Melburg Luft

So for the first time in six months I spent some time in the garage on the weekend. A combination of moving halfway across Australia, a new job, and the death of a close friend and mentor had sucked the motivation out of me to get in the garage and get the hands dirty.

So what did I achieve in my first day in the garage? Absolutely jack shit….. but I moved a few boxes around, picked up a wrench and wandered around aimlessly trying to remember what I was up to. I unpacked a few of the boxes, wondered at the shiny chrome on some of my treasured parts that I thought I had lost a long time ago. Boy does it suck packing up a double garage, 2 and a half years of things I just had to have, flogging off the parts car and moving the good one across Australia. But going through some of those special parts, donated from old friends, colleagues and even people I don’t like got the juices flowing again….. There is a story behind every single part that will go on the car, where it came from and who donated it to the cause.

I’ve had the car for 4 years; it has traveled with me across 3 states of Australia and is still a hell of a long way from finished. I bought it as a poor uni student with lots of time and a little bit of money I got for my 21st birthday. 1 grand for a rust free 1963 XL F alcon sedan delivery and a garage of parts that the old owner had collected over a couple of decades of playing with early birds. His misses had told him that he had to get rid of it, and I was in the right place at the right time. Unfortunately I should have lived by the rule “don’t buy an incomplete car, it will cost you more in the long run”……ain’t that the truth!

It’s come a long way from a collection of miscoloured panels that it was, but as a complete novice to the car building game I’m learning as I go along. So its time to modify the firewall, move the motor back a bit and sort out the radiator, gearbox linkages and exhaust. The plan is 15’s and whitewalls with original hubcaps, emu grey paintwork with some kind of crazy roof scheme (metal-flake weiss?), 200ci “big block” straight six, 3 speed auto and boosted drums all round. Interior probably blau leather bench, under dash AC, column shift and a mattress in the back! Got to have something to aim for.

Time frame: stopped giving deadlines years ago!












Time to get the wrenching again.

Good to see you doing a bit mate, and it's about time you did a build thread!! You gotta catch up with those QLD boys they'll get you motivated again

foulcan wrote:donated from old friends, colleagues and even people I don’t like

I guess i'm the latter

very cool beast... one of my all time fav's

look forward to seeing the build....!



chin up mate...!

Awesome to see this thread finally started
We'll try and make sure that we get this updated regularly
Look forward to meeting you in person.

looks great i have owned about 40 xk-p 's every body style .be careful trial fit the 3 sp auto before you paint it as the XL 's had a smaller firewall trans tunnel entry point needs to be heated and tapped up about an inch or put a XP one in it .first option much easier ... I owned the Johnny z's XL standard panel that gets to all the hotrod shows but they have ruined it .I have some 15in customline rims if you need them .or some 16in mainline rims .which are solid and look sweet under an early bird .and you might have a linkage problem i wanted my car to appear standard so i used the linkage from a ZC fairlane auto colum shift car cut 13mm out of the cross shaft and used a XP 3sp honeypot .What you doing for brakes ?I used XF vents ball joint size is the same from 1960-89 in F O R D S just need to put a collet in the tie rod hole as XP's run a smaller tie rod than the XF .good luck i have a wealth of useless early pus box info as it was all i played with from 16-30 heres a pic of my first car and a young skinny CPM XM FUTURA hardtop satin red on red corday

shame i just sold mikey ok on this forum a correct early pus box 6 cylinder factory aircon compressor/gen mount bracket quite a piece of engineering and really sets off the engine bay .he may sell it as he is thinking of selling his XM wagon i think.

cool car, hope to see more.

Thanks for the kind words boys, How did you guess I was talking about you Rhett? Will have to be more cryptic next time.



CPMan: What the hell I thought this was a VW site! You obviously know what your talking about, i'm about to yank the engine to massage the firewall as you say, and have a few tricks up my sleeve to stop the sump rubbing on the crossmember. Already got the compressor and mount off an XD, bolts up really nice. Brakes are boosted drums (bigger ones on deliveries), it ain't going to be quick by any stretch of the imagination, although the 4.11's in the rear will get it off the line in a hurry. Sweet coupe though.... looks magic!

Please stop with the Jessica Simpson photos of yourself though.... starting to worry me Or PM them to Rhett, he likes that kind of thing.

PM sent about the rims though, they sound like the ones i'm looking for.

Nice. Reminds me of my first car. Xp delivery. Love em.

yep trying to buy the old girl back .shes been around australia i brought her from fitzroy ,sold her to sydney ,she went to perth and now she is back in melburg 2 blocks from where i purchased her in 1989 she will be mine again .......
why do you have to modify the sump ?shame i just threw a 1964 date code 200 short motor to the tip
i was a bit of a purist in those days F O R D didnt make 200's till 67 in oz the XM and XP 200's were imported from canada and are extremly rare .you can tell them as they have a C casting prefix on the side of the block aussie ones are AR prefixed also the heads have a round cast inlet manifold the later aussie types are flat on top.lots of useless info in this old scone .

Two weekends in a row.... jeebus things are starting to move.

Motor, needs to come out.



Yoink



To get a bigger (250 block) F ord 6 into an earlier pus box.

XP chassis mounts, XR-XW upper engine mounts to lift the motor about an inch to clear the engine crossmember. Combined, with the CPMan's beaten firewall should allow the motor to sit about an inch and a half further back than it is currently. This will give me enough room for the radiator and hopefully an engine fan. (It will be close, but I want it to look as factory as possible.





Now got to beat the firewall, and play around with the radiator support panel to get that XB radiator dummied into position.

Things are finally rolling.

Keep at it mate!!

A bit of inspiration for ya.........

Am keeping on doing little things here and there. I think i've seen that car somewhere before, a hell of a lot lower than mine will ever be.

But have packed him up for the mean time. Moving house in about 3 weeks, so got to get it all back together for the move. Am looking forward to having a place of my own and having the garage just how i want it. Is only a single car, but what can you do.

if you havent destroyed your radiator support already 64/5 V8 mustang radiators bolt straight into the factory holes and will cool a worked windsor with ease let alone a six.also you may have problems with the length of the 250 wasser pump .221 pumps are the go from memory but its been along time?????

I love you CP Man , i've been debating whether or not to cut the radiator support panel out for the XB radiator i have. I really didn't want to cut it because it would look craphouse. Thanks for the tip.

Am having problems with the wasser pump, its actually more to do with getting the engine fan that mounts to the wasser pump to clear the crank pulley. I've got the thick pulley that has a second groove for a/c and its pushing the fan out.

Thanks for the help.

Saw this thing yesterday and thought of you. Sorry to hijack your thread, but I didn't think you would mind. It belongs fo a mate of a mate of mine. It ran an 11.7 on the quater yesterday morning. It also pulled a fn massive burnout in front of us at the point

Thanks for the pics, that is absolutely sensational.

If mine looks half as good as that, and runs the quarter in twice the time, i'll be a happy man!

Those wheels look kick-arse too, just makes the whole thing look smoooth.




I only found out today that the nostalgia drags were on out at Willowbank on the weekend, did you get out there, any more pics?

If yours get metallic paint and billet wheels I'll punch you in the nuts

sorry to hijack how much is an XP ute worth all there motor and box needs to go in bit of rust in the sills and abit i the floor new torneu cover motor and box are good.

$220/t

Give it to me MB