This is getting exciting, I like the progress. Nice work son.
This is getting exciting, I like the progress. Nice work son.
Thanks Bruce & Steve,
It certainly has been a marathon undertaking restoring this machine. But a very enjoyable project.
Here is a short time line
The tear down, rust repairs, panel beat etc
Attachment 54832
Full body Acid dip strip, the body looked like a brand new after the dip strip
Attachment 54833
Protective steel coating applied, then zinc coated all inner sub frames, A pillars & C pillars
Attachment 54834
Epoxy urethane etch primer, (all steel body at this stage) 289 K HiPo motor being built to FIA H-M spec's
Attachment 54835
Fiberglass panels fitted and bespoke doors made as per FIA 1250 and MSNZ Homologated roll cage fitted
Attachment 54836
Body work done and 240 grit sanded for pre-paint primer
Attachment 54837
In the spray booth 1 coat of epoxy urethane and 3 coats of primer (see post #320 for more shots)
Attachment 54838
Primed car ready for block down
Attachment 54839
It all looks so much easier posted up like this
Looking great Paul, just wondering if you are going to use the fan belt system as on the motor at present,these skinny belts seem to the most unreliable setup, could you use multi rib or toothed belt instead or would that take away the originality, keep up the great work, wished I lived closer so I could give you a hand with the sanding.
Hi Kevin,
The plan is that the car will be built exactly the same as 1964 as per the FIA homologation 1250. I do not want to run anything at all modern on the car. So yes I will use the old school V fan belt system, the 289 K Hi Po engines had a larger pulley wheel on the alternator to help at high RPM. I also will look into running twin V belts driving the water pump.
I am also planning to use a factory twin point distributor.
These systems ran very reliably back in the day, so correctly set up and installed should also work fine.
Thanks for the offer of the sanding too!
Cheers
A Japanese 1964 Falcon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyY3...ature=youtu.be
They built some speccy Falcons in 1965.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_VKwOT4W7g&feature=youtu.be
The 427 SOHC (cammer) "B" Falcons were certainly very fast machines back in 64 & 65.
I believe they ran sub 10 seconds on the 1/4 mile.
The cammer engines are nothing less than a work of art and back in the day ran 600hp straight out of the crate from Ford or Holman Moody.
The drag racers got a hold of them and supercharged them to 1200hp.
Great stuff!!!
Paul...you have to stop dreaming and get back to sanding you still have the 400, 500 and 600 to get through. You dont want to wear your fingers out on here.
Yes boss
back to sanding it is
Update... Still sanding and sanding. The shell is almost done and will be painted very soon, That is the bulk of the work. The bolt on Fiberglass panels will be much quicker to do.
I dropped the Kelsey Hays 15 inch steel rims (which was what was actually used on the Monte Carlo Falcons) and 3 spare 15 inch rims into the sand blaster and had them blasted, zinc coated and painted black.
Before:
Attachment 55813
After:
Attachment 55814
I will likely run some 15" Dunlop CR65 or Avon CR6ZZ on these rims to keep it real.
Not planning to use these steel rims on the track as I also have a set of 15" American Racing Torque Thrusts for the track which I will likely use Hoosier tyres with.
I have been working on the under floor this week, I have sprayed 1 coat of epoxy urethane and 1 coat of primer, it is getting a light 400 sand (and sand out a couple of runs) and then I will spray the finishing coats of red oxide
Attachment 56173
Right rear wheel arch
Attachment 56174
You can see the black seam sealer that was applied earlier seems to disappear when its painted.
The original 1960s seam sealer hardens after 50 years and cracks. This was all removed when the car was dip stripped
The modern seam sealer is very strong and durable stuff, it also has a level of flexibility and does not split or crack. When applied to a correctly to a prepared surface, it not only seals all the spot weld construction points/seams but it also adds a very strong bracing factor which supports the spot welds and seams.
Best of all it looks just like the original stuff just better.
