XB The Money Pit

[Jallopy]

The reason I decided to take the temp reading from the bottom of the radiator is that if the radiator is efficient the fans will never come on, unless stoped in traffic.
If the reading comes from the hot engine the fans may be triggered when in fact they are not needed as the natural air flow from a moving vehicle will easily take care of any cooling.

Thank you for your concerns with this engine but.....
I will be carefully monitoring this with the normal temp gauge in the dash and the temp sensor can easily be swaped out to another one to correct any short comings if need be.
The thermostat starts to open at 75 and is fully open at 95 -100 deg C
What do you think?

[Jallopy]

Some Epoxy paint over the fiberglass repairs.
New foam going on.


Now I am starting to make the cover over this console.

[Jallopy]

Starting to trim the rear seat 1st

If you want to see another original interior replica LOOK AWAY NOW!
There are plenty of them out there so this wont be another.


Maybe something old and something new with the design.
The rear seat bases are from an XE -XF and the fronts will be Landau that all need retriming.
Not sure how I want it to look sew I will make it up as I go
It will not be acres of grey as in most modern cars.
I can do better than that!


The front seats that were in it are from a Honda Prelude and have been sent to the junk pile.

[Jallopy]

Seat Foam base modified for new trim



Making the cover




Needle to pull the listing cords thru


Base done






Now for the the top part. Start with the center arm rest.

[Jallopy]

Center section done



All completed.



Front seat next...
Merry Christmas everyone for 2012

[Joshmcmillan]

Wow! I'm amazing at the variety of skills you seem to have.

Merry Christmas and I looked forward to seeing the rest of your build.

[Jallopy]

Originally Posted by Phil B

I bought a set of honeycombs off you from ebay, didn't know who it was until I saw this. I haven't seen them yet as I'm on the other side of the country, but have been told they look great. I have even more faith in the quality now!

Great work on your beast, making good progress. Nice attention to detail too. Will you be able to make the new top look a nicer shape than the old one? Or is it dependent on how it folds?

The ragtop unfortunately is dependant on the height of the side glass combined with the size of the steel supports that have to fold back neatly into the parcel tray to give it the overall shape.

I will be using the German Sonnenland canvas as seen as original equipment on Jags, BMW, Mercedes convertibles etc. Not the ute tonneau cover type of material that is on there now.

[Jallopy]

Originally Posted by Joshmcmillan

Wow! I'm amazing at the variety of skills you seem to have.

Merry Christmas and I looked forward to seeing the rest of your build.

Hey Josh have done a little more...
My seats are all loose and have a lot of freeplay
The drivers seat needed every caged nut welded back into place about 8 in total.

Here is how to remove the recliner handle
Dig off this center cover...


Then turn this circlip anticlockwise and the handle just lifts off.


Cutting the pieces out



Sewing them all together




The angle grinder is good for reshaping foam.




I cant wait to get this fitted


Convertile roof next, then the door trims.

[74xbkoop]

Man you have some skills!!! Well done the seats look great.

[Joshmcmillan]

The seats look awesome!

[gregaust]

Damn those seats look great .. Nice work !!

[BAWITHLOT]

I have only just stumbled on this (now subscribed)! Great Work!

[rolly187]

Originally Posted by BAWITHLOT

I have only just stumbled on this (now subscribed)! Great Work!

me too :-) keep up the awesome work. your a DIY inspiration to us all.

[JayDee66]

Awesome thread, you certainly have a braod range of skills - upholstery too!!! - Subscribed

[Jallopy]

I thought how hard is it to make the Rag Top...
Boy this Top is a lot harder to make than it looks.

The problem is the material has a little stretch built in so I guessed how much less material I needed when it is finally sewn together.
Also there is no supports running length wise above the windows like all the factory convertibles.









Rear window is in.

It is now sewn up press studs in and just needs the trim glued to the 2 hoops and header board.
The hoops are painted white.

[Jallopy]

I bought 6m of aluminized 2 1/4" x 2mm exhaust pipe.
8 weld on flanges, gaskets and clamps to suit.
2 2 1/4" Hooker aero chamber mufflers offset inlet centre outlet.
My local exhaust shop ordered in a pair of 2" tail pipes pre bent. (from Redback exhausts.)

I knew that pipe bender would come in handy again one day.

