MightyJoe

still going with this been chipping away at evenings and weekends. dash swap is mostly done, never, ever again.

Dashboard nightmares. I had too much head scratching over the heater box and after all the fucking around rebuilding the XE one i cant use it. so i stuck the xf one back in and i'll work out the vacuum lines later. wiring is another headscratcher too. theres 2 dash's. one with a crappy 'econoguage' and one with s pack clocks. so i'm building 1 good one out of the two. got a fair way into it, just still not sure if i'm gonna splice the xe dash into the xf loom where the multiplug are or run as much of the xf loom as poss and just use the XE switches. any thoughts or suggestions on this? also did a few other small jobs that aren't really of note but it all helps. put the fuel tank back in too. I placed it in first cos i needed a cheap victory. awe ensued. Stripped the loom out, this is the one i dont want but the dash itself is much nicer. how i left it. fuel tank in, i put the lid on too, shame theres all that wasted space underneath.

that dash swap is a pain in the arse man. thats all i have to say.

another month! shiiiiiiiiit. she's the most solid x series ute out there now thats a guarantee lol. for about 6 minutes until it starts to rust again.

ah shit man! 3 weeks without an update and a solid month since i did the other sill! shit man that went fast had a day away from it cos i was poked, a weekend off due to family birthdays and other obligations and now here we are. 99.99999% of the welding is done. thanks buggery for that. its all done i think, but you just never know. Same old same old. small hole, make a big hole, no hole! its a bit frankenstein in the inner wheel well but i couldn't be fucked, neither could stan, its about 3 differnt pieces and its solid. thats all i want. ill grind it back and etch prime it and just spray on some schutz. its not a show car. its a daily ute, i have to keep reminding myself of that. the lip for the arch and the body line aren't finished. So yeah, thats the other side done, now i think she's all solid. those sill panels make a bloody nice job of it i have to say, $160 each and they only require a little bit of tinkering. i'm stoked for once. we had the drivers door and guard on and off a dozen times too but no photos of that this time, no need. once i've ground all that back i know there'll be a few holes etc to touch in and then its onto the bog work and other mind numbing stuffs. chur for reading about a boring (not quite old enough) ford!

started on the other side today. i'm actually fed up now of finding more rust. i know its a ford but christ the way these are put together is nuts. the double skins, dirt and water traps,, and different channels and areas between panels that make no sense. anyway i'm just fed up of not being able to get to the part i want to fix in the first place yet! lol. i'm not going to work on it tomorrow i'm going up to hopefully remove an lsd rear disk axle. we shall see how that pans out. i made this side! came out well. proof we did this bit too! and with the front end welding finished i was able to give it a quick tidy up, etch prime any bare metal and then put stonechip on. it wont happen yet but i think i'm ready to fit the wings and align them for paint. progress! potato spec pics today sorry. til next week....

I love these. simply love them. i'd have made an integral side skirt if it was mine, but i still love it. that dish.

haha i have to crack on with this one for a few reasons. 1, its my daily and i need / miss it 2, i'm driving a borrowed car and i have that until the 19th of june, so after that i'm bussing to work. 3, i have to get the metalwork done so i can get it on 4 wheels and get the engine out which requires is being mobile enough to push around the shed to get to the chain block. 4. i have had the cortina off the road for 18 months thereabouts and the missus is giving me mad shit about it, therefore i need to get this one done to get back into that project and keep her quiet /happy. (ish) but thats awesome that your going to work on yours though, i love the colour. and black plates make me jealous!

I cant take credit for that, like i said i was under the watchful eye of Stan. i made the template and cut the hole and got to something that resembled a hockey stick banana. stan made it a masterpiece. its a really complex piece though i agree. i'd be stuffed if i was on my own. i would probably have made it flat and built the bodyline out of bog! lol

not an exciting update today, more cutting, welding and grinding. i made my first ever patches that weren't flat pieces today too. had mad fun doing it too, Stan would draw the outline of the piece he wanted on the steel, then i'd make the cardboard template, cut out the piece with a nibbler (crazy fun to use) and attempt to bend and hammer it into a shape that resembled the original before cutting out the rotten piece. Stan would look at it, frown, give it a few taps after me spending 20 minutes on it and it looking like shit, within 20 seconds he had a perfectly shaped panel. thats experience for you. I had awesome fun learning basics of how to shape, shrink and stretch though. inimal pictures too cos the day just flew but i'll take some more soon anyway. she's looking like she might turn out alright after all. this picture really doesnt do justice to the work it took to rebuild the whole inner sill at the front, but most on here are far more skilled than me and know exactly the time and steps it takes anyway. plus with welding sparks and grinding dust all over the place i kept my camera across the workshop so it was a ballache to keep getting it. i wonder why this piece rotted out! also i've scored a sedan rear axle with lsd diff and disk brakes, i'm unsure out of what though. it was fitted to an XF sedan, did these come with rear disks? and i know i cant swap the whole thing over cos coil and leaf springs difference but does anyone know it i can swap the insides like for like? i havent started to look into it yet, but just after some info. chur. //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/54385-mighty-joes-xf-falcoon-of-filth/

they do make those lush widenend ones now. but the 17's are the reason i bought it in the first place. if i dont like them against the new colour i might get snowflakes, but meh, thats money i dont have to spend , so i dunno lol

good luck with that one bud. hats off to you for taking it on the chin and getting on with it... eventually

man i'm poked. managed to get the passenger sill on with massive help from Stan, the guys a legend i cant thank him enough. i still need to tidy up the ends but the strength is there. they're not bad repo panels either. theres a 5mm difference in one of the lines which is huge, granted, but somehow it doesn't look too bad when fitted. shut lines like a mercedes! this weekend we'll be back into it. discussion

nah on the tridents too, i like the 17's too much.

