My 65 Falcon Project..

Finally getting a chance to sit down and post some photos of my Falcon project..

I bought the van in washington state and had it shipped up to Montreal, Canada.
The van was completely painted ( windows & all) with a heavy black industrial paint and all the interior panels were jammed packed with spray foam.. The good news was it had a rebuilt engine, new clutch, good tires, started right up and the paint did a great job covering all the body imperfections..







The van looked pretty cool but I knew there were a few time bombs under the paint....

A friend of a friend had a good hook up at a body shop and they agreed to take my van in and take a crack at it... Well, the black paint fool them as well!
The more we worked on it, the more hidden problems the magic black set loose! ..

We took off the bumpers, removed all the glass/trim and went at it.. (Looks like she was originally yellow!)
Some pretty good holes behind the front bumpers and underneath the windshield trim.
I decided to replace all window seals and door trims which ended up catching a lot of trouble areas!
A few solid hours of body work & the exterior is looking good as new! (haha.. we'll almost!)

The removal of a what seemed like a 1/2" of black voodoo paint & 20 year old foam from the interior a van takes:
-8 hours
-A good buddy
-A case of beer
-A grinder
&
- about 300 sand discs..

Good times!

Late friday night, the paint guns were pulled out & a coat of primer was shot on van..
The Final sand hopefully should be done tomorrow and then off to the paint booth for a new interior & exterior coat!!!
Can't wait to see it finally cleaned up!
If all goes well, I should have it back on the road with in a week!

That's looking nice now. I hate finding hidden stuff under someone elses work. Were you able to clean up the glass, or did you have to find other windows? What are your plans for paint color?

Nice work- always a surprise -when u start looking. I am surprised @ you Montreal canadians Though? Evedintely up there you dont drink much Beer-1 case? Only?? wow=

Sweet Van. Friends in the car restoring business come in handy. I need to find a couple my self.

I wish I would have gotten foam on my walls. I got shag carpet with the worlds strongest industrial strength adhesive. Still working on getting it off.

Big W wrote:That's looking nice now. I hate finding hidden stuff under someone elses work. Were you able to clean up the glass, or did you have to find other windows? What are your plans for paint color?

Thanks Big W..
I took a straight razor and a heat lamp and basically shaved the black paint off all the windows.
I got them pretty clean but it looks like a few of them were hit pretty hard with a sander at on point in time..
I'm going to try and get a glass shop to re-polish them if that is even possible!

As its a window van, I'm going to go with a gloss black exterior and hopefully do a pretty wild interior setup..
I've been going back & forth with Mr. Fred Carello so fingers crossed.

Twinpilot001 wrote:Nice work- always a surprise -when u start looking. I am surprised @ you Montreal canadians Though? Evedintely up there you dont drink much Beer-1 case? Only?? wow=

haha.. Trust me man, the last thing you want to do is get a Canadian fired up and hand'em a power tool..
I'd end up with a convertible or some frankinstein creation in no time! LOL..

Rayallen wrote:Sweet Van. Friends in the car restoring business come in handy. I need to find a couple my self.

I wish I would have gotten foam on my walls. I got shag carpet with the worlds strongest industrial strength adhesive. Still working on getting it off.

I was really lucky in that the foam was so thick and old that I literally could break off massive pieces. I was dreading doing it and in the end, the only areas that were nasty was down behind the panels.. Getting it out of there was a balance of:
How much I wanted it gone VS how many cuts I can take from slipping my hands down behind the panels!

A small sander with a 180 grit ripped through a lot of the glue...

BTW.. I've been reading through your thread about your build! Amazing job man! The van is looking killer!

Thanks man, appreciate the comment. The 64 is coming along as quickly as I can get it done. So far I have managed to get everything done myself, which is cool. Although there are times where I wish I had a crew of guys.

I have learned more about and from this van than any vehicle i've owned.

Look forward to following on your threads progress. Happy Vannin!

WOW! A lot of work in a short time. I'm gonna' follow your thread to see how your paint and Fred's interior come together.

Rayallen wrote:Thanks man, appreciate the comment. The 64 is coming along as quickly as I can get it done. So far I have managed to get everything done myself, which is cool. Although there are times where I wish I had a crew of guys.

I have learned more about and from this van than any vehicle i've owned.

Look forward to following on your threads progress. Happy Vannin!

I'm pretty excited about the whole project as its really my first time I've ever really took at a stab at any auto restoring.. I have super limited experience so everything is a learning process. I think I bought the 65 econoline service manual before I actually even bought the van .. LOL, Some light bedtime reading!
I have some pretty talent friends which definitely makes things a bit more manageable .

EconoCarl wrote:WOW! A lot of work in a short time. I'm gonna' follow your thread to see how your paint and Fred's interior come together.

I think the body shop guys are tired of me hanging around asking questions so they are powering thru it ! Should be painted by Thursday!

I made it back out to C.A.R Worx today to see what progress the guys had made on my van. I showed up just in time to see Johnny getting wild in the paint bay.. The paint he is spraying is a really cool Black Metallic: ( a blend of black, purple, blue & metallic specs). In the shade it looks like pure black but when the sun hits it, the paint goes full metal spectrum..






Two coats of black and two coats of clear.. baking for the weekend!
It's almost ready to come home!

Came home to find these waiting in the mail!!!
So stoked to see these in the dash!!

Im jealous!

Jesse,

Sent you a reply email to the panel you wanted cut but havent heard back from you.

That paint job is AWESOME! Can tell there was a lot of work put into her. Very nice!

Man that paint came out sick! Dig it. Any idea on what you are going to do to try and keep the inside cool? Tinted windows, panels etc? The Sun is going to love a black van.

Nice gauges to..

ah, he's in canada... the great white north. they are more concerned about staying warm. not like here in tx where we worry about heat. that black does look great. can't wait to see it with the trim and shiny bits put back on.

That's looking awesome!!!

Haha..I'm sure I'll regret the full black around mid-July but I figure a few extra beers should off set the sweat lost...It gets pretty toasty here but it doesn't last for long and know where nearly as hot as texas!

Tomorrow should be the big day I can finally roll the van home..
Photos coming soon!

Paint looks great, I'm looking forward to some outside pictures. Though I'm sure they won't do it justice, they rarely do.
Anyway, that van looks really nice!!
Joel

Thats gonna be one slick ride.Great job.

A bit of a crazy end to the week.. Spent the majority of Friday at the ever so pleasant DMV trying to get temp. plates for the Van.. a mellow 3 hours watching the staff try and put my 13(?) digit VIN number into the 16 digit mandatory field. They finally deemed it "too old" for their system & that I would have to come back in a few hours... epic.
I finally made it up to the garage in time for rush hour traffic (but with plates in hand) and began speed bolting the old bird back together..
There's still a few touch up to be done and some minor detailing but we managed to get it up and rolling for the weekend! (definitely worthy the effort..)
I only shot one quick photo with my photo but she's coming along!



Hopefully taking a crack at the wiring over the next two weeks..