Memories of my first car, an XM Falcon panel van.

**sacc51** · 28th June 2017, 12:44 PM

Not being able to spend much time in my workshop anymore I've found other less physically demanding things to do to fill in the time. Mostly I just write stuff and file it away, but I thought some might get a giggle from this story.

When I was young I took out a patent on stupid; although, sometimes I think I still have exclusive ownership of that patent. Like many teens I was of course – bulletproof: bad things only happen to other people. I had a thing for cars and motor bikes and making them sporty and go faster. Unfortunately, my bank balance meant I couldn’t afford thing s like cams and triple side draft webbers so I had to be content with extractors, floor shifts, bucket seats, and black interiors.

Extractors could be had quite cheaply by comparison in the 60s; and, as I discovered , if you plumbed the exhaust right you could make a 6 sound almost like a V8. First split the extractors by removing the two into one collector down the bottom, then buy another exhaust from the wreckers, cut in the middle of each bend, reverse the direction of the bend and weld back together, presto, now you have an exhaust pipe for both sides of the car that snaked their way over the diff and out the back, finish that off with two chromed tips, pointing downwards to amplify the noise of course, install two 24” hot dogs and join the exhausts to the extractor outlets.

Fooled lots of people, on more than one occasion I had servo attendants lift the bonnet for a squiz at what they thought would be V8 lurking under the bonnet; boy, were they disappointed to find a marriage of Pursuit and Super Pursuit engines. Why Ford gave these engines that name is beyond me, a genuine misnomer, I think only the original four pot Torana was slower! The other people that were mightily interested in the noise the car made were the police. They had no interest in peeking under the hood or turning their heads to listen to the magnificent note emitted from the shiny chrome tips. They did have a very real interest in shutting the thing up and getting it off the road though, four times in total before I woke up. One copper chased me off from the lights with a sign on a stick, written on the sign backwards were the words ‘STOP POLICE’. Oh my. That guy got me twice, both times in Mt Pleasant, once around the raffles the other on the Esplanade.

Another interesting mod was to install two black bucket seats from a Colt. These were much lower than the bench seat, and being short I had to stretch my neck to see over the dash, but boy, was I cool. I knew I was cool, because everyone looked at me driving past. Well I assumed they were looking at me as a cool dude; either that or, they were wondering where the hell the driver was. Now you can’t have cool black buckets and two tone blue door trim with a blue painted dash can you? So, I bought a can of upholstery colour, painted the door trims black and painted the dash flat black. Boy was I excited, this looked like a cool car now.

This joy was not shared by a girl I knew in a nice white dress, she looked nice when she got in, sort of --- white! Anyway, the can lied, the upholstery did not dry to a nice black colour, it simply didn’t dry in patches, it melted the vinyl. When the girl in white exited my cool car she looked like a dalmation. She had a horrified look on her face when she asked me where the black came from, I just shook my head denied any knowledge and drove off, never even got a kiss goodnight. I never saw her again, except when she was with other fellas that was.

Now a sporty interior can’t be sporty with that ship’s wheel Ford called a steering wheel can it? Luckily, being a welder and steel fabricator I had the wherewithal to change that ,so I bent up a length of 1” tube into a 12” circle, cut the boss from the steering wheel and mounted it inside a short section of 4” tube and welded on three spokes I’d shaped to tie the wheel to the boss. Of course you have to have lightning holes in the spokes to give the impression of speed, so I drilled a few holes decreasing in size as the glades narrowed and wrapped the wheel with an aftermarket, lace on steering wheel cover, this really looked the part, it made the steering a little heavy but that’s the price you pay for ‘sporty’! Didn’t do my arms any harm either, I developed a good set of guns.

Now Rome wasn’t built in a day, was it? nor was my sporty steering wheel: The boss inserted into the 4” tube had three spokes welded on and that was it until the following weekend, but I had to get to work right? Easily solved, I stuck a longish bolt in one of the holes in one of the spokes and used it as a suicide knob, similar to that fitted on forklifts and disabled driver’s cars. I have to tell you these work great, not real sure the sharpish edges on the two spare spokes or the long blot sticking out would have created much joy had I had an accident; but, I’m a teenager, bulletproof right? Fortunately, I never got to test my immortality, but this steering wheel saw many years use, even the coppers liked it, so much in fact they awarded me a yellow sticker on a couple of occasions.

