1961 Falcon Futura

Son's 1961 Falcon Futura

A little background on the '61 Futura "hogging" a stall in my garage. It has been in my family for over 20 years and I think all of my sisters drove this car at one time or another when they were in high school. I know one of my sisters drove this car to California the summer after graduating from high school and my youngest sister drove it after she graduated too! Sometime in the late 80's, while I was still stationed in Lost Wages (Las Vegas), NV my Dad told me he wanted to give the car to my son for his 16th birthday. My son was around 4 or 5 at the time, so my Dad had plenty of time to do whatever he needed to get the car ready. A few assignments and about 6 years later I ended up in Dayton, OH. I was there when my Dad had his first heart attack and was only a month shy of retiring from the USAF and moving to our home in Eastern Washingotn when my Dad had his second, and fatal, heart attack. After the funeral, my Mom asked if she could tell my son the car was his and why. She did, it is, and I have the task of making the car road worthy! Not that I mind doing that, but the car has some challenging problems I will need to overcome.

Being that my folks lived in Western Washington, (you know, the place where it "always" rains), it has some rust problems in a few key places. The car sat for several years with the driver's side window partly open. The windshield channel at the junction of the cowl and the A-pillar is rusted through on both sides, just a small spot about an inch or so long, but plenty to do damage. The driver's side floor pan and toe board are rusted so badly you can push a screwdriver right through them. Years of sitting in the damp, with the window partly open, and water leaking through the windshield channel soaked the carpet. The rest of that story tells itself! The passenger side floor pan and the rear driver's side floor pan both have to be replaced as well, not too difficult. But the windshield channel is a tough repair. Until I get that done, I really don't want to waste much time on the mechanicals.

Here's a series of photos of my son's 1961 Falcon Futura.

Here are some pics of the interior and the engine. The engine runs, but not very well. The 170/Ford-O-Matic will be replaced with a 200/C-4. That should make for a much nicer driving experience!

The floor pans are in bad shape. You can almost see some of the problem in the view from the driver's side above. The carpet was so rotted, it looked like it was rusting! See more on the floor pans here.

Work we've completed so far:

Replaced all front suspension bushings with polyurethane, including the sway bar bushings.
Replaced all suspension components; upper and lower ball joints, inner and outer tie rod ends, new idler arm, new drag link, & new sway bar end links.

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