I was visiting family in my hometown of South Bend recently and went downtown to drink a little scotch with my oldest friend. As we left the little pub we came upon this great ’63 Fairlane 500, which had conveyed its owner on a night out.
During my 1970s kidhood a neighbor boy’s dad had a ’63 Fairlane hardtop coupe in red. “Ordered it straight from the factory,” the boy was always sure to say of his dad’s car. I spent some time in it and liked its tidy dimensions (compared to Dad’s ’66 Galaxie). This Fairlane was V-8 equipped and is the first car whose engine burble ever impressed me.
There was a discreet “look but don’t touch” sticker on the front passenger’s window. Sorry owner dude, but I touched just a little bit to bring my iPhone up to the glass for this shot. I blame the scotch.
I think half the Fairlanes I remember seeing when they were still common were this color. (Most of the rest were red or black.) I’ve always called this color off white, but I guess Ford called it sandshell beige. I thought it was a pretty boring color back in the day, but it looks so right on this Fairlane now.
I was so captivated by this Fairlane that I failed to notice the first-gen Prius across the street until just now. D’oh!
I like the styling of cars from this era, especially AMC, Ford, Olds, Pontiac and Chevrolet. It seemed to be an era where the 1961 Lincoln announced the end of the road rocket era and declare an era where a Mies Van Der Rohe could design a car based on functionality, not based on aircraft. Bauhaus was big in these days, yet auto designers didn’t mimic architecture and home fashions until about this time. Thank you Lincoln! Hats fell out of fashion and we see a new sense of line within men’s clothing and women’s dresses. There is a sense of simplicity to designs from the early 1960s which are quite attractive and timeless.
The Fairlane is an updated 1955 Ford. With pressure to build bigger cars since 1955, the Fairlane is a return to a norm we see repeatedly in the auto industry. Whatever the fashion trends of autodom, eventually every manufacturer needs to have a solid vehicle of this size and proportion. While not always the most glamorous, nor the most exciting vehicle, Fairlanes, Accords, Camrys, Altimas, 57 Bel Airs, Rambler Classics, Sonatas, and Chevelles were where the rubber hit the road. Get this size car right, desirable and affordable, and you can play all you want with the latest pony car, muscle car, luxury boat, SUV while tastemakers chase the latest auto fashion fad.
A good car that was very easily overlooked.
+1 these are the cars Detroit excelled at making and made good looking.So many people think there was a missing period in American car design between the fins n chrome era and the Mustang.In reality nearly all manufacturers made great looking cars
I’m liking this. And it looks like it has a V8 badge (289?) badge on the front fender. This would be a nice and reasonably economical cruiser.
While I don’t remember seeing to many ’63 Fairlanes growing up, I do remember a fair number of ’62 models. My dad even had a straight-six ’62 for a while; he had bought a ’73 Torino a few weeks before the fuel crisis. Driving 50 miles to work each way, at maybe 12 mpg, was getting a bit steep and it quickly paid for the Fairlane he soon picked up.
Courtesy of Wikipedia:
The Fairlane’s standard engine was the 170 CID (2.8 L) six, but as an option, it introduced Ford’s new, lightweight Windsor V8, initially with a displacement of 221 CID (3.6 L) and 145 hp (108 kW); a 260 CID (4.2 L) “Challenger” version was added at mid-year, with an advertised 164 hp (122 kW). The Sports Coupe option débuted mid-year and featured bucket seats and a mini console. The trim level supplemented the Fairlane and Fairlane 500 trim levels (the 500 model had more decorative trim, such as a wider chrome stripe down the side and three bullets on the rear quarter panels). The Challenger 289 CID (K-code!) engine was introduced in mid-1963, with solid lifters and other performance pieces helping the engine produce an advertised 271 hp (202 kW); however, it was equipped with single exhaust like the less powerful engines.
The 170 was a slug in my 68 Mustang, I can’t imagine the tepid slowness that the additional 500 pounds must have contributed to, much less if it was hobbled by a Ford-O-Matic.
That Fairlane probably has a 302 in that huge engine bay now.
No 6s in ours for the extra you had to pay for US sourced cars nobody would entertain the low power version all were V8 equipped, the Falcon could not out run a MK3 Zephyr no one would spec such a gutless engine in a bigger car.
The color was Wimbleden (sp?) White. That thick, creamy white was a Ford staple all through the 60s.
The 63 Fairlane is a really crisp design, one of my favorites. A kid on my son’s dorm floor at IU drove one like this, only a 2 door hardtop. I was told that he was from California. Unfortunately, after a couple of Indiana winters, the car was starting to show some rust holes in the rear quarters, as they all did around here.
A cousin’s friend drove his dad’s maroon 64 Fairlane sports coupe with the 289 and a 4 speed. It was the first car that I ever did a 180 degree spin in. The driver saw a red light too late, panicked, locked up the brakes, and we spun. Scared the shit out of me at age 12. But I still loved the car.
I was going to argue with you about the color but then I went looking for a ’63 Fairlane brochure online to be sure I was right first. I’m not. This is that year’s version of Wimbledon White. The brochure I found calls it Corinthian White.
Growing up in the midwest, I don’t remember these cars being predominantly white, red, or black. As a teenager, I briefly owned a 63 sedan in Chestnut and my Dad factory ordered a 64 Sports Coupe in Guardsman Blue. The latter was a quite good-looking car with an especially nice bucket seat/console interior. Unfortunately it was not assembled very well and we had problems with it from day one. My memory of both of these cars is that they were of mediocre quality at best.
Something about that front end is reminiscent of the Fairmont.