Almost done, just the ‘piece de resistance’ was needed, a floor shift! For the uneducated that means , not cool but, ‘Super Cool’ The local wreckers had a straight line shifter so I grabbed that real quick and raced home. Straight line shifters found favour with street dragsters of the day, they were a spring loaded lever which had a pin at the bottom, the pin engaged in slots machined into two sliders which moved the two levers exiting the gear box. The top slider operated second and third whilst the bottom slider operated first and reverse. They worked thus: Push down and forward and first gear is selected, once up to speed just pull the lever back, the lever pops up on it’s way through neutral and thus engages the upper slider engaging second gear. These work great – when new. Unfortunately when old and worn (which mine was) and if moved too quickly the lever can move both sliders at the same time, engaging second and reverse at the same time.

On my initial test run I was engaging a rather steep hill, so I made a lightning fast shift to second; remember, I’m young and so therefore an expert driver, this enables me to change gears much faster than an oldy (or mere mortal) and so, the vehicle came to an abrupt halt jamming the gearbox. I engaged the handbrake, not something I had used a lot, cars are meant to go, not stop, right? From the rear of the van I grabbed a hammer and slid under the car, and with just a couple of light taps the gear box freed up.

Now I’ve told you the score with brakes, not really needed, so the hand brake never received any of my expert workmanship and was not largely ignored; rather, it was totally ignored. Repercussion is a terrible word for the young and bulletproof, but usually after a few repercussions and if you’re lucky, you do learn, I learnt when I reached my mid 60s or thereabouts I think. Anyway, with no working handbrake and stuck in the middle of the road on a steep incline with me underneath, the car took of backwards down the hill.

Initially the right front tyre rolled over my feet which I apparently had crossed, then up my body, fortunately missing the nomad Gonads (I was single then) due to having my legs crossed, and continued up my body exiting over my left shoulder. Luckily the part that drove this know it all, bulletproof teen (the brain box) was missed, that of course left it free to make many, many more stupid mistakes. Once free of the speed hump, the car continued downhill heading toward busy Morley Rd in Eden Hill WA. I jumped up and chased the vehicle downhill, at the last moment the car swung to the left up someone’s driveway on to their front lawn and demolished their brick letterbox. Being a responsible type teen, I jumped in the car and took off quickly, being very careful not to change from first to second too fast. The only damage done, aside from the letterbox, was a chipped bone on my left heel - amazing!

That shifter saw a couple of weeks of careful use, I then purchased an H pattern shifter, made a few brackets and longer linkages for it, shortened the lever to around 4”, covered the hole where the straight line shifter had been, cut a new hole between the seats and secured the shifter in place. Finally making this car the ultimate in tricked up XMs.

I did a lot more work to this car: The plastic instrument unit found its way to the bin and I made up a new sheet metal unit to hold all the gauges: speedo, fuel, temp, vacuum, ammeter, voltmeter and a few others, eight in all from memory and of course a tacho mounted independently on the dash., the interior of the car lit up like a Xmas tree at night. I also resprayed it, dark blue with a white roof, originally it was grey – no such thing as a cool ‘gray’ car. I installed a state of the art AM, mechanical, push button radio, made longer hangers for the leaf springs giving it that dragster look, made up a roof shelf behind the seats and of course a mattress in the back like all good PVs. I slept on it frequently, other than that, that was the only action it ever saw. People called me a hood and the girls stayed away in their droves. Annoyingly, I wasn’t, never broke the law (aside from speeding tickets and yellow stickers), never stole anything, never assaulted anyone, was reasonably respectful of my elders; actually thinking back, I was a very quiet chap, just enthralled with noisy ’cool’ cars.

