There is a bit of a story to this ute & I hope some of you will get a kick out of it ! Well I just got home from Melbourne , went & picked up my XP ute . I originally purchased the ute back in about 1992 from an old cocky just out of Wagga , It was his fishin ute ( not a farm ute just used it to go fishin in ) & was always kept in a shed ! It was sold new in Wagga @ Great Southern Motors to the Kyemba Shire Council that became the Wagga City Council by a mate of mines father & my mate knew where it was & wanted it himself ( unbeknown to me at the time till after I brought it home & he says to me " where did you get that " knowing full well exactly where it came from) but he was to slow getting to it . Now I looked at a " LOT " of utes back then & this was " THE " best body I could find & the time . 144 / 3 speed that hadnt run for ages so it got the flick pretty early in the piece & I set about fitting it up with a 351w & toploader that I pulled out of a very rusty XW panel van ( thats another story ) modified the pedal box to take an hydraulic clutch etc , fitted XY bucket seats , 16:1 XY steering box & XA column & welded in 1 & 1/2 new front floor pans that were rusty , fitted it up with an XW GT radiator etc Pulled the engine back out to mod the shock towers for some custom made extractors that I was going to have to get mad . Chassis rails were stiffened up by adding 5mm plate under the rad support & all the way back to the gearbox x/member , when I got it back from from the welding shop was not very happy with the job done on the towers so she sat in the corner of the shed for ages as I was to pissed about it to even look at it ! I ended up putting the engine in a ZD Fairlane & sold the Fairlane as a runner , the ute just sat there doin nothing under cover . Fast forward to about 2004 & I had to move house & had nowhere to store the ute so I sold it to a mate of a mate in Melbourne & never thought I would see it again . Fast forward to the start of June this year & I happened to be lookin on ebay & just did a search for XP & wouldnt you know up pops my old ute exactly as I sold it , hadnt been touched one bit ! So I rang the guy who was sellin it & said I'm the guy you bought it off , but he had bought it off the guy I sold it to & neither of them had touched it - I couldnt believe it ! & both of them kept it under cover the whole time it was gone . So now its back & the build begins !!! All the paint is original except where the top of the drivers rear quarter has been rubbed back ! These are the pics that were on ebay , i'll post more as I get into it !!
Not much has happened on the assembly side of things on the old girl , just been collecting a heap of parts for her V8 conversion kit Missing pieces of the XL Futura dash moulds XL dash facia 351W New front blinkers Rear bullet blinker lenses T/bar shifter Radiator , mounting brackets & trial fitted
This is it coming home on the trailer Shes getting these wheels , just undecided what colour the centers will be ! I'm still undecided what trim to use , I've got this red & white trim atm !! I know red & green should never be seen lol
Awesome xp ute mate some things are just ment to be ,he are some of my shots of my xk ute which i have sold since,and im spuing,but thats the way it goes enjoy love to see more pictures as it comes together cheers jimmy www.oldskoolfalcon.com
Small update , was doing a bit of sorting out & a declutter in the shed & thought I may as well put a few things on the ute while I was at it ! Engine mounts , x member & brake master cylinder dummy fitted tonight !
Ok , red & white trim has been sold so now going back to bench seat similar to this colour but with dark green leather insert instead of all vynal ! Dark green over silver metal flake roof with lace work !
Got more parts , 15 x 6 black chaser rims & 205/60/15 tyres swaped a 200 ci long engine for a set of extractors ( headers ) chrome bullet wheel nuts backing boards for the door trims Might seem like its taking a long time but its a budget build & I'm being a tight ass on the money side of things with this one . Barter system is working well , so far its only into me for $2000.00 aprox inc buying the car Purchase price for the ute ...........................................$2000.00 Chrome for dash / doors s/hand.......................................$135.00 Bullet blinker lenses for the rear new..................................$55.00 Front blinkers new..........................................................$99.00 351w long engine freebie / nadda.......................................$0.00 Headers swaped for 200 ci 6 cyl ........................................$0.00 Wheels & tyres Freebie / nadda..........................................$0.00 20 x Chrome bullet wheel nuts .........................................$39.00 Late model falcon steering column freebie / nadda.................$0.00 Engine & gearbox mounts / cross member .........................$350.00 Disc brakes for the front freebie / nadda .............................$0.00 Door trim backing boards new ..........................................$75.00 Bench seat - need recovering freebie / nadda ......................$0.00 Total ........................................................................$2753.00 Sold bucket seats & carpet ............................................$800.00 Total so far ............................................................... $1953.00
Great story and great ute,..don't see too many on the HAMB. Look forward to seeing progress picks,...
Cool project. How did you go about adapting the XY steering box & XA column? Did you keep the XK pitman and idler arms or change to XY ones, and did this affect the steering geometry? Aaron
Aaron , used factory rag joint between box & column - XP pitman arm was broached to XY size - never got to drive the car in that combination mate ! Australian Street Rodding magazine did a feature on this conversion years ago , I just followed what they did in the magazine !