Liam-B

try mark or danny at early bird falcon spares 03 98579073, they should ship to you in NZ

Cheers! Yeah, its coming along now

Nah, no spare visor sorry but they appear on ebay all the time, or you could try early bird falcon spares in Melbourne, he has heaps of them

Ah thanks mate! Your wagon looks mean as well, coming along nicely

It drives! Thought I would get some decent pictures now its mobile.

Need to get the seats reupholstered next and while thats being done, I will tackle a little bit of rust that needs to be sorted.

Update time

Been busy sorting out a way to connect my stock driveshaft to my new diff. Problem was the U joint on my original driveshaft was too small to suit the pinion yoke on the 8 inch Maverick diff. I found a suitable U joint but was too wide to fit my driveshaft. My original one on the left, Correct maverick one on the right :

So got busy with the new lathe at work!

Turned a 8mm spacer up from an old Porsche Cayenne rear driveshaft (Just so happened to have one lying around lol) I also drilled a hole in the middle to weld the centre to the U joint cup as well. unmodified U joint cup on the right :

Time to get out the mig and join them together

Back into the lathe and machine both U joint cups with welded spacers down to size

Weighed both U joint cups to make sure both were exactly the same weight, don't want any vibrations!

Finished and installed into car.

All this is just to keep the car mobile for now, I plan on fitting a V8 driveshaft when I put the 302 and C4 some time in the near future, when funds allow! I probably should have got the driveshaft cut and re-welded but hey, this cost me nothing and was easy enough to make ha ha

Not much else been going on, I have got to get onto the interior next and then tackle some small rust holes

Thanks! I went 2.75 inches (70mm) front and rear. Any more than that and the drive shaft could hit the tunnel, plus I need some ground clearance for speed bumps lol

Its rolling on 195/75/14 tyres and 6 inch wide Falcon rims. I can get the rear wheels on and off quite easily as well. Bonus!

Back down on the ground, finally!

Before fitting the lowered front springs on the front end :

After fitting new springs :

Stoked! The back will come down a bit more and will be level with the front, when I fit the spare wheel back in and fill the petrol tank

Cheers guys! I got the axle seals and brakes fitted, handbrake cables connected straight up, no probs. sweet! Going to do a before and after pic of the ride height soon

Update time, because I all know you have been hanging out like me to see some more progress!

I removed the diff and rear springs not long ago and sent the springs off to be rebuilt and reset properly. An extra leaf was added (so now a 6 leaf) plus its 2.75 inches lower now. Sweet, should line up with the lowered front height perfectly. Time will tell as not quite on the ground yet! Also replaced all the bush's as they were pretty tired and worn out.

I also had to modify the diff to spring mounting brackets, I used XF ute U bolts and brackets. You can see how small the XP ones are in the top there, tiny as! Anyway, seeing as the rear springs on a XF are 2.5 inch, they are too wide, so I welded up the holes and re-drilled them closer to the stock XP leaf spring 2 inch width and also welded a washer so it can centre on the spigot properly.

All painted and shiny, mounted up you would never know my custom mods

I decided to rebuild the diff properly while I was there, so completely disassembled the whole thing, replaced all the bearings and seals etc. I set up the back lash and pinion to crown wheel pinion mesh to factory specs. I have lost the photos of this so no pics of the dial gauge etc sorry! Just as well I decided to have a look as the bearings were on there way out with wear and the pinion seal was pretty used up. Like brand new now

I also decided to clean the housing up and give it a quick coat of paint,

All bolted in now, pretty happy its nearly there! I got supplied the wrong axle seals for the half shafts, so could not fit the axles or brakes today, so will have to get the right ones tomorrow for my housing and them I can get it all back together, brakes done, wheels on

I am yet to measure and set the pinion angle now the car has been lowered. I dont want any drive line vibrations, so I will borrow a dial gauge and suss out the difference, then go to a 4WD place and grab some shims to set the angle correctly. Apparently they have all sorts of angles shims available to suit. One thing that has thrown a spanner in the works is that the universal joint is giving me hassle. I thought I had sorted the correct one to do the conversion and be able to bolt up my XP driveshaft but alas, its correct in every manner except its too wide to fit into the yoke on the driveshaft. I tried swapping the larger cups on to the Xp U joint but its not wide enough to sit on the differential yoke, so will have to do some more homework here. Might even have to get another driveshaft if I cannot sort this out. Don't really want to though, so I will ask at the Hardy spicer factory outlet up the road if there is an off the shelf solution to marry the two together!

