1965 XP Ford Falcon utility

[alan barton]

This has been a very long term conversion project of mine but after having a really good season of building hot rods and racecars I thought it was time I brought this one to the finish line. Not sure just how long it will take but I foresee needing the advice of the many talented models on here before long so if you can see what I am trying to do, you may be able to help!

First of all, I should point out that for us Aussies, building a 1/25th scale injected moulded model of a genuinely Australian car is almost impossible.  The closest we have ever got to having one of our own is the Pontiac GTO snap kit - it is really an Australian Holden Monaro with a Pontiac grille and LHD.  To the best of my knowledge, there have been just seven promos, being a 64 EH Holden Station wagon, a 68 HK Holden Premier, a 68 HK Holden Monaro, a 60 XK Ford Falcon sedan and wagon, and a 61 XL Falcon sedan and wagon. As we shared a number of early sixties Valiants and Falcons with the USA, some American prototypes can be modified to take on an Aussie appearance. Never the less, I am sure you would agree that is a very narrow range to choose from.

To deal with a tiny market by global standards, Australian manufacturers often got many years out of one basic platform. Ford got six years of facelifts out of the 60 Falcon shell, the last one being the 65-66 XP Falcon.  It cunningly used the entire front sheetmetal from a 61 Mercury  Comet with a unique Aussie grille and the taillights raised to the top of the rear fenders not unlike a 63 Galaxie. However, again to save costs, the 65-66 utility retained the low mounted taillights of the earlier XK series. And it is these two design features that made me think I could produce a model of one.

Many Aussie modellers have grabbed an AMT 61 Falcon Ranchero kit and made approximate version of on Aussie 60 but in fact there are a lot of significant differences, especially in the length of the cargo bed, the length of the doors the length and shape of the B pillar and the height of the rear fender line, just for starters.  Still, it is better than nothing.  But when I visited Tom Geiger back in 2013, I discovered in our tour of his basement stash a model of the 61 Comet, a promo I think.  I instantly wondered out loud if I could combine the front clip of the Comet with the body of the Ranchero and Tom generously responded by offering me a pre loved Comet body and front bumper/grille assembly.

Unfortunately I can't find my earliest pictures of the beginning of this conversion but hopefully these ones will show you how I am doing.

Edited July 2, 2020 by alan barton

[alan barton]

As you can see from those last photos, the body lines were a perfect match, a credit to the accuracy of AMT models back then.  When the American Ranchero was trialled in Australia, Ford found that the rear overhang got hung up on the deep creek crossings that are common in the Outback. So they lopped a bunch of the back.  I suspect the bed remained about the same length as the US version as the shorter four door sedan front door was used to get some of the lost length back.  I shortened the AMT kit about 8mm and it does require some massaging of the body  lines when you do that.

Here's some photos of the back of a real one.

[alan barton]

Instead of the fairly crude vertical pillar on the Ranchero, Ford Australia came up with a T bird inspired roofline. It has an interesting recess that I am going to have to recreate.  From these photos you can see a difference that I wasn't aware of until recently, meaning I have to redo a section. The early XK, XL and XM models had an additional indent with the letters F O R D in it while the XP  didn't.  Still, at least I caught it before I went too far.  I had to shorten the trailing edge of the roof, push the door frame and door lines forward and cut a hole to begin making the indent.

THe white one is an XP while the silver one is the earlier XM.

Edited July 2, 2020 by alan barton

[64Comet404]

Looks really good so far. It would be nice if there were more options to do the less common Australian and Canadian variants of American cars.

[afx]

Interesting project, I'm signed up!

[Tom Geiger]

Hey Alan!  Great project and I’m watching!  

[Maindrian Pace]

Very clever body mods. I drove a '61 Ranchero with a '61 Comet front clip, doors, dash, and drivetrain in high school back in the '80s that I built from mostly free cast-off junk. I didn't realize at the time that I was building a ute! I built a model of it around the same time. The car is long gone, but I still have the model.

It looks like you are getting the proportions just right, though it looks like you may have taken just a tiny bit too much rear overhang off, maybe 1mm. You will have to scratch build the grille and single headlights, and I think your front bumper has a wider license plate recess.

 

[cobraman]

I agree, this is a very interesting project.

[Snake45]

11 hours ago, alan barton said:

...a pre loved Comet body and front bumper/grille assembly.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I do believe that is the kindest description I've ever heard for a glue bomb! 

Don't be surprised if I totally steal that for myself in the future. 

[ChrisBcritter]

Boy, was this good timing! Just started a '62 Ranchero project yesterday and was thinking about Mike's conversion:

59 minutes ago, Maindrian Pace said:

I built a model of it around the same time.

Mike, did you cut the Comet doors and roof at the rear to get a better fit?

And Alan, why did you make that angled cut through the doors rather than at the jamb?

Finally to both: What glue did you use to attach the promo body to the kit body? Thanks!  

