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Chris M

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DukeCanBuildit

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Damn good question. A lot of different things
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Duke, you're right about it having a Mach 1 vibe to it. From what I remember reading in Dads old Hot Rod magazines is that the Falcon XB cars are the Australian equivalent to the Ford Mustang. @Cmar can correct me if I'm wrong lol.🙂
They were closely related to the 1970/71 Torino, which was related to the Mustang, therefore using styling ques from both. From 1972 on, the Torino used a full frame chassis.
 


P. A. Schilke

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A few thousand miles ago I had the truck at the dealer for a warranty transmission rebuild. I noticed when I got it home my new one piece lug nuts were scratched up on just the front wheels.

I went to rotate my tires and clean up the truck a bit and I could barely get the fronts off. I had my 1/2 ratchet with a cheater bar and struggled to the point I almost gave up. I'm a bit paranoid about the studs, they look fine but I've read of them breaking when over Torqued. Should I be worried?

I got the tires back on and Torqued them down to 100 ft/lb like I always do. Took it on a short drive then re Torqued again. Everything seemed normal.
1000005792.webp
Hi joeD

Steel remembers when it is hurt. your studs should be okay if the yield point was not exceeded, but how would you know this? What I think is you have about 1000 miles or more and no torque loss, so I think you are okay. Not easy to check as visual shows okay but studs may have been hurt. They will not go all at once, but a torque check would show breakaway torque below other studs. Many times I have seen all studs sheared off as the wheel leaves the vehicle. It would indicate all studs failed, but that is almost never the case. One stud goes South which causes added stress on the remaining studs, of which another one gives up and heads south, which places the remaining studs in a position where they give up as well. Safe would be to replace all studs on the front wheels but pricey, so just check the break away torque...not the tightening torque of a click torque wrench...digital or old style needle and scale kind.

Good luck!

best,
Phil
 
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JoeDirt03

JoeDirt03

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Hi joeD

Steel remembers when it is hurt. your studs should be okay if the yield point was not exceeded, but how would you know this? What I think is you have about 1000 miles or more and no torque loss, so I think you are okay. Not easy to check as visual shows okay but studs may have been hurt. They will not go all at once, but a torque check would show breakaway torque below other studs. Many times I have seen all studs sheared off as the wheel leaves the vehicle. It would indicate all studs failed, but that is almost never the case. One stud goes South which causes added stress on the remaining studs, of which another one gives up and heads south, which places the remaining studs in a position where they give up as well. Safe would be to replace all studs on the front wheels but pricey, so just check the break away torque...not the tightening torque of a click torque wrench...digital or old style needle and scale kind.

Good luck!

best,
Phil
Well I think the issue with that is I've already removed them, so we will never know how tight they actually were. If I do that test now I'm just going to see that I've torqued them down correctly. That is unless I'm missing something.
 

Motorpsychology

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Duke, you're right about it having a Mach 1 vibe to it. From what I remember reading in Dads old Hot Rod magazines is that the Falcon XB cars are the Australian equivalent to the Ford Mustang. @Cmar can correct me if I'm wrong lol.🙂
The Australian Falcon and NA Torino shared common floor pans, but the Falcon Had a more Mustang-like front clip.
1970 Falcon & 1970 Torino
1200px-Australian_Ford_Falcon.webp
Torino2.jpg.webp
 

TxOTRRanger

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They were closely related to the 1970/71 Torino, which was related to the Mustang, therefore using styling ques from both. From 1972 on, the Torino used a full frame chassis.
The Australian Falcon and NA Torino shared common floor pans, but the Falcon Had a more Mustang-like front clip.
1970 Falcon & 1970 Torino
1200px-Australian_Ford_Falcon.webp
Torino2.jpg.webp
Thank you guys for correcting me on this, and for also backing me up.
Thank you. I appreciate it. 🙂
 

Cmar

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Ha Ha that's the "Interceptor" version that they built for the Mad Max movie. It started such a craze back in the early 80's Eventually you could buy those bolt on kits aftermarket and build your own version.
 

Cmar

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The Australian Falcon and NA Torino shared common floor pans, but the Falcon Had a more Mustang-like front clip.
1970 Falcon & 1970 Torino
1200px-Australian_Ford_Falcon.webp
Torino2.jpg.webp
That's correct, Mustangs were available here but because they were imported as LHD and had to be converted by Ford, they were expensive, whereas they were able to build these coupes relatively easily and cheaply using the existing 4 door Falcon production line and bits. The only unique bits in them was the rear guards, back panel, and back glass, even the frameless doors were borrowed from the panel van and ute version. And I must admit for a parts bin special they looked bloody good, I often regret selling mine, as they command big money now.

They were available in in Falcon, and nicer Fairmont, or GT trim with either a 250 CID 6, a 302 V8, or a 351 V8, with either 3 speed slush box (Borg Warner for the 6, or Ford C4 for the V8's) or a 4 speed top loader manual gearbox. A Ford 9" trac lok limited slip diff was also an option, but standard on some models. For a while there even an LTD version which had the LTD front clip and full leather interior, they were the rarest and most expensive.

