly, from what Ray told me years ago, the never titled T-Bolt that DST built for FoMoCo as the prototype... Ray's had it for many years now. He used to run a '67 427 Failane. NHRA record holder with both cars. He used to be known for cutting at least a 10th off anybody's 4 speed times - great arm....

 

[stanner]

I haven't met him, but know of him, and that car.. there will be several t-bolts at the reunion this year, the week before there is a t-bolt reunion up your way, i believe..

 

[wshytle]

I come from a Ford family. My first car was a Ford Falcon with the big 144 cid and "3 on the tree". We called it Killer. Of course at that time my biggest problem was keeping tires on it and gas was expensive too at .25/gal.

That T-Bolt is a cool car by far. Good thread!

 

[proessler]

First was '60 Falcon-6 w/auto $100, Second a new '69 Fairlane 2 dr. Hardtop 302 w/3 spd. When in Army I ordered a '72 Maverick Grabber 302 w/ 3 on the floor, HD suspension, put on Edelbrock Torker & Holley 4 bbl and Hooker headers w/ Thrush mufflers. And Good Year G70x14 PolyGlas on rear. So when I got hooked ,wife could drive the Fairlane. That's car I taught her to drive a stick on!

 

[kide]

My dad was a Ford mechanic - so after my first car (a '31 Model A pickup I drove in high school) I drove a series of Chevy's until I got smart and came back into the fold. In the meantime, Dad bought a new '62 Falcon (stripper), that lasted until early '63 when the "63 and 1/2s" came out.... He bought a 63 Falcon 4 door station wagon with the 260/3 speed on the column. I wasn't allowed to wander too far from home with the Model A, so Friday and Saturday night cruising, when I could beg 'em out of it was in the wagon. Those 260 emblems didn't really stand out on the medium green/blackwall/4 door wagon.. Had a lot of fun with it, except for jamming the shift linkage. Dad knew, I'm sure, but never really pushed the issue - the Ford garage he had worked in until the previous year knew - the Service manager took me to one side and told me to be nicer to Dad's ride... He trade it off a year later for a really nice '65 Honey Gold wagon w/289 Cruiso........ <font size="-2"> Damn - I miss my old man...</font>

 

[bjamison]

Gerry I - My Dad bought a '65 for Falcon, 170 cu in - 6 cylinder, 3 speed on the column. It was a 4 door. I learned to drive on a '67 Bronco with 170 cu-in engine and 3 on the column.

We built a trailer using a straight front axle out of a '37 Chevy and cut fenders out of a 50 gallon drum. It looked like something the military used. Towed it with the Falcon - which I called the Fal-co as to me it was a cross between a Falcon and Bronco the way my Dad would take it off road! Who know how many cords of firewood we hauled with that trailer. Fed cattle off of it sometimes - pretty much did everything with it except haul livestock. Sometimes if we were on a hill, in the pasture and the rear wheels would slip due to frost or just wet grass when you would let out on the clutch, my Dad would leave the clutch out, hit the starter, the car would roll with the starter motor turning the engine, fire and off we'd go. I think back on it as the original hill holder clutch - LOL.

We also had a Mercury Comet wagon, 1964 with a 200 cu in engine and auto. That thing was bad about over heating on long trips in the summer, not to mention the gas tank under the back fell loose to the ground TWICE while driving - YIKES!!!!!!

In the early 80's my parents bought a Ford Ranger truck and Mercury version of the Escort - in a wagon. Those were incredibly bad pieces of crap and highlighted the black days of Detroit. After that and to this day, my parents buy Honda, Nissan or Mazada.

My brother finally broke back to Ford with a new F-150 a couple of years ago and so far it seems to be a quality truck - BUT the bed height on these new trucks, even on a 1/2 ton, require some reaching to get over the bed side to grab any cargo!

 

[prtombaugh]

All the talk of the Ford Falcon brings back the memory of my first car. It was a 1963½ Ford Falcon Sprint with the 260 V-8 and 4-speed. My dad was pretty good friends the small town Ford dealer, so when one of his mechanics got in financial trouble and had to give up the car back to the dealer, my dad got a call and I got a car! Red with a black interior. Kept it until 1966 when I just had to have one of those Mustangs! Also red with black interior, K-Code Hi-Performance with a 4-speed and styled steel wheels. Wish I had them both now!

 

[stanner]

Paul,
That was the same car that I first wrecked. My parents has a futura convert, 260/4spd, black w/ red innards. I was 5 or 6 at the time, and I knocked the thing out of gear, it then rolled down the driveway, across the road, and down an embankment. I was extremely lucky... the floors and rockers got balled up on the falcon...

 

[kostendorf]

I also had a 65 falcon 2 door automatic. Drove it for a year then being a stupid teenager took the 6 cyl. out and in went a 302 with holley 4 barrel. First 3 times I floored it I was changing starters. It took that long for me to figure out the flywheel was flexing and burning up the starter. I had to shim the starter out enough instead of doing the right fix getting a different flywheel. Any way that worked until I let a friend drive it to the store and he somehow hit the gas instead of the brake in the parking lot and ran into 6 different cars then over the curb and slammed into a street light across a busy 4 lane road. The little falcon was no more... Oh and State Farm disowned me for a few years too!

 

[aschumacher]

Strange how insurance companies get hostle when you put in a claim after totaling a car...

 

[stanner]

It's that time of year again!!

On April 24th-25th, there will be a Ford FE race and reunion at the Beaver Springs Raceway in Central PA. The "FE" is fordspeak for the 390/406/427/428 series of motors, used in Galaxies, Fairlanes, Mustangs, and Cobras. I went to this last year, and was in awe of the cars and the people who drove them. This year, I'm running the car show portion. Here is a flyer:


http://www.fairlanet.com/images/FE/feflyer.pdf

 

[kide]

Say hi to Ray Paquet if he attends... Havn't seen him in a few years, he did OK at Indy this year...

 

[aschumacher]

This is one of those Aw Crap! situations. My heart goes out to the guy who just got that new P/U truck.

http://www.yeahmotor.com/trucks/how-not-to-drive-a-ford-f-3500-on-a-trailer/?utm_source=taboola&utm_medium=cpc&utm_content=desc&utm_campaign=taboola%20not%20to%20load%20us%20uk%20ca%20desktop

 

[stanner]

this video is just plain kewl...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLBP_BhY63I