1997 Ford Falcon station wagon

Here in Canada, our South is theoretically warmer than the North. ha! Its warmer on both the East and West coasts. Winnipeg is the coldest major Canadian city in the country, but it can get down to -80C about 800 miles North. Here, without windchill, we've been as low as -45C. Nothing stops either, except your pulse.

 

we dont get that cold but I am more used to temperatures of the gold coast which is summer all year long really. lol

I found some gloss black paint so gave the drivers mirror a quick coat so I can get an idea of the finished product

 

I'd like to paint my car, but then I think about all the prep work involved.

 

And the prep work is where all the labour costs are. If you take you time, research and ask questions you can do it yourself and get a cheap paint job.

 

You can learn from all my mistakes.

 

Well today I decided to check out the legality of some of my current and future mods on the car. Now I live in and spend most of my time in a state called New South Wales but technically I live in and have the car registered the state of Queensland so I spoke to both of the relavent government department in each state. What I found out is my car is illegal. For example, my indicators in the mirrors which are easier to see and are visable in almost the exact same places as the originals are illegal and need to be approved by an engineer in New South Wales, where as in Queensland they must remain 100% original in every way. I was even thinking of relocating my windscreen washer jets so they werent on the bonnet anymore so it makes the smoother, but again in Queensland they must remain 100% original which is hard as the originals are fragile and can only be purchased 2nd hand now, but in New South Wales windscreen washers are not legally required.

I spoke to a police officer who basically has told be not to bother making the car legal. He just said to keep doing what I am doing and as long as its tidy and not over the top I shouldnt have any issues with the police unless I drive in a manner that draws attention to myself.

 

I think most modifications today, on the 'safety' equipment, is similarly illegal here too. My car was built in Mexico. We lived there for 5 years, and bought this car there in 1997. When we moved back to Canada, in this Province, the car had to be licensed and 'safety-checked' within 30 days.

The rear brake drums had just been replaced before we moved with new drums from a Ford dealership. They were the same interior diameter, ten inches, but they were 1/16" thicker. I had to replace them. Sounds stupid, but the few shops that are licensed to do the 'safety-check' look for things they can replace, or protect their special status. Even so, I laughed when the guy went under the car tapping the floor for rust. I told him there was no snow in Mexico. He looked frustrated.

Luckily, since the drums were in 'new' condition, he gave me 24 hours to replace them and the shoes. He would have charged me $250 more, for $45 dollars in parts. I brought it back that afternoon with the Mexican drums and shoes in the cargo area. He never even bothered to recheck them.

Recently, there was an annual Cruise Night, from which part of the entry fee was being donated to a Cancer Charity. After the event, the police were stopping many of these 100's of cars, and spot-checking their road-worthiness. Noisy mufflers, modifications, and the cops ticketed almost 50 cars. The local collector clubs were upset. The police said they'd do it again. And the charities didn't meet their goals.

We'll see how that goes, during the rest of our short summer.:banghead3:

 

The Government has made me sit down and rethink some of my plans. I can either rush the car and have some of the things finished fora All Ford show in October or miss the show and try finish it. So the new plans are to try have the car done by Xmas which I hope will have the car come out better and shock more people.

With the extra time I have started taking more parts of the car back to bare metal mainly on the front end as well as block sanding parts on the rear like the tail gate and rear quaters which are both coming up 100 times better then I had hoped. The washer bottle is all sorted in its new home and the wires and hose run and all is good.

Inside of the car currently is just the dash, roof liner and the rear seat. I am looking into replacing the vinyl floor but as yet havent had any luck finding a replacement as I want to keep the vinyl on the floor. Also a small section of the rear console that sits between the rear of the standard console and the front of the rear seat is shaped but will not get any more work done to it until I work out the exact shape of the part that sites on top of the seat base.

Hopefully a few remaining things arrive this week allowing me to have the central locking, interior lights and some alloy dress up pieces done prior to the final stages of the body work begining

 

Vinyl Flooring, huh? Here's a couple sites:
http://www.auto-interior.com/moldedvinyl.htm

Check out Utility vehicles or Service vehicles (taxi, police, mobile nurse service cars, etc.) People collect them or in your case, build their own with steroids).
http://www.automotive-links.com/ind/ind.htm

 

Taxi spec falcons like mine came from the factory with everything vinyl or plastic. I am not sure what its like over there but over here once a particular model is 10yrs old Ford stop manufacturing replacement parts. There are a some common parts that are aftermarket replicas of the factory stuff but the vinyl floors are not 1 of them. Maybe it might mean the vinyl gets thrown out and replaced with a mix of perspex, fibre glass, paint and LED's

 

I read that Ford and Holden make most of their Aussie products for Export to Brazil and all but the Mexican market in South America and South Africa, as well as Indonesia. All of those markets run their cars forever, so there has to be a vinyl flooring producer/vendor. Call up Ford's Aussie Export or Racing division and see who they recommend to talk to.

 

As far as I am aware all the australian built 1997 falcons in countries other then Australia and New Zeland are private imports. Aftermarket replacement carpet flooring is easy to get but the vinyl is proving harder as most people would tend to replace the old vinyl with carpet

 

This might help:

http://carsaroundtheworld.blogspot.com/

http://www.scribd.com/doc/8739811/Ford-Asia-Pacific

http://www.rarespares.net.au/Links/subcat.aspx?catid=8

How about the big car rental companies? They often buy spare parts and liquidate after they've moved up to a newer model?

Time to snooze (1:45 AM here). Hope those help.

 

One more Downunder site:
http://www.trueblueford.com/discussion/index.php?f=54

 

Ok for yet another week the rain and wind is playing havoc with the build, so I have had to try do smaller mods and projects to keep the build progressing while remaining inside. My little project was to repair my old mobile phone using parts from ebay so that I was able to post better pictures and now that I have it working better pictures will be posted.
Now back to the car. I was able to clean up the paint in the engine bay and make it look shinnier and I am now leaning towards keeping the entire car white. I decided to paint the belt cover, washer bottle and over flow bottle an aluminium colour but cant decide on red, black or polish for the rocker cover. I have how ever smoothed the washer bottle of its mould marks and all the numbers and logos that were on it and did the same to the belt cover as well.
Now the over flow bottle is a little different and seeing as I have a spare I have attempted to smooth out the tom of the bottle. Hopefully it will work but will see when it progresses further. On the outside of the car I have smoothed out the body line on the driverside quater and it certainly looks different. The pictures actually show it rougher then it really is.
Inside I have had to change my stereo surround due to it breaking, so I have stared fitting an alloy panel where the UHF was going to live and will end up having a few switches mounted to it to control the driving lights, push button start (2x alloy buttons), fuel pump and posibley a few other things. I have also got some red neons which will be wired into the interior lighting and hidden under the front seats and dash and another set hidden under the sharker that will only turn on when the bonet is oppened.
Here are a few crappy pictures. I would get more as this were only taken 30 mins ago but it is now raining again