Last of the V8 Interceptors.. my XB Falcon Coupe

Decided to drop the engine in now... this will not be a final install of the engine I don't think, I wanted to have it in as I need to workout a lot of ancillary stuff like the fuel lines, the oil breathers, the brackets for the Alt & power steering etc & rather than try & measure & guess stuff I've opted to put the engine in so I can be more precise with lines & locations of things. Unlike the time I test fitted this years ago before the car even went on the rotisserie we needed to be uber careful with this install so as to not scratch the paint.... huge thanks have to go to Mrs_XB who spent a few hours out in the shed with me helping to make this happen.

Normally I'd always pause & take a pic of the engine dangling up in the air over the empty engine bay, but I decided to not tempt fate this time & just went straight to the she's in pic

I've put the extractors in too so that I can't do anything dumb like run a fuel line too close to the exhaust etc... very happy with the room I have between the extractors & the car, makes a nice change from the nightmare that the GTO had been 

This rad is a lot thicker than the stock unit, so the factory brackets won't fit this one

Step one make up some lower brackets for it to sit on

I still need to put a vertical plate on to stop the rad from moving & then paint them & glue some rubber onto them, now to make some top brackets

I've fitted in the strut bracing too now as the next few jobs will be sorting out where to install the ancillaries like the fuel regulator, oil breather catch can & the ICE ignition box etc...  

The last little bits that my painter had are being sorted.. the wing was stripped back to metal, he was super impressed that I had an original metal one & not one of the later fiberglass or plastic repops 

Now it's painted up & ready to go on.. well after I fit the boot lid on the car it will be

The rear taillight housings are now also ready to go in... that little silver outline took ages to mask off neatly I'm told, but they look awesome. Can't wait to the get the new lenses I have installed & get them in the car 

Looks like I have a few options for where to install the catch can.... there is a lot of space up front forward of the strut tower on either side, but I think I'll look to install the radiator overflow bottle & the ICE ignition box up front but that might make it a little cramped, I'm not just going for function here... I'd also like the engine bay to look nice when I'm finished. Pretty sure my plan is also 100% to put the battery in the boot & not up here in the bay, but I may change my mind on that later

I was thinking that I'd mount it on the side here just behind the strut tower as that would make the -12AN lines & fittings super simple to make up 

but I've just remembered that the 3 threaded bolts you see sticking out of the firewall that used to hold a canister won't be used... so I think that using them as the standoffs to bolt a bracket to makes perfect sense so I think that's where it will live

I'll need to work out the line & fittings as I said but I reckon that's it

Then I decided to put the eyebrow moulds & the inner brackets on the front guards.....

Then I decided sod it, I'll whack them on the car for now so they are not laying about in the house taking up room & risking getting hit by visitors... I haven't full set the gaps yet as the bonnet needs to be on to do that 100% but they are on close enough & the doors can open & close with no interference so that's the most important thing I guess 

Then moved over & fit the other side

Then I fit the front lower valance panel 

Trying to get some more of the little details sorted... I was going to clean & polish the old door handles, but they are actually pitted so they won't really come up as good as I would like them...

So a new set will be used

Trying to get some more of the little details sorted... I was going to clean & polish the old door handles, but they are actually pitted so they won't really come up as good as I would like them... so a new set will be used

This is actually a bit of a blessing as the XB should have 2 keys, one for the boot & then one that will do both doors & the ignition barrel... but either my ignition or the door locks had been swapped out in the past so I had a key for the boot, one for the doors & then a 3rd to actually start the car... so I've ordered a new door lock & ignition barrel set.

I still have the original sealed Hella spot lights, but the silver backing is peeling off the inside so I have gotten a new set to replace them now

I found another casualty of the storing boxes of car parts for years... one of the front indicator lenses is broken

I've ordered both sides as I'm not sure how the colours will look & I didn't want it looking like two very different lenses.. so I will probably end up using both of the new ones

Yep.... sorry, a few things are happening to cause this. Mostly the lack of posts in this threads is due to the progress happening in the Ute restoration thread on here. I've cracked the **** as they say with the fact that my Mate isn't living up to his side of the agreement & he never comes over to work on his Ute, I have now had it in my shed for a full year & I'm now focused 100% on finishing my work on it off & getting it the hell out of my shed to get back the space, it's forever in my way & I have to constantly move it about & now every time I open the shed door & I see it I get annoyed so it has to go.

Also Dilbert is correct here... we endured the longest lockdown of any city in the world & that has meant that I'm taking any opportunity to have fun outside of my shed as I can... I've lost a few good shed working weekends to the following:

Track days in my Bullitt Mustang

We had the return of the F1 here in Melbourne after 2 years away...

Then this 4 day long weekend just gone it was my Mates 50th Birthday, now he lives in Adelaide so that meant it was a wonderful 1500klm roadtrip over & back to have a few beers with him...

