The 65 Ford Fairlane Wagon saga

C Body Bob · Mar 18, 2017

Im still trying to get this one. I made an offer that was accepted a month ago. Seller said car was his fathers & was given to him. And said it was titled in brothers name who is in bad health & he is his caretaker. Vehicle is sitting on family farm that sister now owns wholely. Red flag #1. I stopped by a few weeks ago & he showed me the title & Houston we have a problem. Title is in brothers name & someone marked through the name & address & the sisters name is typed in below on the buyers name & notarized. Red flag #2. I stopped by again to see if that had been resolved & brother #2 has taken a turn for the worse & is in the hospital. Believes he will be ok, but not sure when he will be well enough for brother #1 to talk with him & get it figured out. He will not be able to go to DMV as he is bed ridden. So I'm not even sure I can buy it as a parts car because I will need the sisters permission to remove it from her property. I may not be able to save this one or get any parts to help save others. Really disappointed & I don't want to start a family fued.

LatPeahy · Mar 18, 2017

Pretty sweet car tho.

Any luck finding those headliner bows?

C Body Bob · Mar 18, 2017

Getting ready to look for them.

65sporty · Mar 18, 2017

Too bad, I still wonder about the underside of the car though. I don't remember from your original post what you said about it after I expressed concerns about it sitting in the dirt.

C Body Bob · Mar 18, 2017

65sporty said:
Too bad, I still wonder about the underside of the car though. I don't remember from your original post what you said about it after I expressed concerns about it sitting in the dirt.

Yea I'm concerned as well

Jim 68cuda · Mar 18, 2017

Appears to be a pretty solid car. 65 Fairlanes are kind of an odd ball model. Its the same basic car as the 62-64 Fairlane, but almost all the exterior sheet metal is 65 only. The tailgate however is shared with the 63-64 Fairlane wagon and 63 Mercury Meteor wagon.
Good luck.

Yatzee · Mar 18, 2017

C Body Bob said:
View attachment 119276 Im still trying to get this one. I made an offer that was accepted a month ago. Seller said car was his fathers & was given to him. And said it was titled in brothers name who is in bad health & he is his caretaker. Vehicle is sitting on family farm that sister now owns wholely. Red flag #1. I stopped by a few weeks ago & he showed me the title & Houston we have a problem. Title is in brothers name & someone marked through the name & address & the sisters name is typed in below on the buyers name & notarized. Red flag #2. I stopped by again to see if that had been resolved & brother #2 has taken a turn for the worse & is in the hospital. Believes he will be ok, but not sure when he will be well enough for brother #1 to talk with him & get it figured out. He will not be able to go to DMV as he is bed ridden. So I'm not even sure I can buy it as a parts car because I will need the sisters permission to remove it from her property. I may not be able to save this one or get any parts to help save others. Really disappointed & I don't want to start a family fued.

I have a 64 Fairlane 500 and a friend of mine has a 63. Their both "one off" cars and have nothing in common with 62 and earlier or 65 or later. Finding parts for those cars is like pulling hens teeth. Before you spend a cent on purchasing it, you really need to see the underside because there were issues with rusted torque boxes, forward floor pans and inner "rocker to floor" sheet metal. Parts for 65 and up are not that hard to find if you look around.

Jim 68cuda · Mar 19, 2017

If you're in NC, and want mid size 63-65 FoMoCo wagon, how about this 63 Meteor (Mercury's version of a fairlane and only available as a wagon in 63)?
1963 MERCURY METEOR WAGON

C Body Bob · Mar 19, 2017

Jim 68cuda said:
If you're in NC, and want mid size 63-65 FoMoCo wagon, how about this 63 Meteor (Mercury's version of a fairlane and only available as a wagon in 63)?
1963 MERCURY METEOR WAGON

Thanks but I was MOPAR before George Jones was cool

Jim 68cuda · Mar 19, 2017

Haha. But you want that Fairlane wagon. I suspect you might really be a closet Ford guy.
Its okay though. I am Mopar through and through, but I once owned a 64 Galaxie Country Sedan wagon. I understand. Its safe to come out of the closet. People are much more tolerant of character flaws like that today then they were when I had the 64 wagon back in the 80's.

C Body Bob · Mar 19, 2017

Jim 68cuda said:
Haha. But you want that Fairlane wagon. I suspect you might really be a closet Ford guy.
Its okay though. I am Mopar through and through, but I once owned a 64 Galaxie Country Sedan wagon. I understand. Its safe to come out of the closet. People are much more tolerant of character flaws like that today then they were when I had the 64 wagon back in the 80's.

No I buy a lot of cars. I like money. I should say I save a lot of cars.

saforwardlook · Mar 19, 2017

Those wagons look like cars only a mother could love, and even then it would be a stretch. You can tell that Elwood Engle had left the building when those design approvals were given (he became Chrysler's chief stylist in 1961 after he had designed the stunning 1961-63 Lincoln Continentals - he was also responsible for Chrysler's slab side and fuselage cars before retiring).

MotorCities National Heritage Area - Story of the Week

A friend on mine did have a 1964 Fairlane coupe though, and I would have to say it rode amazingly well and was silent to drive. Kind of a neat car given its size and surprising refinement.

1970cat · Mar 20, 2017

seems like you need to talk to the sister. if the title was notarized, it sounds like it's her car.

C Body Bob · Mar 20, 2017

1970cat said:
seems like you need to talk to the sister. if the title was notarized, it sounds like it's her car.

Yea I think it's her car too. However if I do that I might start a feud with them. So I'm gonna see if they can work it out

C Body Bob · Nov 29, 2017

So I stopped by to see the guy today. After a bit of chit-chat he said let's go get that Fairlane. I'm ready to do it he said. Kinda caught me off guard. It was getting late so I told him by the time I go get my truck & trailer & drive over where the car is it will be dark. He said let's just go over there & get it jacked up off the ground. I thought that was a good idea so I can look under it to see how bad it was. It's bad but fixable. The pass side frame in front of the control arm is completely rotted away & the strut rod mount just pulled right off. The lower radiator support is rusted bad. And both front floors have holes. Front bumper is bent bad. Hood is bent down. The rest of the chassis looked very good so I agreed to buy it & supposed to get it Friday. Here are pics I took today