[Maindrian Pace]

Chris, Yes, the Comet roof was trimmed to fit up to the Ranchero bed trim at the rear of the roof. The Ranchero doors are the same and they would have worked, I used the Comet doors to get the door trim like on the real one. It was an accident that it came out to be the same basic colors as the real trucklet. I used super glue to join the two plastics.

[ChrisBcritter]

Thanks, Mike. In my case I'll keep the Ranchero roof and cut it at the base of the A-pillars, since the '62 had roof/pillar damage.

Alan is ahead eleven hours so I guess he's at work - looking forward to more! One idea: Look at the taillights from the Revell Ed Roth Mysterion; they're most likely your best match.

Edited July 3, 2020 by ChrisBcritter

[alan barton]

Thanks everyone, I'm glad this one is getting some interest.  I've been on and off this one for several years now but I still have some way to go.

Chris, I used an angle cut for a few reasons.  Firstly, when I do this sort of bodywork, one of my biggest stumbling points is panel lines. It seems that no matter what tools I use and no matter how careful I am, I get a line with a hickey in the middle that is almost impossible to repair.  I would have been setting myself up to fail if I had joined on the door line itself.

Secondly, it is a longer, stronger joint and somewhat easier to clamp up and hold in alignment because of that length and angle.  I am real happy with how this part of the conversion turned out.

I laminated strips of styrene on the inside, gluing the back half solidly to the body before sliding on and gluing on the front clip.  And you may laugh, but my glue of choice for any work like this is Testors tube glue in the orange tube.  Nothing else sticks like it.  I would rather use spit than the thin stuff in the bottles - it has no stickum!  And without stickum, you can't manipulate this sort of joint.  I've been working on this body and having to handle it roughly for a long time now and there is no sign of it cracking.

Mike, I love the look of your Comet ute - it is like the half way house between a Ranchero and a ute!  And you have a heckuva eye - I just got out my handy dandy NNL East scale rule and it measures 77 inches on the quarter panel and my measurements taken from a real car are 78.5 inches.  Bugger! Still, not the end of the world.  I'm not scared of cutting it again.

As I work on this car I find so many things that are different.  Apart form what I mentioned before, the rear valance- spare tyre door is all different, the bumperettes that you don't have, the shape of the lower sill behind the rear wheel, the wiper position, even the interface of the rear fender line with the top edge of the tray is different.  

And Snake, that term is copyright free, especially to someone whose posts I have enjoyed for a long time now.  Spread the joy!

My Comet bumper looks pretty clsoe in the number plate and turn signal area.  I need to remove the lip around the plate recess and I need to render two recesses to clear the headlight doors.  Not too much work.

The grille is absolutely the toughest part and I have done nothing at all with it yet. My options include carving ti from wood and then casting or vacforming, fabricating the whole thing from styrene strips ( oh, the humanity!) or chopping something else - I am on a remote mine site at the moment and don't have access to my stash but I'm thinking there might be shapes in both the stock and custom grilles from an AMT 64 Chevy.  I'll post up some photos here so that anyone with some ideas can offer them up.

 

[64Comet404]

2 hours ago, alan barton said:

Thanks everyone, I'm glad this one is getting some interest.  I've been on and off this one for several years now but I still have some way to go.

Chris, I used an angle cut for a few reasons.  Firstly, when I do this sort of bodywork, one of my biggest stumbling points is panel lines. It seems that no matter what tools I use and no matter how careful I am, I get a line with a hickey in the middle that is almost impossible to repair.  I would have been setting myself up to fail if I had joined on the door line itself.

Secondly, it is a longer, stronger joint and somewhat easier to clamp up and hold in alignment because of that length and angle.  I am real happy with how this part of the conversion turned out.

I laminated strips of styrene on the inside, gluing the back half solidly to the body before sliding on and gluing on the front clip.  And you may laugh, but my glue of choice for any work like this is Testors tube glue in the orange tube.  Nothing else sticks like it.  I would rather use spit than the thin stuff in the bottles - it has no stickum!  And without stickum, you can't manipulate this sort of joint.  I've been working on this body and having to handle it roughly for a long time now and there is no sign of it cracking.

Mike, I love the look of your Comet ute - it is like the half way house between a Ranchero and a ute!  And you have a heckuva eye - I just got out my handy dandy NNL East scale rule and it measures 77 inches on the quarter panel and my measurements taken from a real car are 78.5 inches.  Bugger! Still, not the end of the world.  I'm not scared of cutting it again.

As I work on this car I find so many things that are different.  Apart form what I mentioned before, the rear valance- spare tyre door is all different, the bumperettes that you don't have, the shape of the lower sill behind the rear wheel, the wiper position, even the interface of the rear fender line with the top edge of the tray is different.  

And Snake, that term is copyright free, especially to someone whose posts I have enjoyed for a long time now.  Spread the joy!

My Comet bumper looks pretty clsoe in the number plate and turn signal area.  I need to remove the lip around the plate recess and I need to render two recesses to clear the headlight doors.  Not too much work.

