Last of the V8 Interceptors.. my XB Falcon Coupe

I have the bonnet mostly right, just need a second set of hands to help as it’s a heavy thing to move about on your own & you can only loosen off the mounting bolts a tiny amount when adjusting it… but I know I can get it right, just have two little dents & some pin hole rust to sort on the front corners







Got the front bumper back on… again not really a one man job but it’s on now & all lines up perfectly

Then I wheeled the old girl out into the sun for no reason at all other than I want to sit in the evening sun looking at her…..















Right so what’s left… I have a door hinge pin kit to install as both doors sag when you open them as they weigh a ton & the old pins have worn over the last 45 years



I have a little work to do to finish off the rear valance panel, there are some tiny holes in the roof drip rails that I’ve been putting fixing as that metal will be uber thin & a total pain to weld…the driver’s door gaps are shocking, the door had soooo much bog on it to correct that when I took the car apart, but I’ll look to weld new metal to the leading edge & extend the door correctly, there are also a few dents here & there that I’ll fix with my dent puller & then I think I’ve run out of stuff to do…

I’ll call my painter today (it’s Monday already here in OZ) & get him to come around & give his opinion on what needs doing… I think her days here in my shed are numbered now…

I’m trying to decide if I should fit the reverse hood scoop that the XC Cobra’s & the racing Coupes had back in the late 70’s…..

I’ve pushed her out of the Skunk Works shed & took her on the longest journey she’s had in years… up to the front garage







Now she sits in the front garage… The tow truck is booked for tomorrow morning now to take her to her new home for the next few months as she gets prepped & painted

Is it wrong that I miss her already? She’s only been gone 90 minutes…….











I’ll go & see the painter & her this afternoon after work to see how she settled into her new temp home….. first time she’s been off my property since April 2015….

I’m not sure how much I’ll be posting in this thread now until the car is back… she’s at her new home in the painters place now & whilst I’m happy to share many pics of my shed & it’s contents I’m not keen on sharing someone else’s…. I have permission to share these as there is no one else’s car being work on here this week…





We’re starting at the boot end & we’ll be working our way forward… so the hinge spring bars are back in now & the new rubber will be fit so that we’re setting the gaps & the fitment correctly



As I said the updates will become less frequent now & really only be for the big milestones… sections in finished primer ect & of course the actual bits when we get shiny paint on.. right I’m off to work on my GTO again now

I know I said I wouldn’t really look to flood this thread with lots of pics from the painters place, but I was there this afternoon & he’s been “playing” with the boot fitment… his word not mine. It’s looking a million times better that I had it.. the gaps are still not perfect he says but they are pretty bloody good… we have the rubber on now to make sure the gaps & boot lid heights are what they will be









He’s sliced off a few mm of boot lid metal as it wasn’t lined up perfectly with the Qtr panel



He’s used a Porta-Power ram to push the rear light panel out about 2mm so that it’s perfectly straight now



Same tool has been used to raise up this section of the rear Qtr panel so that it’s perfectly aligned to the boot lid



He’s also been playing with the Qtr to door gap too, I was around to bring him the door rubber to help set this gap too…





Now ignore the front guard sitting too low… the coke bottle body line is looking really good across the door to the Qtr panel now



Now I get that it’s hard from pics on a forum to see the small differences as the work is done, so do people want me to keep updating this thread with this detail or do you just want major updates like “here’s the painted car”?

Been around to see the XB to drop off some chrome trim & the door mirrors tonight, the arse end & the drivers side are pretty much finished metal & filler work now… there is still that big blob of filler on the front of the front guard to be sanded back tomorrow, but my painter tells me that this whole side & the arse end will be in final primer by the end of next week…. The fact that so much of this car is proper metal finished & needs no filler is a testament to his skill, it’s a stark contrast to the US car restoration shows where you see them put a qtr inch of filler across the whole car & then sand it back to a nice even eight inch of final filler across the whole $250k show car finish…

As of now the drivers side is finished in high fill… the plan now is to spin her around & do all the same work on the passenger side & the engine bay… the next big mile stone will be the whole car in this same high fill







Even though this is rough high fill… she looks awesome from this side all being the one colour & with such perfect panel gaps….

Just got some midweek progress pics sent thru by my painter, the car is flipped around & he’s now working on the passenger side panels… I’ll try & swing past after work on Friday & see how it’s going…

quietsailor wrote: »

It's funny - on your friends car the gap doesn't look that bad but on your car it does.

I think that if the arse end of my car was all painted in the same colour then the gap wouldn't look as bad as it does right now... plus my car is elevated up on a scissor lift.. in reality you'll never see the gap head on unless you are laying on the ground behind the car for some odd reason.

Spent a chunk of time helping work on the door & learning some great tips on how to get the original lines back into the metal…



This involved using a proper professional dent puller.. unlike the big yellow stud gun that you’ve seen me use before, this machine is amazing



The design of this handle means that you can simple touch the electrode (the one with the earth wire attached) to the metal & it welds on so you can just pull the whole handle & it pulls the metal, so unlike the stud gun I have you don’t use a slide hammer to pull.



This means it’s so much more versatile & you just twist the handle to break the weld off.. this means you can do hundreds of gentle pulls in the one area without damaging the metal



The other metal knob on the handle is used as a shrinker on metal.. so if you do overwork the metal pulling you can tighten it back up with the shrinker… this machine is super simple to use & gives awesome results..

We’re also up to gap measurements now… so we’ve settled on 5.5mm now as that will come down to 4.5mm after paint… so my painter had me going over the whole car with a set of vernier calipers marking high & low spots… I think this insane but I guess it’ll all be worth it in the end

I popped around the other night for a beer with my painter & I watched him spend more time than a sane man should with a hammer & dolly & a metal file working on getting the fitment of the door handles perfect…





His wife thinks that this must be his favourite car of all time to work on as she sees him put more effort into this than any of Porsches or Ferrari’s he’s had come thru in the last few years.

I’ve been told that my final final colour choice has to be made by Monday now as he needs to order paint & then he wants to start painting the inside & the inner jams etc… sooooo I’ve been thinking long & hard on this for a while now & I think I’ve settled on my final colour choice… I’m going with the same Red that Allan Moffat used on his 1969 Trans Am Mustang that he raced here in Aus… (spoiler alert it’s not a Ford Red) This is also the colour that Eric Bana based his “Love the Beast” XB on.

Big news… well for me anyway, the passenger side is now finished… this technically means the body is finished I guess. The rear Qtr was taken back to bare metal again as he just wasn’t happy with the body line, but now it all done & it looks awesome









There is a tiny bit of block sanding to be done to ensure the gaps & edges all line up then the hanging panels can all come off & won’t go back on until they are painted. The next job is the engine bay & the bonnet & then she’s ready for paint… I’ve picked the actual paint now, meaning I have the actual paint code picked out now.. so we may even start to see colour going on the inside & in the jams etc..

The final final sanding guide coat has gone on & is in fact almost off now…











I know you can’t feel the pics above but this finish is laser straight & smoother than a recently smoothed out smooth thing… it’s actually slippery under the hand



The next step I’m told is that the hanging panels can come off & then the bodyshell will be painted in the final primer layer that will be the last layer of prep before the actual colour goes on, the hanging panels will be painted off the car & will only go back on again now during the final assembly.