Hey guys, my XG ute I have had for the past 5 years was looking a bit tired... I was faced with the decision, "do I upgrade to a newer ute, or keep the old one". I was quite fond of the XG and it had a recond engine, J3 chip and I had pretty much replaced everything on the engine sensor wise. I also had a recond t5 EA box sitting in the shed for when my crappy box with worn shaft noise finally lets go. I knew this car inside out so I decided I would spend my money fix up the XG as they don't make cars like they used too...

I had recently taught myself spray painting on our 2005 for territory that my mrs was nice enough to graze the letterbox and manage to get a dent plus massive scrap marks across both the passenger doors. There was also a dent in the boot and rear bumper that happened at her work shortly after we got it. Anyways to cut a long story short I painted both the passenger doors, boot and rear bumper in acrylic. (I didnt feel like inhaling isocarcygens in my backyard by spraying 2 pac). It turned out a treat and my mates cannot believe that I painted it as it is impossible to tell. I can see the imperfections but I guess thats just because I was the one who painted it....

Anyways so I went down to the local paint store and grabbed 4L of acrylic Ford Blueprint paint as I thought this would go well on the XG and I always liked the colour on the BA's. I also grabbed 4 L of clear and all the other gear that would be needed to do the respray...

I started to strip down the ute and take off all the mouldings, lights, bumpers etc. This is where I have got to so far. I have spent about 1 day stripping the car on the outside.



I then decided that I would do the CAB EXTENSION mod as it gives heaps more room on the inside and I am sick of my head pretty much touching the roof because I am 6"3. I thought it would be a great time to do this as I don't really need my ute as I get to take my work truck home. So I began taking apart the inside, before I knew it i had removed all the mouldings and carpet on the back panel along with the roof lining (I did this because I needed a new roof lining and I am planning on going black carpet and black roof lining and get the seats retrimmed to change the interior colour scheme. The only PAIN IN THE $@# was the mouldings that go around the little triangle windows, they had been siliconed on when they put the windows in!!! I spent ages trying to get it off with my stanley knife but I got there in the end.



I also popped out the rear window and I am going to hopefully get new tinted glass all the way around. When I ripped out the back window I found my first bit of "major" rust.........



I figured that once my mig welder arrives off ebay and I have worked out how to use it properly I should be able to just cut this out easily and weld on a new piece. So I was happy again...... UNTIL I SAW THIS!!!!!!! This was on the inside of the windscreen, on BOTH SIDES!! I don't understand how water has got in there and I really don't feel like ripping out the whole dash to find out how bad it actually is. I am planning on just grinding away as much as I can and then go the rust convertor. What do you guys think????



Anyways, tomorrow I am going to cut out the panel behind the seats for the cab extension mod. I'm not going to be welding in any braces as I read on here that it doesn't need any reinforcing. Well Sooty72 just used panel bog but left the parcel shelf there {DESCRIPTION} and Ash used extensive reinforcing on his commercial-sponsors-forum-f53/ash-s-351-xf-ute-t75186.html



I am planning on welding some same thickness sheet metal back in, in its place and cut the floor in the tray and just have that screwed down. I am still undecided whether I lose the parcel shelf or not!! I would like it gone but I am not sure if it will weaken the ute too much without reinforcing....

Well thats it for now. I am pretty much going to be going at this hammer and tongs over the next few weekends and hopefully have it finished by late september early october, but as we all know it could blow out to early next year lol.

I'll keep you guys update, I'll take some pics tomorrow when I cut out the back panel for the cab extension.

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Last edited by Saltez! on Sun May 12, 2013 11:48 am, edited 2 times in total.

Nice work Saltez! im very interested in the proress with this, the cabin extension is something ive been thinking of doing for a long time but engineering requirements in Vic have put me off doing it. I may get game some day soon so many pics and details will be handy and appreciated!

Thanks for the support Dahayes, you always seem to be on fordmods when I am doing something with my ute. Least I don't feel so alone now, hacking my ute to bits lol. I'll chuck up all the pics I can, if you have any questions let me know

As far as engineering requirements go, in SA as far as i know it needs to be engineered as well. However like most of the people on here, I'm just gonna take the chance, the fact is if I am going to get defected I'm gonna get defected anyways regardless of the Cab extension mod. I guess in SA we don't have to get a pink slip with new rego so no one will ever know......... as long as I do a good job that is and it all looks standard!

