Last of the V8 Interceptors.. my XB Falcon Coupe

Wow… it’s been so long since I had an update for this thread…. Realistically progress stopped just before Xmas & not much really happened since… we have decided not to use my original boot as it’s too much work to get it as good as I want it, so we’ve fitted a spare one I had… my panel beater got all excited when he was stripping the boot back to bare metal as it had race car signage on it under the top coat… he didn’t take any pics, but it said Bridgestone across the back in very large letters it seems & the wing placement holes are a lot higher up the boot than they should be… so in my mind I’m now rebuilding this car with genuine race car parts…



One of the issues we had was space & having to keep moving the car about to work on it…. So last month I went to collect the old girl & move her to the new Skunk Works where the project will be based… this how sad she looked when I picked her up



Now she’s sitting waiting for me to finish off the Dodge so that I can concentrate 100% on her…



I got a set of seats from a late model XR8 Ute for the right price, I’m still not 100% sure what I’m doing with the interior… but now I have more options than just reusing the original seats or the Landau seats that I have..



I’ve also just picked up a load of new rust repair sections for the rear that some of which didn’t exist on the market last year.. so the timing worked out nice here… I have a set of wheel arch lips to go on, as I’m sure once I’ve removed the chrome trim & the paint there will be bugger all metal left there..



I also got the rear sections of the parcel shelf, both horizontal & vertical..



as you don’t ever see the metal I had just made up some flat plate steel to do the job, but much happier now that I can have it right..



I also got a set of boot floor panels to go in… again both the horizontal & vertical panels… mine are badly repaired from rear end smash she must have had in her past..

Picked up a new Grille for this… well not new, but a reconditioned one… the quality is really very good.. it looks great..



My one was badly smashed.. the spot light rings where broken



Also the upright stays that hold the honeycomb centers where broken & missing… I’m told that once these are gone the grill becomes too hard to recondition.. so I guess mine will just become wall art now..





Now that I had a load of parts on order for the Dodge & they won’t be here for weeks.. my plan is to kick into this hard to see how much progress I can make… right now having the car done for September seems an impossible goal.. but I’ll try

My understanding from those who restore them... the issue isn't making a new plastic upright stay, it's more the plastic welding of said stay in place so that it can take the stress... these grilles are designed that when the bonnet is open you can lean on them or drop tools on them... that's why a lot of them broke like this... now a complete 3D printed grille.... that might be cool

Right, so I finally decided to get back into doing something with the XB again… partly because I’m waiting for parts for the Dodge on back order & that project has come to a halt & mostly because.. well just because..

The car has spent the last year almost just tucked into the back of the shed on go jacks looking all sad



So I dragged her out into the middle of the shed so that I’d have lots of space to move around her & start pulling her apart again



First simple job was to remove all the lights from the front along with the radiator, uber simple job but quiet satisfying as it was just nice to be finally working on the old girl again



Next up was to remove the driver’s side guard, the more observant of you will have noticed that the passenger side was already off.. that’s because that guard had some bad rust & it’s been away getting repaired, I just haven’t gotten around to collecting it from my mates shed yet.. the guard removal is simple, apart from the bolts across the top of the engine bay, there are several at the front, one in the door jam & one under the bottom to the guard to undo… simples







The guard is in pretty good shape, no real rust at all to be seen on the front or back side.. I won’t know for sure till I remove the paint, but I’m optimistic..



The inner wheelarch area looks great too… again no real rust at all, I was expecting to find some nasty surprises in here but it’s starting to look like the only real body issue with this car is the very botched repair work she had in the rear all those years ago

Then I attached the engine lift to the lifting plate & started lifting until the engine just raised up on the mounts by a fraction to take the weight off the bolts to make it easy to slide them out



Then you just start jacking up, puling forward & tilting the whole assembly back (having a load leveler on the engine hoist makes this a one man job)



Keep repeating the whole up, forward, tilt thing until the whole lot is clear of the car





