Liam-B

Wow! An early Falcon Ute in New Zealand, XM like mine as well, pretty rare these days. I only remember seeing wagons and sedans around. Looks to have some nice mods, I'm thinking about going to power steering my ute one day but the manual steer with 195's is ok. Got a few little things I need to sort out over the Christmas break since doing the V8 swap but pretty happy with it at the moment. Definitely keen to put some louder exhausts on, its way too quiet at the moment...

Excellent. I forgot you had that. Sweet deal!

Nice! What are you doing for the tray, You putting a well side on?

Looking good Must be stoked the chassis is all done!

The lengths we go to in order to keep column change! So is this going to be 4 speed or 5?

ok, picked it up from the exhaust shop, sounds good, although maybe a bit too quiet for my liking haha. Its just barely legal at least the guy reckons. Noticed on the way home the carb has a flat spot, need to tune that up. It goes well though when you drive through it and put your foot down though. Also needs a wheel alignment badly, will do one myself this weekend. The steering box needs adjusting, bit of free play there as well. Lastly, there is a small drive-line vibration at speed, I think due to the pinion angle not being inline with the trans output shaft. Will need to measure that with my angle indicator and get some shims into the diff perch where it meets the springs I reckon. Small things at least, easy enough to sort out over the next few days

So, I got it running. Finally! Its been a hard slog, had a few headaches along the way (usual engine conversion stuff though really.) The exhaust headers have been a complete nightmare, mainly trying to make them fit with the column shifter linkages and I also struggled to find a starter that would clear everything but it least its all sorted now. Things are tight in places, that is for sure! Off to the exhaust shop tomorrow to get the open headers welded up to the existing twin exhaust mufflers. I also took the time to get heaps of stuff working properly that was not working at all before, like the horn, speedo, handbrake, lack of stereo etc. You know, the basic stuff haha Looking forward to a test drive to make sure everything is all ok! Will post a vid when that happens.

Small update, well a big one really. Pictures speak for themselves! Fits in there really nicely, did not even have too many problems. Just need to sort out all the little things but getting there! Big ups to Camel for coming over and giving me a hand to get the old engine out and the V8 installed in one day. Nice work! XY steering box fitted up. Needed bit of a trim to the box and slight tap to the body. It fits in quite well. Had dramas with the drill bit catching the crush tube on the only hole that needed to be drilled but got it sorted in the end thankfully! After the steering box was bolted up, the engine and gearbox went in nicely. Just need to sort a few things to finish it off. The starter motor I have doesn't fit and the engine cross member brace doesn't either, so have to get those this week. Lots of other small things to figure out but its all simple stuff.

Oh, forgot to mention, that old 2 story house in the last pic across the road with the sky light, I think that was moved there in pieces back in the late 80's from child hood memory, I remember the road being blocked in a similar way to your place while it was being moved ha-ha

Looking awesome bro, I forgot to come back and check in on this thread! Makes me feel home sick for my old Brooklyn days, burning down Ohiro road in the middle of the night at warp speed for a mission to red rocks. Good times

Sweet wagon project and yes, its a good thing you got rid of that crappy front end and put the original one back on! +1 for Turbo conversion.

Nice find, especially in the UK! I nearly bought an RX2 from Wellington back in the mid 90's, exact same model and colour as yours. It was stock condition as well but it had some rust issues around the strut towers that put me off in the end. Still the guy only wanted $800 for it at the time, seems absurd now I passed on it! I lived in London for a couple of years, there used to be a really nice orange Datsun 1600 SSS up the road from me, surprised to see it still driving around in mint condition as well! You shipping the RX2 back to NZ when its finished then?

Progress.

Sweet Mercury, looks cool man, love the colour!

Wow, just realised I have owned this beast for nearly 2 years. I really want to drive it for a bit while the ute is off the road getting the engine swap but a part of me wants to sell this and get some coin back into savings for other things. Hmmm decisions decisions.

Randomly parked in front of this last week, thought I better get a pic. That F100 needs to be lowered and some wheels and it would be sweet to roll as is!

Long time, no update! Although the end is now in sight finally... I ended up replacing the drivers side sill completely. I was never happy with the patch job I did the first time, it bugged me that I could have done it better and not use any filler. So Camel came around to help and we decided to cut the whole thing off do it again. And that is enough of that. No more rust!!! The doors are back on and the whole body is complete again! So, moving onto the interior. Finally, putting it back together! Before : After : Sorry about the photos, not the best quality but it has new Dark blue carpet, new door trims, seats re upholstered and new retractable seat belts in the front. I fitted a white mooneyes steering wheel as its better keeping with the overall theme. Looks really good and I am happy its all back together again ready to drive! So, thats about it then for this one, the sedan is pretty much done. I am not putting the V8 into this anymore, its going into my XM ute now, hopefully make a start this weekend

Cool bro, sounds good. Nothing wrong with the slant though, I would stick with that for a bit. You know a 300c engine swap would be the bomb but it would cost so much to do so! I am in Melbourne, seen a couple of really early ap5 wagons around this summer, the ones with small round tail lights. Mega rare! I nearly bought a mint ap5 wagon for $1200 when I first moved here, kinda wished I did now, it was factory avocado green and looked cool sitting on wide wheels but was a full base model spec, no heater, drums, 3 on the tree etc. Looking forward to see what you do with this one though. Oh, If you need any panel repair sections, try craig vane rustaproblem, although shipping might be the deal breaker from queensland.

moved reply for wags to your discussion thread

Excellent! Having two old cars makes perfect sense, Trust me I know! Love the old Val wag's, they are quite rare in NZ these days. What are the plans for the wagon?

This is going into the ute, 302 Windsor. Needs a tidy up before fitting it in though.

Sweet pic of the ute with an old triumph bobber.

Mean. Your making epic progress. I need to pick up the pace... That rear patch panel looks to fit the gaps quite reasonably well? considering your car used to be a 4 door. Citric acid bath is the bomb! I need to get one of those one day as I hate cleaning stuff manually.

Sounds like no money / Jew budget = fine wire mesh inside trumpets. Or woman's stocking, so when it back fires through the carbs they catch fire.

Ram flow used to be the mutts nuts back in the day for direct fit to su carbs. not sure where to get them now though!