You saw the wife's, here's mine *Update* with pics

[Convertible 5.0]

Re: You saw the wife's, here's mine

I happened to catch that movie purely by accident. It was late one night, around midnight, not long after Dukes of Hazzard started, and I was flipping through the channels and saw the title come on. At first I thought it was going to be a space movie so I decided to watch it. I soon learned it wasn't going to be a space movie but by then I was caught up in the story. Then when I saw the General I thought "Aaaaahhhh......this has to be where the idea came from. There was even an Uncle Jessie. It was kinda like a parallel universe thing.

Ha.. never knew that either.. or if I did. I forgot it. You're my brothers age. I'm 6 years younger.

The Falcons in Australia in the 60's looked almost identical to the Falcons here. When Ford was coming out with the Torino they told Australia that this was going to be their new Falcon. The Australians knew that was not going to do well in their market so, without going into much detail, they designed their own new Falcon. Dearborn was so impressed that they granted Ford Australia their own design department after that. The XA Falcon was born, which look just like mine only the front end is slightly different and the tail lights are different.

Yea. I had a forum website for several years that I ran based on the falcon that drew a little attention. I would have Aussie people pop in their falcons all the time. Cool machines.

 

[Dalamar]

Re: You saw the wife's, here's mine

That's awsome man!
Please keep us posted as you progress on it.
Very cool to build something so rare like that.

 

[Mr. OAM]

Re: You saw the wife's, here's mine

Thanks Dalamar.


I had entertained thoughts of getting another one that I would keep stock, but then I thought......how do you decide which one to take out?? I couldn't figure out an answer to that question so I figured I'd just forget it.

I believe in 1969 the 4 door Falcon GTHO sedan, I think that was the XY model, was the fastest sedan in the world with the Phase III 351C engine. One of these just sold this year at auction for $750,000 AU.

Starting with the XB GT you got a 4V (venturi) 351C engine (Originally imported from the Cleveland, Ohio plant, later produced in Australia), toploader 4 speed tranny, and 9" axle with REAR DISC BRAKES. They even had a single shoulder/lap belt like on modern cars and even had these belts in the back seat. This was 1973 and we didn't see these kinds of belts in the backseats of American cars until the 1990's. Also the rear discs were only available on Lincolns at first in the US. It was quite a while later before you could get them on other Ford cars.


Steve

 

[Matt94GT]

Re: You saw the wife's, here's mine

Sweet ride I saw a few of them while I was over in Aussie land! I love the new XR8 Falcons too. Badass!

 

[Mr. OAM]

Re: You saw the wife's, here's mine

Ford Australia is going to build left hand drive Falcons for export, if they haven't started already. Expect to see them this way someday. I sure would like to see the Super Pursuit Ute come here, renamed a Ranchero GT with the 32 valve 5.4L engine.


Steve

 

[S.O.B.]

Re: You saw the wife's, here's mine

Very cool car! I can see similar lines to the 70/71 Torino, but different too. The Aussie's do have cars that I would love to have here in the states.

 

[94darkhorse]

Re: You saw the wife's, here's mine

Cool car.

 

[Mr. OAM]

Re: You saw the wife's, here's mine

Thanks guys.

These cars often get mistaken as some kind of Torino because they have the egg crate across the back like a Torino, even though the inserts are very different, and they have a Torino-ish look in the rear quarter and back end areas, but the two cars are actually like night and day when you put them next to each other. The hood appears like the one from the 71 - 73 Mustang but they are different and not interchangeable. No body panel on the Aussie Falcon is interchangeable with any other car in the world. A lot of the cars in Australia have a "parallel universe" kinda look.

Here's another picture from the website about my car. This was after I fabbed shackles for the rear like the car in the movie has and also replaced the front springs. I got Torino springs but had to cut a whole coil out of them to get the height right. More evidence of the difference between the cars.

Steve

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[elcapitan1987]

Re: You saw the wife's, here's mine

Wow thats cool. Just curious...How much was shipping from Australia to the U.S.? and how long did that take?

 

[Mr. OAM]

Re: You saw the wife's, here's mine

The price of the car was all inclusive. Right now I hear shipping is $3,000 - $4,000. I bought the car in December of 2003. It arrived in September of 2004 only because the car was far away from where the company operates out of. They were waiting for another car to be bought in the same area (mine was neing stored in that area) so that the two could ship in one container from that port, saving on shipping costs. After the car actually shipped it arrived in about 3 - 3 1/2 weeks into Portland, Oregon. From there it was another week by truck to my house.

Below is the first picture I ever saw of my car. This was sent to me after I was called and asked a couple questions about some exceptions. After I said I would take a car with other stipulations I was sent this picture as a possibility to fill my needs. It did!!! It looks that blue because I enhanced the picture thinking the color was off. The way you see the car in the second pic is actual color.

The other picture with the exhaust coming out is after my car landed in the US and had gone through customs. I was sent pictures of every step of the way. That was great!

Steve

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[Mr. OAM]

Update with pics

This past Labor Day weekend I was able to get some more work done as I work towards getting it ready for blasting and then epoxy primer. I am enclosing before and after pics of the work I got done.

Basically I removed the steering column and everything behind the dash such as the pedals, heater box, wire harnesses, and some more ducting. In the engine compartment I removed the headers, power brake booster and master, hydraulic clutch system, Toploader tranny, and a few odds and ends.

Steve

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