This Sedan Delivery delivers in School Bus Yellow

Like many car collectors, Art Carlton’s preferences lean toward the unusual and unique.

His jet black 1963 1/2 Falcon Sprint hardtop, equipped with a late-model, fuel-injected 302 V-8 and a 5-speed Tremec manual transmission, reveals that.

But his 1963 Falcon Deluxe Sedan Delivery in screaming yellow makes the point with a boldface exclamation mark.

“A friend of mine was looking for steering gear parts and he saw it up near Geneseo. He thought I’d ought to have it,” Carlton said.

When he looked it over, he agreed. That was in December 2014.

“It was in pretty rough shape … holes in the roof and dash, rust in the quarters. We figured it had been up next to a fire at some point,” he said. “The (previous) owner had bought it out of a salvage yard in Colorado.”

But Carlton knew what he was looking at was not your everyday clunker.

“In 1963, Ford built 925 standard Sedan Deliveries, but only 113 Deluxe models,” he noted. And he was looking at a Deluxe — a rough Deluxe — but still highly collectible.

The Falcon Sedan Delivery was conceived as a spinoff from the Ranchero/station wagon line, as a light duty work truck. Most of them were sold as delivery vehicles to small businesses, Carlton explained.

“It’s the same body as the station wagon. It has the same tailgate. They just put a metal panel over the window openings,” he said.

Originally equipped with a 6-cylinder engine, his Sedan Delivery had also been delivered with the light duty 4-speed manual transmission, but it was missing when he bought the car.

That was no problem, because he already had plans to beef up the power train, starting with a rebuilt 302 V-8 engine equipped with an Edelbrock Performer intake manifold and 4-barrel carburetor, along with a high performance camshaft.

“It’s a little bit lumpy, but you don’t notice it because it’s got a stock muffler,” Carlton said. “I stuck with a single exhaust because I didn’t want to deal with the gas tank, which is mounted on one side.”

A new gas tank was also installed.

The engine compartment was also dressed up with a set of custom, color-keyed engraved valve covers, air cleaner and breather cap that Carlton manufactured himself.

Since he already knew how well a 5-speed Tremec worked in a first-generation Falcon, he ordered up a new one of those for the Sedan Delivery.

A set of 14-inch, 5-bolt steel wheels were substituted for the dainty 4-bolt 13-inch wheels that came on the car. They are now fitted with 1960 Ford hubcaps and 185/70R/14 Michelin blackwall tires.

“Every bit of the suspension was changed … A-arms, springs, shocks, tie rod ends … and we installed a Maverick 8-inch rear end with 3.25 gears,” Carlton said.

A car-building buddy, Gene Valentine, helped with many of the mechanical aspects of the project.

Danny Hand of Wichita took on the task of repairing and smoothing the rust holes in the body work and prepping the car for paint. Carlton had already decided on the hue he wanted.

“In 1963, it was called School Bus Yellow. It was a fleet color. Every other year after that, it was called Chrome Yellow. A lot of people fought me when I told them I was going to do it,” Carlton said.

But when it was finished, it was clear he made the right color call.

Carlton bought a new set of blank Falcon bumpers from Obsolete Ford in Oklahoma City and had them chromed to match the rare new, old stock Falcon grille that set him back a cool thousand dollars.

Inside, the biggest challenge was finding the correct seat frames, unique to the Sedan Delivery line.

“I finally found a set up in Oregon,” he said.

J&J Upholstery of Hutchinson installed a set of black vinyl reproduction seat covers on the rebuilt seats, along with the trademark chrome Mylar-trimmed Falcon inner door panels. The rear cargo area was carpeted in black, with light wood panels covering the wall spaces.

The dash remains largely stock, with a factory instrument panel. Vintage Air air conditioning was added.

But the most striking feature is the thick milled aluminum shift lever Carlton created in his machine shop, topped with a white shift ball. It juts up through the transmission hump just ahead of a factory-original Falcon center console.

So far, Carlton has racked up 3,400 miles cruising to car shows in his School Bus Yellow Sedan Delivery.

Isn’t he tempted to add some graphics to those blank side panels?

“I really haven’t thought much about it. About the only name I can think of is ‘School’s Out,’ ” he said.

This story was originally published July 23, 2016 at 6:56 AM with the headline "This Sedan Delivery delivers in School Bus Yellow."