Last of the V8 Interceptors.. my XB Falcon Coupe

Hi All, ok so I’ve been in a world of travel & other crap again, so whilst there has been some progress on this it is as usual not nearly as much as I would have liked….

I’ve been finishing up the bottom of the passenger side inner wheel tub, I went for the easy option of making two separate patches & welding them in that the more complex option of making one multi-folded patch



Then it was time to flip the old girl over on her back again & finish off the driver’s side rear Qtr & inner wheel tub… I’m very happy with how this side has come up & even more so with the fact that I did it right & it’s metal, there is no bog of filler or chicken wire or fiberglass in this thing… it will a slight skim to get the finish perfect for paint but it’s one Qtr finished…







With the car upside down I also got to work on the upper sections where the door seals, there was some small rust in this area so lots of time send grinding that off or cutting it out & replacing where needed… another area done









I’ve also started work on the front drivers side torque box by cutting the old damaged & rusted one off.. I’ve been given the name of a company that make this as a repair section so I’m very happy to hear that I won’t have to cobble something together for this & I simply buy a professional repair section

Next up was the roof… I have heard horror stories of people warping the roof when stripping the paint off depending on the method they used, it’s such a large panel with little to no rigidity that it’s very easy to overheat the panel in the process & cause it to warp.. so blasting was out, I also didn’t want to attack it with the grinder like I had the bonnet… so it was going to be the hard way, lots of elbow grease & chemical paint stripper.. but again working in very small areas & allowing breaks in between to prevent any heat buildup… it took multiple passes to get it done… apply & let it blister up





Then use a scraper to remove the paint



The hi-fill & primer wasn’t coming off after the first application so that often needed a second & in some cases third go



It took a while but the panel underneath is looking beautiful





I ran out of the original tin of stripper I had & I ended up having to change brands… the new one was evil… it actually made the paint run off the panel like blood after 5 mins… no wonder the bonnet above looked so shocked..



This new stuff that I have renamed Agent Orange is definitely the way to go, in the same time it took to get the progress show in the first 4 pics here I did this



There is still a tiny bit of hi-fill left on the lower section but that’s because it was getting late & I need to call it quits, it’ll only take 5 mins to finish this when I get out to the shed next

However the middle set of bolt holes don’t line up with the factory holes in the floor pan, you can see they are behind the edge of the bracket here… due to the crap build quality of these old cars I fully expect that the bracket was perfect on the test car they used in product development…  so I either need to massage the floor to get the bracket lined up or I might just weld the bracket in fully for additional strength

 



 

The Mumford link bracket (it’s similar to a Watt’s link) seems to fit up fine, I’m now in two minds on how to install this stuff, it’s all setup for bolt in & out so you can return a car to stock…. But with 700HP (or more importantly the huge torque figure) at the pointy end I’m starting to think that I might weld all this kit in to be sure nothing moves or breaks loose   

 



 



 

Excuse the poor quality pics, it was late & the lights on that side of the shed are less than ideal.. I’ll get some better shots in the daylight when I continue the test fit install this week.

 

Tonight’s task was to fit all the parts of the multi link rear end that needed to go on the diff… so step one was to scrub years of dirt & grease off it so I wouldn’t get filthy playing with it





As I’d said above the instructions where pretty useless, so I wasn’t sure if I needed to remove the tramp rob brackets off my diff… the tramp rods won’t be needed with the Mumford Link rear end anyway… turns out yes was the answer, with that bracket still on the diff the U-Bolts are kicked way off to the side





Now, I’d always figured that these brackets are welded to the diff tubes.. turns out it was only years of dirt & crap holding them on once the U-Bolts that hold the leaf springs are removed





The old U-Bolts where way too long as they had to clamp the springs too, so I had to go shopping for some new shorter ones, with them in hand I installed the brackets that would take the Mumford Link arm & the bottom of the coil over

Next up it was time to drill holes in the boot section that I’ve spent months getting right… so the section of the Mumford Link that mounts to the rear was first up… now the section that runs front to rear with the body work is nice & simple to bolt up, drill the 3 holes & bolt up the bracket







But the section that runs left right at the back with 4 holes was a slightly different story



The final hole in tight in the corner is going to be fun to get a bolt into…





Yep as I feared.. no way that bracket will fit… guess I’ll have to modify that to make it fit



I wasn’t bothered doing that tonight as it had gotten late, so I took an angle grinder my bonnets rusted section instead





I have another bonnet at a mate house, so I guess I’ll go grab that this weekend & workout if I can use sections of it to patch this one… stay tuned

I still haven’t decided exactly how I’m going to solve the bracket issue, but for now I just used some shorter ones that I had in the shed that I could drill to take 3 of the bolts so that I can test fit this RRS multi-link rear end (called a Mumford Link if you want to google that)

 



 

Next was to install the new lower control arms

 



 

Then it was the bracket that will hold the Coil-overs, it bolts into the mounting holes for the original diff bump stop & where the original shocks mounted into the body

 



 



 



 

Then I fitted the crazy looking link arms into the big Mumford bracket

 



 

You can see now that the brackets on the diff will be located by the lower control arm for up/down movement & by the arm of the Mumford link for left/right movement

 



 

Now the more observant of you will have noticed that the car is currently sitting side ways… now I’m not sure if you have ever felt the weight of a Ford 9” Diff with a 5 foot torque tube attached… but they are heavy… so I had to think outside of the box on how to install this, I opted for my engine hoist

 



 

That allowed me to swing the diff in & connect it to the two lower control arms

 



 



 