There is a huge Falcon Coupe car show later on in the year & as such I have a massive deadline looming so I will be back onto this soon as I can't miss that as they are an event that they only run every 2 years. I still have a bit left on the Ute, but I think I can be finished that by the end of April & then back into this full time again in May.... maybe, no promises but thanks for checking in.

With the GTO running right again, time to get back onto this old girl. I decided against trying to polish up my old key locks for the doors as they had way too many dents, so I've gone with a new set now

I also decided to go with new inner door latch mechanisms rather than pulling old ones apart & rebuilding them as they are very worn & they would have a lot of slop in them even after a rebuild.

The doors have all new hardware now, next job will be to look at the window winding mechanisms to see if they can be cleaned & reused or if they too are a little to worn & should be replaced. 

I need to drag out my large pile of unobtainium chrome trims that I've gathered over the years, work out which bits are best & see about getting them & the bumpers re-chromed. I also need to pull out the wiring loom & stop avoiding that little project just because I don't know what I'm doing.... I mean that's never stopped me in the past has it. 

And... we have a total fail... but not for the reasons that I had thought we'd fail here... it looks like it will fit with little to no mods needed to how the crossmember bolts up... but where we failed was the trans bellhousing to engine block bolts for the C4 that I have are way to short to fit... the webbing on the AOD where the bolts go thru is thicker that the C4 mounting bolts are long

This was Sunday afternoon & I drove around several hardware shops & not one of them had a single 7/16" bolt in stock, so not that they didn't have a length I could use in stock but nothing at all in the 7/16th range... I have ordered some bolts online & hopefully I can finish this test fit properly this weekend, assuming the bolts rock up as they claim they will. 

For now I just have some long thinner bolts going thru the trans bellhousing bolt holes & thru the engine side holes to hold it in place... the rear crossmember is bolted in so that's good, but you can see the trans is not pulled up tight to the block at all

I've held the exhaust hearers up in place & they seem to hit hard on the exhaust cut out part of the crossmember... so that's good, once I have the AOD properly bolted in I'll look a little closer at that issue & see what I can do.

I also need to work out how I can route the trans cooler lines to the dedicated cooler I want to mount up front... the neatest solution would be to drill two holes to allow for AN bulkhead fittings to pass thru but I'm not sure I want to drill two dirty big holes in the radiator support panel... I'll think on that 

The bolts I ordered turned up.... I had ordered a few different lengths to be sure I'd have the right ones

Sadly they sent me the wrong size.... they sent 5/8 instead of 7/16..... FML

I've managed to grab some stainless 7/16 bolts today, I wouldn't use them for the final install but they'll do for now whilst I await for the right grade bolts in 7/16 to turn up

Next step was to see if the extractors will fit as they are huge compared to the stock exhausts & this transmission is a little fatter that the C4's or FMX transmissions these cars had, lets start with the passenger side as that one was the easiest to bolt back on... it just about clears the exhaust cutaway in the crossmember, it's too close to run it like that as it will vibrate into the crossmember for sure, it's also just resting on the folded edge of the trans oil pan... that's not so big of an issue as the engine, trans & exhaust are all bolted together & should move a single unit.. but I'll still look to gain some clearance here. I thought I had a set of exhaust gaskets already, turns out I didn't so that are on order & these will be 1mm-1.5mm thick metal ones, so they may actually space out the exhaust & give me the clearance I need... so I would hack into anything until I've installed them as every mm here could make the difference.

The drivers side was a bit more of a ballache to fit... the exhaust tubing is way too bit to fit in between the trans & the underfloor of the car because of the round bulge to accommodate the starter motor, I had visions of having to remove the trans again & lay this exhaust up in the cavity & reinstall the trans.. then I gambled that if I removed the steering rack that I might have enough space to slide the exhaust up from a lower angle.. so out comes the steering, well unbolted & moved aside whilst still attached to the steering arms is all that was needed

With the steering rack swung out of the way I was able to install it & the clearance issues are pretty much identical to the passenger side

I installed the gaskets on the weekend & they did really move the exhaust, so I'm glad I waited to do that before doing any clearance work. On the drivers side it's only the raised weld now that it touches the transmission oil pan, I think I'll just gently bend the pan in that spot & that should sort that.

The end of the exhaust is no longer touching the crossmember on the drivers side either, it's still too close & the cross member will have to be modified but not by much so I'm happy about that.

I'll need to find an O2 to test the install fit here, I suspect that it wouldn't fit right now, so again some extra clearance needed here

The passenger side is even better, it doesn't touch the trans pan at all... but I'll still probably gently bend the edge of the pan to put another mm or 2 gap in there.

The crossmember end is just clear but again some modification will be made here to give better clearance... but nothing major is needed so happy days.