Should have some more updates this week when I get some more parts! Hanging out now to get it back down on the ground and move onto the next part which is doing the interior up

Looking like you got your hands full there but all easily repairable with a bit of patience. What are the rear quarters like?

Ah cool, sounds like your onto it then! Previa brake set up sounds interesting, will be keen to see how you get on with that. I've seen people use Suzuki swift master/boosters but bore is too small for falcon brakes. I did not want to cut my strut but meh, it's only a minimal amount and I might make a small piece that bolts on or something. Anyway, Shelby drop templates are easy, I just used thick cardboard for mine. You will have to tap the inner panel where it curves on the rear, so the upper control arm has some clearance after its relocated, pretty straight forward though if you know what I mean.

Nice wagon bro, glad you decided to keep it. I'm building a xp and doing a few things if you wanted some ideas for brake and suspension upgrades, check out my build thread, I put xf hubs, discs and calipers on mine, also did the Shelby drop to the front end for better handling. Just about to put the reset lowered rear leaves back in for some all round slamage. Nice.

Chur, I am pretty stoked I got the wheel though it was bit of an impulse buy but anyway, it looks pretty sweet with the genuine falcon centre cap and I could not resist!

Yeah bro, do the shelby drop, it will make the car drive heaps better, everyone that has done so say's it makes a huge difference in handling.

Hanging out to get the rear leaves reset lower and see how low this thing sits compared to when I first bought it. Not going to be as low as your wagon though!

OK, so been busy with the front end still, actually been waiting on ultra low front springs to arrive but anyway, I carried out the Shelby drop on the front strut towers. It allows for a better Camber arc under compression and more caster plus also gives a slight drop to the front height. This was a bonus, just required a redrill and slight tap to clear the upper arm. where it meets the strut tower. Heres more info for those that are interested http://dazed.home.bresnan.net/drop it can be done to all Falcons up to XF (but was originally done to Shelby mustangs hence the name Shelby drop)

I was trying to figure out the front springs and why they did not look right after comparing them with other peoples spring photos, so I put them against a set of standard height stock springs at the wreckers and found my supposed 2 inch lower pedders springs were in fact the same height as stock height springs... That and they had a bigger coil diameter! Obviously the completely wrong springs were fitted when the front suspension was rebuilt by the previous owner (or pedders) No wonder this thing felt too stiff in the front end! I am guessing they are V8 stock height springs or something for a later model car. Anyway,

So, I had a look around and found some Ultra low King springs, 70mm drop front stock height but had to wait for them to be made to order. Heres the difference :

Here they are fitted, they don't look so coil bound as the other ones that were in there and I did not need the spring compressor to fit these in, they are only just captive (so, only just legal then!) At least they will not fall out when I jack the car up and I did not have to resort to cutting springs to get the desired result. I also gave the bump stop bit of a trim to suit and checked the shock absorber has enough travel under full compression with the spring removed, so thats all good it already has shortened shocks fitted. Also check the ball joint was not binding under full compression and it seems to be fine with a little movement to spare, so no worries about breaking anything I suppose. I might look into getting some proper bump stops that have not been cut but have the same length as my cut down ones.

Also spent the whole day making brake lines through out the whole car, took me awhile to get them in nice and neat, its been years since I made brake lines, mind you I spent my apprenticeship making heaps for old cars back in the day, so it slowly came back! I had a proper kit to make them with a pipe bender tool etc, made life easier but still made a few mistakes and had to redo a couple but got there in the end!

Also scored a steering wheel, my original white one was cool and everything, (apart front a few cracks and a tired horn ring) but I like the look of this repo one and I think it is one of the best looking factory wheels ford ever made! It has a genuine falcon crest center cap which is pretty cool. Its also a smaller diameter than the stock wheel and sits a bit further back, so much better suited to my driving position.

Anyway, that is all for now, getting the rear springs out tomorrow and getting them reset to suit the front. Will get a pic up to show slamage then!