I believe a V-8 in this 1963 car would have been the 260; I may be wrong.
It is “Wimbledon” white. Same name as the tennis event in the London suburb. Same shade was also, at times, called “Oxford white”.
My 61 Thunderbird had a very similar shade, but called it Colonial white. It looked like Wimbledon white to me, though.
Yep these were popular cars in NZ not cheap but they held up well under local conditions both here and in OZ where Ford eyed the front end for parts to fix the feeble Falcon. Friends in Coffs harbour have one their eldest child was born in the backseat so it sits rusting quietly on the lawn never to be sold and unlikely now to be out back on the road. it was 289 equipped and manual.
Nice find, I particularly like the white with red stripe on these.
This car is a pretty good indicator of 1963 as being some sort of highwater mark, as I like the 64 Fairlane less and the 65 even less so.
I had a choice between a ’63 and ’64. It was a very close call, and bought the ’63 instead. I wanted something with fins that I could put whitewalls on but I still love the smooth lines on the ’64.
I can’t leave the driveway without someone asking to buy it from me. It’s nuts.
A great looking car,my brother had a 62 Fairlane with a 6,there was a 63 V8 for sale but it was just a bit to much money and not in good enough condition for the price.He kicked himself for weeks after that he didn’t get the 63 as he liked it’s looks more than his 62
My Dad had a Corinthian white ‘woody’ wagon version. It was a good looking wagon but it rusted pretty bad in lower rear quarters. It was a 260 iirc.
Still driving my Pop’s baby blue & white ’63 fairlane, 76,000 on a 221 V8 with three on the tree. She spends North Dakota winters in the barn and town is only a couple miles away, so it’s been an easy life for old blue.
There is a devoted following for the Compact Fairlane as they are known (as opposed to the earlier Tank Fairlane referring to the size of the ’59s). I like them but would ideally like to have a wagon or hardtop (in the MM 1000-car garage) – and all the local ones were sedans as far as I know.
That car looks depressed.
Is the fender badge a “260” or a “289”–can any of your pictures confirm this?
Fun to see the 1963 (full-size) Galaxie grille in sorta-7/8 scale. I always liked these cars, which seemed very right-sized. The 1964 likewise echoed that year’s Galaxie, and then the bigger 1965 (when the big ford when to the new formal look and the LTD line), with that odd, one-year design…
260. The only 289 in 1963 was the wild 271 hi-po version offered mid-year. And only for the 500 Sports Coupe.
Fins, baby, fins.
The 289 wasn’t available in ’63. The V8 in the 500 was the 260.
Interestingly the ’63 Fairlane sported older Ford design themes: it wore the ’57 Fairlane’s round-taillights-under-canted-fins (in a year when fins were, ah, old -think ’63 Riviera), combined with the ’58 Thunderbird’s C-pillar.
BUT Ford made it all look fresh and fast; seriously, this car was a great design achievement. Ford executed a design challenge (do a lot with very little) similar to the challenging redesign of the ’62 Studebaker Hawk (which also sported the ’58 Thunderbird C-pillar).
Others have commented on the red, black, and seashell colors, however my uncle owned a GOLD Fairlane sport coupe with buckets-and-console gold interior. The car was simply stunning -then and now. (I seem to remember that the gold color was pretty prevalent also.)
Oh, I don’t know. Compare the 1963 Fairlane to the 1964 Chevelle; the latter was a much more modern-looking car. A big reason why is that Ford rehashed all those late-50s design themes you mention. Ford seemed to have recognized this problem because the 1964 lost its fins and the sedans received a more modern-looking C-pillar.
Certainly the 1962 Hawk was a big improvement over the 1958-60 versions, but it was also lacking in originality. To my eyes the roofline apes the T-Bird entirely too closely and doesn’t do the Loewy body justice anyway. A better option for the C-pillars might have been curved flying buttresses that distracted the eye from the overly low and rounded rear deck.
Had a 64 Fairlane 500 4 door as my first car in 72 – had the 2 bbl 260 – not that quick but was able to keep up with the 2 bbl 283 Chevys. Those 273 Darts/Valiants seemed pretty strong though……
Color was a deep Burgundy, which everyone at my High School mistakenly referred to as purple….”oh, you got that purple Fairlane?”
I could never quite understand that……
My only Fairlane involvement was one drive in a borrowed dark blue 1962 low-line sedan with the 221 V8 and 3-speed. I don’t remember that much about it.
“I was so captivated by this Fairlane that I failed to notice the first-gen Prius across the street until just now. D’oh!” No one comes to this site to read about a Prius.
So funny about the top three selling colors on these, the off-white, red and black. Aunt and uncle had a black Fairlane, there was a red one next door and three houses up an off-white one. I don’t remember that happening before except on sports cars and mid to late 60s Fords where every model, every year seemed to be green.
I own a very similar car. Has a 302 swap. Same color. Get looks and waves everywhere I drive it.
So I am the owner of this car!! And I can prove it. I randomly looked ford fairlane up the other day and came across this..I was at fiddlers hearth that night! I have many pictures of the car ..it is completely stock v8 260, rebuilt from the ground up with 100% period correct parts and most n.o.s.
The 289/ 271 HiPo engine was available in 1963 and not just in a Sport Coupe. You could special order anything back then. I should know… I had a 63 four door sedan , factory equipped with K code 289/271 hp, four speed manual transmission, and traction lock rear. Yes, they did come with single exhaust, but traveled through cast-iron long branch headers to a y, where the pipe turned into 3″ and traveled all the way out the back through a 3″ muffler and turn-down. Quiet, and deadly.