The panel beater delivered the car a couple of weeks ago, so now it's time to get started on putting it back together.
With a freshly painted shell in the garage, the first thing I realised is all the bolts that I took off the car in the beginning are no longer worthy, so I need to buy a lot of new bolts and screws and gaskets, etc. And a lot of the plastic clips (like for the door handle control rods) are broken. Just ****** little things like that which leave lots of half-finished jobs while I wait for replacements from Ford suppliers.
Overall the paint is excellent, I love how the colour turned out. I did have doubts as to whether to stick with black stripes, or pussy out and go with the factory Walnut Glow just for the sake of looking factory. But I'm so glad I stayed with black, it looks excellent against orange.
The bonnet stripe was a source of anguish for myself. I went to the NSW GT Clubs display day for a browse, and every XB there had a different stripe. Different spaces, different thickness of the outside stripe, etc. Very confusing. But Dean the spraypainter had a spec sheet for XB's which detailed the correct measurements, so I'm happy with the results.
The wheels, yeah I know it sits pretty high in the back. I've got Mad Max-size leaf spring shackles. I like the raked look, but when everything is back on the car and ready to roll I might drop it down about 1.5" in the back. It'll still be raked, but not so extreme.
The last photo shows my number plate which I had made for the car (it helps to be a Wests fan), and the parcel shelf blanket which my Mum knitted for me
It's kind of a family tradition now since my Grandmother knitted a parcel shelf blanket for my Dad's Torana in the 70's which he still has, so Mum decided she wanted to knit one for my XB.