FirstMate’s (old man’s) 1973 XA Falcon ute barn find

[FirstMate]

Hi all,

This will be an intermittent/limited series as it’s not mine, but had a wee Christmas treat that was worth sharing. Travelled home for the break and the old man let slip he’d been offered a 1973 XA Falcon ute. A well-known daily driver in town with the previous owner, it’d been parked in a barn by his son in the mid 2000s, with the rego on hold. Old man has a matching set of an XR8 and XR6 ELs - he and current owner got talking and it was offered. A day or two after arriving in town we went for a look to plan pickup:

 

 

 

 

 

[FirstMate]

Discuss:

 

[FirstMate]

Came back a couple of days later for pickup. Thought mate was bringing his car trailer but he arrived with a recovery truck from work. Was handy - found brakes were seized on a rear wheel. Winch made short work of it, and was out in daylight after 15+ years.

Was a nice moment following it home too - one of the previous owners’ mates was waiting at an intersection as it went past. We saw him do a double take and point it out to his dog in the passengers seat….

[FirstMate]

Bit slow on this but will work through some more updates.

Small mishap getting it off the truck - the rear brake drum was seized and it took a good 30m to get loose. Once free the truck was realigned with the driveway, and an oversight on chock placement saw the now free-rolling ute collect the truck deck handrail:

After a couple of beers and an afternoon tinkering, this earlier setback was forgotten when we got it running. Ran sweet for something that had sat for so long - was a happy runner after the first fire, with no smoke etc.

[FirstMate]

Been down south and have an actual update on this, but need to post some previous disassembly pics to set the scene. Having gotten it home and running, the initial enthusiasm lessened as it came apart. Worst was under the deck around the fuel tank where rats had been camping, and a fair amount of the body didn’t stand up to the screwdriver test:

 

 

 

 

[FirstMate]

In addition to the deck rust, disassembly showed rust in a front pillar, door steps, bottom of quarter panels, and a few minor issues in the floor (in addition to historical riveted repair patches). 

 

Previous pics show doors were pretty knackered, with both bent and rusty:

 

[FirstMate]

The photos so far are where things were left at Christmas, with the assumption that this would end up dismantled and forgotten in the shed. Was surprised to hear a month later it had been lined up as a downtime job at a local panelbeater and was dropped off shortly after. Got to see it a couple of weeks ago and there’s been decent progress:

Replacement doors sourced:

(For those following from the discussion thread -@Lord Gruntfuttock and @locost_bryan - think these  were out of an XC coupe, and he’s deciding whether to tweak for XA handles or just going with the XC ones).

Minor repairs to each door step:

A tidy up of the quarter panels etc: