Robyn Bradbury's American 1960 Ford Falcon

For Robyn, it was the build process of her husband Terry’s immaculate XM Futura that slowly lured her into the car scene

THROUGH choosing paint colours and assisting with the creation of husband Terry’s immaculate XM Futura bespoke ride (SM, Sep ’18), Robyn was hooked! And while backing up a Top 60 Elite build like Terry’s XM isn’t easy, he and Robyn have knocked it out of the park with her custom US Falcon, a 1960 two-door sedan.

The Aussie XK and XL Falcons closely resemble these first-gen Yankee Falcs. How are they different?

In America it’s known as a 1960 two-door sedan. There are a lot of little differences; the tail-lights are larger and the grille is different to the Aussie versions. I wanted to keep it American, so it’s stayed left-hand drive, with the brake lights flashing as indicators. The car had ANNE226 Californian plates, so the ANNE60 Australian plates are a tribute to that.

When did you get the car?

We had just come back from Summernats 31 with Terry’s XM, and he was picking something up in Albury when he saw the two-door on a hoist – the owner had dropped it off at a business to get it ready to sell. Terry knew that’s exactly what I was after – we love our early-60s Fords.

What condition was it in?

It was straight, but the colour was a dirty green with a green interior. We stripped it down with help from our 12- and 10-year-old grandsons and had planned a closed-door respray. But that escalated to stripping the ’60 back to bare metal! There was almost no rust – only a small amount in the rear quarter panel.

Love the colour!

It’s a custom mix. I knew the blue that I wanted, but it took about two weeks of Terry bringing home colour samples to get the right one. The interior was always going to be red, which goes with the red rims and whitewalls. The blue with red interior looks great parked beside Terry’s red XM at shows.

What’s the driveline?

It had a 144ci with a two-speed, which was really slow, especially around the hills. So now it has the rebuilt 170ci from Terry’s XM. Terry also added a shortened BA Falcon ute diff and four-wheel disc brakes. It stops and steers really well. At first, I was really worried about it being left-hand drive, but now I love driving it.

And you’ve nabbed a couple of trophies.

I won second in the Best American Car class at the 2019 Early Ford Nationals in Nagambie – that was fantastic; I didn’t expect it! Then we went to the Battle Of The Borders show and I won runner-up for Victoria and Judges’ Choice.

What’s next?

Terry has put in a hidden Vintage Air system, so now we can drive the car to Canberra, or the Barossa – anywhere. Also, there’s a 302ci Windsor and a three-speed auto that is almost ready to go in, so hopefully that will be running in the ’60 before Christmas.