Then one night coming home from the Raffles I wrapped the car around a tree. This caused a lot of damage: the side of the car just behind the passenger seat was punched in almost to the middle, the tailgate popped open and my toolbox fell out spraying tools all over the road. Had I not been so interested in listening to the ‘note’ the rear window would have been up preventing the tailgate from opening. Anyway, I alighted from the vehicle and started gathering the tools, almost done, I heard a voice ‘I saw what you did’ and spied an old codger running up his driveway. Not wanting him to call the police (I’d been at the Raffles remember), I gave chase, to talk, nothing else. He wasn’t having that and locked his doors and windows and I heard him call to his wife ‘quick, ring the police’. That was enough for me so I took off. The next day I came back and collected what tools I could find. Not being a big drinker, I’d only had a couple of drinks that night so I often wonder if the exhaust fumes had been sucked in the open rear window and affected me. More probably though, I was affected by plain, ordinary, youthful stupidity…

I was sure the car would be written off, but the insurance company authorised repairs. The panel beater sliced through the floor pan just in front of the seats, through the windscreen pillars and a new rear section welded in place. I lost interest in the car after that, it squeaked and groaned and the section added was full of bog and rust.

Eventually I sold it to a young married couple, the fellow telling his naïve wife a van was ideal for the pram, which his wife swallowed.

Not my XM but this is what they looked like, unusual with the low roof, in reality they were just the station wagon without rear side windows or doors.

**chambezio** · 28th June 2017, 01:43 PM

What a great story!!!
It would be a great thing to document our stories of when we were young so our kids could see we were probably very much like they are.

I worked with a senior Chippy for a while and he drove that model but his was green. In Sydney at Kurnel there was a huge deposit of beach sand. Fred went to it one weekend and loaded it up with sand with just a long handled shovel. He did mention how many shovels fulls went into the loading. I think he said he had to drive home in first gear to be able to carry the weight

**sacc51** · 28th June 2017, 02:27 PM

Yep, the old Pursuit and Super Pursuit engines weren't the most powerful donks available in the early 60s, I doubt very much if they were capable of towing much more than a trailer load of bean bag pellets! They were economical though, I used to get over 30 mpg, and I thrashed the thing!

Funny thing about today's kids, you can't tell them anything, they are bulletptoof, just like we were. Telling them to slow down, drive safely, don't take risks, don't drink too much, don't take drugs, wear condoms and so on is never going to work. The bulletproof will never be affected by such things, only other people suffer.

**Uncle Al** · 28th June 2017, 04:52 PM

Great story, brings back memories of my Dad's XP Falcon Super Pursuit 200 cubic inch, 3 speed automatic. Actually, I reckon it went pretty well, and it was the car I learnt to drive in for a short while before I bought my own car, a Simca Aronde station wagon, all 1400cc's (I think) of meagre power, and it used fuel like it was going out of style. On a good day, I might get 14 mpg, which was absolutely pathetic given the size and power of the motor. I converted the 4 on the tree gear shift to 4 on the floor via a wrecked Simca that was stored where I was working at the time, the Rose Bay Flying Boat base.

I bought it for $350 with 12 months rego, and managed to write it off 11 months later, not my fault of course. Some clown in a EH Holden ran up the clacker of it on my way to work, pushing me into an AP5 Valiant with a towbar, which holed the grill but didn't get the radiator. I had it insured for $250, and the insurance company paid me out and told me that disposing of the vehicle was my responsibility.

A tail light cover from the wreckers and a red P plate over the hole in the grill, plus a trip up Parramatta Road to a car yard saw me selling it for $100, making a years motoring pretty economical.

Dad traded the XP in for a Ford Cortina with a 250 cubic inch motor, that really did go well. Didn't do corners real well though, and keeping the front wheels aligned was a never ending battle, and for some reason it used to rust out mufflers at an alarming rate.

Anyway, I hope you a recovering well Sacc51, it is nice to get some memories down for future generations to see how things were for us in our youth.

Alan...

**Chris Parks** · 28th June 2017, 05:57 PM

Cars were my life and first love when I was young and I suppose there might even be a good book in it, certainly far more than I could write here. We found that putting a Peugot motor in a Morris Minor only took a weekend once you worked out what was needed for the first one and the old Morry went really hard but the brakes were another story. I don't know how many tail shafts we cut and shut on the garage floor then welded them back together and no one ever explained the shaft had to have the unis phased properly! My first car was a Renault 750 and Dad lent me his tools and said if I could get it going I could drive it.

