Geoff House of Powerhouse Ford in Cairns is making good headway with the full nut and bolt restoration of the factory K Code XY Falcon 500. We pick up with Geoff as the underside of the car gets the full resto treatment.

Geoff tells us, "Now that the body shell is all painted, it's time to prepare the underside. Firstly it is hand painted in Dulux Durebild STE - a two-part epoxy protective coating - and usually used in heavy industrial constructions such as oil rigs etc. But don't let that put anyone off - it is as hard and damage resistant as you will get, and it is not thick and unsightly.

A flat stoneguard is then applied over the top of the STE.

Meanwhile the engine, gearbox, and diff are rebuilt and readied.
A couple of episodes back, it was suggested that the old Falcon 500 could probably do with a bit of a boost in a couple of areas. Well, it is now going as a 4V solid, and will get the full metal shaker and bonnet blackouts. Engine is basically fully assembled on the stand - including all the hang-offs - to make sure everything is all-ok - then reduced back to just the basic engine for installation.

The diff is bumped up to a 3.25 ratio to make better use of the larger solid cam, and the gearbox stays as a standard wide ratio unit.

The first parts fitted are always the underbody parts, such as the new 3/8 fuel line, all the suspension, and the re-cadded exhaust hangers etc.

Everything fitted is new. The only exceptions being the upper and lower control arms and the draglink - and these are blasted, painted and fitted with new parts also.

Once at this stage, there's not too much time involved in getting from here to on the road again !!

Geoff House.
Powerhouse Ford
Cairns
07 4092 7722

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