i was in it already but under 2 seat covers. its pretty nice though. not sure about XA-C but the XD-XF do, i think the XG-XH are different. i could well be wrong! you can go from from single seats to benchies in the same models though the mounts are the same. mine uses the oe holes through the floor braces and 5mm square washers on the underneath.

another boring update sorry. i spent 6 hrs (yes really) dismantling, cleaning and reassembling a f**king heater box. i can't believe it took so long but hey. i took it apart to the last spring clip. i presswure tested the heater core and air con core. one of the heater cores was poked so im glad i did it. i cleaned and greased every solenoid and moving part and then tested the lot. i also took the fan motor apart, greased the shaft (easy) and cleaned the brushes. it comes in hard now. its literally the best heater fan i've ever heard. its as good as new. bit of a bogus and timewasting update granted but the workshop is still full with paid work so i cant get the falcon in again yet.im hoping to have tues to get the sills welded in. fingers crossed.

Factory air con bitches! ok so the bottom hose has been hacked off but i can braze another union on. its not a priority now but man this is so cool for the future. it holds pressure too cos i tested it. score. man i cant wait to be cruising in an ice cold ute, ice cold. cos thats how i roll. lol.

nah i'm into the 4.1 for real monies now dude so thats the donk i'm sticking with. cheers though, if i hear about anyone needing one i'll send em your way.

Thanks I'll look into that I'm keen on the tuning bit . Bronze I'll get some pictures but I just chuced mine together a bit of trial and error until it ran right.

bit of a boring update, did the same as yesterday but in the fuel tank access panel..i took the tank out and was well chuffed to find it pretty good under there. few scabs but no holes. so, wire wheel, rust converter etc etc i'll chassis undercoat it in a few days once the rust converter has done its magic. i need to get some sills asap, then the tank can go back in and it'll be running again cos its a heavy bitch to be pushing around. also a mate dropped off 2 more heater cores so i can hopefully plug and play with the dash now. we'll see but it looks heaps easier from what i can see. thats the plan this week to get that in and working. heres hoping.

yeah get some pictures up please! i need inspiration and tbh, i just like looking at falcons. lol

I actually didn't realise they had weak clocks. Nah the xf dash is crap. It weight half what the xe does and the clocks are just nasty. Retro but not in The good way. I have some s pack clocks with volts and oil pressure in them so id rather get that working properly anyway tbh. Also if the Speedo drive is in the back of these (I haven't checked) I'll get it recalibrated to read correctly with my wheels. The rust thing I was expecting. Meh. Its an old Ford man I'm not that naive anymore lol I'm chuffed to have not found more.

Today i got the dash out, the XE is well different to the XF which is understandable tbh, but still annoying lol. gonna take some thinking to get it all to work. plenty have done it but theres fuck all in the way of info with regards to wiring diagrams etc that i can find, but i'll make it work. spent most of the day then removing trim and getting the soggy sound deadening out with a heat gun and scraper. left it with some rust converter doing the good stuff. rubber mat, yum! niiiiice! bit of a score this i reckon. early bench seat. the later ones had the headrests integrated so it could be an XA/B/C / Fuckknows. but yeah. its in good nick .

Been a while without an update on this. i've got into it over the easter wekend this far after collecting a few more parts. the head is still in the machine shop. spoke to a cam guy and once i pull my motor out i'm dropping that off to him and he'll regrind it and supply springs and lifters. yesterday i took off all the plastidip paint which wasn't quite as bad as i was expecting. it was tedious but if its a thick coat it pulls off like a balloon skin. i went in this morning to do the dash and start grinding back the trouble spots but stan turned up a day early so i ditched the dash job half way through and just got into that. Niiiice bit of bodgery there. masking tape under the bog. mmmmm. tasty. Lunch! so after patching the passenger sill which was way better than the drivers side i kept grinding and finding more and more holes. rather than have a patchwork stan and i decided that i'll buy a set of outer sills and replace the lot. that way it also takes the guesswork out of the inner sills which we're still not sure about. i blew them out with an airline, and put as much rust converter in as i could but its still an unknown. although it'll set me back another week i'm happier knowing that it'll be 100% under there. Heading towards that goal!

thats decent money. there was one on the facebook buy sell last night too. complete minus dissy with c4 for 2500. i always manage to eat my words! .