Cabot man’s 1965 Ford Falcon makes journeys
People often celebrate a milestone birthday by getting a new car, but the car Chris Salkeld got for his 21st birthday in 2006 wouldn’t be road ready until almost six years later.
Chris Salkeld, of Cabot, purchased a 1965 Ford Falcon which was in “very, very poor” condition overall for $700 in Ohio. The car would go on to be a part of several milestones in Salkeld’s life, including his proposal to his wife and the announcements of the births of his children.
Growing up in a “car family,” Salkeld said restoring the vehicle was “an unfathomable amount of work,” but the end result was worth it.
“It takes knowledge of wiring, the body work; it takes more time than you can ever imagine and more money,” Salkeld said. “You have to want it.” He said he lost count, but has spend thousands of dollars restoring the vehicle.
The Falcon went from the shell of a car with many missing and damaged parts and an “awful cardboard color” to a gold-colored gasser restored to be period-correct, with some modern updates included. The front of the vehicle is angled upward, because in the early 1960s, drag racers would put the front end of the car higher to put more weight on the rear, or drive, wheels, Salkeld explained.
Salkeld said he and his dad, Gary Salkeld, spent years traveling to swap meets and getting the right parts in order to rebuild almost the entire vehicle.
“The hardest part for us was locating parts. We didn't have the money to just go buy the parts, so every year we would go to swap meets,” Chris Salkeld said. “We started accruing parts that way. There is a lot of footwork. We had our cars running and moving before we painted.”
Chris Salkeld said his father encouraged him to buy the car after he saw it for sale at a swap meet in Ohio. Gary Salkeld said he wanted his son to experience restoring a vehicle, which ended up being a good bonding experience.
“For me to get him started at his age, I liked that,” Gary Salkeld said. “It was a good time putting it together.”
The Salkelds worked on the Falcon and another antique Ford at the same time, with the goal of debuting them at Cruise-A-Palooza, an annual car show in Butler. Gary Salkeld said much of the time that passed while the two were working on the cars was just them waiting for swap meets and traveling to them in search of the right parts.
“For those old cars, you don’t just buy it at the store, you’ve got to go to swap meets,” Gary Salkeld said. “Searching for parts and just being together working on it.”
The car debuted at the 2012 Cruise-A-Palooza, which the Salkelds marked as their target for finishing the vehicle. The biggest expenses and parts of the project, Chris Salkeld said, were restoring the vehicle’s engine, transmission and rear end.
The vehicle can be seen at local car shows, but Chris Salkeld has also driven the Falcon in a few races, which requires in-depth knowledge of its inner workings.
In 2018, Chris Salkeld took the Falcon to a drag week event in North Carolina, where he competed in a long-distance race spanning hundreds of miles. Because of the long distance, Salkeld had to haul a trailer behind the Falcon filled with supplies and equipment, so he could tune up the car between long stretches of driving.
Chris Salkeld said the drag and drive events are a good way to put himself, his car and his knowledge of automobile maintenance to the test.
“Just making it to race every day and completing the event is huge; it’s the ultimate test of man and machine,” Chris Salkeld said. “If I have an engine failure — literally I have the car in the middle of nowhere in Florida, I am just following the route — it’s a test of mechanical ability, it’s a test of will. Just to finish the week is huge.”
