My xy van project

Heres some pics of my new van.
For as long as i remember ive wanted an xy panelvan but ive either never had the room, money, time etc etc haha.

But a few weeks ago I travelled down to Yackandandah and bought myself this one. ide been chasing one for a little while now but it was so hard to find one that hadnt been stripped already and being sold as a half done project or was ruined previously.

So I snapped this up while I could













I got it home and started getting stuck into it straight away.

A mate and I first started on the tailgate. I got a new skin with the van (actually got almost all of the rust repair panels needed to fix it all up) so we seperated the frame from the old skin



and cleaned the inside out then coated it in rust proofing.







Then put the new skin back on



Then I pulled the vinyl floor out and found the drivers floor pan was still perfect but the passanger one was pretty stuffed so ive ordered a new floor pan for it





I also need to replace passanger side rear quarter



and lower front guard section



and get stuck into these sections :?







So ive ordered all of the other bits and pieces needed, Along with new lenses, new brown carpet and a few other little bits and pieces for it.

Also while I was bored today I put some 2" lowering blocks in the rear and some load assist shocks to help when towing







And cleaned the interior up a bit (filled a 20l bucket with dirt off the floor )





And here is some pics of the running gear I will be putting into it. I bought this car very very cheap cause it was listed on ebay really wierd. I plan on using the whole engine, box, everything out of the xr8, even going to connect the aircon and cruise control to it









And thats where I have stopped for the wkend Ill keep updates as I go along

Love IT!!!!!!

Can't wait to see this one grow........

Will be watching..... Will it be ready for next years "Van Nats!'

Pity about the donor car, but it for a worthy vehicle.

Hows your toptailgate? I picked one up fpr my XC last Sunday from whats left of the Tonka Shop and there was a XY one there too

ahh mine is ok but ide like a better one. could u pm me the details of where it is?

this looks like a great project, and the XR upgrade's will make it a nice comfortable ride. you gonna keep the visor? i love em, im actually trying to track one down for my HT.
keep the pics coming and dont run out of steam

I might know of a visor here for your ht mate? The only prob is they have a bracket from the center of the roof aswell dont they?

Im unsure about the visor. see what happens I guess haha

yeah that center bracket is ugly!...trying to think of a way round that

Im not to sure why its on there. I have 2 falcons with the visors and neither of them have the bracket and it works fine still.. Gets a little wobble up when a truck heads past the other way on the highway haha but appart from that its fine

Nice to see somethg different for a change.... even tho it's a Ford, look forward to seeing it's progress.... keep it up (the good work that is) LOL

If anybody's chasing a xy panelvan?
Saw one for sale down here in Warrnambool, running has windows, needs work think dude chasing somewhere round 3-4k.

Contact me & i'll pass on the details.

Cheers Al.

free_styler1 wrote:If anybody's chasing a xy panelvan?
Saw one for sale down here in Warrnambool, running has windows, needs work think dude chasing somewhere round 3-4k.

Contact me & i'll pass on the details.

Cheers Al.

hi all felow vaners ive cheked out that xt van in warrnambool its not worth it in my opinion

wow your van looks like itll be a beauty ill be waching for up dates are u keeping the bench seat? what colour do u think youll paint it are u keeping the old school 12 sloters? are u keeping the windows in the back? great donar car that combo will work great im going to try puting gas struts on the rear top door are u going to cutomize it like deleted drip raills? or shaved door handels im puting xy tail lights in my xt van an deleating the drip rail around the roof keep up the good work

Hey mate cheers heaps. Ill try and answer all your questions haha

are u keeping the bench seat? yeh I am, i have some buckets aswell that I thought about putting in it but I think the benchy is better in the van anyway

what colour do u think youll paint it? im painting it the original colour. I want to try and keep it as original looking as possible, I am keeping the stock engine too so at any stage I can take the car back to original

are u keeping the old school 12 sloters? I am planning on putting the stock wheels back on the van with white walls, but I want to get the rear wheels widened a bit, I also have an xy fairmont that im doing up with 20" billets and a pretty wild setup so I might even just whack the xy monty caps on the van. I love the original look of a van when its lowered hard to the ground

are u keeping the windows in the back? Nah the windows are getting filled, I dont really like vans with windows in the back (thats what wagons are for haha) and I wanted a windowless van from the start but this one was in too good a nick and too good a deal to turn down

great donar car that combo will work great im going to try puting gas struts on the rear top door are u going to cutomize it like deleted drip raills? or shaved door handels? im puting xy tail lights in my xt van an deleating the drip rail around the roof nah im keeping mine all original, my top door still stays up perfect so Im going to keep the original hinge setup for it, I dont want to shave anything or remove anything cause I love em how they are.

