Fixing up my old car

[dmb16]

I have a 1965 Ford Falcon and am thinking about souping it up a little. Make it real nice and fast and stuff. I know it all depends on what you do. I've never really done this so does anyone know a price range for doing stuff like this? Its in good shape and not a lot would need to be done to make it like new again. So whats the price range for type of job?

Also how difficult is it?


Stupid questions i know but do your best

[PilotC150]

you'll find much better information on www.fordfalcons.com than on here.

[dmb16]

yes sir i know that.
but im assuming on car sites id get a lot of guys that do that stuff all the time. i wanna know from an amature perspective that way i can kinda tell what it will take me. i know someone on here does this type of thing.

[PilotC150]

Well it really depends on many things. The condition of the car, what you want when you're done, how much YOU want to do, and how mechanically inclinded you are.

It can cost anywhere up to over $10,000+ if you want to make it really quick and look really good.

First of all, I'm assuming you like your car if you want do fix it up. So first off you will want to get rid of all the rust. Sometimes it can be sanded down, filled, and painted. Sometimes you might have to remove a full panel and replace it. My recommendation would be to do all you can by yourself, and maybe even sand down the current paint job and prime it yourself, then take it in and have it professionally painted. You'll get the best results that way for the cheapest amount of money.

Now, as for the engine, I'm not sure what kind of engine you have in your car, but to get speed, you'll probably want to definatly make sure you have a free-flowing (read: large) exhaust system, and nice open headers, as well as a good intake system. Doesn't matter how much can get out if you can't get enough air IN.

For the actual workings of the engine. To get best results out of an older engine would be to fully rebuild it. Port and polish the intake manifold and intake runners (if any on that engine), also maybe bore out the cylindars to increase the displacement of the engine. Depending what you want to do with the car (normal street driving, racing only for fun, up to the speed limit of course, or actually taking it to the track) you might want to put in all new pistons, valves and connecting rods. Porting and polishing the heads will yield large results, too.

A LOT of time can be invested fixing up a car, it's tons of fun, too. Remember, if you think something should take you an hour to do, leave at least 3 hours to do it. The advantage of older cars/engines is that you don't have the same amount of computer connections and vacuum hoses that newer cars have.

I hope that's a start for ya, well, I hope that's a kind of response that will be of some help. If you have any more questions, just ask, i'll do my best to answer or help ya find answers.

[rconverse]

Found my first major issue with the Daytona. I don't know what genius decided this but the circuit board for the headlights is in the center of the dash, right above the message center, HVAC controls, and radio. That circuit board is in a plastic little "case" (for lack of a better term) and then that case is filled with this stuff that's supposed to protect the circuit board, I guess. Problem is, when it gets too hot that stuff melts and oozes out of the side of where the circuit board is encased. So, below is a picture of what this stuff looks like when it melts. It's the stickiest, tackiest shit I've ever come across. It's like resin but way worse. So, imagine that shit just oozing out of the top of the middle of the dash down onto the message center, HVAC controls, and radio. It's a mess and a half.

http://s426.photobucket.com/user/Cha...14d1a.jpg.html

Yesterday I took out the instrument panel, HVAC controls, message center, radio, glove box, and center console in order to try and get all the shit cleaned up but I don't think that's going to be enough. I think I'm going to have to pull the entire dash out of the car.

So now I have the instrument parts on my table and the trim and all of that shit in the back of the car. It's a total disaster right now. I tried to clean of the HVAC control as much as I could but this stuff sticks so much, it's nearly impossible. Hopefully this place calls me back Monday and they can get that piece cleaned up.

At this point, the car is so torn apart that in order to swap out the flooring, all I would need to do is pull the front and back seats. I'll probably just go ahead and do that while it's completely torn up. No sense in doing it multiple times.

[rconverse]

Current state of the inside of the car.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAQ_E84xBWQ

[defcon]

I want a fucking Yugo.

