Yeah there is nothing better then being half hunched up , laying down at the same time with your head in a cavity with the sparks hitting you and the grinder three inches from your face!
Might just whip around the corner to the guy with his ute and do his for the love of it
Mine is not perfect but will do. Nothing a coat of black stone guard wont hide...oops sorry I mean fix!

Well the 4 days off work didnt happen as was promised and things have kept getting in the way , also I have had people royally screwing me about so physical progress is pretty much non existant.
Progress of the project is going fairly well.
Contacted the guy at the radiator place in Katoomba today who was meant to be sorting out a heater core for me. He had it all sitting up there for 2 frigging weeks and I had not heard a thing.
His reply was that he didnt know what to do about it as there was nothing off the shelf and he didnt know how to make one!!!!!!!!! I mean f**k he calls himself a radiator specialist and says there is nothing he cant do.
So this morning off I head to Katoomba , pick up my heater box and politely tell him what I think of his workshop.
I trundled off to North Richmond to the radiator place there that I used years ago and find its still the same guy running it. I explain the situation , show him the heater box and tell him what I want and his reply was TOO EASY! I will have to modify the plastic a little on return but it will be easy and it should be ready to go Thursday. So when I get that back I will go through and clean up , reaseal and basically recondition the heater box so thats off the list.
Best part is for the new heater core and the mods he only quoted me $240.
So hopefully now I will be one of the few that actually made an XF heater and aircon work with a V8 installed. If it all works the way its meant to it will be a very easy thing to setup.
Picked up a pair of these the other day.


They are pretty comfy and actually fit my rather rotund OBLONG shaped body rather well. Obviously another reason why Im keen to get the heater sorted out so I can finish in the engine bay and get to work getting the interior back together.
Pulled the gas system out of the donor car to find that the tank was out of date so that was dropped off today to be tested and should be right to go at the end of the week. A small set back but once its done it can be put in and hopefully there will be no reason to remove it.
A purchase on the weekend pretty took up most of a day by the time I picked it up and unloaded it and moved stuff around.
I was really depressed and to honest lost a lot of interest in the project when I found out that the other Clevo was not what I was hoping it would be. I had got a set of crank and rods and was in the process of getting the coin together to rebuild it.
The my beautiful wife was looking through ebay and ask if this 351 was of any use to me she found.
I spoke to the seller and he confirmed it was ok if I won it to drop the sump off it and check what it was before paying for it.
Well for some silly reason I was the only bidder and got it for $899 , so on Saturday me and the brother go for a drive. Well I drove and he celebrated Jack Daniels birthday ( that reminds me I must get all the cans out of his SS before he picks it back up tonight and he missus finds them. There would be at least a dozen just in the car alone)
Well the motor was on a heavy duty stand that come with it and we found a few surprises with it.
4MA Goodness


Factory 4 barrel square bore manifold

These are as rare as rocking horse s**t nowdays.

Baffled sump


780 Double Pumper


A pretty cool set of old school Holley Rocker covers


It also had a twin point Mallory dissy.
The guy knew not much about what has been done to it , he reckons he bought it this way and that it went pretty hard in his old XD.
The motor is a December 1972 job so who knows what bits the factory had lying around after the supercar scare. It is known that a lot of good bits were just filtered into production line cars to get rid of them. No idea about any of it but I will put it in and see how it goes and give it attention as required.
The 780 has already been listed on ebay and sold staright away so the motor has started paying for itself............LOL
Sunday consisted of working out what bits I had and what I needed to keep and getting stuff ready to get rid of so I can get some room back and some coins in the pocket.
My passion for it all has returned so I will getting into it whenever possible.
Im really hoping to at least be able to fire it up and back it out the driveway the weekend afetr the long weekend. It wont be finished by a long shot but I will be happy if I can once again move it without pushing it.

In physical progress to the ute well it has now got a disc brake rear end in it , still have to sort out the lines and handbrake cable.
Took longer then it should of due to having to stuff around fixing something that should never of been broken but lets not go there................................

Thanks Ash. The new 351 will be going in to it.
The other Black Clevo and crank and rods are currently on flea bay.
Im hoping in the end the motor upgrade doesnt cost too much out of pocket.

Too true. A 302 crank is the original white elephant.
I was actually going to use it to make a stool out of it once I was done with it.
The seat dont have rails so I will need to use another set of E series rails to adapt them to fit the ute. I dont want to pull the NA seats apart if I dont have to. Never know when they may be required again.

I have a pair of EF/EL GLi seats here with rails if you are interested, may not be any good for the XF but.

Cheers Paul but nah they wont work with the EF/EL rails being different to the EB ED ones.
Thanks anyway mate.

Do you have the old seats out of the XF? Could use the XF mounting feet with the EF rails

Nah the old original; seats went to the scrap metal yard with my old original blue fairmont.
The NA Fairlane seats that I put in the ute are still here but I dont want to pull them apart in anyway in case I need to put them back in sometime in the future.

i got the original seats from my ed that are currently sitting in my ea...
that will probably end up at the tip...

Thanks Troy. I think I have a set coming from Phill now. If anything changes Ill let you know.

Matt, I have the original ED seats, plus the Ute seats, if you want the rails. I am off til friday, let me know
Brett

s**t I have rails coming from everywhere...............LOL
Dunno guys whoever has a set I could possibly grab Friday night providing Im not putting anyone out.

Well getting back into it today. I took this week off to have a crack at the ute and its going to happen regardless of everything going on. I will just be taking minimal time out to do the other things I NEED to get done. Anything else will wait.

Had a busy day so far.
Sorted the rear brakelines and fitted them up and made up new locating tabs for the lines as EB and EF ones are totally different.
Fitted up the handbrake cable and Im pretty sure it will work once its hooked up at the front when the box is in.
Changed the rear shocks.
Fitted up the gas tank bracket and the tank.
Started relocating the battery to the cavity under the tray.
Started pulling out the old fuel system.
Getting as much done outside as I can as the rain is forcast to return but have set myself up a little position under cover so when the rain does make its unwelcome return I can work on sorting the 351 out getting it ready to fit and finish off modding the heater box.
Also have some seats to sort out.......................

Well with everything going on and some stuff not going write , looks like the ute will be on the backburner for a while.
See post1044880.html#p1044880 for further info..................................