im keen to keep an eye on yours too mate. sounds like a great project

thanks for all that typing to answer my questions lol sounds great yeah the bench seat is good so the gf can get nice an close to u while u cruse around ill put up some pics of my project soon

Heres some more progress on mine from the last couple of days, been a bit slow lately cause I have a 4month old daughter now and I just cant get away from her haha, She has made me a big softy

anyway We started the rust repairs on the lower rear 1/4s



and pulled the front end apart to get the engine out and clean inside the guards.





I also ripped the engine out of the au and ive started to get the loom out of it so I can pick through it and work out what I need and what I dont





And a bit more progress from yesty. Got the loom out of the engine bay of the au. This was pretty scary but I managed to mark everything and havnt even cut a wire yet haha.


This is the drivers side of the loom. As you can see by all the paper tabs I have marked everything properly and even colour coded some of the plugs that were similar with different coloured elecy tape haha


and this is the passenger side all out with the computer aswell.

I also managed to clean up and get to where my power steering setup is. I got this complete front end from a company called American Online Imports. it was there promo item and they hadnt used it for a while so i ended up with it cheap off evilbay. It had a good rad support that I am using for my xy sedan, a good dash fachia, brand new knobs, a blank steering column, new bushes and rubbers, nicely powder coated suspension, one of them fake windsor engines (theyre very light, i can pick the whole thing up over my head even with an original water pump and sump on it) which had the engine mounts I needed for the conversion into the pano and one of their power steering kits which I plan on using in it.

heres some pics of it all


here it is


the engine


the dash section


and the power steering setup (sort of looks like camira to me)





Got some really good info today on this type of conversion so hopefully I will have some more progress soon

and thats where it has stopped atm. Im getting the engine bay in the van blasted in the next wk or so and then I am going to run the loom and the aircon and power steer hoses in the bay, then fingers crossed in a few wks I can have the engine in there and ready to get it running. Then back onto getting rid of those damn rear windows

looks like youve been busy its looking fantastic great workmanship id like to go power steering on the van to, whys the xy got no roof are u cut an shuting it?was that why u were looking at the van i got? or are u making a convertable xy? i hope to pull the ute motor an ge tthe engine bay soda blasted in 2 or 3 weeks to i brought a media blaster to do it my self save a few buks .man all those new front end parts are making me drool lol how are u going to fill in those windows there just gluing in panels these days with super glue or somthing or u going to tig a panel in? sorry about all the questions im just really intrested in what your doing to the cars its great

hey by the way i piked up a couple xy front gaurds today if you need any

all good mate, Im happy to help.

looks like youve been busy its looking fantastic great workmanship id like to go power steering on the van to, whys the xy got no roof are u cut an shuting it? not sure where you read mine had no roof mate but it definately does haha. definately no convertible or anything like that here

was that why u were looking at the van i got? or are u making a convertable xy? i was looking at yours mainly for parts and for the windowless section

i hope to pull the ute motor an ge tthe engine bay soda blasted in 2 or 3 weeks to i brought a media blaster to do it my self save a few buks .man all those new front end parts are making me drool lol

how are u going to fill in those windows there just gluing in panels these days with super glue or somthing or u going to tig a panel in? nah filling them in properly mate, welding sections in slowly one window at a time. I plan on keeping the old girl for a long time so i might aswell do it right the first time

sorry about all the questions im just really intrested in what your doing to the cars its great

I am actually chasing some xy front guards mate. how much are you chasing for them? and where are you located?

im in warrnambool but i go to melb now an then 1 of the gaurds is in great nik no rust but a little dint at the rear an the second 1 has tiny bit of rust ill put up some pics later an well work somthing out i got to go get my 351c