When I was growing up my dad had an XB Fairmont Wagon. I always loved the lines and presence of the XB Wagon, plus there aren't too many going around nowadays.

My dad has had 2 XB Wagons since, and after owning newer cars for a while I decided to go old school. I was looking for an old wagon for a while and this one finally popped up for the right price. It's my daily driver and is a work in progress. This is where it's at right now:





It's a 1975 Ford Falcon XB Station Wagon. 250 pre-crossflow, 3-speed auto column shift. The body is really straight and there's quite minimal rust. The guy I bought it off put a quick coat of matte black on it, it was previously white. The interior was originally saddle with a bench - the guy I bought it off had painted the door trims and dash black and had seat covers on. The bench was very torn and tired so I put buckets in. I replaced the painted black door trims with off-white Fairmont trims and early in the new year I will be getting the seats reupholstered in off-white and installing a centre console.



It took a little while to get the motor running nicely (reconditioned head, reconditioned gearbox, electronic distributor, V8 radiator to cope with the a/c), and I have installed an under-dash air-con unit (a lifesaver in the QLD summer), power steering, alarm and remote central locking. It came with the GS bonnet but standard silver grill so I converted a better conditioned grill into a satin black GS one.



The aim is to have a mean looking, reliable and comfortable daily driver that's a bit different from your average, and keeping true to the 70s styling. I have a spare 302 that eventually I want to stroke to 351, convert to gas and drop it in. When funds permit I would also like to respray it - probably in a deep gloss black, although satin black would maintain the badass look.

This was dad's original XB that started it all - 302 Fairmont, power windows, power steering, integrated dash a/c, power 2-way tailgate:


After selling it and owning a few newer model cars, he found the need to get into an XB again and restored this one - 351 Fairmont, all the same options as the original plus GS bonnet and grill:


The green car met an unfortunate end, so dad replaced it with this one - it has the 351 from the green car, original Falcon 500 GS, dad's the 3rd owner, this car is like a time warp!

Hey, I used this:

http://www.ebay.com.au/i...ies&hash=item19c9c94b93

I can't find another ebay listing for it, that's the link I bought mine from. I used it in conjunction with a Bosch MEC717 that I got off an '85 Corolla from the wreckers. It works amazingly - the first time the points died the car went on a tilt tray, then I was having backfiring issues until I got it properly tuned, then it would periodically start hesitating on take-offs, we'd have to keep filing the points down. None of that now, it runs happy and the economy is a lot better now too. I don't have to use nearly as much choke on cold start-ups either!

That's an excellent looking wagon Browno, what are the specs on it?

Meanwhile, I got the interior reupholstered. Very pleased with the result. Couldn't quite match the colour of the door trims, but the vinyl on the seats is more like the original white colour for XBs anyway, so I'll respray the door trims to match some time. And there's still the centre console to go in. Can't wait!

That's an excellent car :) especially with the front quarter window vents, those are really rare :) If I didn't have my black car I'd definitely be interested in yours. Best of luck with the sale, hopefully it'll go to a good home :)

Yeah man, I know what you mean. Doesn't matter if you're a holden man or a ford man (I've owned both), a cool old car is a cool old car :)

My band filmed a video clip over the past 2 weekends. It featured the rugged Australian landscape of Toowoomba and Stanthorpe as well as the XB in a Mad Max style fashion. Here's a screen cap, the completed video won't be available on youtube for at least the next few weeks :)

You should get one bronsonHX :) You won't regret it :)

Tidied up the interior some more - got the centre console in.

I got a '73 Mustang Grande steering wheel off ebay from Germany(!) - same as the XA/XB GT rimblow steering wheel except for the badge, and it was heaps cheaper than getting one in Australia. Will be fitting it this weekend :)



Also in other news, my dad and I put our cars in the RACQ Motorfest car show. It was a great day :)

hey mate the wag's is looking good
got mine one ebay now thought you might wanna see how it goes
link is in the ford for sale section

Did someone say whitewalls?

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