1997 Ford Falcon station wagon

Discussion in 'Station Wagon Projects' started by Aussie_taxi, Jul 6, 2010.

  1. Aussie_taxi

    Aussie_taxi New Member

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    I drove the car this morning and the P/S is fine again so I am thinking I may have been a heat problem. So I will see what I can do about that as trying to drive a car weighting almost 1.8 tonne basically one handed without the p/s absolutely drained me
     
  2. Aussie_taxi

    Aussie_taxi New Member

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    Over the last couple of days I have been able to do some little stuff done on the car. Firstly the rear bar is off and to my suprise it feels lighter then a standard EF front bar. I also did some work in the engine bay and radiator support panel.
    Almost the entire mount for the factory bonnet latch is gone so now air can flow from the grille opening and threw the radiator. I am also going to be removing all the aircon parts except the compressor.

    I also decided that the neatest and best looking colour scheme for the engine bay would be similar to stock. So the tappet cover is now cherry red with some chrome specs, the belt cover and intake manifold are a dark charcoal colour and the windscreen washer bottle, fuel rail and heat shield are now a high temp chrome paint.

    I also did a little trimming of the TAXI sign to fit the shape of the roof better. tomorrow i hope to do some more to the sign as well as fixing a leaky fuel injector and if I get time I will remove the dash facia, shifter surrond, steer colum shroud and cup holders and smooth them prior to painting them metalic charcoal

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  3. MEANVN

    MEANVN New Member

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    the light makes it perfect,
     
  4. Aussie_taxi

    Aussie_taxi New Member

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    what light?
     
  5. Stormin' Norman

    Stormin' Norman Well-Known Member

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    :rofl2::rofl2::rofl2: You just wait. My uncle used to walk into used carlots and holler "TAXI" to see how many doors would open.:rofl2:
     
  6. Aussie_taxi

    Aussie_taxi New Member

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    the sign doesnt have any lights in it at the moment but will have red LED's in it if the turn up, but the sign is purely for car shows and wont be attatched to the car. If i did attatch it to the car I might get myself in trouble by parking in taxi zones just to see how long or if I would get in trouble.
     
  7. Aussie_taxi

    Aussie_taxi New Member

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    Today I tried to finsh off the engine bay by having everything painted and besides a nother couple of coats and some hoses for the washer jets I have finished the engine bay but while I had the head lights out I decided to put my own twist on Daytime Running Lights/ Angel Eyes with some stuff I had laying around. I call mine Road Rage Eyes although I doubt that they would be bright enough to be seen durring the day and the switch for them is located in the engine bay so I couldnt use them in anger.

    Anyways here are the pictures
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    The last picture shows the lights at half there normal brightnest. I havent deecided if I like them but they are almost invisable when off so they could stay but may not be connected
     
  8. Aussie_taxi

    Aussie_taxi New Member

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    Some good news on the paint and panel side of the car. I had a mate visit yesterday who used to do panel beating and painting for a living and we have been able to come to a deal after he looked at the car.

    He seems to think the biggest issue with my car at the moment is the paint I have been using to try keep it white ( cheap pressure pack enamal) but besides that the rest of the car is a relatively easy job. So the deal is the when I have got some other things I want to do done I need to take the car to his place 3 hours away for 4-8 weeks where after hours he will strip, smooth and paint the car and because I have already goot all the materials to paint the car I only have to supply him with a few cartons of grog and a couple of weekends to help.

    So with that organised I can concentrate on other things. So today my focus has been the rear end of the car. With my plans for the rear bar up in the air I decided to play around with the tailgate. The latch handle and lock setup has been changed to remove the handle and the lock is being moved to near where the ford badge would normaly be. Once the lock is in place I have a cable that then allows the lock to operate the latch so the door can be opened and wont need me to lock the tail gate seperately.

    The reverse light/ number plate panel will also be moved/ replaced. The hole left by that plastic panel will get some metal welded in and smoothed. The number plate looks like it will be relocated to the middle of a rear bar and as yet I havent worked out exactly where the reverse lights will go but I am thinking of mounting a pair of CE lancer side indicators in the top of the bar just under the tail lights but will depand on information I hope to get tomorrow in regaurds to fibre glass rear bar that I could get and modify.

    In the mean time while waiting for the welder to turn up here is a quick picture to give an idea of the locations of various parts

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  9. Stormin' Norman

    Stormin' Norman Well-Known Member

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    Good news for you, eh? Onward ho! (y)
     
  10. Aussie_taxi

    Aussie_taxi New Member

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    I got stuck into the tail gate again today. I was able to borrow a gasless mig and attempt to weld. Now all of my previous experience with welding has been on exhausts but I tried to use some pointers from a welding thread on another forum and took my time and was surprised that at the end I had no holes and had only made one spot the size of a 50 cent piece in one corner warp.

    Here are the 2 panels and the lock welded on. The lock is the standard on but mounted back so that it will be flush when finished
    [​IMG]

    Here is the tailgate after 1 coat of filler and part of the sanding done. I had to stop due to rain[​IMG]

    Hopefully tomorrow it will not be raining and I can can continue smoothing and trying to work out how to finish the lock
     
  11. Stormin' Norman

    Stormin' Norman Well-Known Member

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    That looks like my open air garage. Well done.
     
  12. Aussie_taxi

    Aussie_taxi New Member

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    Well today wasnt sunny but it was dry (for most of the day) so I got back out there and did some more work on the tailgate. I put another layer of filler on and once it was dry started sanding it. Thank good I bought a board sander, makes things a bit easier. Anyways after a while I though I had it looking pretty good so I decided to put on a guide coat and sand it some some more. As you can see its not smooth yet but it looks worse then it is. So if the rain clears this afternoon I might be able to get out there and sand it some more.

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  13. Aussie_taxi

    Aussie_taxi New Member

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    Well I had a small win on the car today. The rear bar is back on the car. The towabar has also gone and work has begun on a place for the number plate. I am hoping to make a box for the number plate and a hidden LED light strip to sit that I will sink into the bumper. The reverse lights are proving to be a pain as the lights I have ordered have a reflective lense which I can not use so I am currently thinking of modifing the tail lights to have a hidden LED strip in them that hopefully wont effect the outter appearance or the current functions of the lights.
    [​IMG]
     
  14. Aussie_taxi

    Aussie_taxi New Member

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    Yay. finally progress on the car, even if it was something small. I ordered some LED spot/work lights that were small enough to be mounted into the back of the tail lights. They appear to be very bright when hooked up to 12v but as yet I have not tested them mounted in the tail light which has a defuser type thing in it, but when hooked up to 6v still seem bright enough. So hopefully the rain disappears again and I can get the wiring done and the new reverse lights tested with and with out the indicators going. Hopefully it all works well but I may still have to put a bit of metal in the tail lights just to seperate the reverse and indicator lights a little bit when in use

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  15. Aussie_taxi

    Aussie_taxi New Member

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    Well despite the rain I did manage to progress a little more ob the rear bar. I made a housing for the number plate and LED light which I then welded in. As yet its no completely welded in and I havent completed the underside on the bar. On a plus it has all fitted without cuting the re-enforcement. This week I hope that if I can get the time that I can weld it up and start filling in the gaps and smoothing out the bar

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