1997 Ford Falcon station wagon

I just joined this site and thought I might share my current project. Its a 1997 Ford falcon station wagon that left the factory as a taxi with the following specs:

4.0L inline EFI 6 cylinder
4 speed automatic
LPG and petrol
White exterior
Grey vinyl interior
15inch steel rims
Manual windows
Air conditioning
Electric mirrors

It then had some extras added by some of its previous owners.

Nudgebar/ spot light holder
Tow bar
15 inch alloy wheels

I then purchanced the car in November 2009 and picked it up on the 30/11/2009. Here are a few pictures of how it looked.







Despite being a taxi and having over 400 000 kilometers on the odometer it was a very clean and straight car. Fast foward 3 mounths to the day and the car had changed






I had fitted an after market front bumper bar from a company called Venom, fitted a set of 20 inch chrome wheels, fitted wheel arch flares and side skirts from 1992 Ford EB GT Falcon and made my first attempt at a custom rear bumper bar. I had also fitted another motor from a different car from Ford Australia called an XR6. It is the same basic motor that came in the car from the factory but work a worked head, different cam shaft and bigger fuel injectors from the factory which when new was rated at 165 kw at the fly wheel.

Since those picture I have taken the car off the road to redo the rear flares, side skirts, rear bumper, interior, exhaust and a few other things. This is how the car currently sits and hoping the rain goes away all the body work will be done and the car repainted in a different colour within 8 weeks.










I hope everyone enjoys and I would love to hear poeples comments and suggestions about the build.

 

Looks like a Ford Taurus on Steroids! Very nice machine.

 

Norm, that's funny. You are so right. A Taurus on steroids! Would it be a Tauroid? Nice job Aussie. That's a sharp looking wagon.

 

Snooter, what the Aussies call Falcons are full-sized speed-demons. Heck, they even have turbo inline Ford sixes!!! Canada and OZ are both ex-UK colonies, and about the same size, and look at the toys-for-boys that they get! I'd drool myself into a puddle if I lived there!

 

Speaking of turbos, When this current motor was rebuilt for my previous car it was built with a turbo in mind. These motors have had 600hp pushing out of themon regular 91 unleaded with a turbo fitted and if I wanted there is a twin cam version from later model falcon which comes from the factory turbod with 310kw at the flywheel and companies who can and have regularly had them spit out upto 1000hp on a dyno.

This cer will not get that. It is the famliy car and will be getting a 3rd row seat fitted shortly. I will be getting re painted in a colour known as 585 or bright orange and will get some black and white checks painted on there as well just so people know that this was once a taxi. The plan is to make the meanest, craziest, brightest, loudest 1997 taxi of any type in Australian, oh and match or better the achievements made by my last car (Sorry its was a sedan)that was cannabilised to help get this wagon project going.


This car won a few awards at car shows and was in a couple of magazines and was the daily driver clocking up 800+KMs a week over 3 years. You can check out http://www.streetcruising.net/magazine/17-december-2008/20-the-dark-side which is a write up about the other car.

 

My heart is still fluttering at those long legs!

Any links to some turbo sites? A used one, if you can find one, usually goes for $40 to $60, but you need all the systems that go with it.

Our 3.3 L inline 6 doesn't need much more than a Dodge 2.2L turbo unit or a 2.3 L Ford umit to get up to 170 HP from the stock 88 HP. Strong engines but no umph.

 

Well I had a small win today. Next week I will be getting all the meterials need to fabricate a custom induction. It will be along the lines of the ram air setup on old mustangs that mount to the motor and poke threw a hole in the bonnet. Now we had the same setup on falcons from the early 70's but this one I am doing is different as its going onto a 6 cylinder and it will be made to suit a toyota corolla bonnet scoop which when I think about it is a rather big scoop that covers an area of approx 3.5 sq feet. Here are a few pics of the wooden mock up that I made to work it out.






I also thought I would be a little more specific about some of the details on the car. The front bumper bar has been completely smoothed, the insides of the headlights have had parts of the reflector that arent used painted black, the bonnet scoop pictured is the toyota one. Inside the car the top of the dash and the door trims have been covered in black velour and the red highlights on the dash and doors are velour also. The steering wheel is a genuine leather Momo item with air bag and I have fitted an alloy shifter knob. The front seats are leather with grey velour inserts and are from a 1997 ford fairmont ghia. Stereo wise I have a JVc cd/mp3/usb/bluetooth head unit running 6 inch pioneer splits in the front and 6inch poineer 4 ways in the boot. The noise of the motor is helped with a custom 2 1/2 inch exhaust using the factory manifold, custom engine pipe, hi flow catalitic convertor, a single muffler and it finishes with a twin 3 inch stainless steel tip on one side. I have another custom tail pipe being made so it exits on the other side of the car as well. here is a crappy video of the sound it makes but beware do not turn speakers up to loud as it squeales in the middle of the clip. It is not the sound of the car just the microphone haveing a heart attatch.

