^^

I, on the other hand think it's a great idea.
Thinking outside the "I've got a 'zorst, cam, chip and shiny wheels" theory of car mods. If it weren't for people like Philchars looking at new ideas like this we'd all be driving identical cars around!! So what if it's not everyone's cup of tea? It might turn out looking f**k' awesome (or f**k' awful ) but without someone having the balls to think outside the square we'll never find out.
As for is it possible? With enough $$ and time ANYTHING is possible. Personally I have no idea what would be involved, but if it's something you're keen on, I say GO FOR IT!

Exactly,

I was never a real AU guy but I never owned one until now! and I like them.. not really the Sedans but some look pretty good... I really like my BA XR6 and how it is to sit in and drive every time.... So i've always thought about upgrading my AU to a BA ute but im not really keen on the BA look anymore in the utes as everyone has them these days and its all the same.. Since i've only just asked the question i want to look into it and if it looks good enough I will try and find a Repairable ride off and start a crack at the conversion... and hopefully it will all pan out! anyway all it comes down to is it is basically an AU ute but it has the BA guts!


Phil.

BTW, Great sig. I won't be able to watch that scene on 'Band of Brothers' with a straight face again. "Go get 'em Bo Bo!!"

I must admit I first thought WTF??????????? but yeh, people can do what they want to their own car, dare to be different etc... I wouldn't do this now cos they are too expensive these days to F**k with but when I was younger I always wanted to take an XA-C coupe shell and fit XR - XY front sheetmetal, taillights, even side panel treatment - particularly either an XR look in gold GT type treatment or the more predictable XY shaker...it would involve lots of work and might end up looking shyte but it would be different...

I often find myself looking at AU's (my brother had 2, now has a BA XR6, he swears by them) and trying to get past the obvious question ` why is this car SO pig ugly?' and you know what I think is the real problem? Its not the weird lights front and back (those new Mercedes that look like a bent banana basically have a similar light treatment and look good..) - the problem, I think, is the roof, particularly the C pillar / rear door cutout shape - its just (I stress, in MY opinion) wrong...

I'd like to take an AU, slice the roof off and fit a different roof - maybe EF/L, maybe even Vr or VT Commode roof - just get rid of that oddball curvy look to the top of the windscreen and that C pillar. (I think I've mentioned on here before the one time I drove an AU cab I actually had the designer and his wife and daughter on board - only found that out AFTER I'd described how weird I thought the design was..)


PS Sorry AU owners !!! I DO like that they are different, but if ever I buy one, out will come the sawzall and angle grinder.....

You are on a track with that one man,
As you say the "banana bend" shape is what kills them now I think of it too, The bonnet, roof and boot all curve too much.
I reckon with a el roof to make it look "flatter" on top might make it look a little less ugly.

Edit, holy s**t balls! You had the designer of the AU in your cab and was telling them how ugly it was!!! Haahahaha that's classic man!

yeh, picked him, his wife and daughter up at the airport, like I say, the ONLY time I drove an AU cab..we went about 1 and a 1/2 hours to where they needed to go in the hills so got quite chatty. He was behind me, wife in the back, and the daughter (quite cute actually) riding shotgun. Out of the blue (we hadn't talked cars at all up to that point ) she goes `so, what do you think of the AU?' - I was taken aback, didn't expect this cute little chick to even know what brand of car she was in let alone the model, so I said `it drives quite nice, only problem is you have to walk up to it backward so you don't have to look at it..' She just goes BAHAHAHA till she's got tears in her eyes, then goes `ha! my dad designed it!!!' I looked in the rearview at his face and thought he was going to either kill me or burst into tears...cutie then went on at great length about how she brings the subject up at every available opportunity , and how her dad's tastebuds are in his a*** etc...I can see by the look on his face that she's not lying, either...poor fellah!

Thank christ someone at tickford designed the TS50 then. They are nice.

Hey, check out this link -- it should tell you what you need to know and unlike the 10K someone mentioned, its only a quarter of that price. {DESCRIPTION}

I still get one hell of a laugh from that story, it's an all time classic!!
Were cabs fitted with cameras back then? Cos that would have been as funny as hell to see.

Thats gold!

I'd like to see the other designs they turned down if that was the one they liked.

There was a lot of different stuff ford designed and didn't release, I got a pic of a clay model "TX7 EA", and one of the first concept drawings for the EA, pumped rear gaurds similar to the VL Director body kit!

So much lost potential...

Just had a crack on paintshop, don't really like it. Maybe my paintshop skills are just sh!t, but here goes.

Not a bad paintshop job,
someone should give it a really good go (match colour etc)
but from just that.....it dosnt look too bad actually, I think the BA rear fixes the lines in a way.

^^^
I agree. I think it looks alright. Makes you look twice at it, as if you don't quite believe what you have seen.
And I like that sort of thing in car mods, makes you appreciate the effort involved and draws you in to take a closer look. I think it's worth a shot Phil.

will have the same lines but mismatched front/rear as putting an EF gli front on an EB body

That looks alright, i would like to see if anyone could do a good job at photoshop... but that is a good effort.....