Last of the V8 Interceptors.. my XB Falcon Coupe

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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….

Cleaned the panel & primed…



Please excuse the piss poor lighting in a lot of these pics now as it was late on the weekend & we where having thunderstorms so the shed doors where shut…. Linished back the whole rear panel



Again some old badge mounting holes needed to be filled in



They will be hidden behind the honeycomb trim piece anyway but still no reason to have holes there anymore



I’ve gotten most of the rear end of the car including the boot channels & the rear window channels & frames all sorted now & ready for panel prep & some primer







I ran out of the normal grey primer I’d been using & we’re in full lockdown for a few weeks yet here in Melbourne so I ended up getting some ordered online & I now choice on the colour… so now I’m annoyed that it’s such a radical change of primer colour… but we all must make sacrifices during these covid times I guess…

I grabbed the “spare” boot lid that I have in the shed, that I’d kinda forgotten about & decided to clean it back to bare metal too & then compare the two I have to see which one goes on the car & which one get stored away as a spare



The weather is getting better here now as we start our slow climb out of winter & it’s daylight till just on 6pm now.. so where possible I’m move parts to be sanded outside the shed to minimize the mess made inside the shed



The boot lid is totally rust free on the surface





But it looks like a golf ball… I have no idea what’s happened to it but its rippled to hell



I started heat shrinking it by using the stud welder to put heat into the panel & then water to rapidly cool & pull the metal





It’s working but it’s going to be a slow process for sure… also there is some rust in the frame on the underside that needs repairing

First time the old girl has seen sunlight in a while





When my panel beater mate had been helping me he had finished off the driver’s side rear Qtr & had started to lay some filler onto it to be sanded back smooth…







I decided that I wasn’t happy not seeing the actual bare metal under there myself so it’s all coming off





I’m really glad that I did this as there are some pin holes where the parch repair panels where welded in that where just covered over so I’ll need to sort them, also there are some dents that where filled with 3-4mm of filler & that’s just not good enough so I’ll be using the puller & the hammer & dolly & getting them to at least my halfarsed level before I prep & prime the panel





Once I’ve that sorted them I’ll move onto the end sections & getting them right… can’t test fit the bumper till she’s off the rotisserie but I can patch up all the speed holes

I cleaned up the area so that I could finish seam welding the whole lot, the top of the filler panel needed to be pulled in & welded from inside the boot







Used the dent puller to remove the dents (clue was in the name there I guess) from the Qtr that had been bogged



Took a bit of work to line up where the bottom edge of the Qtr meets the bottom edge of the inner boot panel, but got it sorted & welded up





Cleaned prepped & primed… she’s looking good

Took my time to slowly move along with the clamps putting a tack weld every inch of so



Then again moving about from section to sections slowly seam welded the whole sill, being very careful to not put too much heat into any one area





Then I ground off the paint from the brace





Prepped the brace & the section of floor & coated them in weld through primer…. or ultra splatter primer as I think they should call it, I hate how badly it causes splatter but it’s a necessary evil for parts I can’t get to with paint later







Then spent some time forming & bending the edges of the brace so that they meet the floor nicely

There are a few big holes still to be filled in, well I say big… you can’t get a badger thru them but in car panel terms they are big, so 7mm across or so in most cases. These holes are in such awkward spots that there is no way I can get in behind them to place in a patch, I’m going to try & bridge weld across most of them but the old metal is very thin & it’s not the easiest to work with.. any I can’t fill this way I will have to look at putting a patch on the outside I guess.. The good thing is that the holes are really in spots you’ll probably never see once the car is finished & on it’s wheels

My mate who is/was a panel beater his whole life is responsible for these joins & I really wish that back when these bits where being done that I was more hands on with these sections, not saying I could have done any better but I’d be much happier if I was redoing my own crappy work now that someone else’s

This is tight inside corner of the rear most join of the inner wheel tub to the lowest section of the rear Qtr panel



These are the rear most corners where the boot floor & the rear Qtrs meet





This is where the Qtr panel & the rear light panel meet.. the bumper will sit up in here & hide this I guess, but still needs fixing first



Started by seam welding up this whole section



The big hole is now bridge welded… I need to grind it back & clean it up obviously & there will be a lot of time to be spent shaping this section yet to get it right



Welded up the join for the Qtr & the boot floor too

Next up these crash structure brackets that tie the chassis rails, boot floor & rear tail panel together





The last section to be done is where the boot floor wraps around the diff hump



Right… well that’s the inside of the boot finished then





It’s all be linished back & cleaned & now primed