The left side was too long by about 2-3" right where the sticker is
Out with the hack saw and welder again.
The right side fitted perfect.

The exhaust is now in.

[Jallopy]

The engine starts and sounds sweet

Originally Posted by ianxy351

Nice job. I'm impressed by your fibreglass skills. Thanks for the pics.

I was looking at your radiator / fan setup. I use the same deal in 2 of my clevo powered fords. The question I have is why is the temp switch next to the bottom hose? Every set up I have seen has the switch plumbed into the thermo housing or top hose. That way the fans are triggered by hot coolant from the engine. I cant see how your setup will trigger the fans without the engine being overheated. Maybe I'm missing something here, but I would hate to see you loose an engine.
Ian

The fans were triggered when about half way on the temp gauge they would run for about 2 mins then stop, by this time the gauge is back on about one third.
I am happy with this and will continue to monitor it when driven.

I have made the rear parcel shelf trim.
Just waiting for new seat belts to arrive and fix to the parcel shelf.

Here is a couple of pics of the door trims being tailored.

[motorcycles4eva]

great build.. seems quick too..
what do you do for a living?

[Cabbage]

Awesome work, convertible coupe isnt my cup of tea but I think you have done a great job and its nice to see something different. Top job on the interior to, those Honda seats were rubbish. Am I right in saying you make the side flutes as well as the honeycomb sections?

[Jallopy]

I do make the honeycombs.
The side flutes were a project that I started on but I only made the right side shell to see if it was possible to make high quality replica's, these have not been available to the public.

I have been busy and have now finished the door and rear trims.
Here are the front kick panels done in matching trim.
I reused the kick panels that had a hole hacked into them and then the speakers originally screwed in over the top of them.
The new speakers now fit into the body and sit proud by about half an inch these kick panels will hide the speakers and stop shoes from catching in the grill.





Well that is almost all the trim done.... by the way any one want to take a guess at how many metres of white thread I used to stitch all this up with - Console, Seats and door trims?

Come on take a guess

.

[Jallopy]

Electric remote Landau mirrors are now on.
Remote boot release all wired and working.

I have been told my Cragar 390 wheels will be almost 3 months to arrive at American Republic Wheels thats now early July

I am running out of things to do to the XB

Hidden Antennae.
Today I grafted about 1m plus of electrical wire to the end of the coax cable for the radio antennae and ran it under the car and cable tied it to the handbrake cable next to the sill panel. Radio seems to work OK even in the workshop.

[Tha Jack]

Have you got some pics of the finished console?

[Jallopy]

Trial fit.



Kick panels are in.





Here you go "Tha Jack " Console is in but I may do some upgrades to it shortly.

[xax2]

All the hard work is really coming together. Thanks for sharing the photo's of the rebuild. It's great that you've kept a record to look back on.
-xax2

[XB GS 351 Coupe]

Generally I am not a fan of custom interiors for these old cars, or convertibles for that matter, but I must say this particular car is starting to change my mind, excellent job on the interior.

[Jallopy]

Here is a 10 second video of the POWER mirrors in action.
I could have fitted the electic motors to the common Falcon mirrors but I prefered the Landau style mirrors.
I even kept the neat chrome toggle lever from the horrible original sticky 3 cable operated set up.
Passenger door is identical set up.

CLICK the picture

[Jallopy]

Gave the wipers a clean.


I had to weld then redrill the locating hole in the secondary arm to get the blade to finish horizontal like this.


Making the cover to go over the parcel tray and hide the convertible top when it is down.

[Eric A]

This car is so neat!

[XW-BAXR6T]

Wow you're a very talented man, respect ! And car is coming out really nice !

[Jallopy]

Originally Posted by Jallopy

I have been told my Cragar 390 wheels will be almost 3 months to arrive at American Republic Wheels thats now early July

I am running out of things to do to the XB

Hooraaay the wheels are here at last.
Opened the boxes the fronts 15x8 are correct the rear 15x10 are correct also.... no wait lets have another look the offset (-6 is what I ordered) is wrong they are -24 so back they go.

The replacements will now be up to three months to get the centers cast and made, then probably another 10 weeks to get them shipped out to Aust.

I wont wait for the rims to arrive.
Oh well I put the fronts on the back and got the old rear 12 slotters and fitted them to the front It now has 50/265s all round.