Anyway I moved onto another hand me down Renault, a Dauphine this time. Dad used to work out at the Kurnell sand hills and he bought a used Renault every time the one he was driving ran out of rego to drive to work in. I complained the car used to jump during cornering, the shocks were knackered, I know that now but didn't then but Dad insisted there was nothing wrong with it. When I kept persisting he got a bit unhappy and put me in the passenger seat and off we went to find the nearest corner. The problem with the nearest corner was that all my mates were standing around in the middle of the road having a chat and Dad had to hit the picks and over we went, my first roll over but over the years three more were experienced with no injuries. Dad very sheepishly had to drive it home and explain to mum what had happened and she went nuts because her only son was put in mortal danger. We put about three large tins of bog in the roof a bit of paint and some second hand shocks and I kept driving it.

**sacc51** · 28th June 2017, 06:04 PM

The 200 motors were ok, just the 144s and 170s were gutless. I had a 250 Cortina too, power plus that thing, pretty good on fuel too at 25 mpg, but that front end, no matter what I did I couldn't stop all those worrying noises and the feeling the front end was going to fall out at any moment. Not much good at speed either, used to float all over the place - too much power for that body I thought.

**chambezio** · 28th June 2017, 06:42 PM

I have been wondering for some time why the current learn to drive generation have to have all the hours and documented times they are on the road, then, when they get their licence they have to have 2 P plates to display as they get experience.

In our time 16 and 9 months got you an L plate then at 17 a P to be displayed for one year then you got the BLACK licence.
We bought a second hand VS Commodore 6 cyl auto. That thing was so forgiving in corners. This I think is why the current kids have so much trouble the cars they are driving are just too good in handling but will let go in a big way if pushed to far and hard. They are quiet and power steering isolates them a bit from the road surface so they are not aware of the danger they may have got themselves in (Well that's my take on it)

The cars we drove then would quickly tell you when you were in trouble by the lean it would get, if you were too fast. You would at least have a small bit of notice you were going too fast for the corner and if you didn't do any thing quick.....I started with a very quick EH. I had it for 8 months, it was very rusty. Then a new Toyota Corona 16 months, then a HT station wagon, 186 auto with drum brakes. Not great performer. Then in 1976 a brand new Landcriuser Table Top. 4.2 ltr 6 cylinder petol that loved to drink fuel (13-14 mpg) This thing was fun to drive on the road or in the bush but on the road it was similar to the old cars in that you would get scared in a corner if you went too fast, it had the lean too. We had it for 12 years then got a 60 series diesel Station Wagon. She is still as faithful as ever over the 29 years we have had it. Still fun to drive handles better than the truck and is more comfortable. On a trip we get 25mpg. With the trailer though it drops back to 17-18 mpg. You see a lot in detail of the bush as you climb hills but she always gets to where you want

**Handyjack** · 28th June 2017, 08:09 PM

Mum had a '65 Toyota Crown with three on the tree.
Similar to your experience every so often the gears would jam. So it was open the bonnet and move the levers and you would be right to go again.
I learnt to drive in it. Took forever to get to 60 kmh, but having a bench seat at the drive in was a plus. As it was a station wagon it was used to move a bit of furniture, but also to carry our push bikes when every we were out and had a problem.
When we bought it the paint, a murky green was peeling off the roof so we had it painted white. My brother damaged the front mudguard so it was replaced. It had external rear mirrors on the fenders but you needed to either have a hand to set them or jump in and out. Eventually we fitted a mirror on the drivers door (but needed to wind down the window to adjust, still that was an improvement).

To think that you were lucky if you had a car with a push button radio, but you could only preset 5 or six stations. Now a new car has an entertainment unit where you can preset 18+ stations on multiple bands, CD player, plus receive an input from another source even a mobile phone!

Yeah safety has changed a lot for us invincible fools. Retracting lap sash seat belts (providing you put them on), anti lock brakes (you don't here vehicles skidding any more prior to the anticipated thump) and heaven for bid air bags. In the 70's all you might have had was crush zones.

Memories.

**rwbuild** · 28th June 2017, 08:52 PM

What a great thread, brings back lots of memories of my "bullet proof" days.

