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The Bronze - 1974 Ford Falcon XB Sedan


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  • 9 months later...

This has been sitting since I bought a house at the end of last year; driving it here was the last trip it's done in a while. I've been slowly amassing a pile of little bits and bobs to do on it when the house redecoration shit is done and while I build up some enthusiasm.

 

First up was rebuilding the carb, which I did last night, so I chucked the rebuild one back on, put on a new fuel filter, sucked some gas down the line and give it a whirl this morning. Turns out the throttle shaft is fucked in the old carb and gas is whizzing out of it.

 

I have a spare carb somewhere I think, so I'll pull that apart and swap the bottoms over, should do the trick. I have a few new hoses and things to put on it. But I also decided to bin the LPG system because I hate the cunts at the LPG place and I can't be fucked spending hundreds on the system recert when I don't do fuck all miles anyway. So I need to get all the heater hoses and figure out how to gut all that shit. Fun times.

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  • 1 month later...

Pulled off the LPG system today - found a nasty chunk of metal blocking one of the T's from the LPG unit. All rather grim, drained the coolant and readied it all for a full flush, new heater hoses put in, took off the thermostat housing, will need a housing too. New radiator hoses will go on when I put that back together.

 

The spare carb I have is off an XD and different at the bottom which I needed so need to get the carb done professionally.

 

Taking out the tank lifted the rear a bit, so now it's got a slight rake, although in theory the blocks in the rear match the springs in the front - which may be down to the shagged old shocks in the front. Those are also on the shopping list.

 

Took some photos, but really, hoses aren't that exciting. Quite excited about the room in the boot though. Looking forward to lining it and putting in a clean little sub setup.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I sent the throttle body section of my carb off for reconditioning. It has come back looking beyond new. Best present-to-self yet. Bless you Weber Specialties in Silverdale. Hopefully the wahine is picking up a new waterpump today as well.

 

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...
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  • 2 weeks later...

In the process of sorting the cooling and radiator stuff I was hoping to find tout why the gauges weren't reading. I replaced the temp sender with no luck, so ended up researching some more and it turns out the CV voltage regulator on XA/B Falcons shits itself frequently. 

 

But, you can buy a voltage regulator fix off some geeze inOz for cheapish and wire it in and live happily ever after, so I decided to do that.

 

I pulled the gauges, and added his module, and one of the connectors promptly fell off, which pissed me off. Regardless, repaired it and have reinstalled it, but still no temp/fuel readings - I also noticed one of the push-in bulb holders is awol - I am hoping that when I replace that it will complete a circuit and shit might start working.

 

While I have the gauges out I've also replaced the acrylic lens covers; I went to Mums and lasered out the shape and heated it to bend into position - not perfect, but 174% clearer and mega happy with the newcar look.

 

If anyone else wants some of these cut out let me know. 

 

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I've also decided to pull the fuel tank and get it pro-sealed. The job I did doesn't seem to be up to scratch and flakey shit is still pumping through to the fuel filter.

 

These are the days of our lives...

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  • 3 months later...

So I did some shit on this today, mainly in the boot. I took out the LPG tank a while back leaving a heap of holes and space. So I reinstated one of the bits of steel and used it to build a ply platform that'll hold a sub, because I may as well. tumblr_np7fzjzkDs1snjz6bo3_1280.jpgtumblr_np7fzjzkDs1snjz6bo2_1280.jpgKeen on advice on what to do in regards the back of the back seat - it looks like shit. Can I put a bit of mdf in there to tidy it up or is that goning to just rattle and make the sub less effective? Can I vinyl/carpet it?tumblr_np7fzjzkDs1snjz6bo1_1280.jpg I also made a template for the boot inner sides, just to tidy it up. It looks rough, but it fits near perfect, so when i make the final one I'll worry about getting it all clean and tidy. 

Adjusted the idle, removed some dead rivets and whatnot from the lpg system underneath. began rebuilding the shit parcel tray speaker set up I made years ago. Pretty good day in the shed.

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  • 2 months later...

Finished these ^ on Monday. Accidentally made an extra because I forgot I did one the other day, and found one in the boot when I went to install the one I finished. Also made a new parcel tray with some fancy puffy foam and vinyl to match the seats, which replaces the bodge job I did a few years back, and because I pulled out the LPG tank, the speakers can now sit down lower, although they still require some spacing, with the puffy foam, and one spacer visible it looks rather pro. 