Looking good mate, I used to have one of these years ago that I bought for a hack around. You should put a ke70 crossmember in and convert to a steering rack set up

Hey, be sure to check the fuel tank straps for rust where they mount to the body at the back, I had the fuel tank fall out of mine going through the terrace tunnel in wellington @100 kph, was full on as I first thought the muffler had fallen off but when I looked in the rear view mirror I saw the tank getting dragged behind the car, lol sparks flying out everywhere, was dodgy as!

So, been busy making some progress since my last update. Its funny how long the supposed easy things can take time...

Got my XF disc brake conversion on. Also put some new ball joints in while I was there, seeing as the old ones had split boots. There was no play in the old ones but anyway, all sorted now.

Rest of the front end is pretty sweet actually. Previous owner fitted Pedders front suspension, bush's etc. I must admit it seemed to handle pretty nice when I first drove it home. I am actually going to lower it some more next and also do the upper control arm Shelby drop to improve the handling a bit.

Managed to get the hoppers stoppers brake master vac installed. It was not as straight forward as I would have liked but got there in the end. I tried my very best to mount it in there with the least amount of cutting or panel beating but you definetaly have to cut the strut brace to fit it, there is no other way to clear the master cylinder cap. Bummer as I did not really want to cut it but anyway, its in at least after a whole day of mucking around!

Old single circuit master cylinder gone

Have to enlarge the pedal box hole, remove the old mounting nuts for the master and grind the inside edge so the new booster has enough room

I had to hit the inner guard a bit, some people don't apparently but My car need bit of a tap. You can see where I drilled the holes on the firewall, as you can see, I drilled them a bit too big, but I needed to try find the centre as well as panel beat the inner guard at the same time to get it in there. I did this first and then moved the booster as far down as possible. Once this was in position I reinstalled the pedal box and marked where I needed to drill the 4 holes and match the hole to the pedal box.

I also had to cut the booster pushrod to the same size as the original master as the push rod was way too long

Then I could bolt it all up from the inside nicely. Have not clipped the push rod on yet fully as I need a new nylon bush for the pivot.

Mounted the master in, would not fit originally, so I hit the strut brace up a few times where it was making contact with the end of the brake master. Managed to get it in but there was no way I could fit the lid, so out with the die grinder. I was really hoping not to have to do this but it was worth it in the end.

Scored a rev counter, looks the part I think. Could not complain with the price as well. Anyway, I like to keep an eye on engine rpm Its just held to the column with a hose clip and is fairly discreet.

Also got my wheels back from the powder coaters and new Master craft 195/75/14 white wall tyres fitted up. Have not cleaned the protective paint off, so I guess they are blue walls for now

You can see the car is sitting a bit too high. I have not driven it to let it settle but anyway, its still way too high, even though its got lowered springs. Shelby drop should get another half an inch. Might have to lose 1 coil and see how it looks after that

Thats all for now, got to make the brake lines up next and then fit my 8 inch Maverick diff. I have all the parts from summit to rebuild it now, so thats on my list for next week, plus I will get the leaves reset lower to match the front as well

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Discuss //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/33256-liams-early-bird-project-1965-xp-falcon-sedan-discuss/page__hl__falcon

swoon!

cheers for the seat info, stoked!!

No worries!

On a different note, I saw your name appear on Mike Bakers facebook page for that video at the dome, I grew up with Mike, small world!

Cool as chips, I assume you have been to the Ford Museum in Geelong? If not its closing for good in a week! I was over a week ago and went to have a squiz.

PS put a flathead in it

Yeah, I heard it was closing down, I should really go have a look!

Yeah, I would love to build a flat head up one day, probably put it into more of an old school rod though

Well, making a bit of progress, feels like christmas in july at my place with all the sweet parts that have been turning up

Yo all, A few things to report this weekend, been sanding my wheels for painting, tidying up a few loose ends in the engine bay and got the drivers quarter glass window to close fully as I could not lock it.

Excited as I made a few purchases, I ended up going with the Hoppers Stoppers brake booster set up, turned up on Friday :

Scored some new peep mirrors :

And best news of the day, I just scored a 5 stud 8 inch Ford Maverick diff, pretty happy about this as I was reluctant to use anything else. These are a direct bolt in swap for those that do not know, same width & mounting points and the 3.00 ratio should suit the 250 engine nicely. (and the Windsor conversion eventually when I get all the parts together one day lol)

So, next weekend I hope to get the brake booster in and the front brakes. I want to get the rear springs reset 2 inch's lower, they need doing anyway as the rubbers are split on the leaves, so once that is done I can think about bolting the 8 inch Ford Maverick diff in

ok, not much been happening. Well, I have been busy gathering parts and doing what I can, got small little jobs sorted that always seem to take a lot of time but dont really show much progress!

