Looks awesome, great work!! I reckon the wagon would look epic on a set of 18" or 19" dark argents, as common as they are, dark wheels on a black car is full of win

what happened to the bonnet? wheels look small.

reading the thread actually helps...

he wasnt happy with the finished product so he stripped it back for more TLC

yeah i flikked back a few pages but couldnt be fkd reading 117 pages.too too long,i like to read peoples build thread at once,this one would take me afew hours lol.

Body Kit Progress 6

For the last two weeks I have been finding time here and there to get bits done on the front bar.

After I had to strip the paint off the top of the bar, I primed it with plastic primer before using normal primer a few days later. I also went over the bar with blade putty filling in all the pin holes that fibreglass leaves and a few other blemishes.





Unfortunately, I got a tad over exuberant with the sander and went through too much material resulting in a weakness.



I had a chat with SWC and he said " I can fix that in an hour", but I wouldn't have time to re do the prep and then paint it before All Ford Day on the 31st July. We agreed it would be best to get some paint on it and do the repair when we have more time.

This meant I didn't need to be quite so fussy with the prep work, so I forged ahead.

I went over the bar a second time with primer and blade putty during last week, using that 1 hour of daylight I had left after getting home from work.

Yesterday I was able to hit it one last time with primer and gave the bar one final rub down with wet and dry. The weather has been crap but the sun poked through the clouds for an hour or two.

Today, the weather here in Sydney was a bit hit and miss, but at approx 10.30am the sun once again showed up.

I was able to lay down a couple of coats of Jet Black and give it time to dry enough to be rubbed back with 400 wet and dry paper.



I then grabbed the Black Pearl and got a good colour coat on the bar. A few hours of dry time, and I spent some of that removing chrome strips from the ED Ghia front bar, removing the old BA XT bar, swapping over horns, chassis mounts, installing bolts for the reo support and spacing out the factory mounts so the wheel arch would marry up better with the front flares.

This is the result.











I am very happy with the gloss finish off the gun, and considering I have not clear coated it, it has come up really well. Certainly good enough for the next couple of months.

Now, where did I put that XB bonnet?

Cheers
BenJ

s**t I do good work.........

That has come up really good off the gun, nice work there BenJ! The front bar looks real good. Inspirational.

Cheers

ToranaGuy

Hmmm... no wonder I was thinking about an XR bar for my NF a while ago - it looks great guys!

I then grabbed the Black Pearl and got a good colour coat on the bar. A few hours of dry time, and I spent some of that removing chrome strips from the ED Ghia front bar, removing the old BA XT bar, swapping over horns, chassis mounts, installing bolts for the reo support and spacing out the factory mounts so the wheel arch would marry up better with the front flares.

This is the result.



good work but now my wife wants one

Did you tell her you will wake up with a bar in the morning for her?

That front bar looks hot Ben. well done to you and SWC.

That looks fantastic! The BA bar really ties in with the BA headlamps.

Alternator - Chronic Failure

It's been raining here in Sydney, in case you didn't know.

So, I headed out last night with my wife, in the rain, with the wipers, lights, A/C, heater fan, thermo fans, and stereo on.

Got around the corner and the volt meter dropped to zero, the warning light came on, wipers slowed, and headlights dimmed.

Bugger - obvious alternator fail.

Headed straight back home and parked the wagon for the night.


Got up early this morning, well 8am ish, and swapped in a spare 110amp alternator I happened to have laying around. Still have a spare 100amp alternator too, just in case.

Started up the engine and checked the volt meter only to find it was reading at a steady 11volts.

Hmmm, that is odd.

A quick phone call to Troyman (thanks mate) and we tossed around a few ideas. Troyman said to check the voltage across the batter, and then from the back of the alternator to the earth terminal.

I discovered that the battery was only showing 12.4 volts but the alternator showed 15.1 volts. To me this said, the new alternator was working fine, but the power was fully not reaching the battery.

Troyman suggested the fusible links could be dodgy, and I concurred with his assessment.

I removed the drivers headlight to provide good access to the wiring and discovered the fusible link was fried, along with the wires connected to the power distribution block. I raided the ED Ghia and replaced both main fusible links.

All fixed once again.

Thinking back the old alternator used to be on the engine when in the Red Sedan, and at one time got drenched in power steering fluid. I am surprised it lasted this long.

Unfortunately, as the weather sucked all day, I was not able to work on the XB bonnet.

Until next time.

Cheers
BenJ

good to see the diagnosis was correct and you got it sorted mate..

That's a bummer, but at least you had spares & it's sorted.

Last time that happened to me I was more than 150kms from home, late at night, raining as well. Alternator "half died", I was getting 11.2v out of it. Not enough to charge the battery, run the wipers, headlights & demister, so I had to get creative to get home. One headlight, no wipers, demister was a hanky....made it tho, had a spare (well actually about 5) alternator at home to fit the next day.

Gotta love parts car's!

Cheers

ToranaGuy