I cut the back panel out on the cab on the weekend and I am half way through grinding it back. I have bought a 180amp welder and its on its way. I'm gonna replace the metal with some 3mm thick stuff to give it a bit of extra strength. The standard metal that I cut out was around 2mm thick... I'm still deciding whether to weld in a support bar underneath the window. As I am welding this 3mm metal instead of the 2mm metal that I cut out, I'm thinking that will be strong enough. However I am know engineer!!! I'm just going off sooty's XH where he has had it panel bogged for the past 5 years with no worries. However he did leave the parcel shelf in........

Apparently my welder is taking 7 days to get here so maybe no more progress on the cab extension this weekend so I'll finish stripping the side chrome bars off the side of the tray and maybe rip off the doors and door hinges then star grinding out some surface rust and then priming! I'm a bit nervous about the welding because I haven't done it before. I am pretty handy with all the other power tools so I'm guessing I'll do an alright job with the mig welder. I'll just practice a bit first, just to make sure I'll do an alright job.

Anyways heres some pics of the progress.




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Well its been a while since I posted progress so here's the update.

So my welder arrived and I had my first go at welding in the 3mm sheet metal I bought for the replacement panel from behind the seat. After trial fitting the piece about 5 times, I finally got all the adjustments done and got it fitting in perfectly.



I then made sure I was happy where it was, marked the sides so I knew where to cut the floor and then put the floor in. I then marked the floor, cut that so now I had to pieces and put the front half and the new 3mm panel in and made sure it all fitted.



Once I was happy with this, I took it all out, ground all the surfaces back I needed to weld on so metal was exposed and then put it all back together again. I ground out all the rust in the front section and then used rust guard on it because once it was welded in, it could never be removed again. I then used hex screws and bolted the floor down into position. I then got to crank out the welder for the first time. Here's how it went.



It all went pretty easy once I worked out the technique. It was a large area to weld for a beginner, I would definitely recommend getting 3mm sheet metal as it is pretty much impossible to blow holes in. The normal automotive panel stuff blows holes really easy. I pooled the weld on the 3mm panel and then brought it down onto the automotive panel and this stopped holes being blown in the floor panel and the sides. Welding the bottom section was easy. the sides where tricky when it got towards the top and the top wasn't too bad.

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As my welding was somewhat beginnerish I decided I would buy some automotive seam sealer to fill in all the tiny holes in the weld. The seam sealer can be painted over and is waterproof. It cost me about 32 bucks from my local car store. I painted it on the inside and on the outside to make sure it was completely waterproof inside and out.

Once it had dried I then went over with my trusty rust guard paint. This paint doesnt need priming, it goes straight on bare metal and gives it a hard coating, it doesn't even need top coating and comes in various colours. Definitely speeds things up. This paint is enamel so I had to be careful because I am respraying my car in acrylic and as we all know Enamel can be painted over acrylic, but acrylic can't be painted over enamel because it mass crows feets lol. I made sure I didn't go near any edges of anywhere I would paint with acrylic and once the car has been painted I will then touch up with the enamel. Here's a pic of it with the rust guard paint on it, with it all sealed up.



I still have to weld up the little drainage holes on the inside so then the cab is sealed from the fuel tank area. This is important because it will insulate from the noise of the fuel pump and also protect me from the gas produced by the battery I am going to relocate under the tray as well.

Now I had to work on the outside floor panel bit. It had a gap like this between the new panel.



I decided I would cut some more of my 3mm sheet metal and make a lip on it so that I could put some weather sealing tape or rubber stripping on the outside to seal water, dirt, sand or whatever your carrying in the back from falling onto the fuel tank and under the floor. Just make sure that when you weld on this 3mm sheet metal you actually take 3mm off the floor panel. I didn't do this and had to grind off my tack welds after I realised it didn't fit. Seems really obvious now, I must have been having a "moment".

Anyways here is the lip tack welded on. Its not the best picture but it gives you an idea.



Tonight I got the strip welded on properly and now I just have to wire brush it, round off the edges and paint it, then screw it back down into place. Hopefully that will be done tomorrow if I finish work early enough.

It was a relief getting the floor in because I am so much closer to starting the actually dent/rust repair and then the respray!!! Hopefully by the weekend the cab extension will be completely finished. It will be great to see how it all looks once I have my interior in there!!!!

