DFB's Garage

[DFB]

Stepping back in time for this post..............................

The very first car I ever drove was my fathers EB II Falcon GLi wagon in about 2000. That Falcon was well worn out by that stage, so I guess he felt safe letting me loose in the thing. I would drive that car around the workshop yard, getting all of the teenage boy stuff out of my system before getting my learners permit. I remember having a VERY close call with an steel I-beam, I had the thing sideways then panicked and slammed on the brakes to miss the beam by something like 5mm. THAT right there was the moment I knew I could do damage to a car and myself by being stupid. I fear so many young drivers never get that out of their system before they get a licence.

In addition to driving around the work yard, Dad would take me waaaay out of town onto the gravel back roads, then swap seats. This is how I learnt to drive before even getting a learner permit. In addition to the old Falcon, I would drive a 1993 Mitsubishi Triton, also on the company fleet. Well, this is that very vehicle, still rattling around and still owned by the company......................



This car was bought brand new in 1993 and replaced an 80's Triton. This model continued in production until the mid 2000's. Actually, they bought another Triton to replace this one. You might think the paint looks ok for such an age, but its been repainted a few times, the tray and racking was also built by the company.

This was the first car I got to experience a manual transmission. Let me paint a picture here..................no power steering, no power brakes, no assisted clutch. Yeah, the steering was a bastard, but the lack of assistance on the clutch made it suuuper easy to feel the bite point. In fact, it probably ruined me for other cars because I quickly got the hang of how to drive a manual in this old thing.

At the same time, Mum had a first gen Subaru Forrester, in manual because Dad didn't want to pay for the automatic. Side note, he did pay the extra money to have a dealer fitted CD player, which in 1997 was quite fancy. But what an absolute bastard of car that was, the clutch gave no feedback at all and tended to engage right at the top of the travel. I've driven other manual Subaru's and they were the same. Even with decades of manual driving experience, I can still easily stall a Subaru. Dad loved that Subaru for some reason, it became his daily driver for a while too. I hated it, mainly due to having to ride in the back of it with ZERO leg room and a rock-hard seat. Compared to the Falcon Wagon with its long wheelbase and super comfortable rear seats, the Forrester was not a family car in my opinion. Combined with the gutless 2.0 engine, I never liked it...................and thrashed the guts out of it whenever no one was looking.





Back to the Triton, I have great memories driving that old thing. Let's be clear here, in no way is it an exciting thing to pilot. The steering was brutal, the engine made a lot of noise but didn't really produce anything meaningful. The gearbox was sloppy, the brakes needed to be stood on to pull the vehicle up. But for a teenage boy, my god it was FUN! You could pretty much drive the thing flat out everywhere and not break the speed limit. We'd also take it camping, where a mate and I would take turns driving it to collect firewood. On one Easter camping trip, some fool even thought it would be good to use the tray to launch fireworks off..................which ended up putting burn marks on the roof, highly illegal but a legendary story.



I also used this vehicle to start my business. At the time, Dad had been daily driving this vehicle, so I would swap my Fairmont for the Triton, do my mowing run, then swap back. Even my sister learnt to drive in this car.

The interior shot reveals a relatively low 283,000 km, but trust me, its lived a HARD life. I should know, I thrashed the guts out of it for quite a while. However, the bulk of its life has been spent delivering building materials, steel, concreate, gas bottles.................you name it. The seat has been retrimmed a few times as well, and take note of those handles on the door, those are used to manually wind the windows down......................



(Oh, and I think this vehicle has had a roll of duct tape in it for its whole life! )

The engine is super rattly now, but to be truthful, it always was. For whatever reason, the business continued to pay rego and insurance on this thing, I guess it still comes in handy................but I suspect there is a little sentimentality going on as well.

So there you have it. I might have a few flash cars now, but this car is part of my driving genesis. Seeing it again this morning brought back a lot of good memories.

 

[Big DaveBig Dave is verified member.]

Both cars I learnt to drive in were autos, but neither had power steering, a mid 80s Nissan Pulsar was the instructors car, and Mum's car was a 76 Toyota Corona. I was also learning to drive a forklift, there was no power steering on that either. The instructor said you can always pick a forklift driver, there not afraid to really spin the steering wheel around. My first car was an 83 Bluebird, no power steering again, but the steering was great, it was really nicely weighted.

