"Riggs" My 1964 Ford Falcon Ute (lots of pictures)

[Colum Black-Byron]

The plan is to have it looking old on the outside (apart from the paint job), and new on the inside.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/7-Dash-Car-GPS-DVD-Stereo-Player-Digital-TV-DVB-T-/140597530435?pt=AU_Car_Parts_Accessories&hash=item20bc440f43

I'm getting one of those, and hooking it up somewhere unseen (possibly under the seats), and then detach the screen and run it up to the roof. I'll make a custom headlining, and hook it into the roof with a swing down motion, so I press a button and you can use the video on the roof. And I can hide it in the roof where nobody can see it.

But I've got power windows, locks, automatic rain and light sensor and alarm which handles the locks and such.

Should be fun.

[flyingdutchy]

holy mac dude...

This sorta thing is what makes me feel a little stupid about some of the things I curse doing on my own cars. Thats one hell of a lot of work you gotten yourself into!

I'm loving this stuff. Having such a car is too cool!

About that resin deck you are trying to make / made, I work with resins and fabrics all the time and I could perhaps give some advice if you plan to re-do that bit. There are ways to make nice surfaces and minimize resin consumption and overal part weight. PM should you be interested

But lovin it m8, keep spirits up and keep on buildin!

[Freddo]

Definatley interested ! Keep it up mate, looking forward to it.

[Colum Black-Byron]

holy mac dude...

This sorta thing is what makes me feel a little stupid about some of the things I curse doing on my own cars. Thats one hell of a lot of work you gotten yourself into!

I'm loving this stuff. Having such a car is too cool!

About that resin deck you are trying to make / made, I work with resins and fabrics all the time and I could perhaps give some advice if you plan to re-do that bit. There are ways to make nice surfaces and minimize resin consumption and overal part weight. PM should you be interested

But lovin it m8, keep spirits up and keep on buildin!

I tried sending a PM, but your mailbox is full. So I'll just copy to message to here, and other people might be able to benefit from your help

I'm happy to get all the help I can with the fiberglass. I went through about 3.5L of resin doing up the tray lid, which seemed excessive, but I could be wrong. I'm basically winging it as I go. It still needs a few more layers to give it more strength.

For the flusher surface, I was planning to get some of the fiberglass bog (putty) and lay it down, then smooth it off, but I'm keen to learn the tricks of the trade.

My next fiberglassing job is to do the headlining (the normal one is loose fabric fabric). I figured the fiberglass will be too heavy to lay upside down without falling down on me, so I spoke to some fiberglass suppliers who recommended making a spray latex mold, then pulling that out and laying the fiberglass inside that. Then I'll build it up with expanding foam, or something similar, and sand out the shapes for a LCD screen, window visors, light, possibly those hand holder bits. Then cover the lot in leather.

But I'm happy for all the help I can get. It's why I visit forums.

Thanks.

[bevsta]

wow man looks like its a bit of work, but good progress so far! keep us updated

[Bad Bird]

I've seen your thread on the Australian Ford Forums. You've sure done a lot of work .

[Colum Black-Byron]

I've seen your thread on the Australian Ford Forums. You've sure done a lot of work .

I've been there a while. Lots of knowledgable people there, and others who've taken on jobs bigger than mine, they've helped me out a stack with detailed information. But I get the feeling some of them grumble when I'm not painting it the original sky blue, and using all original everything.

[Bad Bird]

I've been there a while too (same handle as on here). I'm all for originality on exceptional survivor condition cars and ultra rare models. On the other hand, you started with a rough car and brought it back to life. You've certainly earned the right to make the car however you see fit. The guys criticisng your choices can go pound sand. You should see the way the Corvette guys get stuck into people who mod them! I can't remember who said it, but I love the sentiment behind "Anyone can restore a classic, but it takes a real man (woman!) to cut one up".

[Colum Black-Byron]

I layered down a few more layers of fiberglass, and the lid is pretty strong. And I covered the edges, to the point just past where the egde is.

Then I had a brainwave. I'd seen a few ute lids that had like a mini spoiler on the back, sort of like a lip at the end of the lid. So I thought I'd give it a go.

I wanted to follow the lines of the ute, so I took a fiberglass mold of the curve of the tail lights.


And layed down some expanding foam.


And shaped the foam into the shape.



But then I decided it looked like crap and scrapped the idea, and ripped the foam off.


I started plastering on some filler, to get the edges square. I was going to spray down a stack of spray putty, and start sanding, but the next door neighbour had friends over and I didn't want to be a jerk and have the loud compressor going.



Does anybody have any tips to getting the tray dead flat with filler?