The grille is absolutely the toughest part and I have done nothing at all with it yet. My options include carving ti from wood and then casting or vacforming, fabricating the whole thing from styrene strips ( oh, the humanity!) or chopping something else - I am on a remote mine site at the moment and don't have access to my stash but I'm thinking there might be shapes in both the stock and custom grilles from an AMT 64 Chevy.  I'll post up some photos here so that anyone with some ideas can offer them up.

 

Looking at your grille, Alan, I think the MCG grille for the '67 Impala would work for your needs. Check out the Supernatural Impala thread in the Kit Reviews section for a picture (should be on page 18 or 19).

Edited July 3, 2020 by 64Comet404
Inserted wrong topic area in text

[Maindrian Pace]

There's a lot going on in that grille, lots of scratch building with strips of styrene, or 3D printing could be the simpler approach with a better outcome if you're not into involved carving and filing away at fussy little bits.

[Rodent]

Alan, you owe me a keyboard. Wine just came out of my nose when I saw the "Pursuit 170" badge with the crossed flags. Dad had a 61 Falcon 2-door from 64-73. I never had the chance to drive it because I was 12 when he sold it. With 101 gross HP and a FordOMatic, I am not sure what it could have successfully pursued. Land tortoise? Any number of gastropods? Flowing maple syrup? Spilled STP in winter? A Model T?

[Maindrian Pace]

A good running 170 was sort of spunky in it's day when everything was slow, especially compared to a 144. My wagon had one of those in it when I bought it, the 0-60 and the 1/4 mile were both the same numbers.

[Spottedlaurel]

Looks like an interesting conversion project, good luck with it!

[espo]

On 7/3/2020 at 6:42 AM, alan barton said:

Thanks everyone, I'm glad this one is getting some interest.  I've been on and off this one for several years now but I still have some way to go.

Chris, I used an angle cut for a few reasons.  Firstly, when I do this sort of bodywork, one of my biggest stumbling points is panel lines. It seems that no matter what tools I use and no matter how careful I am, I get a line with a hickey in the middle that is almost impossible to repair.  I would have been setting myself up to fail if I had joined on the door line itself.

Secondly, it is a longer, stronger joint and somewhat easier to clamp up and hold in alignment because of that length and angle.  I am real happy with how this part of the conversion turned out.

I laminated strips of styrene on the inside, gluing the back half solidly to the body before sliding on and gluing on the front clip.  And you may laugh, but my glue of choice for any work like this is Testors tube glue in the orange tube.  Nothing else sticks like it.  I would rather use spit than the thin stuff in the bottles - it has no stickum!  And without stickum, you can't manipulate this sort of joint.  I've been working on this body and having to handle it roughly for a long time now and there is no sign of it cracking.

Mike, I love the look of your Comet ute - it is like the half way house between a Ranchero and a ute!  And you have a heckuva eye - I just got out my handy dandy NNL East scale rule and it measures 77 inches on the quarter panel and my measurements taken from a real car are 78.5 inches.  Bugger! Still, not the end of the world.  I'm not scared of cutting it again.

As I work on this car I find so many things that are different.  Apart form what I mentioned before, the rear valance- spare tyre door is all different, the bumperettes that you don't have, the shape of the lower sill behind the rear wheel, the wiper position, even the interface of the rear fender line with the top edge of the tray is different.  

And Snake, that term is copyright free, especially to someone whose posts I have enjoyed for a long time now.  Spread the joy!

My Comet bumper looks pretty clsoe in the number plate and turn signal area.  I need to remove the lip around the plate recess and I need to render two recesses to clear the headlight doors.  Not too much work.

The grille is absolutely the toughest part and I have done nothing at all with it yet. My options include carving ti from wood and then casting or vacforming, fabricating the whole thing from styrene strips ( oh, the humanity!) or chopping something else - I am on a remote mine site at the moment and don't have access to my stash but I'm thinking there might be shapes in both the stock and custom grilles from an AMT 64 Chevy.  I'll post up some photos here so that anyone with some ideas can offer them up.

 

The Grill by it's self looks a lot like the '66 Chevelle El Camino or Wagon by Revell. The Headlights are another matter. They remind me of the Headlights used on the Revell '69 Nova kit. The Chevelles had a 4 Headlight setup and the Nova had single 7" Headlights much like the car in your picture. I don't know if you have either of these kits or can find pictures of them to get an idea of what I'm thinking.  

[alan barton]

Hi guys, thanks for all the comments and all the laughs!  Remember, compared to a 144, a 170 is a "big block"!  

I  think I do have a spare Nova grille at home, I will hunt it out when I get back from the bush.   I have only done a few small things to the roof over the last few nights but if I get more done tonight I will post more photos.  Doing a twelve hour shift with a half hour bus ride to the mine each day seriously cuts into modelling time and some nights you just can't be bothered!

 

Cheers

Alan

[ChrisBcritter]

Thanks for the info, Alan! Got my '62 soaking off the last of its paint and decals, and ground the roof overlay and custom tail pieces off the Ranchero body. The roof will need a lot of puttying/sanding.

Looking forward to how your Ute progresses!