Last of the V8 Interceptors.. my XB Falcon Coupe

Moving forward from the boot for now into the passenger compartment, so next up is finishing off the cross bracing on the parcel shelf that the rear set will sit on



There is the central point where the two braces join to the trans tunnel hump that needed to be secured, probably overkill but why stop that process now…





I also needed to sort the front & rear of where the braces join to the parcel shelf itself









These cleaned up & clamped to be sure of a correct fit



Then welded home

On the drivers side there is a also bad patch of rust that needs to come out



It’s against the tub but also along the sill join





I didn’t want to stuff about with little patches so I decided to just cut out a large section







Then a little Cardboard Aided Design work Binky style…

One big bit of the suspension install will be the front brace that locates the from of the huge torque arm that goes from the face of the diff to just before the back of the gearbox. As this brace is the whole width of the space between the front chassis rails & is held in place by 28 bolts I’ve decided not to just place the brace/bracket where they show in the poor quality pics of the instructions, I’ll mount up all the suspension & set the diff at the correct expected hide height & that will allow me to have the exact location of the brace/bracket.

First up the bracket that holds the coilovers & the 4 link rear end go on







Then slid the diff under on some axle stands, I’ll need to set the ride height using the axle stands as obviously the shell won’t be heavy enough for its own weight to compress the coilovers to the right level.







Then I jacked up the front end of the torque arm so that I can get the diff level so I can connect the lower arms & the coilovers

Now I can’t remember if I had covered the story of my passenger side front guard or not?? I sure as **** am not reading back thru the whole thread to find out, so here’s a short recap… I’d been stripping the hanging panels by hand & a mate offered to take them to his work & media blast them… I gave him a front guard as a test panel to see how they would turn up… that panel got “lost” for a LONG time & I actually ended up getting two other panels to replace my original but both of them have rust in the lower halves & will need some work to get them right… well last week my mate calls me as they are doing a massive clean up at his factory & he’s found my panel…. So very happy….



The more observant of you will notice that it’s not actually been blasted at… in fact all that’s happen in the 18 months it’s been “lost” is a lot of scratches… not to worry at least I have it now & I’m that this is a solid rust free panel like the other original guard & bonnet too





Ok…. So when my engine builder was dropping of the engine for the GTO the other weekend, he asked me if I’d ever meet the guy who lives just around the corner (1.2k’s door to door) who’s a painter who specializes in classic cars only (RS Porsche’s mostly)… long story short, I meet with the painter a few days ago at his & got to see his set up & where he does the prep work & the actual painting & he had two cars there in two different stages of work so I could see evidence of his work in the metal as it were. Before getting to go to his location he came around to see my cars & to meet me… from what my engine builder has told me that was for two reasons… 1. To “interview” me, if he doesn’t like the person he won’t work with them & 2. To see/meet the cars, if he has no interest in your car then he won’t paint them, he’s a perfectionist & if he’s not passionate about the project he won’t take it on…

Luckily for me both the cars & me passed the interview process & he’s agreed to paint both the XB & the Challenger… starting with the XB.. now normally he’s booked up about a year in advance but due to Covid he’s almost finished his current workload with no new bookings to follow…. So **** just got real as they say as I have now committed to having the XB painted by him in January… so I now have a deadline for the first time ever!! I must be done with all of my work & ready to go by January… I’m trying not to panic now, but I feel that I have enough time between now & then.

When he was over I was showing him the engine bay which I had started cleaning up & had started taking back to bare metal had started to develop flash rust on the surface & he has asked that I clean that all back to shiny bare metal ASAP & then he’ll come round & use his preferred brand of metal treatment & etch primer on it, that way he won’t need to rework that area when the car goes to him.





So I spent a chunk of time in the shed on the weekend getting the engine bay back to shiny bare metal… I also did the drivers side guard too… there are a lot of screw holes & drilled holes in the engine bay from years of people installing stuff, so I’ll be welding them up to make the bay as neat as possible…

I wanted to get the front end of the car sealed up & in primer this weekend, so I spent a few hours every evening on it.. the last 10% of the job took 90% of the time I swear trying to get into every last tiny tight spot… at one point I pushed her outside





Then I decided to give my sandblaster a go… the jury is out on this for now, it’s a cheap one obviously & it kept clogging so I must have spent more time cleaning & sorting the clogging that I did actually blasting & it was a hot evening & I was dressed up like a spaceman as the dust & grit gets everywhere & the clean up at the end is a massive pain in the hole…. But for the times when it was running & not clogging it worked a treat.. but it’s such a pain to set up/use/clean up after that I’ll only be using it on sections I can’t easily get to with a grinder or wire wheel.