It's pretty straight at the moment, but I figure any slight curve or anything will show up very easily once it's painted. I was toying with the idea of slightly thinning the spray putty and pouring it over the tray, and letting it settle flat. Or just spraying it on and hoping my eye is up to the job of getting it flat.

[Colum Black-Byron]

I haven't started on the mach 2 ute lid yet (I'm not totally happy with it, so I'm going to redo it), still waiting for funds to replenish a little. So I thought I'd get stuck into something that didn't cost money. I started pulling the engine out of the XF falcon.

And I think there had been a few dodgy things done with the ute. The radiator was held in by nothing more then electrical wire (although it was very easy to remove because of it). And a few other little bits and pieces.

And it's really a two person job, but it came out with a bit of effort. And I had probably the oilest engine in history.

The oil was just caked on, so thick.


Another part of the dodgy, I have no idea why, but this water bit seemed to be bypassed completely, and the two bits were just locked together and held in place with a zip tie.


I wanted to see how well it'd fit inside the ute, so remembering something I learnt on here a while ago (on another forum), I put the engine in front of the ute, then lifted the whole ute over the engine.


So much easier then trying to angle it through the top.


But unsurprisingly it fit pretty well. I wanted to see how much space I'd have for the radiator and engine, and trying to figure out how I'll manage the double radiator for the air-con as well. I was thinking another bracket in front of the XF radiator leaving the same space between them. And hopefully enough room for the electric fan as well. I'll figure it out.

But I started getting through the inch layer of oil, and ended up with the pressure cleaner on it, it made quick work.




All shiny. I'm unsure about colours for it as yet. Although I'm still tossing up between the final colour, so I should make a decision that before I paint the engine.

And I made another discovery under all the oil. It had a sticker for a 4.1L engine on it, so I guess that's what it is.

EDIT...

I also didn't realise that the gear box oil would come out when the tail shaft fell out. Not looking forward to cleaning that up.

[Hayden121]

Looks really good seems like a fun project I haven't seen this on aff but I typically don't leave the bseries area

[Sparkington]

Ford has use the same inline six cylinder design for over 50 years, so any will fit in there lol So you going to run EFI on the new motor or just use a carby?

[Colum Black-Byron]

Ford has use the same inline six cylinder design for over 50 years, so any will fit in there lol So you going to run EFI on the new motor or just use a carby?

I was just putting in there to see if I'd need to use the mounts from the XM(older) or if I could use the XF(newer). Plus I just wanted to make sure it'd all fit to put my mind at ease.

I'm going with the carby, the EFI would be nicer, but it'd involve chopping and hacking at the shock struts to make it fit, which I'm not overly keen on.

[kampas]

what an awsome build nice work good luck with the it

[Colum Black-Byron]

Good news!

The XF underdash air-con unit fits! I discovered a pesky bolt hidden and pulled the air-con unit out. I then went pulling it apart, and pulled out so much leaves and gunk, and gave it all a clean.







It's a surprisingly simple setup inside the air-con unit. Just pipes that either go from the compressor to an internal radiator, or heater pipes that go to a separate radiator. Then a fan that blows the air through it all. And a wire pulled flap that either allows air through the air-con and heater, or then just bypasses the heater bit.



Then there is a stack of flaps that are vacuum controlled that allow air into the different vents. However, the whole setup, with different vents and so forth is never going to fit. So I had to start modifying.

The gap needed between the outside air vent, and the fan itself was too small. So it wasn't going to fit.


So I started cutting up the fan itself. There was another part that gave you the option to allow air from either inside the cabin, or outside, but it'd never fit. So I cut off the fan from the rest of the unit, and turned it around so it'd only take air from outside. And it fits.

No the easiest angle to take a photo from. But it'll suck air from outside, and blow it through the opening.


The next bit I had to make a few decisions on. The whole unit was massive, too big for the 64 ute, so it needed to be made smaller. I decided to loose all the feet, side vents, and those bits, and stick to just the vents I build, and a demister. So I hacked away at the unneeded bits.



I'll need to fiberglass in a new wall to make it smaller, but that should be pretty simple. And the whole things fits like a charm now.



I'll need to figure out a way to pipe the air-vents to each thing, but I'll either duck tape it, or fiberglass some vents, or get some air-tubing, or something.

And the best thing of all. With all the other vents taken off, I can hook everything (theoretically) up to existing controls, so I don't need to modify the stereo bay to fit the XF air-con controls (huge and doesn't match the XM theme).


I'm quite happy about it all fitting, I though it'd be more complex. I've just got to create some holes for the radiator pipes, and a few small ones for the bits to hold it in place. But yey!