**crowie** · 28th June 2017, 09:40 PM

I started out with a 1965 Isuzu Bellet, paid $650 for it which included a 2 year $450 bank loan which my dad had to guarantee.
Took me 18 months to repaid the load on a second year RAN Apprenticeship wages.
I got almost wiped out in it when a speeding car hit me on the left spinning me around so hard the rickoshea sent the speeding car across the intersection.
Replaced it with another Bellet, top little car..

PS - On of the Navy mates also had Falcon like yours, old in 1972 and on apprentice wages was struggling to keep it maintained so BORROWED some oil from the diesel shed; the engine ran like a top for 2 weeks then seized....

**Chris Parks** · 28th June 2017, 11:57 PM

My mum had a Bellet for years and the screws holding the top of the carby kept undoing, it drove me mad at the time as I always had to fix it. Great car though, tough as nails apparently Bellet had the JDM franchise for Renault and copied the swinging axle which was a major mistake.

**KBs PensNmore** · 29th June 2017, 12:45 AM

Thanks for the memories of past. My first car was a Morris Oxford series MO, it was grey and may father (a painter) had it sprayed red. The girl I was seeing loved the front seat which was a lay back , (anyone remember them) it had a lever that if you weren't careful would pop out and suddenly no back on the seat. I worked at a Toyota dealer/engineering place (I wanted to be a Mechanic) that sold fuel, serviced and general repairs on cars and did bulk bins for bagging grain on truck chassis. I needed a fuel pump for it, picked up one for $10.00 which included the Wolsley 680, that went with it. My father had about 5 acres of land and a mates father had about 8 which happened to be right next door, and the Wolsley was fitted with a 1 gallon tank where the bonnet used to be.and used as a hack on the paddocks. All was great till the local copper decided to visit the town, he was based about 10 miles away, I drove it about 1/2 a mile home to do some work on it, and the car not being registered was my first run in with the law, lost my License for 3 months and a $300.00 fine.
A lot of fun was had back in those days.
Kryn

**johnc** · 30th June 2017, 02:19 PM

I had an XP ute with a low ratio diff and the 170 pursuit engine. Gutless and got about 20mpg regardless empty or towing. They actually weren't bad as a tow vehicle before the days you had load limits it could comfortably take a trailer with a three ton load. Stopping was a bit of an issue otherwise it took off ok and got to road speed before your coffee went cold. It was only ever a work ute, some people hanker after the vehicles of their youth, an affection I have never really understood, they took three hundred turns lock to lock, never braked in a straight line, no power, ordinary fuel economy, no heat, no radio although this old girl had a reasonably comfortable seat. Unlike sacc51 I could never get motivated to modify a car so my one memory I will pass on of the ute was heading into a roundabout with a tandem carrying 3.5 tonne I touched the brake and the pedal beat my foot to the floor with a sad sigh of defeat. The hand brake was useless on those things so we managed the best we could and got out the other side in one piece and a slightly rearranged trailer. We did a days work and got back home and the following day it went to car hospital and got a new set of brakes fitted, the main unit had developed a hole and dumped all fluid, they don't make the like the used to, thank God for that.

**sacc51** · 2nd July 2017, 11:44 AM

By today's standards yesterday's vehicles were rubbish. It's not so much remembering the vehicle with fondness, it's about remembering the times you shared with the vehicle with fondness. Add to that memories of our youth and growing up in the 60s and early 70s, the 60s and 70s were a time of great change, music, politics, thinking, how e viewed the world. all were under great pressure to break from a stodgy past the youth of the era despised and had no interest in following.

I considered buying a mid 70s Cortina 6 in the mid 90s, another vehicle I remember well. That consideration lasted until I took it for a test drive!!! Great memories but not such great cars.

I'm surprised you only got 20mpgs from the XP, the pursuit series were known for their good consumption figures, perhaps the carb had a leak, early falcon's were also well known for that.

**crowie** · 2nd July 2017, 08:14 PM

Originally Posted by sacc51

By today's standards yesterday's vehicles were rubbish.
I considered buying a mid 70s Cortina 6 in the mid 90s, another vehicle I remember well.

My cousin bought one brand new but it went back to the dealer for a refund after just a few days;
the front of the tail shaft was embedded in the roof after coming through the floor & console...
He was o so lucky to be alive after that near miss!!

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