1961 Falcon 4-Door rebuild (1/32 Scale)

I recently picked this gem up in a cheap  Ebay  "1/32 Scale" lot.  To say it is rough is an understatement.  It caught my eye and pulled my heart strings on a couple levels ... its a four door and an original from 1961 (though the last 59 years have been pretty rough on her).  Don't know how well it'll turn out; but I thought I make room on the build desk for the old Ford and see if this Falcon can fly again.  



What the Falcon looks like after a few hours soaking under a yellow Easy Off Oven Cleaner spray.  



First to tackle is the cowl and hood ... they are MIA.

Looks like you might have your hands full with this one

It will be a lot of work, but I'm sure you can do it.

AMT sells a 61 Falcon Ranchero in 1/32 scale. I think I've seen it at my Hobby Lobby recently (well more than two months ago since can't go anyplace what with COVID-19 shutdown). If you can get one it could fill in many of the front parts.

Ambitious project, very interesting.

Thanks for the encouragement guys.  Dave, we are both thinking the same way; my Ranchero donor kit arrived in the mail last night.  My goal is to keep as much of the original plastic as possible.  Also found a donor Diecast "Fast and Furious" Charger for the wheels and tires.  



Here is the first transplant ... the upper fenders, hood and windshield frame.  Eventually I will be cutting opening the hood but want to keep it in place for now to help keep the body ridged during upcoming body work.  



And the other major bodywork reconstruction has been roughed in:
- A hole in the driver side door filled with scrap plastic.
- A hole in the roof filled with scrap plastic
- A hole in the trunk filled with a piece of styrene spruce.
- Both rear arches were corrected using pieces cut from the Ranchero body.




Now its time to throw a whole bunch of putty at it.

First primer shot ... its a solid body now. It requires a small holes/gaps to be filled, the A-Pillar thinned and leveling of the waves/warpage in the body sides.

Outstanding

looking great.

With the body shaping up (still a lot to go there still), I wanted to start rebuilding the rest of the 61.  

The frame of this old kit is nothing like the original falcon ... it has a full frame versus the Falcon's unibody construction (which later was adopted for the Mustang).  The donor kit had the correct design; but in the spirit of staying as true to the original kit design I will keeping with as much of this as I can.  I really like that it came with a straight 6 (my weak spot), it is a "blob", but I will be adding some bits to bring it to life.  

Here is the disassembly pics.  Whoever build this kit 50 plus years ago used some great glue (and a lot of it), had to use a cutting wheel to dissect it.  I'll throw some plastic and putty at it to restore what was lost in the hacking process.  

If more of the AMT kits had such great interior panel detail. Looking good so far. OBTW, the glue was probably the sniffing version so it worked better.

Wow Chris, this is a real challenge. Go for it.

Thanks Dave and Al.  

After thinning out the A-Pillar, up next is an area where I have struggled with in the past ... scribing door lines.  

This time I cut an outline from thin cardboard and used a back side of an 11-blade.  

You are doing some good work on this. It looks to be a beast of a project

Great work Chris.

Chris, I keep looking at the amazing work. Too bad the original was such a poor copy of a Falcon. You are making a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

The falcon had no engine bay detail other then a radiator and an engine blob (err ... block).  With the opened hood I wanted to add further detail which starts with a firewall, radiator support and inner fender wells.  Here is what I came up with some scrap plastic (black) and by scaling down some 1/25 parts from my parts box.  

In order for the interior floor to fit I had to adjust the angle of the forward floor.  





As a side note, I was searching the web and finally found the source for the Kit ... it was made by a Company called Premier.  

Tidy work Chris, this build is great.

Keep going Chris. Don't remember Premier model kits, but then I stayed pretty much with 1/25 scale and could only afford one model a month from my allowance. I was very particular in my purchases.

A quick update as I continue to pick away at the details.  Added an interior package shelf (the black plastic - scavenged from the trunk of a NASCAR body) that was missing and I've also started on the engine.  Will be using the valve cover and transmission from the Premier kit and will be bashing the rest.  The block is square  plastic stock that will be laminated togther.  Grabbed a 4 cylinder oil pan that has to be narrowed but its the right length. Stall have to  make intake and exhaust manifolds, come up with an air cleaner, oil filter, coil, etc ....



Falcon's, like Mustangs, have shock towers that intrude into the inner fenders.  To replicate these I started by laminating scrap plastic to the desired thickness.  


After cutting them down to size and shaped them a bit, I glued them to the inner fender wells.  To strengthen the bond between the fender and tower, I drilled a hole through the tower and inserted/liquid glued a plastic rod.  This will prevent me from knocking it off as I body work/putty the area.  Also in this shot you can see the transmission tunnel I carved into the firewall.  

Nice work Chris, it's begining to look 'propper'

As I let the decals on my Camero and Nova "cure" (for lack of better words), I brought the Falcon out of the closet and back on the desk. Of note ... I found when I cleared decals too quickly they reacted to the paint and bubbled.

I continued to fix damage on the frame, filled the many gaps in the front seat, and worked on the engine. With the engine, I scrapped the "blob" of a block from the Palmer kit, but saved the molded in transmission and valve cover The block was made from laminated plastic stock. The 1/25 scale oil pan was narrowed to fit the smaller 1/32 scale and the seam filled. The front bumper, which was broken in half, was fixed and the seam filled. Sink marks in both bumpers were filled. Tamiya white putty was used with the current work.

Nice work Chris. You have a real talent for restoring what I think most of us wouldn't even attempt.

Picked back up on the falcon and attending to a few details before paint.  

First up, after smoothing out the frame from all the glue damage (the white in the picture is putty), I needed to create motor and  transmission mounts for the six, both of which were created with some plastic stock and scrap plastic I had around.  The pin on the transmission was added to hold it in place and wont be visible on the finished Falcon. Simple but functional.  

About 6 weeks ago I shot my first coat of paint (Testors rattle can) and let it gas out. There was a significant amount of ghosting from the body work needed to get the falcon back in one piece. I hit the body with 1500 grit to further smooth out the body work prior to the next coat.