The following are links to the restoration of my 1970 XW Falcon, purchased recently and in fairly good condition until I started uncovering bog! and lots of it too. The tools page has been moved by link too here.

My ultimate end would be this...

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This is Peter Geoghegans 'Super Falcon'. Although I don't expect to have a 600bhp V8 or even half the bits and bobs he had but I plan to have the overall effect. It's definately not going to be a faker shaker as I don't want people saying 'It's not a real one you know!' - yeah, I know. I'm just planning on something updated. Maybe slightly larger wheels, better brakes, (rear discs?), better engine with fuel injection, a few tweaks I have learnt along the hard road of race enigne preparation.

Please read this page [here] before attempting anything like this.

This is an attempt at a slightly different type of page. Trying out new techniques. It may seem like a mass of text and hard to read. I think a mixture of text and pictures is essential for easy web reading. Well, if you own a slow computer like mine and a dial-up connection it can take an age for pictures to download. So here's the difference. Every now and again there will be blue text in the paragraph. All you have to do is click the link and it will open a new window. This will contain the picture. Hopefully this will make it easier to read.There aren't any 'Close This Window' buttons so use the X on the top right of the window.

Well, here goes.

The Car.

Well it's a 1970 XW Ford Falcon. OK, I've always wanted a HQ but I was told to steer clear as they are more prone to rust, especially the floors. I wasn't looking at the time but went to a party and there it was. I'd seen a few around town but wasn't sure. I'd also seen a GTHO on an overseas trip a couple of years ago. I looked so aggressive even though it was simply parked on the side of the road.

The BOG.

As with most cars over 30 years old, they are bound to have a certain amount of rust, holes and filled parts. The car arrived and looked pretty straight and clean. Everything was fine until I tried to back it into the garage and wallop!! scrapped the front wing along a fence and exposed some bog on the wing. This I think was a small blessing.

The Front Wing.

Ah BOG city. I've never seen so much bog on one place. It was like the wing was in a horrible state and it was just covered in bog and then rubbed down to look just about right. To be honest, if I hadn't hit the fence I may never have known just how much bog there was.

A panel not repaired too well. With there being a sweeping curve from the top of the roof line to the top of the wheel arch. Looking at the one side it was fine but when looking a little closer you could see it wasn't even with the other side. I think it was repaired with a flat piece of metal and then filled with bog to try and make a small curve. It was TERRIBLE. I only found out by trying to rub it down to make the curve. I decided to chop out the awful piece of rust and weld in a new one, with the proper curve. After finding some suitable metal at a local sheetmetal shop, they let me have their off cuts which were BIG, I used the large radius tube to put a curve in it. After fiddling about I found almost the best fit. So, I decided to use an angle grinder and chop out the offending piece of metal. This also enabled the lower section to be beaten outwards as it had my rather large 'ding' in it. Be patient people, or if you are going to lose your rag don't carry a big hammer while you are. After cleaning up the edges, I set about welding in the new created panel. OK, I need help when welding but it fits and doesn't look half bad. You can see the newly fitted panel and also the next section ready to be fitted. In this picture you can make out the curve. In the other photo no curve can be seen. In this photo, the welds have been ground down but it still needs finishing.

Here you can see the new section to be welded in. There is now a curve and I think it looks good. In this photo you can see that there is still alot of work still to be done but looks more like the other side. After filling with the dreaded bog, loads of rubbing down and the priming I actually think it looks good.

The Rear Light Cluster Surround.

Obviously had some sort of big ding but it wasn't until I started picking out the bog and it just got worse and worse until I ended up with what you see. Someone again has just covered what was there with tonnes of pink bog. It took me a good few hours to pick it all out. I then started fashioning pieces of panel steel to make a complete new surround. I started with the flat piece that runs down from the top to the bottom of the rear panel. With a bit of bashing with a hammer onto a slightly curved surface and hey presto ! we have a panel that is almost ready. All it needed was grinding down slightly until it fitted with the other two bits I made. In all it was a superb mirror image of the other side BUT there was a twist. Here you can see the finished panel ready for fitting. I ground out the metal that had no shape at all. The problem was that the wing seems to have had a bash and isn't quite square. It didn't matter that my panel was a perfect mirror image the lamp haolder did not fit. If I were to do it again, I would make it around the lamp holder rather than mirroring the other side. I fiddled with the wing until I got a best fit and it doesn't look bad at all even if I do say so myself. Again, it didn't fit and the rear section had to be removed in order to get that fit. In the photo you can see the top section I made and fitted. I started with drawing a rough outline on paper and transfering that to the sheet of metal. After bashing it against the big tube again and making a slight crease it was a good fit. So, it got welded on. BUT of course things aren't always straightforward and I was seriously annoyed at the fitment of that panel. So I chopped it out and fashioned another one and fitted it properly. Here it has been tacked in and is waiting for finishing and grinding down. Another section has been added further up and now it looks better. This photo again shows it after rubbing down and priming.

Why?

Ok, this is the why bit. From this picture you can see two yellow outlines. When I was sanding down the doors I noticed some bog around the bottom of the door. I thought bugger it and took out all the bog to find two metal plates welded over two small bits of rust! Well one surface rust and the other this hole. Gosh! who would have expected to see a hole in the bottom of a door that's 30 years old? Just what puzzles me is they simply welded over what was there and then covered the whole door with bog and then sanded it down to the proper shape. It would have taken far longer to do that than cut out the rust and weld in a small panel and then fill with a small amount of filler.