 

[Tasmania]

Stepping back in time for this post..............................

The very first car I ever drove was my fathers EB II Falcon GLi wagon in about 2000. That Falcon was well worn out by that stage, so I guess he felt safe letting me loose in the thing. I would drive that car around the workshop yard, getting all of the teenage boy stuff out of my system before getting my learners permit. I remember having a VERY close call with an steel I-beam, I had the thing sideways then panicked and slammed on the brakes to miss the beam by something like 5mm. THAT right there was the moment I knew I could do damage to a car and myself by being stupid. I fear so many young drivers never get that out of their system before they get a licence.

In addition to driving around the work yard, Dad would take me waaaay out of town onto the gravel back roads, then swap seats. This is how I learnt to drive before even getting a learner permit. In addition to the old Falcon, I would drive a 1993 Mitsubishi Triton, also on the company fleet. Well, this is that very vehicle, still rattling around and still owned by the company......................



This car was bought brand new in 1993 and replaced an 80's Triton. This model continued in production until the mid 2000's. Actually, they bought another Triton to replace this one. You might think the paint looks ok for such an age, but its been repainted a few times, the tray and racking was also built by the company.

This was the first car I got to experience a manual transmission. Let me paint a picture here..................no power steering, no power brakes, no assisted clutch. Yeah, the steering was a bastard, but the lack of assistance on the clutch made it suuuper easy to feel the bite point. In fact, it probably ruined me for other cars because I quickly got the hang of how to drive a manual in this old thing.

At the same time, Mum had a first gen Subaru Forrester, in manual because Dad didn't want to pay for the automatic. Side note, he did pay the extra money to have a dealer fitted CD player, which in 1997 was quite fancy. But what an absolute bastard of car that was, the clutch gave no feedback at all and tended to engage right at the top of the travel. I've driven other manual Subaru's and they were the same. Even with decades of manual driving experience, I can still easily stall a Subaru. Dad loved that Subaru for some reason, it became his daily driver for a while too. I hated it, mainly due to having to ride in the back of it with ZERO leg room and a rock-hard seat. Compared to the Falcon Wagon with its long wheelbase and super comfortable rear seats, the Forrester was not a family car in my opinion. Combined with the gutless 2.0 engine, I never liked it...................and thrashed the guts out of it whenever no one was looking.





Back to the Triton, I have great memories driving that old thing. Let's be clear here, in no way is it an exciting thing to pilot. The steering was brutal, the engine made a lot of noise but didn't really produce anything meaningful. The gearbox was sloppy, the brakes needed to be stood on to pull the vehicle up. But for a teenage boy, my god it was FUN! You could pretty much drive the thing flat out everywhere and not break the speed limit. We'd also take it camping, where a mate and I would take turns driving it to collect firewood. On one Easter camping trip, some fool even thought it would be good to use the tray to launch fireworks off..................which ended up putting burn marks on the roof, highly illegal but a legendary story.



I also used this vehicle to start my business. At the time, Dad had been daily driving this vehicle, so I would swap my Fairmont for the Triton, do my mowing run, then swap back. Even my sister learnt to drive in this car.

The interior shot reveals a relatively low 283,000 km, but trust me, its lived a HARD life. I should know, I thrashed the guts out of it for quite a while. However, the bulk of its life has been spent delivering building materials, steel, concreate, gas bottles.................you name it. The seat has been retrimmed a few times as well, and take note of those handles on the door, those are used to manually wind the windows down......................



(Oh, and I think this vehicle has had a roll of duct tape in it for its whole life! )

The engine is super rattly now, but to be truthful, it always was. For whatever reason, the business continued to pay rego and insurance on this thing, I guess it still comes in handy................but I suspect there is a little sentimentality going on as well.

So there you have it. I might have a few flash cars now, but this car is part of my driving genesis. Seeing it again this morning brought back a lot of good memories.

Nice trip down memory lane Deyon, as a child my dad had a Kingswood wagon is white i think 3 on the tree top speed down a hill with a tailwind was 80-85km/h he would drop me and my brother off at highschool it was soooooo embarrassing, Then mum bought a Toyota Camry and that did 430,000km before taking it to the tip.

