Boxed structures part 1

Continued with the right side boxed structure under the fender. Before taking the photo I have already removed the plastic filler someone had used here to fill the rust holes.

The reinforcement sheet in front had to be removed.

Here we can see the 1,2mm sheet is rusted through. The rusted section is next to be removed.

..and again the 1,5mm structure is gone at the rear joint where three layers of sheets have been spot welded together. I have already started opening the layers in the photo. After cutting the rusted section off it was a straightforward task to make a new piece and start putting things back.

 

Fits nicely doesn't it.

I thought I'll just fix a wheel bearing

I returned recently from New Zealand and brought a new stub axle, front brake rotors including hubs, set of pads etc. from there. The stubs that were installed when buying the car were ruined by some of the previous owners. It looked like someone had tried to fit wrong sized wheel bearings with an angle grinder. I had already changed the left side stub axle and hub and started to change the right side this time.

At this point I felt I just must do something for the rusting body. The car looked sad. Notice the driver's door misalignment as a result of the damage during the shipping and quick fix after that.

The car leaned a bit and I wanted to check the condition of rear leaf springs. I removed them and took them to the workshop, which was the right thing because the other master leaf was halfway cracked cut. New master leafs were made, one extra leaf inserted per side and the rest renewed.

 

 

While working there near the fuel tank I noticed a small fuel tube leak. Emptied the tank and removed it. The tank was actually in good condition, just needed cleaning and a new protective paint.

Now back to the rusting body. First welded patches for years.

And then the other side, which was a bit worse.

I hope the rest will go as well as this one.

Blogtime

Hi,

It's about time to start writing a separate blog rather than spamming my Facebook friends feed with project updates.

This blog is about the Finnish Falcon - the only Ford Falcon XA GT Hardtop in Finland. The car that was made in Australia in 1973 as one of the 893 XA GT Hardtops, exported to UK as started it's miles as a company car owned by Evertons Coaches Ltd, Chapel Bridge, Droitwich, UK. After several owners and two color changes the car was offered to me as I had sent a wanted-ad to Custom Car UK magazine. It was November 1999 me and Mika flew over to the UK and took the most frightening coach ride to from Heathrow to Cheltenham we have ever had. There we met Les who had the car at his backyard as the current owner had moved to Canada and left the car to be sold.

One of the printed photos that was sent to me prior our trip to UK - I was already sold.

From there Les offered us a trailer ride to the Felixstowe port from where the car was shipped to Helsinki, Finland. We left the car there and flew back to Finland for the ship to arrive.

Unfortunately the driver's door was bent over it's hinges during the shipping. The automatic transmission was changed recently and the floor shifter boot wasn't attached to the body frame at all. That made it possible to have the shifter display at P while the actual selected gear position was R. The driver's door was wide open at the moment the stevedore started the engine. Luckily it was only a tractor tire which the door hit as the car jumped backwards and no personal injuries occurred. The door was bent but the damage was still  repairable. We quickly fixed the door, gave it some fresh mat black paint from a spray can and the car served as our wedding car in July 2000.

After that there was 15 years while I was just too busy with my other project cars, my loved family or building a house. The car was randomly driven but most of the time it have just sat in a garage. Of couse I have done something with it. Headwork for the engine which appeared to be the numbers match one. Suspension work, renewing the joints and bushings and wheel hubs and bearings etc. Now it's about time to start with the sheetmetal.