RIP XE

Progress Report

The falcon is at the workshop since the start of June and in the mean time I've purchased new springs, doors and a ghia bonnet and boot. I've started to strip the engine bay in prep for cleaning and repaint. I'm going to use the KBS rust and paint system to paint the chassis rail and engine bay.
I'm researching the engine mods and gas mods for the V8. Very interesting reading. Learning more about IMPCO and Sprint Gas systems.

Here is some rust that needs to be cut and replaced.

Paintwork Sketch

Watched Overhaulin on Discovery Channel this week and got inspired to acutally draw my paint scheme rather than use photoshop. So out came the pencils!!

It will be a two tone paint scheme with black base and metallic green top separated by a chrome pin stripe. Things that may change will be either chrome or black drip rails and window surrounds and whether I use a black mirror or paint it green.

Looking at getting Simmons B45 wheels with a black centre and chrome lip.

Bonnet man

I started the bonnet last night and amazingly it had no primer for the black paint. Acutally there has been no rust found on the bonnet as yet but lots of little stone chips that will need to be hammered out or bogged over (ahh smoothed over).

Progress of the bonnet so far which is around 2 hours work. Still having fun in the dark with the car port lights on. Can only touch the car once the kids have had their story and in bed.

The roof, the roof is on fire!

I finished off the rear of the boot and I got onto the roof on the weekend. Pretty happy with the progress so far, hoping to keep the momemtum up. It's winter and I'm out with the Ford jacket and beanie, sanding away. All good fun.

Giving it the boot

I stopped at Bunnings on the way home tonight and was determined to get the sanding back on track. I found that the 120grit was taking some time to break through the black top coat and I wanted to get it moving. The next available was 80grit and I knew that it would really get into breaking up the top coat.

So my new technique is to hit the panel with 80grit until it really scratches and breaks up the top coat then remove the remaining primer with the 120grit back to the factory white. It has so far working really well and I was able to sand the boot in around 2 hours.

Disaster

Last Saturday (9th May) I was cleaning the car port and placed all my sandpaper packs on the Magna roof. I must have forgotten to move them and went for a drive as I can't find them anywhere. So there is around $70 gone!! I searched for them on Tuesday and Wednesday which really frustrated me as it was all lost time.

The work on the front guard

Thank you to the most important person in this build

The lovely Sandra. We have celebrated 6 years of marriage and if she knew about my Ford passion would she have married me???? Watch this space... :)

Bodywork continues...

I bought some 120grit from Bunnings on Monday. I needed a stronger coarse to cut through the black paint. The 180grit was going ok, but I really needed to break through the top coat as I'm sanding the car by hand.

Its working well as I plug in my iPod to the small portable speakers, put my beanie on and brave the cold in the car port. Because I am sanding by hand, there's no noisy machines to wake the kids or annoy the neighbours and I can sand for 1 hour each night from 8 or 9pm.

My plan to doing 1 panel a week is on track. Last night I was able to sand 90% of the drivers side front guard which has a blue coat. So it has replaced the factory guard as some time in its life. I knew in advance that it wasn't the same guard as flaking black paint in the engine bay had the metallac blue coming through.

In some areas I rub too much and go straight to bare metal. Water and bare metal don't mix in car restoration. So once I stopped wet sanding I wipe the excess water off and then hit the panel with my heat gun to evaporate the moisture.

Bodywork

Well I bought some 180 Grit wet/dry from Bunnings last weekend and started sanding the drivers door by hand. My plan is to do a panel a week. I spoke to Gasper last night and showed him a picture of the door from my phone. Currently the car has been sprayed black so as I sand my aim is to take the black off and rub back to the factory white colour.

So the layering I am encountering is: car body > factory primer > factory paint > primer > black

I am removing the black and primer and hopefully not taking too much off the factory white. I can't help but remove too much when I am near the edges of panels. I am planning to protect it by hand painting primer over the exposed areas until I can get the XE back into the workshop.

So the project has begun and I have a weekly timetable. Lets see if I can stick to it.

Week 1
Drivers Door - outer finished
Passenger Door - outer finished
Rear Quarter - started

Week 2
Rear Quarter - finish
Front Guard - start

Findings

I drove the XE home from the workshop in early April as AJ needed space back. It was going to be a new experience driving the V8 for the first time. Who knows whether I will get home or not. Sandra followed me and everything ok except for the carpet steaming up the windows...the carpet? I spoke to Mick the next day and he said "heater core leak".

Well the car sat on the second drive way for a two weeks and I was trying to dry out the carpet but I was wondering if the floors were getting damaged. I was able to convince Sandra to bring the Falcon up to the carport out of the weather by moving the Kombi and allowing Sandra to park the Magna just outside the carport.

In the last two weeks I've slowly spent some time pulling out the seats and getting to the carpet. The carpet was a definate culprit for the dreaded rust. It had left its mark as I pulled the soggy wet mat from the floor. The drivers floor pan was very weak and rusty as I explored with my screwdriver poking and prodding.

Not to worry. All can be fixed when I get it back to the workshop.

Work in Progress

The work done on the Falcon over January - March 2009 was mainly mechanical as I got my mechanic to give me a list of things that were needed to get it roadworthy. I kept my list in my pocket and went in search of the items.

Over the coming weeks I collected items from eBay, wreckers and a friendly bloke named "Skip". He lived across the road and many parts were sourced from his workshop. Being quite frugal I was lucky to get many items for low cost.

The best finds were from Skip. and it was handy that he was across the road one Saturday as the engine had a massive internal explosion and blew the rocker cover to bits. It made everyone jump and even Skip heard it across the road. The LPG had mixed with petrol and blew up.

So in total the costs have been:

Purchase price: $1100
Parts:
Tyres $100
Wiper motor $40
Steering wheel, boot rubber, heater & light switches, bolts - FREE (Jolly Rodgers $99 Trolley Day)
Engine, Roadworthy, LPG Gas Tank check, labour & parts $500
Ghia Headlights $180
XD Spac Instrument Cluster $20
XD Fairmont Interior $200
Passenger glass, rear bumper, carby, rocker cover $40 (slab of beer for Skip)
Carby gasket $45

Future project parts:
T5 Gearbox, pedal cluster (from XF) $300
T5 Cleveland Bell housing $200
Flywheel $150
Manual Transmission Hump $40

Sundries:
Sandpaper 180 grit x 25 $36

Sold:
XD Phase 5 Fibreglass Scoop $85
XF Ghia Front and Rear Seats $available

So the cost so far is $2875.

The Purchase

I've always liked Ford's. Most guys in high school went on about Commodores but they didn't excite me like the X series Australian Falcons did.

I want to restore a Ford Mustang at some stage but my budget won't stretch that far and as I've never owned or driven a V8 before and when the black XE came up for sale in Dandenong on eBay for $1100 last December 2008, I grabbed it.

Buying sight unseen on eBay is probably not the best but I've done it so many times now with VW Kombi's that even if it's full of rust it can still be fixed.

The car is a 1983 Ford Falcon with Fairmont Ghia headlights and bonnet. The donk is a "302" or 4.9L V8.

Green Inspiration

Pro XE (really an XD with XE bodywork) but I do love the colour. This is the car I would like to emulate without the big scoop.
One tough Falcon. This is Dick Johnson's ATCC 1984 winning Falcon. Visit http://www.djr.com.au/