1997 Ford Falcon station wagon

Being stuck in the house since boxing day due to all this rain and then floods has given me some time to plan some thing on the car a little better and today it finally dried up enough to actually do some work on the car.
First up was to redo the twin pipes which got damaged when the bar came off when I had to avoid a stupid little truck driving in the middle of the road on a blind corner. Now the first setup worked well and answered some questions about heat but to me it just didnt look right. It basically had 1 90 degree bend and a miter cut, so this time I decided to use more bends as well as a slip joint so the exhaust could be removed without droping the rear end out.

So far it all seems to be coming together nicer the before and being able to remove it easily means I am able to make it stronger and neater then before. Tomorrow I am hoping to get 2 more slip joints, clamps, round bar and some exhaust rubbers which should allow me to finish it again minus the tips.

Here are some pictures. Not all the welds have been cleaned up yet becuse it started raining again





Also while being stuck inside I decided to try something for my reverse lights and this is what I have got



They are the original reverse lights just cut down. I am thinking of mounting them either side of the number plate in the rear bar but I will see how it goes when I try to fit them

 

Ok I had some issues with my security on my computer and got hacked big time which lead to my system crashing. So I have spent the last couple of days having to reload everything but in the mean time I lost all my login details to most of my web site accounts, hence the name change.
Anyways. I got the exhaust on the car today with mounts so its all solid. I do need to fine tune the positioning of the mounts as they pull the pipe over to the one side.

Anyways here are some pictures.





Still trying to decide on custom exhaust tips or off the shelf but atleast for the time being its all hooked up and working.

 

Well the car got the rear wheels on it today and it moved for the first time in nearly 7 weeks. I can now confirm the the exhaust works and despite a small issue with the positioning of the rear mount that is pulling the pipe towards the center of the car and causing the pipe to hit the leaf spring when the passenger side is on a car ramp while the drivers side is on the ground, the exhaust is fine.

I even tried a very rough way of finding out how each pipe flows compared to the other side and surprisingly the flow almost identical at idle. Now as I said I check this roughly by using 2 garbage bags zip tied over the ends of the pipes and when they got enough gas in them the just blew off the pipes at almost the same time. Now the flow will most likely change at higher rpm but I dont really care as the passenger side pipe is more for looks then any sort of performance gain

 

I love it!!!! why can't Canada have front engine rear drive 90's falcon wagons kicking around!!!! you've done an awesome job with it looking forward to seeing it all done!!!!!

Cheers!
Dino

 

Well there has been more work on the car since my las post although I have had a couple of distractions along the way. These distractions were both good and they were my wedding amd the birth of my wifes first child (my 3rd) She was born on the 4th of March 2011 and was named Shelby Mollie Eleanor Hoskins. Now I am a car guy but I was not responsable for the name. The name was a suggestion from my mother in-law and I know I need to keep the mother in-law happy but it isnt really that had with suggestions like that.

Anyways back to the car. The reverse light have been mocked in to the rear bar. The bonnet and shaker both had to be scrapped due to legalities, different front seats fitted, bonnet scoop fitted and moulded onto another bonnet and the front end stripped ready for sanding and priming.









I wasnt planning on going back to bare metal but having to strip off all the enamal paint I had used to paint the car we I first got it registed has proved time consuming but by going back to bare metal will give a better finish when its all done. If anyone is interested here is an air brushed picture done for my wife by the same person who will be doing the airbrushing on my car. Please note that this picture is 5ft high and 3ft wide in real life and was not copied from another picture.



One more seeing as we are car people, just a quick picture of my wife and I on our wedding day with our wedding cars. My wife was 8 and half month pregnant in that picture.

 

Congrats!!!!!

On the wedding and the new arrival!!!!! best wishes for you ,wife and the little one!!!

The car looks good to bad you had to change the hood and shaker.....but the new one looks good!!!!

Keep it up!!! looking forwad to seeing it finished!

Dino

 

good to see your still at it

 

Toady saw the car get driven on the road for the first time since October and it was a weird sensation. Firstly the new seats feel awesome but I now sit very low in the car. Not really an issue for me but it does feel like your going to get gravel rash on your butt and it will be worse when I get around to lowering the car.

One issue was the exhaust. The exhaust started to rattle because it was hitting the back of the passengers side leaf spring. The mounts I used seem to be to flexable so I have ordered a different style of mount and see how they go. I also finally got some sealer/primer on the front guards and to my suprise they look straighter then I thought which should be good. This weekend will be spent on the pajero but atleast the falcon has progressed even if only a little

 

Yay progress on the wagon

 

That poor car looks like crap! So, I'm sure it will be fantastic when finished.

Hummm. How to get an Aussie Falcon past the anal California government.....

 

Did they make a ute on that body style?

 

There is a ute version but it has a slightly different front end. The front end on the utes is the same as the other wagon next to mine in the pictures but to make it look like an EL would just mean changing the headlights, bonnet and bumper bar and it would all bolt on

 

With the rain hanging around still I havent been able to work on the car but with trusty old MS Paint I have been trying to sort out how I will be doing the 2-tone paint job.

Now excuse the quality as I mentioned it was done on MS paint.


The checks will actually flow onto the bonnet and will gradually get smaller as they head towards the front of the car. The bonnet scoop will also be black as will a large percentage of the bonnet but as yet I have not worked out the bonnet and bar completely yet. I may do it in a similar way as I did the white on my old sedan or it may finish on the bonnet.

the graphics will end up being similar shape wise to the white in these 2 old pictures of my sedan



I will play around with both ideas and see which I prefer. I am leaning towards keeping the front bar free of graphics at the moment but time will see

 

Well finally got a sunny day. So got right out there this morning to get stuck into the front end. Got the filler on the car but its taking a longer then normal to dry. Must not have used as much hardener but its fine.

So while the filler was drying I did some work inside. I wired in a Pioneer cd player as well as mounting the CB radio. The cb is actually mounted to the cd player. I havent finished the surround yet as I am still not sure how I want it to look. It could yet be further modified to house a genuine fare meter from a taxi



I also changed the trim on the console around the shifter. My previous attempt was heading in the right direction but wasnt right (my piss poor sewing skills didnt help) So seeing as I have a 2003 Kia sportage in the back yard thats stuffed it has gladly donated its black vinyl manual shifter boot to the falcon. After a little trimming I have it now sitting in the trim panel. Will have to make the boot shorter as its very tall and still have to fill in and smooth the trim panel.

 

Well progress has been a little slow due o my health, he weather and my tools. Next week I should see a couple of new tools and some answers about my health but I have been able to do some little things. I did manage to get most of the drivers side guard sander before my sander died and I have also started making a pair of exhaust tips.

The exhaust tips are made of 4 inch truck exhaust and as yet not fully welded or cleaned and I have yet to make the reducer part of them as I am still working them out. I had attempted this style of tip with 2.5 inch and 3 inch off cuts but always looked to small. These are as close to what I have pictured in my head but a little bigger. Once they are on the car I hope they look good and judging by how they look sitting on the car they could very well work