[rconverse]

Wow. I think I may have dodged a bullet on this interior rebuild. As posted above, I took everything out. I then started trying to get this sap-like shit off these interior parts. The good news is that acetone works well on metal. The bad news, is that it fucks up plastic. Well, I rubbed it all over the front of the radio (because it was working so well on the metal) and that was not smart. Pretty much ruined the front of the radio. I go to my turbo dodge forum and post that I'm looking for a replacement radio and someone has one but the cassette player is broken. The cassette player not working sucks because then I can't play my iPHone. But, just now, I was thinking that I don't need the entire radio. I only need the face of the radio.

http://www.turbododge.com/forums/f7/...-cassette.html

I heard back from the electronics place in Virginia and they've agreed to take on fixing the message center and HVAC controls and assured me that if they can't fix them they won't charge me.

Finally, with all this potential good news, went ahead and decided to buy the new interior flooring so basically the entire interior is getting an amazing makeover. Can't wait for the summer weather.

Kind of a lot going on but it's all trending in a good direction now.

[jrkarger]

Originally Posted by rconverse

Wow. I think I may have dodged a bullet on this interior rebuild. As posted above, I took everything out. I then started trying to get this sap-like shit off these interior parts. The good news is that acetone works well on metal. The bad news, is that it fucks up plastic. Well, I rubbed it all over the front of the radio (because it was working so well on the metal) and that was not smart. Pretty much ruined the front of the radio. I go to my turbo dodge forum and post that I'm looking for a replacement radio and someone has one but the cassette player is broken. The cassette player not working sucks because then I can't play my iPHone. But, just now, I was thinking that I don't need the entire radio. I only need the face of the radio.

http://www.turbododge.com/forums/f7/...-cassette.html

I heard back from the electronics place in Virginia and they've agreed to take on fixing the message center and HVAC controls and assured me that if they can't fix them they won't charge me.

Finally, with all this potential good news, went ahead and decided to buy the new interior flooring so basically the entire interior is getting an amazing makeover. Can't wait for the summer weather.

Kind of a lot going on but it's all trending in a good direction now.

the HVAC controls are the same as in my lebaron.

Do you need the cassette tape for your phone? Aren't there local radio transmitting apps so you can play the phone through the FM radio:?

Does your odometer work? Mine quit working and now I'm afraid the car won't pass inspection. I've looked around online and it seems as though the culprit is a broken plastic gear on the inside of the odometer. Only $20 to replace but that means taking apart the entire instrument panel to fix.

[rconverse]

Originally Posted by jrkarger

the HVAC controls are the same as in my lebaron.

Do you need the cassette tape for your phone? Aren't there local radio transmitting apps so you can play the phone through the FM radio:?

Does your odometer work? Mine quit working and now I'm afraid the car won't pass inspection. I've looked around online and it seems as though the culprit is a broken plastic gear on the inside of the odometer. Only $20 to replace but that means taking apart the entire instrument panel to fix.

The way I was using my phone through the car stereo was via those cassette things. I wouldn't be surprised if there's an app from which I can play it though a FM station.

My odometer and trip odometer didn't work, so I did take out the entire instrument cluster but I ended up sending that to a place to get fixed. The only piece that worked in my instrument cluster was the speedometer. Literally everything else was broken, including the gas gauge. In fact, it's the same place I'm sending the HVAC controls to see if they can get those back in good order (which I'm like 99% sure they will).

[jrkarger]

Hmmm, was the place you sent your instrument cluster local or do they do shipments?

If they do shipments, do you mind PM-ing me their contact info?

[rconverse]

Originally Posted by jrkarger

Hmmm, was the place you sent your instrument cluster local or do they do shipments?

If they do shipments, do you mind PM-ing me their contact info?

They pay shipping both ways.

http://www.instrumentclusters.com/

Like I mentioned previously, I used them to fix up my instrument cluster (which was completely jacked up) and they fixed it for 1/3 less than they quoted.

[jrkarger]

Thanks!88888888888888

[diableri]

Best of luck with the project, your generation of cars is tough because they weren't really building them with prolonged, easy maintenance in mind yet (as you've perfectly illustrated). I've always wanted to build a track car out of the starion/conquest models but am much more comfortable without messing with the smog rules here for those years and it'd be tough to stuff an EROD in one of them without completely redesigning the front geometry.

