Baldies XC Falcon

[Bearded Baldy]

 

Drivers A pillar is no good.  Fixable though.

Found a hole under the wiper panel too, will see how bad that really is when i pull the dash out. Not looking forward to it tbh.

[Bearded Baldy]

All seats are out, console and half of the dashboard is out. Had a great discussion with myself about how 17year old me knew nothing about tactical hole drilling when it came to wiring stereos etc.

Older slightly wiser me on the other hand, will be doing a much nicer job.

 

 

In another 10 years when it goes back together lol.

 

Pic of classic early 2000s stereo components to follow

 

Fusion 4in crossover and tweeter combo driven by Alpine cd tuner, was the goods for a long time. Rear was 6x9s of course! Quantity over quality was par for the course back then.

[Bearded Baldy]

Proof of progress

[Bearded Baldy]

Dash is out! Has been for a week or so but i forgot to take pics. 

And if we look under the wiper panel...

We see this ballsache in the making.

If you look through the smaller of the 2 support gusset holes you can see a nice rust hole. So i have approx 200 spotwelds to drill out to split the cowl panels apart and see how bad it really is.

That can wait until engine is out though so i have somewhere to stand.....and cry.

[Bearded Baldy]

Oh, forgot to mention there are at least 2 more holes in the opposite end of that cowl. And the reason for that? Ford never painted the steel lower panel, or the undersides of the upper for that matter. Same as all the panelwork hidden by the front guards, can't see it? Save the paint for somewhere else...

[Bearded Baldy]

Started the afternoon by emptying everything off the car floor and vacuum the carpet to find any lost screw. Got stuck into scratching off the rotten/dried/mankified insulation from the passengers footwell and found out it isn't really too bad, has holes but could be alot worse.

So obviously after such a good start i spotted the musical airhorns i pulled out of it sitting on the bench and decided that would be far more rewarding getting them to work again.

Stripped the pump down and gave everything a good clean and lube then slotted it back together. Good news is it works again. Bad news is the compressor still sounds like it is grinding rocks. Calling it a day now.

In all their trademe spec 2006 glory!

[Bearded Baldy]

Finished pulling out the rest of the pillar trims and seatbelts.

Fired up the cup brush and stripped back the last of the insulation under the dash and buffed back the passengers floor.....

Before

 

After

Still have more to go but the brush is clogged with gum so can use that as todays excuse to stop.

[Bearded Baldy]

Spent this afternoon getting sweaty on my back. All this working on my own car without the workshops hoists is reminding me why i stopped doing homejobs.....

But got the trans out, exhaust off, bonnet and hinges off (bloody heavy for a solo job), battery tray and wipers out too.

Engine is unplugged ready to lift... but some unnamed genius removed the back screen last weekend so will pull motor tomorrow.

 

[Bearded Baldy]

Time to make some mounts!

[Bearded Baldy]

Ta daah

 

Now to wait for the floor to dry out so i can clean up all the sparks and offcuts. Some numpty forgot to drain the block yesterday.....

[Bearded Baldy]

A XD falcon turned up at PaP down in the hutt, one of the guys was heading there for a lookaround so got him to grab the steering wheel for me. Collected it from him over the weekend.

Someone has taken the center cap but i will sort that out down the track sometime. Maybe a bit of aluminium with something etched into it...

The xd wheels are covered thicker and are less flexible than the xb xc wheel which is on the car currently.

 

And a generic xc picture from the net since it is too cold outside to grab a photo.

[Bearded Baldy]

Distraction project.... something rowdy this way comes...

 

Tacky aliex switch panel ftw. Hopefully make a stand and hook it all up to the engine trolley this weekend.

[Bearded Baldy]

Finally got a chance for some shed time this weekend.

Started by removing the rocker cover and intake manifold, out with the dizzy and hooked a drill up to the oil pump. Hasn't been started in a fair while and i don't need the aggrivation of wiping a lobe off the cam.

Pretty roller rockers.

Then put it all back together once i found a spare intake gasket.

Today i got the panel wired up and stand attached. Only things left to hook up are the fuel pump and starter solenoid. Running low on my home stash of wire and the fuel pump is still bolted to the car so must be time for lunch and a brew.

Still need to tidy up the nest of wiring too. 

[Bearded Baldy]

Thats a bit neater. Found more wire but was 8 inches short in my conduit stash. Dirty comment about missing length can write itself in your minds.

Ran fuel hose into a petrol tin infront of the radiator (all about safety) and wound it over. After 20 seconds or so i flicked the switch for coil and it started barking away.

Will need to set the timing and fill it with water but all in all pretty happy to have heard it start.

Will need do a compression test and see how they look too, some numpty forgot to oil the bores before cranking.

[Bearded Baldy]

Early start this morning.

Dry     Oiled

205     210

197      211

194      220

200      225

175      230

208      230

Not too bad numbers for an engine that has been sitting for lotta years. Hopefully the rings on #5 free up a touch.

Really don't want to rebuild it.

 

[Bearded Baldy]

With all the panelwork to do i have been distracting myself with pretty much anything else.

Scored a EF 1996ish falcon cam position sensor off the tard for a price too good to walk away from. From a few years ago i remember guys taking them out and fitting early e series distributors to ditch the efi setup, and i have always wondered if they would fit even older models.

The base block geometry of the 6 cylinder falcons was the same over 35odd years so i was 60/40 on the confidence scale.

Most obvious difference is the drive gear is pinned on upside down compared to xflow design.

I got out the calipers and had a measure up, everything that sits inside the block is damn near perfect, aside from the gear depth.

Stripped the unit down and measured/marked the shaft ready for a new hole to locate the gear.

Procrastinated a bit, clamped it in the vice and went full send on the drillpress... and was about 10thou offcenter! Shit. Marked and redrilled the drivegear through the new shafthole to line everything back up. Inserted rollpin and remeasured everything. The theory is sound.

Now to buy another billet drive gear as the testpiece is cast and the new cam will chew that that out real quick.

[Bearded Baldy]

Got the seats home.

 

The internet rumours of the old rails bolting to the new front seats is a lie. To use the front holes everyone talks about would be dodgy as shit, and that is coming from someone who has done their fair share of such things.

After hitting up the cert thread i have a gameplan to try on the fronts.

Ditching the BA rails and seatbelt buckles is first up.

 

Rears will be a whole new level of dumbfuckery but one step at a time.

Look good sitting roughly in place though. Side bolsters are the worst fitting part but possibly the easiest to mount and reshape as the are plastic backed.

[Bearded Baldy]

Was doing a remeasure of the seat base tonight and noticed the front studs on the drivers seat were bent.

Standard B series falcon problems, cracked base on both sides. Simple to weld up, have done a few over the years. So i removed the base and stripped it down ready to go.

Picking up some steel tomorrow to dummy up the rail adaptors.

Will see how distracted i get at the engineers.

[Bearded Baldy]

Making progress on the seat rails, but i made a rookie mistake with the fact the slide levers face up not down from the rail, so need to pack the rails away from the adaptors.

Strongest way is putting a length of 25x10 bar in between the rail and adaptor, but my usual suppliers will only sell me a half length. At 3m long.

Will make do with stacks of washers for now to test the theory.

[Bearded Baldy]

Found some nuts that measure in at 9.8mm which gives this much gap.

Which means some 10x30x100 packers will be perfect.

Now to find somewhere to sell me half a metre and not a minimum 3metre length.