Anyway, got the new indicators in, the old ones were pretty much roached and ready to fall out, the LH one actually was half out and boths lens were cracked as well.

Had to cut the rubber apart, it was toasted!

Shiny shiny

I did something about the gearshift selector pointer, someone had put an old light bulb holder in there, pretty dodgy but it worked I guess!

New pointer fitted. Probably should have painted the honey pot but Meh. Its getting a different column in it when I eventually get all the bits for a Windsor conversion next year.

P for Primo

I adjusted the linkages at the shifter pinch nut as the pointer was miles out of alignment and would not select gears properly in the gate. I shifted the column around until it all aligned up again and worked as it should, it kind of wants to pull out of park to easily, does not lock fully in as it should but its pretty good for the age of the car I reckon.

I fitted up the new overflow and washer bottle & pump I scored, The old ones were had it.

My wiper switch in the XP is really hard to turn, it feels like its seized up, so also been thinking about the washer pump button, I got one with the kit but its kinda lame and there was originally a dodgy switch under the dash. However I have a couple of XC windscreen washer/wiper motor switches handy. Best thing is they have 2 speeds and 3 intermittent wiper delay settings plus push for washer built into them. Will wire it up and install in the original spot on the dash. I need to get a XC wiper wiring diagram but its fairly basic stuff to install, as my old XB fairmont had one as well. Of course when I went to remove the wiper motor switch knob in the XP it was rounded out, so will have to get a tight fitting torx or something in there as the allen key no turn the grub screw anymore!

Anyway, I went through the whole car and replaced all the light globes, even the ones in the dash. Got the dash lights working again and also the RH indicator light on the dash, that wasn't going as well. Should be set for another 45 years now, they all looked to be mostly original inside the car! Funny story, I was tidying up wiring under the dash and securing everything nicely etc when I noticed the interior light was always staying on. I thought I must have done something weird to one of the wires, so I went back and rechecked the diagram and kept thinking about the headlight switch. Only to realize I had turned the headlight switch on fully to the left that being the cause of the interior light staying on... I forgot XP's had a switch on the light switch for the interior light, its been years since I owned a car that did that lol.

I am still trying to make my mind up about the brake master and diff, having a think on it this week before I commit as I have a couple of different options to consider. I scored some 14 x 6 steelie rims this week, slowly getting the bits all together now

Chur

aaaahh i see. phew!

quite a few little differences now that i look.. dont worry, the condition of the seats is a constant haha. please let me know if you ever find any seat insert fabric the same type and colour you have there, would love to get mine redone but havent seen an acceptable alternative yet.

You are in luck if you have XM seats fitted, same width and frame as USA cars you see That means you can order pre-made high quality interior trim for your car in the right colour combo to suit, see example link :

http://www.dearbornclassics.com/front-b ... -1963.html

Get yourself a free catalogue if you have not already from them, it shows pictures and colours much better. All the 60-63 usa models are basically the same as XK,XL,XM aussie/kiwi cars

As XP models had slightly wider seats I dont have that option but luckily I have been quoted $1100 aus for both front and rear seats to be redone at a local trimmer. I will get them down there soon as they have done a lot of early falcons and the quality of there work is awesome.

it's got 175/70/14s on mustang steels, theyre sweet. miles from touching anything until frame notch and drop spindles come to the party.(i wish)

have run it quite low on 5-spoke charger steels and 185/55/14, mild sidewall rub in the rear on driveways hairpins etc

may just be able to see in this pic

Cheers for that. I think I am going to use XC-XF falcon steel rims, 14x6 is the norm as offset is correct using these at least to avoid rubbing.

Dropped spindles would be nice, I think after market early mustang ones (is that a dirty word around here? lol)would be best bet

Hey bro, hows the wagon going? can you tell me what size rims and tyres are you running? I think most guys run 195/75/14 for sweet clearance yeah?

Chur

yeah, the instrument cluster has been painted black and white, probably a long time ago cos its faded again haha. its supposed to be chrome but they always faded. but if you mean the dash itself, its stock, never been touched. XP's had a different dash than XM's