At the end the car is running at 3500rpm. The car redlines at 5500rpm and for those who are interested this car is using a ford ecu that was specially tuned for use in the 1997 xr6 high patrol police cars so it has not speed limiter and has help this actual car exceed 200km/h. Oh and back in 1997 the xr6 falcon was faster then the 2 locally produced 5.0L v8 four door sedans. 1 was the ford xr8 falcon and the other was holden (gm) commodore ss which both made about 180kw's but due to the added weight and the more usable torque from the inline 6 were slower then the Ford xr6 falcons

 

I need visual aids. Good descriptions though. You've got my attention! Love the Ford 6's. They last and last, and are so adaptable to mods.

 

Well this afternoon after play around with the orignal intake mock up it was dropped of at a local fabricator to be made. He hopes to have it finished sometime wednesday but said if not it will be this week. When its finished the box underneath and the hole for the filter will be offset towards the drivers side of the car so that I can use the rubber pipe joiner off the EF intake and it will also have a single backet fitted so it can be held inplace using one of the exhaust manifold bolts. Now this will actually be a short term thing so I can see how the intake works.

Also the EL GT skirts are secure and the moulding of the flares into them has begun. The boot spoiler has also had a little attention today and hopefully tomorrow I can attack it with the 40 grit sand paper and shape it into its final shape.

I also thought I would mention that I have no idea of the right way to do anything that I have done to this car. I have done the engine and gearbox swap, all the body work, exhaust and interior work myself learning as I go and doing it as cheap as possible while raising 2 kids. To date this car has cost me just under $3000 australian with almost 2000 of that going on the purchase of the car and then all the fees needed to get registration

 

I was having a rather productive day today until the sander died and the bearing in the drill went so I have decided to take a break after going crazy with left over black spray paint and hopefully on friday when I pick up the paint I can get a new drill and sander. In the mean time here are some updated pictures.
The bonnet is almost ready for the shaker

The areial has been completely removed from the guard and smoothed out

The boot spoiler is getting there and the rear wiper has been removed the the hole filled and smoothed

And just a random shot of the back of the car

I am also going to smooth out the body line that runs along the car at the same height as the door handles and I have started on a custom grille and shifter boot.

 

This is this afternoons effort. I decided with the new shifter knob and the Fairlane cluster showing my shifter posistion I might as well make a shift boot. It is yet to be stiched up or mounted but its the same black velour as the dash


Oh and just to add to it I think my jigsaw is about to die as well

 

You're moving ahead like you're on piecework rates! Even your tools can't keep up!

If you want a Jigsaw that doesn't do chiropractic adjustments to your wrists and arms, get a Bosch jigsaw. A bit pricey, but it's the last one you'll ever buy. They are so smooth and lots of power. Sanders die from the dust anyway, so I go with a low-end model from a namebrand like Skil (division of Bosch, but quite reasonable) and for drills, it all depends on how much concrete you drill with it. Black and Decker is decent but some no name brands are ok for outside work. Inside my shop, I use Makita. They're tradesmen quality drills are great too.

Nice mods to the wag, BTW.

 

I took the car out for an almost hour long thrash this morning after getting the rego paid and despite a a coulpe of tiny issues it run extremely well for first real run in almost 3 months. the motor was really strong as was the gearbox which has definately transformed the car.
I took it threw some twisties gentley at first and gradualy kept stepping it up and the brake were great as was the handling. The rear ended had a tendency to want to step out on some of the rougher corners but was nothing major. This afternoon or tomorrow morning my intake will be finished as the shop is waiting for some 3inch pipe to finish it. As soon as its on and I have gone for a drive I will add some pictures.
Oh as it happened it rained while I was driving and the rear window had no problems with the light to moderate fall. The rear bar did how ever come off one of its mounts completely but it was only half on anyways so when it stops raining I will try get the mount back on and possibley work out a way to fit and extra mount.

 

Here are some pictures of the induction. The box is secure but not the filter which will wait because due to the heat from welding its warped and just needs to be bent into shape. Also the scoop doesnt bolt on yet due to me loosing the nuts for it.





The bonnet needs the hole made bigger on the passengers side of the car so it clears the scoop and box. Here is a very short video of it. hopefully tomorrow I can have the bonnettrimmed and attempt another video.

 

The pictures of the car in standard form bring back memories from my upbringing in New Zealand, especially the interior shot with the smoothed-out steering wheel rim and the sheepskin seat covers. I recall many a car with hundreds of thousands of kms on the clock like that.
In fact, last time I was in Australia (Toowoomba), the sound of shagged six-cylinder and V8 Holdens and Falcons driving by became a sound that, given my long time living here in the UK, will never really leave me.