Notching the shock towers on a 1963 Ford Falcon

With the motor mounts complete it was time to do something about the shock towers. I did a lot of looking online and couldn't find anything that was Falcon specific. I found shock tower notching for Mustangs, Mavericks, and Fairlanes, but no Falcons. I found a few really good write ups on doing Mustang shock towers and decided I would follow one of their write ups and just add a little tweaking for the Ford Falcon. On Mustangs most people take 2" off of the bottom and a 1/2" off of the top when notching the shock towers. I did some measuring and marked of 3" on the bottom 1/2" on the top, but got nervous after reading that 2" was the maximum.

Marking the shock tower of a 1963 Ford Falcon for notching

I decided to make a mark at 2" and then come up with a way to check spring clearance before doing any cutting. What I came up with was drilling small holes where the corners would meet and running some steel wire through them so I could measure on the backside to see how much clearance was left for the spring in the Falcon shock tower.

1963 Ford Falcon shock tower notching

Measure spring clearance for shock tower notching

After measuring at the 2" hole, I decided I would have more than enough room going with 3". I drilled the holes at the 3" corner and rechecked. Everything looked good, so I cut them out. I am now waiting for some steel plate so I can weld up the new and improved shock towers.

Backside view of measuring clearance for Falcon shock tower notching

1963 Ford Falcon shock tower notched

Now I just need to feel in the big hole to complete the shock tower notch

After getting both shock towers on the Falcon notched I ordered to 3/16" plate steel to fill in the holes. I ordered 2 12"x4" and 2 12"x8". I placed the 12"x4" piece on the bottom of the shock tower and then used a sharpie to mark the bottom side so I could see what needed to be cut off.

Getting ready to mark for trimming to fit the shock tower.

Now just cut along the black line and you will have a nice fitting patch panel for the shock tower notching

Here it is all trimmed up on the shock tower

I made a cardboard template to cut out the vertical part of the patch panel

Tracing the cardboard template onto the plate steel for the shock tower notch

Here is the shock tower all welded up. I welded the front and then the back side of each shock tower on the Falcon. I took 3" off the bottom and 1/2" off the top. I still need to do some final grinding and get everything sanded and painted. 

1963 Ford Falcon shock tower after notching

Shock tower all welded up after notching on my Falcon

 I put the motor back in and have more room now, but truck manifolds will still not fit for the LS turbo swap. I knew I would need to invert them and come over the top, but the truck manifolds are still to big. I ordered some Hooker LS manifolds to give them a try. They should be in soon.

1963 Ford Falcon LS swap with notch shock towers driver side

1963 Ford Falcon LS swap with notch shock towers passenger side