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Last of the V8 Interceptors.. my XB Falcon Coupe
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Thanks to a mate measuring up the gap between the top of his diff housing & the bottom of chassis rails I was able to get a good idea of what ride heights I might like running in the end, I played around with the diff height for a while & this is what I ended up at, ultimately the final height can of course only be worked out when the full wet weight of the car is acting on the suspension & I’m actually driving it… but for now this is a good starting point
As these are freshly repaired &/or replaced Qtr panels they have not had their lips rolled & to be honest I really want to keep them that way if I can… the 315 section rears fit with plenty of room to spare as you can see both inside & out
I have 30mm from the face of the tyre to the inside edge of the lip… I reckon that I could go 335 or maybe just squeeze 345’s under the rear without having to modify the guards… but we’re getting way ahead of ourselves… for now the skinny 315’s will have to do.
Now the reason for wanting to get the diff height close to right is so that I can be as sure as possible that when mock up the position of this front brace that the torque arm from the diff connects to… I get it right
My plan was to use the jack to hold it tight up against the floor until I got it in the right spot & then I would put some tack welds on the sides to hold it to the floor, that way when I drop the diff back off I can spin the car up 90 degs so that I’m marking & drilling all 28 bolt holes for it vertically & not whilst laying on my back
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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…
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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..
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Sun morning & the metal is all treated & we started to mask off
Then it was time to spray on my painters fave brand of Etch primer… I believe this to be the 4th colour now… but as part of the painting prep process he’ll be taking all the spray can primer I put on back off & treating & prepping the metal himself so in the end it’ll all be this uniform Etch primer colour (not that that matters I know)
It looks sooooooo good, it really shows up how **** spray can primer finishes look really… but at the end of the day the use of spray can primers really is only to stop flash rust on the sections you’ve finished working on..
We Etch primed the front guard I had in bare metal too as we had some left over in the gun (even though I’m not finished smacking that one with a hammer yet)… when I finish metal work on that panel & on all the others he wants me to take the panels to his place & he’ll Etch prime them there too so that they are done & ready to go
As I stood in the shed with a cold beer in hand on Sun night looking at this in front of me I actually got a bit emotional… from the age of 6 or so when I fist saw Mad Max this was the car I’d always dreamed of owning, a dream I made come true about 20 years ago… but the car was always a ****ter as they say & I drove her for 15 years dreaming that one day I’d be able to do a complete restoration of her & make her perfect… 5 years ago (April 3rd 2015) was the last time that she drove under her own power as that when I moved her into this shed & started slowly pulling her apart… I didn’t have a ****ing clue what I was doing (still don’t really) & because of travel for my job having me away for more than half the year normally, & the fact I was dumb enough to have multiple projects on the go at once & the fact I have wife & friends whom I wanted to be around somedays when I was home… I truly felt that this was just some never ending folly most days & that I’d just be working away a day or two a month & it would never actually be done… then 2020 came along & whilst it’s been a new level of ****ery for us all to live with, it’s been good to me in this way… I haven’t been away from the house since the 17th of Feb & I’ve had every weekend since then to focus on the XB & the Challenger & now I can truly see the fruits of this work… I can actually picture this car painted… I can see my dream of a perfect rust & dent free XB finally becoming a reality & it’s a beautiful thing to behold…
Speaking of Covid.. we’ve been in level 5 house arrest mode since the start of June now & we’re about to be unlocked from next weekend the 8th… so now that I have the front end all primered (not sure that’s a word) up I’m going to focus to putting the rest of the GTO back together so that MrsXB & I have a muscle car to drive for the coming hopefully unlocked summer0 -
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Happy New year all….. I hope 2020 ended as well as it could for you & hopefully 2021 will see a better year for us all… anyway, back onto restoring this rusty ****heap…. Time to fix the rust on the bottom of the doors
The drivers side door isn’t too bad at all, the front bottom (quiet in the cheap seats) corner looks like this when brought back to bare metal, there is some rust but it’s not gone thru the metal
I ground out the rust & filled the void with weld & then linished that back before spraying some primer on it
The back bottom corner itself looks good, nothing to see here
But there is a rust hole along the flat section just before the fold
That rust hole was cleaned up & welded
Then painted in primer
The rear section of the passenger side door is perfect
So just needs a coat of primer to protect it
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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
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I’d never finished cleaning up the original bonnet, so that was the next job
Then I coated it in primer
There are two small patches of rust in the outer skin on the corners that will need fixing, but these shouldn’t be a big issue
The passenger side front guard is the last large hanging panel that I hadn’t taken back to bare metal so lets see what horrors may be lurking under what looks like great paint….