I also took this opportunity to weld up all of the old self tapper screw holes that riddle the front end from decades of people (myself included) installing crap in the engine bay.. it’s a simple process… find holes



Weld holes



Linish back the welds



Finally Sat afternoon I was able to sit back with a cold beer & call the job done…. I’m so glad I never have to do that again..

Now the front section of the passenger side door is a little less than perfect…



Luckily the rust is only in the top skin & the structure behind it is ok… that just got cleaned up & treated



This section has two different direction curves in it so I was struggling to get hat shape in simply using a hammer & sand bag to shape it





So I got to use my new toy that I bought a while back the shrinker/stretcher… that worked a treat for being able to curve the metal in nicely





With the patched shaped nicely it was welded in & the welds cleaned up & then premiered… another job done

I’m thinking that I might hang it on the car & do the panel beating with it bolted on so that it doesn’t move on me…





It’s pretty bad at the front where it doesn’t meet up with the front eye mould at all



Also at the rear were a bad patch was welded in sometime ago



I had a mate over so I took the opportunity of having a helping hand to hang the doors back on so I could get a gauge for how bad the panel gaps might be







To quote Chernobyl… Not Great, Not Terrible…

There are a lot of small holes drilled in the floor from years of people trying to add lightness Lotus style I assume… so I’ve marked all the ones to be welded up



I was back on my own again so I needed to come up with a cleaver way to hold the copper block on the other side of the floor so I could weld up the hole… this seemed to work



All the small holes are gone now… now just the massive ugly one that Ford cut with an axe in the factory in case the car was to have a manual, mine will be auto so I’m going to close this huge ugly hole up



It’s a complex shape in that it curves in 3 directions, so I’ve decided to make two patches that I’ll join together.. the first one is a simple curved band



The next one had a bit more shaping needed & then I overlapped it onto that straight band above



Underneath I just cut & flared it so that it was a smooth join



It’s come up looking pretty good I think & it’ll keep all of the road dirt out of the cabin

I’ve measured up & welded in the boot lock bracket now, so that should be the last of the welding bits back on/in the car other than what’s needed for panel gap setting later





I’ve finally finished stuffing about with the floors & I’m calling them done… in reality I could spend another month on them fixing tiny things but the simple reality is that there will be a thick coating of rubberised ute bed liner sprayed on this & also it’s the underside of the car so it’ll only ever be seen by me when I’m working on the car on the hoist… this will not be a fancy shiny show car that gets parked up with mirrors under it to show off the polished shiny underneath…



With the metal all cleaned & treated I’ve mixed up the specific Etch Primer that comes with the Raptor liner kits..







I’ve also done all of the above to the inside floor as well

The seam sealer I’m using can be sanded & painted over, so I’ve opted to apply it now over the primer but under the final Raptor liner layer… this stuff is super messy to try & work with but I’ve gone for a more is better approach here as I can sand it back once it’s fully cured tomorrow if I need to















All things being equal I should be able to get some time to mask up the car tomorrow evening after work & then hopefully I can tint up the Raptor liner & spray it on the weekend

biketard wrote: »

Just caught up on the new year updates. Amazing work, Daved_XB!

Thanks... I appreciate the support

Next task was to assemble my temp makeshift paint booth… I don’t mind spraying primer on stuff in the shed but I didn’t want this thick liner stuff floating about & dusting everything in the shed.. I bought a cheap $100 tent thing that I figured would work.. it’s just a simple tubular frame that slots together







The roof section goes on next





Then I moved it into the shed



Tested that I could spin the car over inside this new “booth”





Then I Velcroed on the side & end panels

This stuff goes on real nice… I’m really happy with how easy it was to spray on, this is still wet in the pics so I won’t know until tomorrow I guess how I did… but for now I’m really happy with how it looks





