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Last of the V8 Interceptors.. my XB Falcon Coupe
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I’ve had some more parts turn up for the XB this week… I’ve been working hard on the Dodge Challenger (look for a thread update this week) & so as that car is getting closer to going for paint the closer I am to getting back into this car full on.
The company I’d bought all the suspension bits from have finally engineered a new single billet solid lower front control arm, this is a very nice bit of kit & as with a lot of the bits of these cars, almost too good to hide them away under the car.
You may remember when looking at the underside of the car, the seat support braces where all smashed in from years of poor jack placements & hitting rocks etc… one of the benefits of me being so slow & slack with this car is that more & more parts are getting made.
Also the same company make a new front crossmember section… I had repaired mine but I wasn’t happy with it really & this new one had a section of 7mm thick plate built into it so it will never buckle again when jacking.. so I’ll have to remove that section again.
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Right, so I’ve changed my mind again… I had decided that I would focus on the Challenger only & leave the XB until such time as the Challenger had gone to paint… now I’ve flipped on that again & decided to work on both side by side again, after all a change is as a good as a rest as they say..
First job… pull the old girl out of resting place in the corner
I can’t believe how well this rotisserie rolls with the car on it, it took me 2 minutes on my own to swing the car around & place it where I wanted it… genuinely took longer to sweep the floor clean before moving it back
The next step is very much a 2 person job & in fact could do with a 3rd.. spun the car back up at 90 deg to give me full access to the underside of the car
The first job I want to tackle is replacing the bottom of the front crossmember, I had repaired the original section a while back & it currently looks like this
The new replacement piece is way thicker & much heavier duty for jacking up off & the likes
First step is drilling out the spot welds & start to pry the plate away from the crossmember
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With that off we can compare the old & new on the bench
Separating bits like this always leaves the metal a little bend out of shape
A little hammer & dolly work is needed to get everything back to through & straight
Then I coated it all in rust thru primer as getting in behind there in the future may be difficult
Took the black paint off the new piece & coated it too ready to be clamped on & welded
Then just tidy up the welds & apply a top coat of primer
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The next bits I’m looking to replace are the seat support sections that are smashed up pretty badly.. from what I assume was a lot of ill planned jacking over the years & perhaps even some dukes of hazard style off roading who knows
The new reproduced panel is a great bit of kit, it looks great & fits up well
Removal is the same process as above for the other section, drill out the spot welds & then start gently prying the section away from the body
With that off you can see that underneath it needs to be cleaned up & prepped
Lets compare old & new on the bench
Then a quick test fit to see how much work will be needed to fit this up before I call it quits for the night
This side at least looks like it will be very easy to fit up… happy days0 -
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I cleaned up the years of dirt & grime plus the original ford paint off the floor section that was under the section I just removed.
There was a section of floor damaged that caused a rip when I was fighting to get the part off, so I welded that tear up (you can see the blue discoloured section) but left the drilled hole as I’ll use that for one of the plug welds when I’m fitting the new section.
I also decided that I would not just rely on the factory method of joining the floor to the inner sill, Ford just used spot welds where the floor turns up at 90 degs & sits against the sill. To that end I’ve decided to stitch weld the join of the floor to the sill under the car.
I’ve also decided to stich or seam weld if you like the torque boxes to the floor
Hope to get out into the shed on the weekend & finish the seam/stitch welding & also weld on the seat support crossmember & then if I can phone a friend I’ll look to flip the car over 180 on the rotisserie so that I can get to the other side easier rather than working close to the shed floor to do the other side.0 -
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Another small update here, coated the floor section that would be covered in weld-through primer & then I pre-drilled the holes into the seat brace section that I would be welding on
Then fitted & clamped it up to allow me to weld it in place fully, trying not to get too much heat into the floor
I’ve also started beefing up the job that Ford did in the 70’s when building the car in the first place, so for example where the chassis rails only have tiny welds spaced 6-7 inches apart, so I’m stitching those factory welds together now
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Holy thread revival Batman….. ok so in a pre-COVID world I was doing a lot of travel for work & only had 1 full weekend a month really to work on cars, so you may recall that I parked this project to focus full time on the Challenger… I assume if you’re reading this thread you’re on top of things already… if not TLDR is I need the rotisserie now for the Challenger project to do the underside & I’ve decided that rather than take the XB off & put the Challenger on to then have to put the XB back on to finish the underside of it… I’m going to work on getting the underside of the XB done before pulling her off the rotisserie…
So to that end I played my fave game of Muscle car Tetris & now the XB has the prime spot in the center of the shed to be worked on… luckily the rotisserie is really easy to move about with the car on it
There are a lot of little annoying areas that I just can’t get a grinding disk or even a wire wheel on a drill into… I may look at buying a small home sand blaster to allow me to get everywhere clean… we’ll see, it’s Sunday morning now so time to take a fresh large cup of tea to the shed & get cracking….. Got stuck into stitch welding the drivers side sill along it’s full length… there are a few spots where the metal needs to be asked to join flush
Finished that now… I’ll linish it all off nice & flat during the week
Sadly I’ve run out of welding gas now… & its late Sunday afternoon so I’ll have to wait till tomorrow now to go & get another bottle…
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Once I get a house and a garage all I will need is some talent and the mrs permission and I shall get myself a similar project
Don't wait for talent.. I started with none & haven't really moved on from that level... just jump in feet first into a project & you'll be amazed at how fast you'll learn...
