Story by Jon Mikelonis, Photos by Tom Zuloaga

Introduction
You've got to have sympathy for guys that were into Harley's way before it became common to see a dozen custom bikes in front of Starbuck's. When we grew up, Harley's were only for tough guys, not for executives or talk show hosts who store their riding gear in walk-in closets on shelves labeled "Sunday". On top of that, something tells us that original Harley-Davidson owners at least maintained their bikes themselves. Introduce the "Rat Rod" rage and you can already hear distant grumblings from the original spawn that were only really in it to make a statement at the local Show N' Shine. Did these guys ever think they'd read about their low-brow customizing techniques in the pages of Hot Rod magazine? Did they think they'd be forced to look at each other awkwardly when TLC's "Rides" attempted to make a distinction between those living a true Rat Rod lifestyle and those just building simple hot rods with spare parts? Somewhere along the line, the mainstream media tried to define "Rat Rods" too, as hot rods built in the spirit of the 50's and 60's with whatever low-buck parts you could get your hands on, as long as those parts were period correct.

Don't get us wrong, for lack of a better term, "Rat Rods" are pretty
refreshing and high on the coolness scale. We also understand that it's human nature to categorize, identify, and label material things, so the term isn't too offensive. But let us ask you this. If you want to build a discrete hot rod with a nostalgic touch and you drop-in a "period-incorrect" powerplant rather than a Flathead, are you not welcome in the "Rat Rod" club? Do you even care?

Either way, there is a place where enthusiasts are immune from somebody challenging their dedication to the "Rat Rod" lifestyle or questioning the period accuracy of their "Rat Rod". It's a place where style is respected but it's mostly a place where function, performance, and safety is held to a higher-esteem. That place is the dragstrip. Tom Zuloaga subscribes to this mentality and he backs it up with his passion to race and with his fabrication skill. This is why the FM staff has selected Tom's '66 Falcon as this issue's perfect example of true Ford muscle.

Behind the Builder
If you are active in the FordMuscle forums then you have been impressed by the ingenuity of some of your fellow Ford enthusiasts. There just seem to be a number of guys that have earned skills in either fabrication, restoration, or engine building that leave many of us wrought with envy. Tom, otherwise known as F15Falcon in the FM forums, is one of those guys that has probably earned your respect as being a very capable fabricator.

At the age of three, Tom was already at the track with his dad. In 1971 his dad was active building circle track cars like the stroked 6 cylinder '54 Ford, Tom first remembers. Although his father didn't drive the car, he loved
building them. In fact, he just loved building things and according to Tom, he was quite an innovator for his time. Tom's first memories were at a now
defunct track called Horizon Speedway which still exists only about 5 miles
from his shop in El Paso, Texas. His dad's later circle track race cars were 69 and 70 Mustang Fastbacks with Cleveland motors. The
Mustangs were always painted Grabber Blue, therefore it's no wonder that Tom's first car was a Cleveland-powered Grabber Blue 1970 Mach 1. He is proud to say that he still owns it to this day.

Age sixteen was a great time for Tom because not only was he able to drive on the street but he was now able to legally drive a race car at the local speedway. Did we mention his mother's side of the family owned the track? Wow, this guy was born embedded in the hobby! Tom started racing in a limited late model class and was Rookie of the Year his first season. Young and a bit naive, Tom let the honor go to his head by believing that he could drive for anyone. Of course this didn't sit well with dad, so his father proceeded to teach Tom a valuable lesson. For the next two weeks Tom was responsible for running the whole racing operation himself, without his father's assistance. Soon enough, Tom stuffed his car into the fourth-turn wall and it needed fixing. Not just the wall, but the car too. Tom didn't have the skills to rebuild it and found that no team really wanted to let a kid drive their car either. He faced the fact that drivers were a dime a dozen.

Armed with a valuable lesson, Tom figured that if he was to continue racing, he would have to learn how to build cars himself. He then enrolled in the local vocational school for machine shop classes and learned how to run lathes and mills. Following that he learned how to gas weld, and then arc weld. Tom saved some money and bought an L-Tec 225 amp MIG welder back in 1987. The next year he bought a lathe and starting in 1988 he started doing back halved Pro street cars in addition to his own race cars. Soon thereafter, Tom realized what so many only dream of. He concluded he would never be satisfied working for anyone but himself and to this day, he never has.

By the time Tom made it back to the race track in 1990, he was building a lot of his competitors race cars. He built 12 IMCA Modifieds and had a lucrative operation going. People started asking him to do more street rod and drag racing work. For the last 6 or 7 years he has not touched a customers circle track car. Tom is at the track every Friday night though and he loves Fords, racing, and the old school stuff, in that order.

What about the Falcon?
Tom built his '66 Falcon because the class of cars that he raced in was getting too expensive, and he could no longer compete. Tom used his engine and a lot of parts from his IMCA Modified and he put something together that he could have fun with. Tom says he sees alot of drag racing type cars at shows that will never make it down the race track for fear of getting a scratch on them, and he wants no part of that. Tom has built several very nice drag racing cars that just sit at home because the owners want to polish them.

For this project Tom had several cars to chose from. A '64 Fairlane hard top, a '64 Fairlane sedan, two '65 Comets and a '64 Falcon wagon

For this project Tom had several cars to chose from. A '64 Fairlane hard top, a '64 Fairlane sedan, two '65 Comets and a '64 Falcon wagon, but when the '66 Falcon was on the way to the scrap yard, and he could get it for $40.00, he knew that was the car. He actually sold off the parts he didn't need from the Falcon and profited $220, which was immediately invested in race necessities. The stock drums were rebuilt and rather than put funds into a fancy floor shifter, Tom fabbed up a reverse lock-out for the stock column shifter. Tom estimates he only has $500 in expenditures on the car - keeping costs down by reutilizing parts from past projects, and doing all of his own fabrication work. In the spirit of Rat Rod niceties like paint take a back seat to necessities like tires. The faded beige paint is the most non-race car color that there is, so it was perfect. He likes showing people what they can do if they only put their minds and a little ingenuity to work instead of the almighty dollar. Tom sees treasure in the junk yards whenever he goes, but he can't rescue them all, but he says he can try.

Let's take a closer look at Tom's Falcon and examples of his killer fabrication work.

The nose in the air attitude was achieved with weight jack bolts and the stock 6 cylinder springs. The front wheels also got the cast iron urethane paint. Tom says a paint gun will ever come near this car as long as he owns it. Sell it? Better not!		An aluminum racing seat was bolted in after a lower bracket that bolts to the original seat holes was fabbed up. No seat cover will be used. Tom could never figure out why racers will spend several hundred dollars on a race suit and then sit on flammable vinyl or cloth. Tom takes safety serious since he's been in race car fires.
Tom replaced slot mags with a these body color painted 15" x 9" steelies that he built himself.		Although Tom's Falcon has a "Rat Roddish" feel, he clearly separates himself from the trend by giving just as much attention to safety as he does to nostalgia.
Rear spring hanger crossmember that had to be built to mount the rear shackles.		In-boarded front spring boxes and subframe connectors.
While header manufacturers try to fill the flood of recent requests for open tube headers, Tom fabricates his own.		Rather than bear the expense for a floor-mount shifter, Tom fabricated a reverse lockout for the factory column shifter.
The original gas cap hole needed to be filled so rather than filling the hole with something other than a piece of metal Tom found a Ford hubcap with just the right diameter on the center part of the cap.		One area that received detailed aesthetic attention was the motor compartment. Here Tom preps in the right way for fresh paint.
You can save a lot of dough if you have the skill to deepen an oil pan yourself.		Tom even did the pickup on his own as well.