| I bought my Coupe in early 2005 but the story begins a few years prior. I had always liked Coupes but for one reason or another I'd never owned one before although in my heyday I did have a series of XA-XC Sedans. After a brief break from cars I got myself a genuine 'K' code XY Fairmont GS Sedan resplendent in Bronze Wine. It was a beautiful car but I was never at home in it, to me it just didn't feel as good to drive as the XA-XC series. I sold it 12 years ago. Happily it went to a good home and is in very good hands. |
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What happened next was Stuarts fault!! He'd been involved with the Ford Coupe Club for some time and had brought me along to a few events and meetings. This rekindled my interest and after being a 'tag along' for a while I decided "what the hell" and started looking for a Coupe. I had always liked them and I'd seen what a great bunch the Ford Coupe Club is so it was the time to go for it. |
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Before too long Lindsay said he knew of one for sale as a word of mouth. The owner, Jason is a good mate of Lindsay's and was a former club member who had moved on to other interests. He had owned this Coupe for a long time but was no longer being used so he made the difficult decision to sell. After much procrastinating on my part Jason brought the Coupe around to my place, Stuart and I gave it a look over, went for a drive and agreed on a price. I bought a Coupe!! I had pretty much made the decision just as he parked in my driveway. It was as straight as an arrow and looked fantastic in Graphite Grey, which is a Honda colour. Jason explained it was originally Platinum Blue with a Beige vinyl roof. |
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It was in good sound condition with only a few blemishes. A very presentable Coupe but with room for some improvements. It was ideal, exactly what I wanted. It looked essentially the same as it does today. It's a 302 with a toploader and 9" LSD. I was very happy it was a manual and the Hurst shifter makes this toploader shift very smoothly. Jason had done a heap of work to it particularly with the suspension. I was very impressed with the go-kart like handling. This is one well sorted chassis. Once it was mine the first thing I noticed was that it looked somewhat underdone with the 14x7 and 14x8 12 slotters. These were replaced with Simmons B45 full polish in 16x8 and 16x9, which looks fantastic. I was very happy with the way it looked afterwards. Around the same time the 9" diff was rebuilt by Lou at Victoria Diffs. |
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Next up was to get a couple of blemishes on the body done. A bit of a patch up and it'll be sweet. Yeah right!!! It's a Coupe, should have known better!! This turned into a full job back to bare metal with all glass out. There was plenty of rust in the driver's side rear wheel arch and the back part of the sill. The passenger side sill was not as bad but there were signs of previous repair work on the passenger side quarter apparently dating prior to Jason's ownership. The surprise was finding zero rust around the back window or anywhere else!! As for colour, Graphite Grey was the obvious choice for the respray. I got it back just before the All Ford Day in 2006 looking better than ever thanks to the boys at Fernglen Panels in Ferntree Gully
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The next thing on the list was a twin system to go on. It did have a large bore single system on but with these you just have to have those twin pipes poking out the back. The guys at Unique Exhausts in Bayswater did a great job; the pipes sit perfectly with no rattles or scrapes |
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Next up was the interior. I felt it was letting the car down and needed a freshen up. I had experimented with Scheel seats, which bolted straight in by using the original seat runners. I had considered having the Scheels re-trimmed with the original houndstooth trim but decided to get the original seats done instead. The drivers seat needed to be completely stripped and rebuilt, the passenger seat fully re-trimmed and the sun bleached top of the back seat also re-trimmed. I also had a better console to go in. The result was fantastic. The workmanship was excellent and the interior now looks up to scratch. Thanks to Jason and the boys at High Class Auto Upholstery in Blackburn |
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There have been many highlights and good times with this Coupe and the Ford Coupe Club but the big one was at the Hardtop Anniversary at Echuca in 2007 where my car won two awards for best XC and Peoples Choice!! This was a great honour considering the standard of Coupes there, to win one trophy is a great achievement but to get the double!! You could have knocked me over with a feather. |
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There has been no further work done however future plans include an engine rebuild to 351 specs and engine bay respray. This will be some time away yet but we'll get there. Meanwhile we'll just cruise and enjoy the Coupe and the Ford Coupe Club. |
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Many thanks to: Fernglen Panels in Ferntree Gully Victoria Differentials in Mitcham Unique Exhausts in Bayswater High Class Auto Trimmers in Blackburn And to my wife and family for supporting me with this crazy obsession. |
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