This is two full coats now…

I’m very glad that this is the last time I’ll fit this big rear mumford link mount… it’s bloody heavy & a tight press fit, but it’s in & home now



The painted brackets don’t stick out too bad in the boot



The front Torque arm brace is in now too



Again the inside plates look fine… plus these will be covered with the carpet & the seats ultimately… so I’ll also be welding these guys up as a captive bolts now that the bracket is in.. the simple reason being that if I ever need to loosen or tighten one of these in the future I don’t want to have to rip the seats & carpet out to do it… glad I’ve thought of that before it was too late…



So I think that’s pretty much the underside of the floor finished until I have the car back & I have to run fuel & brake lines etc…

Now it’s time to make up the travel dolly that the XB will live on until I get her back from the painters, I bought some lengths of 3mm thick 50mm square tube for the job… it’s probably overkill for what’s needed but I’d rather go thicker than risk it





I spend so much time welding 0.8mm old rusty car panel metal that it was such a joy to be able to turn the welder up & just pull the trigger & not worry about blowing a hole in the metal… some days it’s the simple things



My painter has a portable scissor lift that he uses to lift the cars he’s painting so he can have them at the heights he wants.. so he’s given me the dimensions he would like it made too, he wants the whole thing 250mm off the deck so I’m making raised platforms for the castors to mount to





I was going to be lazy & just weld the castors to the platforms but I decided to do it right & welded some flat plates on that I can bolt the castors to





I then rolled the frame under the car so I can work out the uprights, I’m going to use the front lower control arm bolt holes for the front of the dolly & the rear leaf suspension eye holes for the rear mounts

I keep/kept changing my mind on how much if any of the engine bay I wanted to paint in the Raptor liner stuff… this included the underside of the front chassis rails & engine crossmember etc… now when I was painting the car on the rotisserie (i.e. at the perfect time to do said painting) I’d decided that I wanted all of that metal painted by my painter in high gloss shiny paint to match the car… well I changed my mind the very first day AFTER pulling the car off the rotisserie (yes I’m that much of a ****ing Muppet)

Right so more masking up to be done so… I was again torn between where to paint & where not to paint, so I was thinking that I’d paint 100% of the underside along with the front crossmember & also the two sections that mount the front suspension & act as the radiator supports





I did this masking up Monday evening but then decided not to paint that night but to sleep on it…. So I changed my mind again… Now I would not be painting the tops of the rad support sections after all…



I wanted to paint any forward facing parts of the underside that would get stone strikes etc… so this is what I’ve painted up





I’ve also painted the engine bay side of the front crossmember as this is in the path of stones thrown up too & also you don’t really see it from above once the engine is in but you tend to always scratch the paint in this area when installing & removing the engine & exhaust headers



Next gap is fitting panels & sorting alignments & gaps… I promise… maybe

There is no way to get right into this spot to cut out the frame without cutting a hole in the door skin or cutting out the inners of the door… so I’ve just rust treated this section with a rust converter before covering it in etch primer





Right that’s the doors ready to go back on… Bolted on the upper cowl panel & the original bonnet hinges



Now one of the special shaped captive nuts for the driver’s side hinge fell out years ago, but I had it… & I still have it… it’s in a safe place, it’s in an uber safe place…. It’s in a kind of captive nut protection programme run by the FBI…. I have no ****ing idea where I’ve put the bloody thing now… I’ve been ripping the shed apart, I’ll keep looking for another day or so but if I can’t find it then I’ll just weld in a normal nut to act as a captive nut.. it’s missing from the large hole at the top here



I need to fit the rear lower valance panel…



As I’ve said before it doesn’t line up right now if I use the mounting brackets







I can make it line up nicely if I don’t use the brackets so the back of the car is the right shape at least… this is a NOS panel so I know it’s the right XB shape



When I clamp it in the right spot you can see that the two brackets are off by half a bolt hole

Right now it’s time for the frustrating fettling that is setting panel gaps… this will probably take all weekend, but such is life as they say… so back on with the doors





Now the bonnet is quiet latterly thrown on here, so it’s nowhere near right in any direction that’s adjustable



Then the guards go back on









So here she sits for now…. Looking more like a complete car than she has in years..









I’ll start adjusting the panels as close as I can & then I’ll throw the bumpers on & the front & rear lower valance panels & see how close to good I can get here to look