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Good work! It's good to see anothe rcab extension being done. Pretty straight forward once you get started, huh?
Just to clarify, I didnt leave the parcel shelf there, the new panel is the same level as the rear window, and straight down to the floor. The lip you can see was left to add a bit of rigidity, and I have added a filler strip, made of timber above it, and will carpet over the lot, so it will look stock.

Also, the rear panel is not just "bogged" in place, the sealer used is a professional body panel joiner, as used to hold the turrets and firewalls, etc, in new cars. We always re-use the original rear panel, to keep it looking stock, so no one asks too many questions.

Using the 3mm sheet is a good idea, looks nice and strong, but it doesnt have any shape to it, so watch it doesn't become a giant wobble board. Just an idea, but if using that material, maybe fold a lip on the bottom edge, so the rear floor section has something to sit on.

Keep the updates coming, your doing great.
Cheers,
Grant.

Hey Grant, yeah once you get started it is pretty straight forward. I think the hardest part is cutting out the original panel because once you have done that you are committed!!!

Sorry I was wrong about the parcel shelf, I couldn't see from the pictures you had clearly if it was gone or if it was still there. Once I had started it, it was pretty obvious that you cut it out I also left about a 5mm lip like you did where the parcel shelf used to be. I decided to weld this together as when you pushed on it you could see the panels move and separate.

Rather than fold the 3mm metal as I didn't have the tools to bend it because its so thick. I just cut it so it was sitting on the middle beam that separates the fuel tank side to the other side. This allowed me then to cut the floor and weld it where it met the 3mm sheet metal. The only down fall of this idea is that you cannot paint the underside of where you welded because the fuel tank is there. I tried to get the spray can in there as best I could but I don't think I got it all. Oh well hopefully it wont rust too fast.

Did I say panel bog.... Whoops, I knew you used the panel beaters panel glue but must of written bog, sorry about that. Of course bog would never hold it or seal it so if anyone is reading this. DO NOT USE BODY FILLER (bog)

The 3mm sheet metal is pretty thick, i don't think it will become a wobble board, but you never know! It is a definite improvement on the very thin original panel, it also makes welding sooooo much easier. I was worried about how the sheetmetal didn't look "stock" but once I had painted it all up and got everything fitted, I don't think it will cause any problems. Take a look in the pic below.



Also I went to bunnings today and got some weather stripping for the underside of the panel which covers the fuel tank. I removed the old stuff when I was grinding out the rust that was there. I also put some along the lip that I welded on the panel which covers the fuel tank so that it would stop crap from falling into the bottom compartment. I was very happy how it turned out!

Now I am just busy grinding away and welding up the rust holes in the rear window. Fun fun fun! I managed to get all the rust pretty much out, only very minor pitting left and then coated with a rust convertor and sealer. I am letting it dry over night and then will be etch priming and then priming tomorrow.

I am also going to make a start welding up all the holes on the side of my tray for the tonne cover clips and for the chrome rails I had going down the side of the ute. Sorry about the crap pic its the only one I had on the computer, you can see the holes that I am talking about. Anyways I image that will take me pretty much all of tomorrow so thats my weekend sorted



Thanks for the encouragement Grant. Its good to get the support to keep me motivated!!! It was actually reading your post on here which gave me the idea to do the cab extension. I think if I couldn't have extended the cab I was going to sell the car and upgrade to something with more room like an AU. So cheers!!!!

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Hey Guys,

Well I haven't been posting on here much lately, just been flat out in the shed, every spare moment I have had. Pretty much put my life on hold for the last 6 months finishing this car. But it was worth it. I finally finished it!!!!! I did all the work myself, all the interior, spray painting and body work. I'm pretty happy with it but being the perfectionist that I am, every little blemish in the body work irritates me just a little, even though I am the only one who can see it. I just wanted to finish it towards the end, I didn't want it to end up as one of those projects that I never seem to get around to.

I have pretty much done very mod I could think of to my old crusty white XG. Did the cab extension, Xh rear bumper, clear indicators, hard lid, removal of tonneau clips, Au centre console, BBM instead of log manifold, customer 3" mandral bent intake, j3 chip, charcoal carpet, new roof lining, custom sub and speaker boxes, blueprint colour and 18inch FG GT rims in a polished finish. There isnt too much more to go, I have a wade 1673 cam sitting in the shed, along with some thermo fans and a recon T5 cause my gear box has mega shaft noise (rattles under load).

