This Falcon has taken flight in Bellingham, WA, as documented by Mike Hayes. It’s an interesting choice for a retro-diner-burger joint, and one would more likely expect something more like a ’57 Chevy or such. A 1964 Falcon stripper two door sedan? Well, it’s about as light as an American car gets; lots of empty calories went into making it.
But then the Falcon became the hipster car of choice, back when that was a big thing (mostly over now). Is this an attempt to meld classic with hipster?
Maybe I’m reading too much into this; more likely the Falcon was just the cheapest car from the sixties that they could find. Some things never change.
I wonder if red was the best choice for a rooftop car. “Hey Ethan, don’t wear a uniform tomorrow because I need you to go up on the roof and polish the car because it’s turning pink again.”
Just begging for some idiot teenager with a BB gun… especially from the nearby hill.
It’s been up there for at least 5 years.
Poor man’s Mustang! Looks good.
A restaurant and bar near me in Baltimore County Maryland decided to go with a “Poor Man’s Mustang” theme on its roof too…. but a P-40 rather than a P-51….
Younger adults don’t have the same opinions about old cars that Boomers do. You could put a Plymouth Duster on the roof (like the car in the Liberty Mutual commercials) and people would think that was cool!
A few semesters back, I saw a somewhat ragged but still decent ’75 Plymouth Valiant in the college parking lot. The student owner was spending some time and a little money restoring it. To me, the idea of restoring such a dull, Malaise-Era car–Why??? But today, that Valiant is so different from the blobby, anonymous SUVs that surround it, and young people find it totally unique.
Bro, it’s like, when I had my ’91 Chrysler Imperial–two college-age guys came up to me and photographed my car from all angles because they thought it was, like, “super awesome”.
Based.
Be still my heart! Is it possible that a car that branded you as a geek in the 1960’s high school parking lot pecking order has now become popular?
Nah, a bathtub Rambler American is still hopeless. Even the whitewall tires ours didn’t have won’t help.
I dunno…it’s starting to look just a little Mercedes ponton-ish to me.
Fix that B pillar and I’m seeing something from the Volvo family…
I wasn’t ‘car-conscious’ back in these days, but thanks to CC I’ve learned a great deal about how Ramblers were the “cheap bastard/I don’t care” cars of the day. I get it now.
True. I guess in a couple of years even a Chevy Celebrity would do the trick up on some deli. Just make sure it’s not a de-chromed Eurosport. Having grown up seeing the transition from straight lines, chrome and somehow function-shaped head lights to angry faced blobs with busy flanks is not necessarily the rule any more. The number of people considerIng the latter just the regular way a car has to look is on the rise (Duh.).
My frumpy Passat B2 thriftmobile getting positive comments from younger folk still doesn’t go too smooth with me.
I’d build a nest under the car and call this place “The Falcon’s Nest”.
I like diners with this sort of retro going on .
I guess it being a target depends on where it’s located ~ a now defunct self service junkyard in North Hollywood, Ca, cut the roof off a ’58 Caddy two door, painted it red and put it up on a lone with two manikins in it, took less than a year for someone to put a few .12 gauge slugs into it they left it like until the yard closed years later, it was pink by the end .
In the 1960’s many junkyards would put 1930’s American Austin coupes up on poles, they looked sort of like tiny ‘A’ Model Fords….
Why not ? .
-Nate
Fun to see the Falcon, Paul…if only I could find one in my Great Lakes area in such solid, unrusted shape!
Interesting to survey the Falcon/hipster thing from ten years’ distance; perhaps the prices are dropping a bit…..now *there’s* a car I know how to do maintenance on…..
This generation of Falcon will forever stick in my mind for its #2 finishing spot in the 1964 Monte Carlo Rally. As a seven year old car buff, I was familiar with stock car racing and drag racing, as well as Bonneville and other dry lake competition from hot rod books in the library and magazines at the grocery store. And I was aware though less informed, about road racing. Then in late January, our family moved to England for six months. All over the newspaper front pages when we arrived were photos and stories of Paddy Hopkirk’s Monte Carlo Rally win in a Mini, but also very visible was Bo Ljungfeldt’s second place Falcon Sprint. I had never heard of rallying, and was amazed that such a variety of cars competed directly against each other, on dirt, pavement and snow, and became a long-time fan.
Of course, the other big thing in the UK then, still barely familiar to me here in the US, was the Beatles. And while we were away, the Mustang was launched and the Falcon started to fade away, at least as a sporty car. 1964 was a pretty good year.
I haven’t been to that part of town in years. It used to be Wynn’s. Bellingham is quite the hipster town, so yeah, a Falcon.
The 57 Chevy-atop-a-restaurant p had already been done in Western Washington……Zesto’s in Seattle (sadly, closed several years ago), across from Ballard High School at the corner of 15th Avenue NW and NW 65th street.