I learnt how to drive in a 90s Magna brought from the local servo at an older age of 20 being 3 boys my older brother would get everything handed to him then me and my twin brother are the same age he got his first and we would rip that handbrake on any wet grass we could find. ( poor camry)

I own a wicked 2006 Toyota Camry I get all the ladies joking aside I don't drive as much as I did i find it kinda boring but depends on the journey I guess. I want a brand new car or mint condition second hand something fancy with LED headlights reverse camera etc, I get a bit sick of seeing my older brother with all the fancy car's over the years and he treats them like a typical work car, that Raptor that he has is for me the stuff of dreams YES my brother works hard with his business but I'm jelly.

 

[DFB]

Nice trip down memory lane Deyon, as a child my dad had a Kingswood wagon is white i think 3 on the tree top speed down a hill with a tailwind was 80-85km/h he would drop me and my brother off at highschool it was soooooo embarrassing, Then mum bought a Toyota Camry and that did 430,000km before taking it to the tip.

I learnt how to drive in a 90s Magna brought from the local servo at an older age of 20 being 3 boys my older brother would get everything handed to him then me and my twin brother are the same age he got his first and we would rip that handbrake on any wet grass we could find. ( poor camry)

I own a wicked 2006 Toyota Camry I get all the ladies joking aside I don't drive as much as I did i find it kinda boring but depends on the journey I guess. I want a brand new car or mint condition second hand something fancy with LED headlights reverse camera etc, I get a bit sick of seeing my older brother with all the fancy car's over the years and he treats them like a typical work car, that Raptor that he has is for me the stuff of dreams YES my brother works hard with his business but I'm jelly.

Kingswood wagon hey. Oh man, that is another car that I grew up in.

My father's best friend has had something like 3 cars in his whole life. His first car was a white Holden HX Kingswood wagon, the small Holden 6 with a 3-speed floor shift manual, brown interior. He had a set of those Cragar wheels and a larger exhaust fitted. He had that car up until the early 2000's. Not the car, but for illustrative purposes.....................







On Saturday's, he would come around and pick us up to go to the local football game..................not that his daughter, my sister and I were watching the football, it was just a cool place to hang out, eat lollies, pranking the players, climbing trees. We'd also go camping in that car, sit and listen to music...................

That old Kingswood was such a huge part of my growing up and was very influential in turning me into a car-crazy nut. I loved how the engine sounded, not loud but it had a nice note to it. On those wagons, they had a wind down rear window which was so bloody cool, why is that not a feature on modern cars?

In the early 2000's, he inherited a 1984 Ford Fairlane and the old Kingswood went to the wreckers. The Fairlane was painted in that horrible gold colour and featured the 4.1 inline 6 and 3-speed auto. He daughter called it "a wogs car" (sorry, don't mean to offend with that). This model Fairlane had the digital dash, power everything including the aerial. But the funniest thing about that car was the alarm system that had been on the car since new. It would do that old school beep-beep every time you locked or unlocked the car. It was also super easy to set the alarm off...........................I think you can guess where this is going..........................

On those Saturday afternoons at the football, we played a game. Two of us would crouch down in the front seats, one of us would be in the boot (trunk). We'd wait until someone was walking past the back of the car, then trigger the alarm and pop the boot, followed by the person in the boot leaping out to startle the person walking by. Immensely immature, but hilariously good fun. Again, not his but the same colour and interior spec, his even had the sheep skin seat covers..........................





Sadly, that Fairlane was written off in the early 2010's, a careless driver t-boned it at an intersection. He now drives a 2001 AU II Fairmont sedan.

 

[Big DaveBig Dave is verified member.]

One of my great uncles lived with us on and off while I was growing up, he had a few Kingswoods, and Valiants, over the years. He had a white HG when I was in my mid teens, I would work for him over the Christmas holidays when he was delivering parcels for Australia Post, the wind down back window came in very handy. He paid me $50 a day, cash. It had vinyl seats, great fun in summer, although he did have beach towels on them usually, steel hubcaps like in the picture, and he used to put his lunch on the motor, wrapped in alfoil, to warm it up. He always made me deliver to houses with dogs, he was always getting bit, I never did. I remember working on his cars with him, lying underneath holding the gearbox in position while he tightened all the bolts. This isn't his, but it looked just like it, same hubcaps, but his had the visor over the windscreen. On the wind down back window, the Toyota 4Runner in the US still has this, but it's powered, and the FJ has a fold up rear window, occasionally I still drive with it open, maybe it brings back memories.