More hanging panel prep work needs to be done, I plan on having two bonnets for this car, one fully stock & one with the reverse racing hood scoop… so you’ve seen the work started on the bonnet for the scoop that already has the hole cut in it, next task for Mr’s XB was to strip back the original non molested bonnet that was on the car to start with

 



 



 



 

Was very happy to see that this bonnet looks as good without the paint as it did with the paint.. Now I can’t remember if I told you, but a friend took my passenger side guard to his work place to have it blasted for me, sadly it seems to have gone missing… to say that I’m unhappy is of course a massive understatement.. luckily I was able to find one no more than 10 minutes away to use.. it’s pretty good, a few small bits that need work

 



 



 

 

The task over the next couple of days is to do the last of the structural work on the XB… I need to rebuild the parcel shelf section, including the bracing that joins the shelf to the boot floor (this is the bit the rear seat rests against) & of course the panel that suits under the rear window between the boot lid & the rear glass… This is very much a Mad Max movie moment as this is being built with a piece from here & a piece from there…. I’ll be using parts from 2 XB Coupes, An XB Sedan & some new rust repair panels… to make the whole section

I bought a good rust free & unmolested rear parcel shelf out of a 4 door XB Sedan, now this won’t fit a Coupe at all…. But the middle section with the speakers holes is the same & with this one the speaker holes have not been butchered to take larger speakers over the years



The first step was to cut off all of that Sedan donor shelf that I don’t need & can’t use…. This bit goes in the bin



This bit I keep



Hmmmm….. looks like that new rust repair section I bought had no protection on it at all… guess I’m cleaning this back to bare metal & coating in rust treatment & primer tonight



Now the sides of the parcel shelf that join the speaker section above to the fat wide rear Qtrs of a Coupe are very different to the Sedans & no one makes a rust repair section yet… so I have to unpick them out of the spare XB rear end I currently have (you can see the piss poor repair done to this parcel shelf on the donor section)









It might be a bit easier to see how this panel with its integrated drain channel fits in if I put it in the back of my XB with no other panels in place

Now to start assembling this jigsaw into the XB as a complete rear parcel shelf… this is a very happy day in the Skunk Works as this is the last of the structural welding & fabrication that needs to be done. Once this piece is in it’s officially a complete XB shell again, there is still some stitch welding of certain spots to add more strength etc… but as far as missing bits of car go this is it.

 

Started by clamping in the edge drain sections & the main shelf that houses the speakers inside the car

 



 



 



 



 

Then the new rust repair rear section that goes under the rear window & into the boot area

 



 



 

Then the rear window panel itself & the vertical section that joins the lower rear section to this rear window panel

 



 



 

Then the boot hinge/support sections go in

 



 

 

Ok… uber quick update, so my madness has been rewarded…. Please behold my complete 1975 Ford Falcon GS Coupe body shell!! The NOS panel looks a million dollars (as you would expect). The pics don’t show it as well as it looks in the metal but the Coke bottle wave curve in the Qtr Panel & the door are lining up so well & they just look so so sexy…. Or at least to me the fat arse lines of the XB Coupe look sexy…

Lead wiping of the panel joins has begun on the XB now… the Qtr to Roof join

 



 

Also the inner door jam join

 



 

Now I don’t expect any of you to have noticed but the Sill panel is for a Sedan & so there was a recess here for the B pillar base to join the Sill, I’ve lead loaded this with lead too

 



 



 

Work has also started on stripping the engine bay clean so I can weld up any non-factory holes that have been added over the years & get it ready for paint.

 



 



 



 

 

This is one of those updates where it probably looks like nothing has been done, but in fact several long hours have been spent…. Cleaning of the front end continues unabated & I’m happy to report that there is no evil rust being found anyway as we clean this up… there are a few (read a lot) of little holes in the engine bay where people have attached things with self-tapper screws over the years & I reckon I’ll weld them up so that there isn’t a Swiss cheese effect once its painted







If you cast your minds back to what seems like a long time ago now, you may remember that the bottom of the front cross member was badly damaged… well I’ve reconstructed that section & it’s back on now looking very square again



The last section of boot channel that needed be fabricated & fitted has gone on



Now this little bit of metal in the far right bottom corner of the rear window opening may not look like much & in fact on its own it isn’t… it’s 3 inch long slightly curved piece of metal that has been welded in to finish off that window lip… BUT in the bigger scheme of things this may well prove to be the final piece of new metal that ever needs welding into this car… unless I find something I’m not expecting whilst finishing up the cleaning of the front I think that we are done with the welding bits of metal on this car… I will probably add some extra spots or stitch welds to the torque effected areas for additional strength but this is the end of making repair sections to be welded in/on… another big milestone reached



I’ve removed the battery tray from the engine bay, there will be a lot of catch cans & other such stuff needing to live up here so I’m relocating the battery to the boot to make some more space & to tidy up the engine bay a bit. Plus over the year leaking battery juice has damaged this section, so off it came



No real damage behind it, it’ll clean up nicely

Haven’t updated this in a while… but I did finish off the passenger side door & Qtr panel of the XB to a high fill level to be sure that lines are right… I think it came out well

The process involves a lot of spraying light black paint over the primer so that when you are block sanding off you can see the high spots & the lows









By now the shed has been getting way to dirty for my liking with grinding dust & sanding dust covering everything…. So I decided that enough was enough & emptied the whole thing out for a clean… so the XB had a quick spin into the open to be cleaned off using the air compressor





Then I started (with the help of Mrs XB of course) to pull everything & I mean every single thing out of the shed….