XY

I bought my XY in 1981 the same day I got my license. It was actually a XY Fairmont, it was silver with a black vinyl roof, black interior, stock 302 Windsor, C4 auto with a Datsun T Bar shifter & Borg Warner Diff. The wheels were stockies with XT GT wheel covers.

I drove it around like this for 1 1/2 years until I got a Canary (unroadworthy defect sticker) for numerous faults including bald back tires, no prize for guessing why only the back tires were bald :)

From this point the decision was made to do a full rebuild from ash tray to petrol cap nothing was left untouched. The drive line was first pulled out, & this thrown away. All 4 door skins & the left rear 1/4 panel were removed all other remaining panels stripped of all paint & primer.

4 new door skins & rear 1/4 were bought the car was shipped of to a local panel beater. the after the new panels were fitted & the remaining panels straightened out. 10 coats of Ford Midnight Black were applied the last few coats had clear added in. All new body trims were bought. GT tail light GT boot trim etc. While the body was being done I was gathering parts to build up a 351 Cleveland, C10 auto & 9" Diff.

The interior was removed & sent out to have all the fabric replaced in the original black Fairmont / GT trim.

I built the engine myself after watching them put the Clevelands together in the Geelong Ford Engine Plant where I worked at the time as a machinist on the 6 cylinder crankshaft line. At smoko's & lunch I would go to the V8 assembly line & watch each operator from 1st operation to last to make sure I picked up every little detail on the assembly.

I put my 1st engine together on the floor of my parents garage, not feeling 100% confident that I did it right, I wanted to start it up before I put it in the car. So I put some extractors on it, hooked up a starter motor with a battery close by, a bucket of petrol with the fuel pump inlet hose stuck into the bucket. I put a screwdriver across the starter terminals to get it to crank over. It fired 1st time & scared the crap out of as I had the throttle fully open the torque twist cause it rotate onto its side almost completely rolling over, the only thing that stopped it going right over was that my leg was pinned under it. in the process knocking over the bucket of petrol. Thank fully the petrol didn't go up.