Gotta love a station wagon!

That's what a (dear departed) friend yelled at me from the stage, where he was sitting behind his drum-set playing a gig one night. I had just purchased his little Dodge Colt station wagon. Though that wagon is long gone, it was actually a pretty cool wagon as well. That phrase sort of stuck -- even after I let the Dodge go and purchased my Falcon.

Me, I've always had a fondness for Falcons; ever since High School. Me and a buddy hot-rodded Falcons then. That was in the late 70's in Kalifornya. I had to sell my Falcon (a 62 Futura with a 300+hp 289) when I moved to Warshington in '79.

In 1997, shortly after a even shorter marriage, I was heading home from a 4th 'o July fireworks thing in Seattle, riding my mountain bike, when I came upon this little white tudor Falcon wagon. I thought to myself -- "What a way to beat depression." " Go in debt and buy another car!"

I already had a '56 F100 Panel (a wagon, of sorts ), which I was driving far too often for what it was, so I thought this would make a nice driver to take the panel off the road a bit. I had a '64 Ranchero in the garage at my apartment, which was slowly turning into a large piece of swiss cheese and I really wanted a Falcon - bad.

So out came the credit cards and I bought the wagon... for about 6K.

The wagon had a new paint job already, and zero rust I could find anywhere on the car. This is something for a WA car that is pretty rare... in and of itself. So after taking possession of it I "gave away" the Ranchero so I could park the Panel in the garage and started driving the wagon.

Ughh.

Needless to say, driving that 200ci 6, with 3-on-the-tree, non-syncro tranny, in Seattle, with all the other cars whipping around me, was a shock. Wasn't used to that at all. I slowly started doing some work on the thing as needed to improve things. I added headers, Pertronix ignition, replaced the clutch, rear wheel bearings, and drove it that way for about 3 years. In the mean-time I researched what I could do to get rid of the 3-speed.

Sadly the cross-over year for transmission adaptability was 1966 when they added a dual bolt pattern for using small-block bolt-pattern bell housings. I was sort of stuck unless I wanted to change out the motor or get really fancy adapting things.

Having just spent 25 years adapting my panel - over and over and over again - I wasn't really looking forward to doing that. Besides, I really wanted to keep this stock, or at least period correct. So as I researched the tranny's I could use on this block, the Dagenham 4-speed was the only bolt-on option. But everyone said, "Don't do that. You'll be sorry." Not being someone who listens well (or so my ex said), I decided to look at a few of these tranny's when they came along. Ooh. Them be expensive, but I eventually ended up with two of them at $100 a piece.

The Dagenham is the English 4-speed used mostly in the English cars in the late 50's and early 60's -- like the Cortina. It is a pretty wimpy thing, really. I disassemble the two and studied the heck out of them to discover what made them tick and what made the tock. Overall, the weakest area was the bearing surfaces between the input and output shafts. So, having access to a full tool and die shop, I "reengineered" this transmission by adding a new bearing/race assembly into it. That was about 7 years ago. So-far, so good. And having a 4-speed now, with the other mods I made to the car -- that thing scoots right along.

I have since done a lot of things to the car, which I'll, I'm sure, detail elsewhere, but that's a not-so-short introduction. I want to thank a co-member of the local Falcon Club (of which I am the current prez of... for now) for turning me onto this site. He was pointing me to a couple pictures of my wagon somebody posted in a gallery here from the 2007 Greenwood Car Show. He also owns a Falcon tudor wagon of the '62 vintage. For all I know, he's lurking around here.

Honestly, I need to be a member of another forum like I need another car (I'm single and own 4). But looks like a pretty cool site, so there you have it. I'll stick around for a while.

Gotta love a station wagon!

 

Awesome intro...and with pics.

Great looking falcon, welcome to the farm

 

A+ on the intro, Roger. One of the best we've had in a while. Sharp Falcon, too. You're gonna fit right in.....

One of our other members has a resto thread on his '65 2-door Falcon wagon:

http://www.stationwagonforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5488

Welcome!


Marshall

 

Thats how a intro sould be!!!!

Welcome to the site!!!!!

 

Roger. The best intro in a long time. Very cool wagon too.

 

and... Gotta love a station wagon story... Thanks for the info - your Falcon is definitely cool...