Up to 7mm of bog is the answer by the way… the guard has been crash damaged before & very poorly repaired so it’s massively dented
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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…
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Of course I wouldn’t know just how bad until I had the bonnet remounted too so I could work all the front end gaps & that’s were physics ended play for the day… I didn’t realise just how far the end of the bonnet protrudes past the radiator support panel, turns out it’s further that the gap between said panel & the upright of the rotisserie
Bugger so that was a waste of half a day & the panels all have to come off again… looks like I need to focus of finishing off the floor inside & out & get that prepped & painted then I can make a dolly frame & drop this car off the rotisserie for good & then I work on the panel fitment… still it was to see her almost looking like a car again.. painted the front guard in primer to protect it until I’m ready to do the panel work on it
Making the most of having a helping pair of hands we test fit the long range drop tank to see how it fits against the new rear suspension.. it fouls badly… I’m starting to think that I’d need so much modification made to this tank that I should just sell it & have a custom tank made up instead
Next up was to measure & drill all the mounting holes for the front brace for the suspension torque arm, a little bit of the handbrake cable bracket needed to be removed for a flush fit
With that job done now it’s time to focus on the floor & only the floor until it’s painted & the car is off the rotisserie0 -
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
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The next job was one that I’ve been putting off for as long as I could as I really didn’t want to do it as I knew it was going to be a filthy prick of a job… that was grinding off all of the thick tar coating that is applied to the inside of the floor… this took the best part of two days in the end & I hated every minute of it
The good news is that there were no nasty surprises under this coating.. some small pitting makes but nothing else, as much as I hated doing it I’m glad I did it & it looks great
Whilst having a cold drink & admiring my work I noticed that I’ve forgotten to reattach the boot lock bracket… so better add that to the to do list now….
Right… well that was a longish update, thanks for reading this far if you did… you’re up to date now, there is a little more cleaning up of welds to do & some surface rust to be cleaned off the underside of the floor & then I hope to be priming & painting the floor very soon… then I’ll make a dolly & she can come off the rotisserie finally… then I can work the final front end panel gaps… then she leaves my shed & goes for painting… well that’s the simple plan, lets see what the car gods have in mind…0 -
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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
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The Raptor liner that I’ll be using will be a thick textured coating that will be great for stone chip protection.. but as it will be textured there will be some parts of the underside that I won’t want covered in it as I’ll want a smooth surface, so I’m spraying them in a red paint that will be close to the actual final car colour, that way the whole underside of the car will be red & these sections that need to be smooth won’t just be the primer colour…
These parts are front spring mounts where the lower control arms of the 4 link rear end will attach
The section where the front torque tube bracket bolts on
Where the huge mumford link bracket attaches & where the coilover bracket bolts up
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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 weekend0 -
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I hated the process of masking up the car for painting… I just don’t seem to have the patience for this sort of job, but it’s done now… I used tape to cover the suspension bits I don’t want the liner on & I used those soft ear bud things to fill up the threaded bolt holes in the floor
Then it was just a load of taping paper to the car to cover off any bits I was worried I’d get overspray on… this took almost a full day to do… it could have been done quicker I guess if I didn’t spend the whole time telling myself just how much I hated doing it..
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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
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The Ute bed liner paint is a simple system, they give you the bottle of liner & the exact measured bottle of hardener in each box, I bought the tintable version so I also needed some red 2K paint to mix in… I also bought the adjustable spray they sell that screws directly onto the bottle
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Now that I have unwrapped or unmasked the car… I’m soooooooooooooo soooooooooooooooo happy with how this stuff has turned out, it really looks great & I’m 100% sold on it for all of my cars, it’s supper easy to get the black or the white coloured variant here but sadly the tint-able one is a little harder to find, I have some on order so that I can do the whole inside of the car… I’m hoping that turns up by Friday as I’d really like to paint it before taking it off the rotisserie but I won’t delay taking her off said rotisserie waiting on the paint, I know that I can easily paint the interior floor pan with the car sitting level on the travel dolly I make up
& now outside in the sun to see it in natural light…
I’ve done pretty well with colour matching for the sections I’d masked off that I wanted to be smooth for bolting suspension parts to too… so I’m really happy with that as well…
I had half a 1ltr bottle left so I made a start on the inside of the boot with it already
One of the tasks that I definitely wanted to do with the car still on the rotisserie was to attach the suspension bracketry for the last time… so I’ve painted up the metal plates that bolt in on the inside
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