BUILD THREAD For 1964 Falcon Sprint to Monte Carlo Rallye FIA spec'

[Paul B]

Not at all Ken, I love a good laugh! and always appreciate your humour. We are all mates so that entitles us to have some man banter fun.
You're on for the trip bucket list for sure, your not escaping that easy!
Great video Too, thanks for that.
If I acid dipped the car that much it had ripply panels I would have to bog it up and that would defeat the exercise!

Steve,
I think there was also some Swiss cheesed 1969 cars, and much interior stripping, maybe cutting out weight also in areas not so easy to see? Imagine trying to weld a new roof onto the a thin steel acid dipped body, the welder would be blowing holes in the thin steel like there was no tomorrow.

John you are right 20kg could possibly be a make or break back then.

With my FIA Falcon build there is about 35Kg saving on all the Fiber panels vs steel, not so much on the doors. I guess with the FIA aluminum bumpers it may be another 10-15kg on top of that.They also had lightweight touring seats in 64' guess another 15kg there, the factory seats are heavy.Also maybe another 5-7 kg with Poly-carbonate windows. But the roll cage makes up for quite a lot. Back in 1964 these cars had no roll cage, as did many.

Cheers to all

[John McKechnie]

OK Paul thats enough on the car losing weight...now what about the driver.
How does you height, weight, body mass etc stack up, adding to that the RHR , balaclava, gloves sox ......
Be like a 10 speed MAMIL..(middle age man in lycra)...remove all hair from body, change lead teeth fillings to light weight compound..the list goes on

[Paul B]

Well John all my hair fell out, shaved the rest off, so saved about 500g there, Teeth have already been done, before each race I cut my nails 5g, wear the lightest clothes which gives me a race weight of 76kg, so watchout I'm a lean mean machine!

[khyndart in CA]

You had better hold it right there Paul, I don't want hear of any other body changes you have made just to reduce the weight !

KH

[Paul B]

Ha ha
Good point Ken, it could get very scary... real fast!

Back to sanding tomorrow to finish the shell off, had a few days away, very nice time!

[John McKechnie]

Now you have done all this work Paul, its safe to tell you this story..
When I lived out in WestWorld, there was a guy I knew called Neil G.
Brother did he have a large collection of cars- this is mid 70s last century- in old massive chicken sheds....thats another story, so we wont go down this path.
Anyway, Neil made replica fibreglass guard for Toyota Corollas , HQ Holdens and many other types and brands when no one else was doing it and NOS was hellishly expensive.
This particular story is about his wifes 1964 Falcon Coupe e and decided to see what panels he could make for it.
Well, the chassis rails ,firewall were steel and just about everything else was changed.
Told me at the time lost more than 280 pounds- not kilos- from this exercise, as well as future proofing it against rust repairs. Also had enough pieces left over to make another Falcon Coupe
Why have I waited so long to tell you this......after all this work, heading towards the finish line, you are not going to undo all your painstaking work and try to replicate this weight loss ...or more.

[Paul B]

Wow that is 127kg, they must have been made very light.
Neat story John, there are some clever people out there.
Cheers

[Paul B]

Here is a great clip to fool you, actually filmed in 2017
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=66&v=o1MH9SwYVCc

[Paul B]

Here is a great old clip from the 1960 Monte Carlo Rallye, good assortment of cars, great shots of France.
14.5 minutes long
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ov5brH94H4

[Paul B]

1964 MONTE CARLO RALLYE 2700 MILES OF DRIVING (Old news paper article)

[Paul B]

Here is a good read also about the 64 Monte Carlo Rally

https://rallysportmag.com/looking-back-the-rallying-history-of-the-ford-falcon/

[Paul B]

This is Bill Meek in Perth, racing when he had his 1964 Falcon Rallye sprint, He built it 28 years ago or so. He won many events and holds many lap records in this car. This was the first Rallye Sprint Falcon built in Australia to CAMS specs and the car also holds Grandfather rights. Bill conducted a mammoth research mission to build this car taking him to Holman Moody in USA and interviewing Alan Mann in the UK. Over the years Bill has amassed a wealth of knowledge on these particular cars.

[video=youtube;HiUvPfeakvU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiUvPfeakvU[/video]

[Paul B]

Update:
There has been a huge amount of sanding done to finish the car to final paint stage, it is almost finished, only 1 door left to finish.
The entire body inside and out has also been finished.

This was the Fiberglass hood with a powder guide coat applied before the 500 grit finishing sand,

This is the finished Fiberglass Fender & Door, a small amount of rub through that I will spot prime over and re 500 sand.

Finished Fiberglass inner fender panel that I had to make

And here is the finished body shell ready to go to paint

As mentioned earlier, it will be painted Wimbledon White, the factory colour of 1964
There will be some more paint finishing to do, dash, engine bay and blue side stripe, that will be done later after the paint hardens.
The fiberglass moves a little as it cures and there are some small low spots and 1 or 2 high spots that will make it look very original and true to how it looked in the day.... and I am just happy with the look and finish, its not perfect, but they never were.
Hopefully no one will notice as I hurtle down the front straight at a rapid pace of knots.

[Oldfart]

Not trying to tell how to suck eggs, but the Alpine had a plasticiser on the fibreglass bits to cope with the inevitable movement.
It is looking superb Paul.

[Steve Holmes]

Here is another Falcon Sprint recently built by American Muscle Motorsports & Services, in Germany. Although an Appendix K car, they've built it to Trans-Am spec, hence it has no bumpers. Looks cool.

[khyndart in CA]

Paul,
You may have these but I came across this 1964 US. Ford Falcon sales brochure and wanted to share some of it.
I hope that is ok.

( Ken H )

[khyndart in CA]

!964 Ford Falcon brochure continued.

Paul,
Will your car colour / color be similar to what Jim Richards had for his 1964 Ford Falcon Sprint in this 2010 photo at Adelaide's Parklands Circuit ?

(Ken H )

[Spgeti]

Here is another Falcon Sprint recently built by American Muscle Motorsports & Services, in Germany. Although an Appendix K car, they've built it to Trans-Am spec, hence it has no bumpers. Looks cool.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]58023[/ATTACH]

Love the colour scheme Steve.

[Paul B]

Thanks Rhys,
Its always nice to get a car perfectly straight for paint, after blocking this down over 4 times through all the sand paper grades, it is very clear that there will be some more movement in the race weight fiberglass. Albeit after 2 years the movement is a lot less now.
I also elected to use the resin manufacturers recommended formula and method. The inclusion of a plasticiser would have required too much testing and experimental work for me, that aside trying to find the correct plasticiser, so it went into the too hard basket.
The paint work should look very nice as the prep has gone very well, also being white it should be fairly forgiving.
I suppose this build is all about being original so the final finish will be just that.
I am really looking forward to assembly time, that when the good fun starts.
Cheers

[Paul B]

Here is another Falcon Sprint recently built by American Muscle Motorsports & Services, in Germany. Although an Appendix K car, they've built it to Trans-Am spec, hence it has no bumpers. Looks cool.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]58023[/ATTACH]

Looks like the same livery as Roy Pierpoint in the Bill Shaw Racing Falcon on post #157 & #158 - Group 5?
The Cougar looks very cool too, could be a Dan Gurney replica