OMFG!!
Rob, that looks awesome man.
Really good style for the car. Old school style with a touch of modern....perfect.

Engine bay is unreal too mate, love it, love it all.

Jeff

just they look different in the top pic or are they some others you tried?..... 1200 is a bit!!

Nup, they the same ones!!

Love how the rims look Rob, mint choice

Hey there, been a while but I've been a busy boy the last few months.
Alas, I am a lazy bastard and can't be bothered anymore shifting gears with my hand and getting an "Arnie" size left leg pushing down on that clutch pedal, so I've done the deed and put a slushbox in the the old girl. Who'd have thunk there was a device that could shift gears for you. Hey, this might become popular in the future
That pedal box was a right prick of a job let me tell you, old plastic dashes are brittle and explode on contact you know. And to have to rip up the new carpet and sound deadener to change the shifter hump was just sucky!
A sparkly newish(30yr old) auto console has also found a new home in the black luxury called my interior

I have aquired a Dimmoff rebuilt FMX (to keep with the 351 theme) with a 2500 "more" stall and a new powder coated tailshaft which have now both been surgically transplanted into my XC by my own craftsman like hands with the help of a few bourbons.
A Large trans cooler with temp controlled fan and braided lines have also adorned the front of the Radiator.

At the same time the old gay exhaust found its way into a metrosexual's art sculpture to make way for some ceramic coated extractors and a custom made s/s exhaust (including handmade mufflers) to be fittted by "Butler built Exhausts" in Welshpool. I don't know how much this is gonna cost but my butt is all lubed up ready for the reaming

The story doesn't end there. (don't get up, there's more) Ive also ditched the "ARMSTRONG" steering to make way for some power steer of the limo style. The power steering pump and alternator will be custom jobbies made up by me and will run a auto tensioned serpentine setup like that found on late model Falcs and Commos. The P/S will also get a large PWR cooler to stop the steering box bubbling away next to that sweet new exhaust (coated or not)

Unfortunatly I have no photos yet as it has taken me months just to actually commit to do this post, let alone the conversion.
Do not cry for there is salvation, when the exhaust comes back and the p/s is fitted there will be a select few photo's ready for your perusal and admiration.


Yours (or not)
Rob aka Aranciafalcon

sounds awesome Rob! I eagerly await the piccies!

Wow! Cool stuff man!

Alrighty, here's a few shots I took with my phone today. Haven't quite finished everything yet......

Here's the auto trans cooler with fan mounted in front of the radiator. Still have to wire it into the wiring harness. The braided lines run under the pass side of the motor and gearbox attached with "P"clamps in numerous places to keep them away from the exhaust.


Here's a shot of the power steering cooler, no fan on this but it is quite large so should do the job quite well. I still have to run the hoses. These will run down the drivers side to the box and across to the pump.


Heres a under side shot of the new reduction starter motor and the auto in place, you can see the passenger side headers off behind the box

heres another showing the drivers side headers, (Shiney shiney sha sha sha shiney!!!!)

heres a photo showing how much ground clearance I have under the car with the pipes fitted, no probs plenty of room. You can also see the custom collectors and flanges I had made up before they were ceramic coated for ease of removal of the exhaust later if I need to..

This is a close up of the passenger side headers, not much room between these and the towers. They were a absolute biatch to fit....

Still more to come later..
I have decided not to custom make the power steering pulleys and belt setup as I have realised that I AM A LAZY S.O.B. I have obtained a standard setup which will fit a lot easier and won't hurt my brain so much,(need to find a big bowl of enthusiasm for later)

Rob
aka Aranciafalcon

im assuming you changed out the whole pedal box? cant you just rip the pedal off on the old fords....

looking very good there

Nice work rob. Clean work as always!

Yes I swapped the whole pedal box assy over. not only do I have to get rid of the clutch pedal but the brake pedal is different to the manual so its easier to just change the whole lot over than to piss fart around with pins,wave washers etc springs etc

Hi there, got some updates for you.

Finally got the auto and power steer in the XC over the last few weeks.

Here is the interior with the auto console I restored. You can also see the auto brake pedal is fitted up aswell

Another photo of the console. I picked this console up from another car, (green ugghh) stripped it down and I redyed the plastic in black. My original manual console is factory black, so I will convert that one to auto and refit it later on.


Heres the power steering pump fitted up with a custom mounting bracket. I needed a bolt 7/16 UNC, 6&1/2" long to mount the pump onto the passanger side head but alas my parts cupboard was bare. SO I grabbed a larger metric size bolt and machined it down to the right size and threaded it in UNC and BINGO! Custom bolt!!

Heres the pump from another angle. Because I had to mount the pump as close to the block as possible to clear the MSD the high pressure hose fouled on the old Z9/AFL1 oil filter. I got rid of that old clunker and saved a few hundred kilos, matched up a smaller filter with the same thread and seal size and fittted that instead. Plenty of room there now!! The new filter looks so tiny compared to what you would normally see poking out the side of a Clevo but it has the same dimensions as a 6.0L LS1 filter so filtration and flow are not an issue. The service regime it sees means the oil is still clear when I dump it anyway.


The true Ford diehards will realise that that is not the standard power steering pump that came out on the XC. This pump has been salvaged from a much later model Ford and rebuilt, way more efficient and quieter than the old barrel unit.

Heres a shot of the coolers all mounted up

The silver PWR cooler is for the power steering and the one on the right is fan cooled for the auto. You can also see the braided lines that run off to the trans.(sorry the picture is abit dark)
The only thing now is to wait for the exhaust builder to fit me in to his tight schedule (two weeks away) and she'll be a goer.

I already drove it around the workshop carpark to check for leaks and it sounds mean with just the open pipes.

The stall sounds a bit higher than what I was expecting but It hasen't driven down the road in a realist situation yet..

This waiting is really shiddinn me orff, I just wanna drive it!!!!!



Aranciafalcon........

Top work mate.Looks great.

Thats some real nice work right there!!

Rob, top notch work! (as always!!)