In the future i'll get the cam and thermo's in there, lighten the fly wheel with a HD clutch, maybe go 3:45lsd (with the EA 5sp will work well) and im thinking of going supercharged just so I dont have the headache of intercooler piping and welding the drain line in the sump. But here's some pics for you to enjoy, I have more pics of the build saved on my computer if your interested in the step by step.

Also bonus points will go to who can guess where these photo's where taken!! Everyone has heard of this place, if you need a hint ask







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MMmm, busy boy . . . .
If you can , some interior pics would be great to see.

What exterior paint did you use ?? Acrylic ??

Mmmm interior pics I don't have! I'll go take some tomorrow and chuck them up.

The paint I used was just acrylic paint as I could do this at home safely with just a carbon filter respirator without giving myself cancer from the nasty fumes that 2 pac gives off. I'm finding that the acrylic paint is definitely not as tough as the 2 pac paint thats for sure. But still, keeping up with waxing it should look good for the next 5-8 years.

If I was to do it again I would definitely consider 2pac paint but most likely would be too cheap to pay someone else to do it so I would probably end up doing it in acrylic again!

wow what a transformation, did you spray the door jams and engine bay? i know the amount of work you put in to it i did a colour change last year its like a never ending cycle of sanding

keep up the good work mate the ute is looking great.

Yeah mate, took the doors off, front guards off, bumper off, bonnet off and pretty much everything that unbolted. So i sprayed the door jambs and even that little bit behind your seat, underneathe the rear window. With the engine bay I just put some plastic over the engine and painted around the engine bay, so yeah thats still white but with the surrounding area painted blue its not that bad.

I even did the inside of the front guards, insides of the doors, underneathe the bonnet pretty much a full colour change apart from the engine bay.

I don't understand how people can do closed door acrylic resprays because when paint would get in between the door and the door jambs it would just dry spray and look crap. With 2 pac it would probably go alright.

Your right, heaps of work doing it but I reckon I could do it in half the time now since I have 1 already under my belt. Its a pretty good feeling taking your whole car apart and putting it all back together so that you know how it all works. The only thing I didn't enjoy doing was when my heater core broke when I was trying to remove the heater hose so I could move some stuff around in the engine bay, e.g Coolant over flow is now where the air intake box was, the battery is now underneathe the tray in the back and the air intake now goes where the battery used to be.

I reckon the whole project took me a full 64 days to complete if I was to work consecutively 1 day after the other. So that might give some guys an idea about how long something like this takes, if there was no panel beating, welding and rust removal you could probably cut that down by about half. Remember I did all the interior as well and did the cab extension, every little thing you do just keeps on adding more and more time!


Did your XD have hardcore rust in the A pillars next to the front window?

Awesome transformation. So thats what those wheels look like. Now should I get a set for my EL...

Took some quick interior pics, you can see how just changing the carpet and going the grey au centre console makes a huge difference, the gear stick boot doesnt fit properly and the gear stick now seems to long so I'm gonna have a hunt for a BA manual stick which is apparently 2 inches shorter or so, that will be heeeeaps better. The roof lining is also new with a different texture which looks kinda coool also, pretty easy to install, just need 2 people for the start and then once u have got it going then u can pretty much do it yourself.

I am sort of wondering why I did the cab extension cause i decided to make a sub box and throw in my sub woofer I had lol. Even with it in there I am still heaps lower from the roof so I guess it still is worth while. Also when I have a fat friend in the front (no offence to anyone out there), they wont have their face mashed against the windscreen on the passenger side. You XD-XG boys will know what I mean. Those cars didnt seem to fit us taller creatures properly, but with the cab extension it makes it an awesome car.

Only regret I have with the cab extension was not cutting off those tabs near the rear quarter windows, I thought they would look ok, but I have seen one done with those taken off and they look heaps better. Its just a pain to cut those off cause there isn't much roof and its on a curve.

I'll get off my a** and take a pic of the engine bay next, see if I can get some idea's of how to fix my intake as the people who welded it up for me put a massive K&N pod filter on it, which in my opinion is mass over kill and now it sucks hot air from the front of the engine.





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Oh yeah, those seat covers are kinda crap, my seats are in hell bad nick, I gotta either get them re upholstered or go for some more sporty type bucket seats.

So if anyone knows of any nice seats for sale, let me know

Last edited by Saltez! on Fri Apr 05, 2013 2:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.