I had one of the local high end audio shops put together a BT module that was in line behind the original stereo on an old corvette my dad had that worked great for modern phone connectivity. Just punched a button on the loudness knob below the driver's seat and it switched to the BT source on the well hidden away nice speakers. Get mapping directions and whatever else you want from the phone that way without anything looking out of place other than your phone laying on the seat or in the console. Can do the exact same thing with a wired connection if you want to give your phone juice, just need the different connection and a hiding place for the wire when not in use.

If your daytona is a long term toy (which is seems like) then it might be worth looking into while you have the dash apart and interior up. Just lay the wire to the doors/back for newer/hidden speakers/amp/sound processor/whatever as well as laying wire to a convenient place for the source button/switch. That way it's all ready to wire up if you decide to upgrade the audio in the future but want to keep the dash all stock. So much easier to do it with the interior pulled apart rather than do it later and the actual wire is cheap. You'd already done most of the labor.

Have fun!

[rconverse]

Thanks, man. I'll check that out.

Extremely happy with today's progress. All of that sap-like shit has been removed from behind the dash of my car. I was running out of ideas on what could clean it and made the mistake of trying to use acetone on plastic (don't do that) when I saw these "Goof Off" wipes at Home Depot for $3.00, so I picked them up. Absolute game changer. Best $3.00 I've ever spent, bar none.

Going back out to remove the seats and hopefully the flooring today so that I can start with the flooring install tomorrow.

[rconverse]

Ended up sending the flooring that I ordered back for a different color. A little disappointed that everything is in limbo. I've never stripped a car down this far. It's a little scary.

[jrkarger]

That's some serious work. Yikes! Good luck. Seems like it would be fun as long as nothing goes seriously wrong.

[rconverse]

Finally back at this. Finished up a couple of things that were taking forever.

Pretty much replaced my entire washer/wiper setup. New wiper motor, washer fluid pump, washer fluid gauge, wipers, and spray painted the arms so they look new. Also spray painted the cowl, even though you can't see it when the hood of the car is down.

In addition, fixed my driver side door which wasn't closing correctly and cleaned up the pedals.

The new flooring is installed with the holes cut, which was kind of a little bit of pressure but I think I did okay.

[rconverse]

Wiper Motor....

[diableri]

Coming together man. I've always hated carpet and upholstery. I'd rather do body/paint prep work than that part. Electrical Harness would be about my only more disliked part of a project car. Hope you get to enjoy driving it again soon.

[rconverse]

Thanks, man! Yeah, the interior is intimidating as fuck for whatever reason.

Okay, so with that said and despite my fears, the interior rebuild is moving forward.

Pretty much every electrical component has been reinstalled (instrument cluster, message center, HVAC control, and radio) and are working. In addition, some other internal components that weren't working are now functioning, including the lighter, lighter light, glove box light, and power mirrors. Tracing the power mirrors back to a faulty switch and actually getting it replaced easily made me insanely pleased.

Onto the bad news....I want to swap out my rear drum breaks for disc brakes and the parts alone are going to cost at least $650. Of course, the core charge for rear calipers is $65 each but since I don't have them, can't recoup any money.

[rconverse]

Well, well, well. Sometimes good things do happen to bad people!!

According to my book, there were some 1987 models that actually had 4 wheel disc breaks and guess who owns one of those? This guy!!

So, not only do I not have to do a brake conversion (which I don't know how to do) but I don't have to purchase new rear calipers. Woot!

[rconverse]

Calipers are painted and decal'd. Hopefully get them back in tomorrow.

[rconverse]

Ready for its debut for the 4th. 'Murica!

[jrkarger]

That's pretty darn BA, Rog.

Kudos. That looked like it was a hell of a lot of work. I wish I could find the time for mine.

[rconverse]

Thanks! It was a lot of time and, unfortunately, more $ than I would have hoped. I can def understand more how people end up with project cars that sit in their garage for long periods of time. Just getting the materials for my interior was like $500. Thankfully this car didn't have any engine or transmission issues. You start adding those costs in and it's like "sorry, son. I guess college is on you."

Good luck with your car and post pics if/when you get to fixing it up!

[daveshookme]

Damn, Rahj! That's fucking great. Supes jealous.

[diableri]

Hope you get to enjoy the ride bud. Not much better than those first spins around the neighborhood when you've put the work in.