Mine was a 74 Fairmont trim, with the 250 six, and 3 speed auto, but I transplanted the 2V head from the earlier Falcon GT version engine, which used a 350 Holley, instead of the standard asthmatic single barrel carby and with a set of tuned extractors, a aha ha - barely muffled exhaust, and a mild cam, it turned out more power than a standard 302 V8 version but with a much lighter engine. Luckily being a Fairmont it already came with the optional 9" diff. I always wondered if the Borg Warner auto would hold up, but it never died on me.

Managed to find a couple of pics, they're 50 YO Polaroids so sorry about the shi**y colour, but that actually is my car on a rural road in South Australia's mid north, and later with a mate at a local pub, he had the 1973 4 door version in orange 302 Cleveland and 4 speed manual.

PXL_20260108_204808046.webp
 
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Cmar

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The Australian Falcon and NA Torino shared common floor pans, but the Falcon Had a more Mustang-like front clip.
1970 Falcon & 1970 Torino
1200px-Australian_Ford_Falcon.webp
Torino2.jpg.webp
That's actually a 74 or 75 model 2 door hardtop, they didn't start building them until 1973, 1970 models were all 4 doors. But yes they did share the same mustang like front clip as falcon sedans of the same vintage.
 
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That's correct, Mustangs were available here but because they were imported as LHD and had to be converted by Ford, they were expensive, whereas they were able to build these coupes relatively easily and cheaply using the existing 4 door Falcon production line and bits. The only unique bits in them was the rear guards, back panel, and back glass, even the frameless doors were borrowed from the panel van and ute version. And I must admit for a parts bin special they looked bloody good, I often regret selling mine, as they command big money now.

They were available in in Falcon, and nicer Fairmont, or GT trim with either a 250 CID 6, a 302 V8, or a 351 V8, with either 3 speed slush box (Borg Warner for the 6, or Ford C4 for the V8's) or a 4 speed top loader manual gearbox. A Ford 9" trac lok limited slip diff was also an option, but standard on some models. For a while there even an LTD version which had the LTD front clip and full leather interior, they were the rarest and most expensive.

Mine was a 74 Fairmont trim, with the 250 six, and 3 speed auto, but I transplanted the 2V head from the earlier Falcon GT version engine, which used a 350 Holley, instead of the standard asthmatic single barrel carby and with a set of tuned extractors, a aha ha - barely muffled exhaust, and a mild cam, it turned out more power than a standard 302 V8 version but with a much lighter engine. Luckily being a Fairmont it already came with the optional 9" diff. I always wondered if the Borg Warner auto would hold up, but it never died on me.

Managed to find a couple of pics, they're 50 YO Polaroids so sorry about the shi**y colour, but that actually is my car on a rural road in South Australia's mid north, and later with a mate at a local pub, he had the 1973 4 door version in orange 302 Cleveland and 4 speed manual.

PXL_20260108_204808046.webp
Sometimes I hate all this technology but I do wish we had cell phones or smaller insta-matic cameras back then. I do have a few pics of some of my toys but most I never got to take pictures of and really wish I had them. Especially my first car which was a '70 Challenger with a 383 and it came with a high rise with dual quads on it. I was a broke teenager then so those came off instantly. lol

The one I miss the most was my '78 Z-28. I blew the motor in the late fall and my girlfriend's father helped me rebuild it over the winter. He had a heated barn and we took it out and I found another small block 350 and we spent the winter building it. That car was fast and it had a 4 spd and was fun breaking the tires loose in the first 3 gears. lol We had a lot fun doing it but I wish I had pictures of the whole build. I do have a couple somewhere but they're still in a pile in a box from moving and have to dig them all out one day.
 

Cmar

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Sometimes I hate all this technology but I do wish we had cell phones or smaller insta-matic cameras back then. I do have a few pics of some of my toys but most I never got to take pictures of and really wish I had them. Especially my first car which was a '70 Challenger with a 383 and it came with a high rise with dual quads on it. I was a broke teenager then so those came off instantly. lol

The one I miss the most was my '78 Z-28. I blew the motor in the late fall and my girlfriend's father helped me rebuild it over the winter. He had a heated barn and we took it out and I found another small block 350 and we spent the winter building it. That car was fast and it had a 4 spd and was fun breaking the tires loose in the first 3 gears. lol We had a lot fun doing it but I wish I had pictures of the whole build. I do have a couple somewhere but they're still in a pile in a box from moving and have to dig them all out one day.
That's so true I was a keen photographer (most of my stuff is on 35mm slides) but compared to what you can do today, I still have by comparison precious few physical memories of those days.
However the up side is that there are also no permanent records of some of the "young male" stuff you would never get away with now. :devil:
 

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That's so true I was a keen photographer (most of my stuff is on 35mm slides) but compared to what you can do today, I still have by comparison precious few physical memories of those days.


However the up side is that there are also no permanent records of some of the "young male" stuff you would never get away with now. :devil:
Thanks God for that! No incriminating evidence to be found. 🤫

I always say If I had a smartphone back then I'd be in a lot more trouble than I already was. :oops:
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