Also it's always easier to ask forgiveness that permission I've heard it said 0 -
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Got a bit more done… there is an exhaust heat shield on the car, my car clearly only had a single muffler setup from the factory as I only have one of there… I’m going to take this off to clean under it & if I decide to put it back on then I’ll make a second mirror image one to go on the other side as I’ll obviously be having two mufflers on the back of this car
There are some big dents in the bottom of some of the chassis rail sections & I’d like to pull them out of I could
I’ve tried using my dent puller but the thickness of the rails is too much & these weld on pins just snap off, I’ll have to have another think on what to do here
I want to seam weld a lot of the floor sheet metal joins given how much extra BHP this car will see when back on the road
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I’m also going to go through & patch up a lot of holes in the body of this car, there are countless that people have drilled into this car over the years for god knows what reasons… but I’ll be welding them all up
Also need to unstitch the drivers side seat support so that I can replace that next
Usual process of drilling out the spot welds & then prying the metal apart
I had a hard time finding a non-industrial sand blaster… if I’d wanted to spend over 7 grand I could get a big one but finding anyone who had a small DIY kinda one was hard… lots of places offered to order me one in but with delivery times of 12 weeks of more.. so I had a choice of one model so I picked that
Of course my current old trusty air compressor isn’t big enough to run this so I ended up having to splash out on a shiny new bigger compressor too..
Now I don’t want to just use the sand blaster in the shed as that will cover everything in inches of crap & will make an epic mess… so I’ve ordered a portable outdoor gazebo type thingy that I’ll set up & roll the car into so that I can contain my blasting media mess… you can sieve it & reuse it up to 7 or 8 times I’m told0 -
Got the old seat support brace full off..
Then cleaned 45 years of crud & crap out from under it, I do wonder if I should seam weld these new sections on to keep crap from getting under them again…. But then that’s probably over kill, I’ll just make sure it’s well primed I guess
Test fitting the new section… these are such high quality & fit so well, I wish everyone made patch panels this good
Spent a bit of time just walking around the car trying to gauge just how much body work is still to be done… a lot seems to be the answer, the area where the inner boot floor joins the bottom of the rear Qtr panels are only tacked in place really & they need to be fully welded up
Also where the inner wheel tub joins the boot floor is a section where 3 layers of metal meet & they need to be straightened & then seam welded
Both rear corner sections where the Qtrs meet the rear beaver panel need to be fully welded up too… unlike the job on the challenger I think that there is actually less reshaping work to be done here
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I thought I had finished the install of the panel that sits under the rear window between the window & the boot but seems I don’t finished the drivers side it seems, so passenger side still to go
Also where the green rear speaker panel (which is sourced from a sedan here) isn’t fully welded in yet
You can see here the holes to the right of the speaker cutouts, these are were the seat belts mounted in a sedan so they are not needed for me in the Coupe at all so these will be welded up
The Coupe seatbelts mount to these holes on the very ends of the speaker panel as the central seat (not that you ever want to be in the middle seat in the rear) is a lap only belt in a Coupe
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I’m waiting for something to be delivered so that I can media blast the underside of the car, so I’ve decided to move on & focus on some other sections… so roof next, first job is to get it back to shiny bare metal
At some point in this cars life someone decided to fit an aerial to the centre of the roof & I’ve always hated it… so time to sort this hole
There is a central rib that runs along the roof, you can see it here & you can see the rust that was formed from the water leaking thru the aerial hole over time
I forced a washer in between the rib & the roof skin so that I’d have something to weld too to close up the hole without putting too much heat into the roof panel
Once that’s been linished back its like it wasn’t ever there… I do love working with metal
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A quick wash down with prep wash & then a coat of primer & I’m done
Next up I’m going to work on the rear parcel shelf, this is a multi-piece panel so it will need to be welded along all the seams, first up clean it all back to bare metal
Then weld in slow small sections so as to not put too much heat into the panels as always
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Next up was to finish where the rear under window panel joins to the rear Qtr panel
Now I’ve said that the rear parcel shelf is a multi-piece panel & the rear most section actually curls up & joins the boot drip rail on the panel that runs under the rear window… ALL XA-XB-XC Coupes rust out here as the factory didn’t seal this section well & water gets in.. so I’m being uber sure that I seal the hell out of it.. now I didn’t want to weld it vertical so I decided to roll the car over to a more horizontal position.. I’ve never done this on my own & will probably never try again… I came very close to being found smushed into the roof of the shed willie coyote style as the kinetic rotational energy was a little greater than I’d expected as the car is unbalanced as it has a door & front guard on the passenger side only… this was as close to horizontal as I could get it
I was then able to stand in the boot opening & start welding the panel joins up
Finished, just need to linish it back & paint it up now
I then asked Mr’s XB out to assist so that I could spin the car level without another near death experience so that I can start finishing off the where the rear Qtr’s join to the tail light panel
Sadly the weekend did end in a somber way.. whilst I had a dodged a wildly spinning XB on a rotisserie style incident… tragically an old friend & trusted car restoration partner passed on Sunday evening… I did my best to get the smoke back into his motors but sadly I failed & as such my grinder passed into that great workshop in the sky….. fare thee well to Valhalla old friend….
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