I'm Sven from Sweden

And this is my web page about my dear old Ford Falcon

The car is a Ford Falcon Wagon, model 1965. I bought it in 1978 and drove it daily for about 10 years, in my business as well as in my private family life. The car has a simple straight six cylinder 200 cubic inch motor, a 3-speed manual gearbox, and no luxuries at all. Still, I love my car in spite of its simplicity.

When I had the car for two years (1980), we replaced the front fenders with fenders shipped from the USA.

After 10 years of year-round driving, it was in a poor condition in 1988. It had both rust and body work damages (after an accident in 1987). But I couldn't afford repairing it back then, so I kept my dear car in my garage for many years.

Summer of 1992
I was lucky to get some extra money, and left the car to a my friend, Göran, who fixed the rust and bodywork damages. He also ordered new (used) doors and fenders, and a hood and trunk cover. All was shipped from the USA. Göran fixed all that had to be done about the bodywork, and I guess you could say the car was on a good head's start on the phase of renovation by then. There was still a lot of details to be fixed, and the body needed a new paintwork, but at the time I was unemployed and couldn't afford to finish it.
I'm not good at welding etc., so It takes a lot of money to hire people to do the job. The one thing I am good at is electrical issues, since I worked with electronics for a number of years. Unfortunately I can only get things done in the summer time, because I have no heated garage, and the climate in Sweden makes it impossible to work with the car during the winter. Well, mostly because of lack of money, but also due to a small lack of interest, nothing more happened with the restoriation for many years.

Summer of 1998
I thought that if I were to get this car on the road again before my retirement, I had to do at least one big project with the car each year. I decided that the first thing I had to do was to restore the fuel system, to exchange the fuel tank, which was full of rust flakes and particles, and to also replace the fuel hoses and pipes.
Another friend, Börje Andersson, helped me

Summer of 1999
Me and Börje did a complete restoration of the drum brakes on all four wheels.

Summer of 2000
Status quo.

Summer of 2001
That summer I bought and installed a complete stainless exhaust system. Now I could hear the beautiful sound of the engine again. It purred like a cat, even though it had only been started occasionally for a period of more than 10 years.

Summer of 2002
Not that much happened that summer. I did some electrical work, like connecting the rear tall lamps, and connected the direction indicators. I also installed a new pair of horns, with the real classic sound.

Summer of 2003
I didnt do much that year, just an overhaul of the ignition system and the carburettor.

Summer of 2004
In May I ordered a new carpet from a company, "Yankee Parts" in Gothenburg, and got it in place in August. It's beige, like the original carpet. The interior of the car looked real nice at that point.

August of 2005
Finally the car was spray-painted after years of waiting for this to happen. Another friend, Peter, made a really professional work.
Now I really got inspired to finish the work of getting my car back in mint condition.

October 2005
I got the windshield installed and the two rear side-windows. Yet another friend, Esbjörn, helped me. He works at a car glass company in Jönköping.
Look at windshield assembly pics.

June 2006
I had ordered a rear bumper during the winter, and in June we went to Gotheburg to pic it up.
Guess what! It was a front bumper, not the rear!
Thus I had two front bumpers but no rear bumper, I was quite upset.
Anyway we installed one of the front bumpers

February 2007
Since the four doors and rear fenders I had previously replaced were blue on the inside, instead of brown / bronze / beige as the original car when I bought it,
my friend Niklas, helped me to paint the inside of the car.

June 2008
Finally I got the rear bumper !! after spending lots of money and duzzins of phonecalls.
Börje helped me mount the bumper. Now the car starts to look a little more complete.

August 2009
Me and Börje did a complete overhaul of the car before the mandatory vehicle inspection.
Furthermore, we mounted all details , like the rear-view mirror, the roaf rack and lots of other things.

For the first time since 1987 the car was then inspected, and it passed!
It was a nice feeling to be able to drive it legally on the road again after so many years.
In the future, I only need to inspect the car every other year until it reaches the age of 50,
After that no more mandatory inspections are required, according to Swedish regulations.

August 2017
The last time I checked the car (two years previously), the inspector remarked on a leaking manifold. So before this year's inspection, I had ordered new branch pipes and new slats because the latter had occasionally begun to slither when driving on highways. My old friend Börje Andersson helped me replacing both the manifold and the slats. Börje is almost 90 years old but he is the one who knows most about my car.
The next day I went to the inspection and the car passed without a remark.
Guess how happy I was :-)

At the same occation, an old trailer of mine alo was inspected. It is even older than the car and it also passed, but inspecions are required every other year in the future.

November 2018
A friend of the family named Jennifer has helped me to stick on woodimitation film on the sides of the car.
She did a great job. She has previously worked with decals and advertising on cars
Obviously she can do her job very well.

February 2019
I have been searching for wooden framing moldings (or look similar) since 2005, when I painted the car, with no result.
Last autumn, I heard about an elderly gentleman who can manufacture framing strips of wood.
His name is Folke Josefsson and lives in Nittorp.
I contacted him and asked if he would like to help me. He said he can help me but it will take a few months and cost a considerable sum. I didn't think I had a choice after searching for so many years, so I hired him to make the wooden framing moldings
You can see some pictures from the work here
When he finished I was very pleased with his work