As it likely did with us all, the news of the impending death of the Falcon caused me to do a bit of navel gazing. I'd been kicking around a few different ideas for a project for the last year or so and with the announcement that the end was nigh, I figured I had better get a move on. I have in the shed waiting an XD Wagon which Dad bought new when he found out that I was on the way but that will always be his car and when I start on that I will do it his way, this project was going to have to be something else.
I settled on going back to where my own Falcon story began, with an XF Falcon. My first car was an XF which I always had plans for but which never quite got there. Seeing as my daily is a G6ET, the project had to be an 8 which when it comes to XF's means you're likely going in the direction of a Windsor. Being somewhat of a Cleveland aficionado it was a tough call to make, but a change is as good as a holiday, right?
Given some of my other hobbies mean I need a bit of carrying space, and the FG didn't really tick that box, I went looking for a ute or a van, eventually finding a van at the right price.
http://www.fordlandau.com/xf/van.jpg
Borrowed a truck from work, went up checked it out and did the deal.
Once that was back I went looking for a donor vehicle for the driveline. I stumbled across an AU XR8 Ute at pickles which had the 200kw engine and a 5 speed manual so picked it up too.
http://www.fordlandau.com/xf/f1.jpghttp://www.fordlandau.com/xf/f3.jpghttp://www.fordlandau.com/xf/f4.jpg
Being as the car was in Tamworth I had no way of really checking it out before I bought it, so I crossed my finders and hoped for the best. The idea was to cut the crossmember and shock towers out of the XF, brace the chassis rails and then use the towers and engine cradle from the AU to swap over the front suspension, rack & pinion, brakes etc from the AU, however when it arrived the engine cradle seemed to have taken some of the impact, so I have shelved that idea for now.
http://www.fordlandau.com/xf/1.jpghttp://www.fordlandau.com/xf/2.jpghttp://www.fordlandau.com/xf/3.jpg
First step was to get the interior out of the AU and modify the dash to fit into the XF, I planned on doing this so that I could do the swapover and utilise more of the AU harness than the XF one, as the XF one had been hacked up a bit and was showing a few gremlins from the experience.
http://www.fordlandau.com/xf/5.jpghttp://www.fordlandau.com/xf/4.jpg
I don't seem to have any images from this bit, but I was able to use the heater box from the AU with the lid from the XF heater box and swap that straight in. Then I had to cut back the dash pad to reduce the depth to get the back of the dash/vent duct to meet up with the heater box.
After what seemed like 1000's of trial fits later, I had things more or less in the right shape. I cut the XF dash up a bit to get the demister ducting out of it, and it screws in just below the top surface of the AU dash, I just need to cut some slots through the crash pad and the demister will work and keep the powers that be happy in that regard. I was surprised at how similar the AU and XF firewalls were on the left hand side of the vehicle.
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The old engine and gearbox from the XF was the next to go, along with the wiring harness so I could start switching in the one from the AU. The harness on th right side of the engine bay that you see is the computer harness from the AU.
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Today it was the turn of the 5litre to come out of the AU. Oddly there were no bolts holding the left hand engine mount to the block.
http://www.fordlandau.com/xf/8.jpg
Next up is to change the engine mounts over on the Windsor and the mount plates in the engine bay. I have an XH ute which I am sourcing the fuel tank and fuel lines from which I haven't started to dismantle yet, but will get those bits in before I drop the 5L into the Van