I restored the front headlight buckets and installed new Right hand drive Ford branded sealed beam units
Before
Attachment 56407
After
Attachment 56408
Its all available new reproduction, but you cant beat the original parts when they are restored
Looking good Paul, but surely the factory cars had runs in the paint, should you have authentic Ford like runs in your paint ?
Just sayin'
There will be a few runs in the underfloor paint, as they were in the day. Its actually quite tricky to spray the underfloor with all of the odd shapes, guess thats why there were runs in the paint on the original cars when built. But its lookin good so far.
I will post up some finished photos when done.
The first finished surface is the one you see the least, the under floor & chassis.
I have sprayed it with the Red Oxide finishing coats (4), the same as it was built in 1964.
The pictures have been taken with a flash and parts of the pic's look so much lighter red than it actually is. The actual colour is a very dark red
Under right door (this picture is the actual colour)
Attachment 57041
Attachment 57045
Rear fuel tank area ( I repaired the top corner of the fuel tank area, top left side as you see it )
Attachment 57042
View from diff facing forward (I replaced part of the left rear floor)
Attachment 57043
Right rear wheel arch (I also replaced the lower rear fender, it had to all be replaced 50mm up, inside and outside, had to make new panels by hand as nothing new was available)
Attachment 57046
Beautiful work Paul! Its really looking good.
Bloody marvelous
Thanks Steve & Rhys,
The pictures are not very good, It looks like fire engine red!
It is actually a very dark red and looks much better in natural light.
Cheers
Looking fantastic Paul. I'll bet you're getting excited now yourself seeing all that hard work coming to fruition.
Thanks Mike,
Yes, very keen to see a finishing coat on this project. I can see a time when sandpaper maybe not prominent in my life!
I am working on the body shell, it has had a 320 & 400 sand all over and the roof has had a 500 sand, I will finish the 500 sand on the body shell next week and its ready for paint.
Cheers
Too True - a bit like my collectables " ohh they have been on order for years !! and what a bargain "[ they apply the rule to buying shoes ?? ]
Paul - your cars bigger brother.
Attachment 57216
Paul,
I thought of you as I wandered around a local car show, Solvang, California, I hope you don't mind if I share these.
Attachment 57259
Attachment 57260
Attachment 57261
Attachment 57262
Attachment 57263
Attachment 57264
(Ken H photos )
Thanks Roger & Ken,
Nice to see another big block 427 T/bolt Roger.
Thanks for the pics of the 63 Fairlane Sport Coupe Ken, many of these came out with 289K hipo engines but with the earlier 5 bolt block as opposed to the late 64/5 6 bolt block.
Cheers to all!
Paul,
The "Wheels and Windmills" Car Show is held a week after the Laguna Seca historic weekend so next year you can pop in and take a look as you head down to LAX. (How's that for a plan. You would enjoy meeting some of these folk. I will even buy you lunch.)
They have all sorts of vehicles, such as my friend's 1951 "Baldwin Special" that his father raced and he has beautifully restored it.
But as you can see it can not be touched !
Attachment 57265
You could try this all weather hood / bonnet arrangement allowing you to work on the engine area in sunshine or rain !
Attachment 57266
This is a typical scene at Solvang.
Attachment 57267
This great Pontiac behemoth 2+2 was sold back in the days when gas was 35 cents a gal.
It only has 45 miles on the odometer !
Attachment 57268
Attachment 57269
Here are some of the cars from last year's show at this site.
https://wheelsnwindmills.com/gallery/index.php
(Ken H)
Ken,
Love the 1951 Baldwin Special, Beautiful Restoration!! here is some blurb on it:
This the fourth car built by Willis Baldwin of Santa Barbara. It was raced from 1954 thru 1960 by Wm. Hanssen at tracks such as Palm Springs, Hanson Dam, Santa Barbara, and the famed Pebble Beach circuit. It is based on a shortened 1947 Ford chassis and is powered by a Ford Flathead V8 with an Ardun overhead valve conversion. The suspension and running gear is Ford.
Pic of the under floor and chassis now painted.
More pics on pg 17 post #337
Attachment 57471
Nice work Paul. Awesome effort.