Job done



With that done I put the old girl back up on axle stands (guess who needs a 2nd hoist) so she was at a nice working height & I cut the back off again… what is it with me & plasma cutters & angle grinders, anyway I have a new boot floor to go in, so for easy access I removed the light panel again & the fuel tank

I dragged the old girl out into the open & sprayed down all the suspension & underside with degreaser to clean off the years of crud before I started to unbolt everything



After cleaning the car off, I had a bit of a look for rust at the front end & she’s actually really good… there is a bit on the passenger side behind the guard



But the actual lower sill looks great



On the drivers side there seems to be no rust at all really…



But the sill has been repaired before… so I’ll have to have a closer look at that later



I also found a rather interesting when cleaning the rear suspension…



Hmmm, seems a rather important bolt had parted company some time ago… judging by the wear in the chassis it was dangling half out for a while… bugger

Then as part of operation “This is why I can’t have nice things” I then attacked the back of the car with an angle grinder again…



But don’t worry.. this panel was rooted anyway, it’s been damaged in a past rear ender & then badly repaired, so rather than try & fix this one I’m just going to replace it



Now looking at the original boot floor where it goes over the diff, there seems to be a raised line in the floor



My new boot floor replacement panel doesn’t have that raised line…



So I had a bit of a play with the bench vise bead roller



I probably won’t get it perfect, but it’ll be close & whilst I know that close only counts in horseshoes & hand grenades.. in this case I’ll extend that to far inner reaches of boot floor too

Last job of the day then was to pull the front suspension end off, you don’t need to be a rocket doctor here which clearly suits me…



Shocks & springs off



Then brakes, hubs, upper & lowers arms came off





Then all packed away in a box to be stored like in raiders of the lost ark as none of it is going back on…. The only original parts going back on will be the sway bar & that I think needs some new Polly mounts

Then it was back to the arse end of the car, to continue cutting the old boot floor out.. this time the driver s side. It s clear from looking at this side of the car that whatever crash she was involved in years ago was definitely more on this side















That s when I could see the crease in the rear chassis rail







You can see where they ve heated the rail up from the outside & then pulled & hammered at it to try & get it straight they failed BTW..







Also there is a really bad kink at the end of the rail..











You can see how the new straight floor sits on the rail to see just how far out it is











Now I had really thought that rust would be the big drama with this car when I started this, but she s really good compared to lot of other Falcons I ve seen, my issue is really going to be fixing this dodgy repair & then reworking all the rear panels to line up properly again I have a few ideas for fixing this rail, I m not 100% if they work just yet but stay tuned for my cunning plan.

There was change of pace in the Skunk Works today, I put down the grinders & hammers & left the welder unplugged & I decided to try my hand to simply bolting new stuff onto a car a sight so rare that my long suffering other half popped into the shed & offered to take a pic of me putting **** back on a car for once lest no one believed me. I decided to trial fit the shiny new front suspension, steering & brakes that I have for the Coupe to see if this stuff really does just bolt up with no special tools & no modifications as the sales brochure had lead me to believe.. now for those of you who just have to know & can t wait till the end of this update post . Yeah, they pretty much did what it said on the box.



First up was my power Rack & Pinion steering conversion, the brochure tells me that getting rid of the old worm drive box & replacing it with this puppy will have my car steering like a 2010 Falcon XR8, sounds promising although you ll be a while awaiting my road test results.. but I have to say it looks an impressive piece of kit







Pollywhatsit bushes all round







And most importantly Bolt on brackets, there are a few options to upgrade this old girl, but I was after one that bolted into the factory mounting holes & could be undone to return the old girl to stock should I ever want too. The passenger side bracket install is pretty simple, uses the two existing bolt holes from the idler arm







The driver s side on the other hand does foul a tiny bit of the support gusset















& you do need to grind off about half an inch of said gusset to get this to fit











Both brackets sit a little shy of being fully flush with the underside of the chassis rail, but that s because I haven t drilled the two holes yet that you bolt them up to the chassis rail lip with, I m in two minds right now as to do some seam welding on these brackets too or just leave the bolts as the only means of attachment.