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1982 - The end of the first 302. The motor picked up a slight knock on the way home from
work one day and about 5 miles later (at about 30 MPH) - BOOM! The piston sheared off
at the wrist pin. This was the last time I used cast pistons in a Falcon engine. |
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After the motor died, the Falcon began it's long incubation period. We didn't really have
the cash to put in a motor and, after a while, it just wasn't a priority. Most of the
usable parts were stashed inside, and there it sat. Through 3 moves and about 8 years it
just sort of hung around like a busted lawnmower in the back of the yard.
Wish we still had that Mustang II. |
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1993 - The rebuild started gently in 1989 and made significant progress starting in 1992.
During this period, I reworked the suspension and the disk brakes were installed. We also
moved from Ft. Worth to Houston, which delayed the project for a while. This is the 302 that finally woke up the
beast. This engine now resides in Debbie's Mustang. It's been in
service since just after this picture and is still going strong.
By the way, the really nice oil pan did not fit the Falcon chassis
and had to be sent back. |
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1994 - At the time of this photo, the new 302 is installed and the car runs
very well. It just
looks like hell. My ideas at this time included a 1"+ drop at all corners. This looked
very cool but was quickly abandoned after high-centering the car on a beer
can. |
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1996 - This photo made the Readers Beaters page of Hot Rod, May 1996. Extra cool. I bought all the
magazines at Randalls and Walmart. Up close, it still looked
pretty much like the 1994 photo. White paint and sunshine can
really fool the camera. The car has bucket seats from a 1987 Pontiac Sunbird.
|
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1997 and early 1998. Unfortunately, I have only 2 photos from the paint
process. Note: This is after yet another delay caused by a move to our present
location. |
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1998 post paint. The freebee hood with the Pro Stock style scoop got us
noticed but had it's drawbacks. Chief among those was the copious amount of
crud sucked up and dumped on the motor. It's a steel hood, so it's really
heavy. |