Thanks Steve,
Its not a simple job spraying upside down and with all the different angles and shapes under the floor to get nice coats from the spray gun. but it looks very OEM which is what the build is all about.
Next job is get the shell into the finishing coat hopefully in a week or two.
Then final sand on the bolt on panels and they get sprayed in about four weeks from now - all going well.
Cheers to all.
So Paul
When do you do the acid dip and put on the vinyl roof ? :)
Ken H
Its no 1969 Penske Camaro Ken, I don't know how those cars held together during racing, some claim they lost 30%-50% of body weight by acid dipping. I cant imagine a 50%weight loss.
Bush maths = if the steel was 1mm thick back then, a 50% loss in weight could be 0.5mm steel. Cant see how that would work. Probably fold in half in the corners!
They did some pretty heavy dipping back then. All the factory teams did. I spoke to a guy a couple years back who builds race cars, and he stopped acid dipping body shells and instead now blasts them. He said there was only about a 20kg saving in the dipping. But I know the Trans-Am teams did some pretty intense dipping.
Try picking up a 20 kg item, you can get a bad back or hernia.....20 kg is a lot.
Norm Beechey did a fair amount of weight saving on his Monaro- reading the write up of his build , dont think that was ever acid dipped..can anyone confirm ?
I know of a certain car which was being prepared for B&H way back when. A mysterious fire in the workshop meant that the shell was somewhat damaged. Funny that nothing much else was. As no other shell was available :) the powers that ruled were asked to OK that it be rubbed down and repainted, and the go ahead given. It always did look a bit less perfect than most of the others :)
Paul,
I apologize for trying to have a bit of a laugh as you would be last person in the world to do anything that was not to factory standards and I should not have mentioned acid dipping as it distracts from all the magnificent work that you are doing.
(But I do have some good articles about acid dipping if you are interested !)
You may not want to do that "Bucket List" trip with me now but My "Bucket List" trip was coming out to Taupo this year and meeting so many of you. I will be forever grateful of the hospitality and generosity that made those 3 days unforgettable for me.
Keep up the great work.
Cheers,
Ken.
p.s.
You can get one of the classic acid dip stories from Sam Posey during this YouTube clip.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=17&v=6w8IgJ0frPI
Attachment 57515
Sam Posey's 1970 Dodge Challenger # 77. Laguna Seca. August 19. 2018.
(Ken H photo)
Not at all Ken, I love a good laugh! and always appreciate your humour. We are all mates so that entitles us to have some man banter fun.
You're on for the trip bucket list for sure, your not escaping that easy!
Great video Too, thanks for that.
If I acid dipped the car that much it had ripply panels I would have to bog it up and that would defeat the exercise!
Steve,
I think there was also some Swiss cheesed 1969 cars, and much interior stripping, maybe cutting out weight also in areas not so easy to see? Imagine trying to weld a new roof onto the a thin steel acid dipped body, the welder would be blowing holes in the thin steel like there was no tomorrow.
John you are right 20kg could possibly be a make or break back then.
With my FIA Falcon build there is about 35Kg saving on all the Fiber panels vs steel, not so much on the doors. I guess with the FIA aluminum bumpers it may be another 10-15kg on top of that.They also had lightweight touring seats in 64' guess another 15kg there, the factory seats are heavy.Also maybe another 5-7 kg with Poly-carbonate windows. But the roll cage makes up for quite a lot. Back in 1964 these cars had no roll cage, as did many.
Cheers to all
OK Paul thats enough on the car losing weight...now what about the driver.
How does you height, weight, body mass etc stack up, adding to that the RHR , balaclava, gloves sox ......
Be like a 10 speed MAMIL..(middle age man in lycra)...remove all hair from body, change lead teeth fillings to light weight compound..the list goes on
Well John all my hair fell out, shaved the rest off, so saved about 500g there, Teeth have already been done, before each race I cut my nails 5g, wear the lightest clothes which gives me a race weight of 76kg, so watchout I'm a lean mean machine!