 

And then I got carried away and pulled out all the seats and carpet to clean it properly and allay my fears that a leak it had previously might've caused rust. it hasn't. Sweeeeeet relief.

 

But now I'm gonna sound deaden and new carpet it. And wire an amp into the boot. My head deck doesn't have RCA outs but I can just jack the rear outs into an amp can't I? Will find out I guess. Then feed the rear speakers extra lots. The sub install in the Galaxie is underwhelming so CBF putting one into this one. Plus plan is to use this often, so bootspace is handy.

 

I got a quote on blasting and spraying underneath, but when I was pulling the seats out I realised how close to finished I was when I wirebrushed and hand painted it years ago so I should just save the money and put in some hard work. Fuck I hate hard work. But that'll be the plan.

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Spent a good couple of hours trying out two different sets of gauges I have and trying to figure out if my fuel and temp sender were both simultaneously shagged, if the wiring was, if the gauges are, or if some other mad shit was happening. Conducted a heap of tests eliminating variables and have pretty much concluded it's the new "totally working fine mate" sender I bought a year or two ago and the temp sender, which might be the wrong one (there are 4 that 'fit' but not all work).

 

But am going to double check with the wizards on the Ozzie Ford forums.

 

Took the fuel tank out, which was a prick because it was half full. filled three gas cans, and tipped the rest into a bucket to find it was brown with rust. so that got hosed out and about a half a cup of rust fell out. pissed me off as i used some hippie rust thing a while back. fuck the hippies. have a POR kit waiting to do one night this week.

 

Got underneath and scrubbed and painted some more of the underside to tidy up the surface rust. Still some more to do but happy with a decent amount of progress.

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Show and tell...

Vinyled parcel tray. Will probably blind me being too light, but fuckit, live once.tumblr_nu8zv8Tugn1snjz6bo2_400.jpg

 

Guts out

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Oh, hello quiet...

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New chocolate Autodec carpet. Pretty average fit so far, too big over the hump, shitty seams. one gave way in the fucking unfolding...

 

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Split Seam: 

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Will leave it laid out for a day or so and see if it sits down a bit. Yes, it has underfelt.

 

Good at 10 feet though...  

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Did the first two stages of the fuel tank POR kit, still trying to dry the thing out, slow process. Hopefully some more heatgunning and air blown through this week and it'll be dry enough for the last stage.

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  • 1 month later...

This is what happens when you let your car sit in a damp garage too long. Luckily all surface. 

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This is post POR15.

 

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Next mission. Install these.

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So yeah, yesterday was spent taking out the RHF suspension set up, both control arms, spring and shock, pretty grubby. Then it was cleaned back and given a solid coat of POR15 - it's never going to be a show car, so I just want it covered and clean. All came apart with a bit of persuasion.

 

The brake callipers were rebuilt about 3 years ago, since then it's done about 15km. So I will redo them. New hoses are a definite. Rotors are seeming like a good idea. Fucking money pit.

 

I have tie rod ends but was thinking I might do those a bit later when I bin the Armstrong and put in power steering. Just a matter of locating the right PS mount and getting all those bits rebuilt. But first. This job. 

 

/edit: No the jack is not on the sump, the car is on stands.

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  • 1 year later...

In case you were worried, this is no longer on jacks.

 

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It also has new carpet from Oz, nolathane rear bushes for the leaves, courtesy of someone on here, sorry, forgot who sent me those, a complete interior, a near functional gauge cluster, (either an issue with the sender or fuel gauge) and does some mean gravel skids but not much on actual tarmac. I move it in and out of the shed at while. 

 

Needs a proper alignment and me to grow the balls to take it for a wof; just nervous on what it could fail on. good layer of dust on it too.

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  • 2 months later...
  • 2 months later...

All the under the bonnet stuff is tidied up. Haven't taken many pics, just this one mid job. It's not perfect, but it's cleaner, and that's all i'm aiming for until I have the urge/time/tools to pull the engine out and do it all properly.

 

The wiper motor is off getting rebuilt at the moment with mr Ron Wood

 

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