 

Welcome Roger! Great story. You should have a look at the Fordsix.com site to perk up that reliable 200!

HandyAndy and I are practically neighbours and we've been taunting ourselves about putting turbos on them. But there's all kinds of ways to make them sparkle.

 

Thanks -

Hey,

Glad some people like to read. That's only the short story. I was saving you all from falling asleep at the computer. (Oh, man, not another guy telling us his life story....)

But yeah, would love a lot more power. I'm anxious to see how it runs with the newer rear-end in it. Just wrapping that up now -- its a 8" 4-lug from a Maverick, but it's got 2.79 gears as opposed to the 3.50 gears the 7.25" had. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping my puny little 8.5" clutch will hook up.

I posted some pictures in a garage thing here last night, but I couldn't keep my eyes open at the time (fell asleep writing my own life story), so I'll post some more pictures of it shortly.

I plan to have a further look around tonight after I come in out of the garage. I hope to get my headers and steering wheel reinstalled. I did a steering gear swap while I was at it.

Cheers-

 

What a nice wagon. You want more pep? Go to a numerically higher gear. It will liven up that six. Be careful of the Dagenham, I heard they are a bit weak and they are rare so repairs are hard to accomplish.

I like how nice the interior is.

 

Here's a guy who did some beefing up on his C4 Automatic behind a 200 six. Seems the C4 had bearing/race issues too.:
http://www.redfalken.com/pages/c4.html

 

I didn't even look at the URL you posted, but the moment the page appeared, I know it was Kenny's web site (Redfalken.com). He was the president of our local FCA chapter when I joined the local chapter. I became editor for a couple years, then we decided to trade places. Anyway, Kenny has done a lot of cool things to his car.

There are a few wagons in the club in various state of restoration. Mine is probably the most done. I redid rework most of the interior in July 2008 in just 3 weeks prior to a regional club meet. The seats were new when I bought the car in '97, but I restretched them and put in all new door panels -- and repainted all the trim... and added NOS backup tail lights.

Last year all I did was pull the windshield and replace it (after cracking it myself by turning a screw holding the rear-view mirror just a little too tight. ) Took the opportunity to repaint the window opening and redo the stereo (while I could reach down through the top speaker cover with no restrictions). I didn't like the way the stereo sounded from the previous year's install anyway. Much better now.

As for the Dagenham... yeah... I know them all too well, now.

More pictures attached.

 

Hey Roger, nice little Falcon!

My '66 Mustang has the 200 ci 6 in it as well. I've also got an 8 inch, but with 3.73's, with the Ford SVO disc break set up. I'm currently running the 3.03 three speed having taken out the 3 speed Dagneham a long time ago.

For more power though, you've already discovered Clifford since you have the 6-1 header. Did you install the port divider? I have the 6-2 Clifford header on my 6. For fuel and intake I am running the Offenhauser 3x1 intake with 3 one barrel webers, it really added some power.

Here are a couple of pictures (the fuel line was just a mock up). Also, have you ever been to Fordsix.com?

Oh, and I have a wagon as well...

Bill

 

So...you're a fordsix guy too. I'm JackFish over there.
My 200 was rebuilt with a 264/274/112LC cam, ported, large valves, port divider, dizzy recurve, etc.
Still running the 1bbl but have a Holley 2bbl waiting in the wings.

 

Nice, I'm Colorado66 over there. I went with a Mallory Unilite dizzy in mine.

I haven't had a chance to play with the Mustang much lately....

Bill

 

Bill- I suspect you've converted to 5-lug then? Or do they have the SVO setup in 4-lug. I've done discs in the front as you may have seen, but never considered doing rears ... yet.

I did put the port divider in. I will say that the headers and the Pertronix ignition made a world of difference to this car -- as did just doing the 4-speed; oddly enough. Even with the 3.50 stock rear end, new clutch, I had a hard time keeping it hooked up. Any more power and I'd have a problem I think. I'm kind's OK with the setup as it is. Won best 6 as regional's a couple years ago. :2_thumbs_up_-_anima That's not anything to do with power though. It is pretty clean under the hood. I debated the 3.03 before going to the Dagenham, but I've beefed that up. If I can ever find those pictures I took on that work, I'll post them.