This 1963 Ford Falcon Futura 2-Door sedan appears to be a car where the restoration project has stalled, and after having performed a fair amount of the base work on the car, the owner has decided to sell the car. You will find the Futura listed for sale here on Craigslist. The Ford is located in Glassboro, New Jersey, and is offered for sale with a clean title. The owner has set an asking price of $4,800. Barn Finder billw spotted this one for us, so thank you for that billw.
The Ford looks quite straight and doesn’t appear to be far from being ready for a fresh coat of paint. I think that there are some glimpses around the car of the original paint, so that makes me believe that the car was originally finished in Rangoon Red. The owner states that the body is good, with only a couple of places needing minor repair. The owner has all of the exterior trim for the car and also has a new windshield and new seals for both the windshield and rear window.
The owner does say that the interior needs some loving, but it does appear to be complete, minus the radio in the dash. The Futura was a more luxurious version of the Falcon and featured front bucket seats. The seats will all need new covers, the door trims look like they will need new upholstery, and the carpet looks like it may actually be revived with a good clean. The standard floor console is present, and it looks to be in quite decent condition.
Under the hood is the 6-cylinder Mileage Maker engine, although I haven’t been able to tell whether it is the 144ci version or the 170ci. What is nice is the fact that this one is hooked to the original factory 4-speed manual transmission. The owner has performed a lot of work on the mechanical components of the car, and the buyer is set to reap the benefits of this work. The engine has been stripped, over-bored by .040″, and rebuilt with new pistons, rings, bearings, a new starter, and a new fuel pump. The rest of the fuel system has also come in for some attention, with a new gas tank, sender unit, and all new hard lines fitted. The brakes have also had some attention. The car is fitted with a new master cylinder, wheel cylinders, shoes, and all new hard lines and rubber hoses.
At first glance, this 1963 Futura does not seem like a terribly special car. However, given the fact that the majority of Falcons of this era were sold as budget cars with either a 3-speed manual or 2-speed automatic transmission, the fact that it is a Futura that was specified with a 4-speed transmission makes it a bit unusual. The car appears to be a solid proposition, and the scope of mechanical work that has been completed leaves the buyer with the task of finishing the body and interior. For someone who is looking at taking on their first project car, this Futura looks like it would be a pretty decent entry point vehicle.
nice
Never knew it could be ordered with a six and a four on the floor. Got to be a rare bird. Growing up in the neighborhood, from 1965-1974, an old guy around the corner had a turqouise ’63 Futura tucked away in the garage that was kept like new and hardly driven. To us “car kids”, it was legendary.
I have this same bird of prey, 144six with the four speed on the floor, California car,one owner before me clean as a whistle but the interior is sun baked ,over done and deteriorated
Dangaman 4 speed most likely…..not a top loader……but it does have that needed hump !
The Dagenham 4 speed named after the English assemble plant near London where these were made i presume, were nice little transmissions but if i recall they weren’t all that robust and are now very uncommon. Parts can be found but one might have to look to find what you need in more than one place.
The parking brake handles on these old Fords always look to be bent. Are they made that way, or do they bend after repeated use?
You had to pull back, then twist to the left to clean the spline on the rod behind the handle. The handle never went completely back horizontal, this is the way most look.
If original, it’s a Dagenham 4-speed, named for the Ford factory in Dagenham, England. They weren’t particularly durable or reliable, so buyer beware.
More fun than a barrel of monkeys IMHO.
you could take this project in any direction you choose and have a ball
doing it! Like the idea of a 4-speed behind that 6 cylinder though. I’d give
that English 4-speed the old heave-ho in
favor of a top loader. If it’s designed in
Eroupe, it never works right anyway.
You’ll need the bellhousing from a ’64
Mustang equipped with a toploader to
make it work. Also, you might be better
off to use the tranny mounts for the
toploader gear box as well to save your-
self some time and aggrivation later on.
Can’t recall right now if you’ll have to swap out the flywheel too. Been about
50 years since Tex Smith laid this out in
Rod & Custom Magazine in his Bench
Session column. Sure would like to try
it…sounds like a whole lot of fun!
Some folks might get mad, but I would love to restomod this one. I wouldn’t cut up the body, but I would love to put a 347 Ford crate motor in her. She would fly.
Rare little beast but comments about 4 speed are scary.
Probably go for half asking price
When I was 17, my Dad bought a ’63 Futura, 170 ci, 4 speed. A fellow gearhead friend of mine and I had to pull the trans and fix a few things, although I don’t remember what the problems were. I couldn’t find a gasket to put it back together, so I traced what was left of the old one on to a Cap’n Crunch cereal box. It worked fine. The car was a perfect to learn the basics of car mechanics. Ended up building a hot rod out of it with a wrecked ’67 Fairlane drivetrain.
Thank you Barn Finders for your expertise. I would remove the Transmission and switch to something reliable.
I have a 460ci truck engine with EFI and an AOD Transmission with 34000 miles on assembly that would turn it into a nice sleeper
i had a 63 comet s22 hardtop with the 170 4 speed, it was FUN. Parts were hard to find back in the 80s-90s but i was lucky and didn’t need any, but now those parts must be almost impossible to locate. As a side note they also put that Dagenham 4 speed in the Econoline, 4 Speed column shifter.
The alternative stick shift in this car was a three-speed that Ford bought off the shelf from an outside supplier (Borg-Warner?). It was also used in Ramblers if I remember right. It was non-synchronized in first and reverse, so you had to get used to finding the right instant to stab it into gear. I pulled it out of a ’64 Mustang that was too rusted to save and put it in a ’66 to replace a defunct C4. This was in the late ’80s. Amazingly enough, Hurst made an aftermarket shifter for the little beast, and even more amazing, I located one still in its cockroach-eaten box in the Genuine Parts Jackson, MS warehouse. It was actually pretty fun to drive, although I had the advantage of hooking it up to the big-block 200cid Falcon Six (capital letters make it seem more impressive, don’t you think?). At the time, though, I would have liked to find one of the Dagenham 4-speeds, and after reading the above, I still wish I had.
I wonder if the Dagenham 4 speed is what I had in my Dagenham built Cortina GT. That was a slick shifting transmission. Best feel of any trans I’ve ever shifted
German Taunus Ford 4 speed
85HP 144CID L6
NOT up to a V-8!!
Console with Lear Seigler 4 track tape
Philco/Ford AM/FM stereo.
White with black vinyl top
My HS buddie John Minton had one thru about 1972…
Made many Daytona 24 and Sebring 12 Hour races
Might have been the 105 HP 170…
His ex- GT&E Econoline van had the smaller 85 HP Six
Brewster Tech, Tampa! 1069!