 

[Tasmania]

Kingswood wagon hey. Oh man, that is another car that I grew up in.

My father's best friend has had something like 3 cars in his whole life. His first car was a white Holden HX Kingswood wagon, the small Holden 6 with a 3-speed floor shift manual, brown interior. He had a set of those Cragar wheels and a larger exhaust fitted. He had that car up until the early 2000's. Not the car, but for illustrative purposes.....................







On Saturday's, he would come around and pick us up to go to the local football game..................not that his daughter, my sister and I were watching the football, it was just a cool place to hang out, eat lollies, pranking the players, climbing trees. We'd also go camping in that car, sit and listen to music...................

That old Kingswood was such a huge part of my growing up and was very influential in turning me into a car-crazy nut. I loved how the engine sounded, not loud but it had a nice note to it. On those wagons, they had a wind down rear window which was so bloody cool, why is that not a feature on modern cars?

In the early 2000's, he inherited a 1984 Ford Fairlane and the old Kingswood went to the wreckers. The Fairlane was painted in that horrible gold colour and featured the 4.1 inline 6 and 3-speed auto. He daughter called it "a wogs car" (sorry, don't mean to offend with that). This model Fairlane had the digital dash, power everything including the aerial. But the funniest thing about that car was the alarm system that had been on the car since new. It would do that old school beep-beep every time you locked or unlocked the car. It was also super easy to set the alarm off...........................I think you can guess where this is going..........................

On those Saturday afternoons at the football, we played a game. Two of us would crouch down in the front seats, one of us would be in the boot (trunk). We'd wait until someone was walking past the back of the car, then trigger the alarm and pop the boot, followed by the person in the boot leaping out to startle the person walking by. Immensely immature, but hilariously good fun. Again, not his but the same colour and interior spec, his even had the sheep skin seat covers..........................





Sadly, that Fairlane was written off in the early 2010's, a careless driver t-boned it at an intersection. He now drives a 2001 AU II Fairmont sedan.

Yeah the white pictured one his was 3 speed but the gear leaver was on the steering column like and auto hence 3 on the tree reference
But it was manual.

Do you know how many times I burnt myself on the metal seatbelt buckle.....A lot! No A/C so we did the 3-80 trick

Back tailgate window down and the front at 80km/h = nature's own aircon.

 

[Klasse Act]

Here's the Kingswood estate I saw growing up but in blue

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

 

[DFB]

Here's the Kingswood estate I saw growing up but in blue

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

The only "woody" that we had here was the Falcon Country Squire Wagon, which Ford offered on the XL, XM and XP models. It wasn't very popular.







I absolutely love the round taillights from this era, so pretty.





At the time, Ford were throwing a lot of ideas at the wall for Australia, some stuck and some failed. Ford's pursuit of performance in the following years clearly resonated, especially when they did the GT and GS with wild colours, which was a very American influence. However, the wood panelling of the Squire I think was a step to far, please don't take this the wrong way, but it was too "American"......................if that makes sense.

 

[Tasmania]

Dad said his was a 1973 Model and he kept it on the road till 2004 and sold it, But in between those years he would get call from the local Tafe asking if the mechanic's and body shop classes could use a car for them to learn on, of course it came back with miss matching white panels and someone even tried to steel it because all it took was a ice cream stick to start it.

When we moved from Devonport out to our current location we had a rental and the next door neighbour had a green Kingswood with wooden panels and a V8 that sounded nice! He only drove it to church on a Sunday and you could hear that V8 from my bedroom.

He was selling it at the time and wanted $6,000 or $8,000 and i thought to myself for that NO WAY..... how foolish was i he would be long gone now both of them but who ever bought that car i hope it's still about.

 

[DFB]

Two weeks ago, I replaced the bag on the BG86 that's been set up for vacuum duties. This mostly cured the problem I was having with the inlet clogging up, in turn preventing material being discharged to the back of the bag.



However, I still felt like it wasn't performing as it should. For some reason, the discharge chute seemed to be blocking up more frequently than usual, and when unblocking, the material wasn't shredded. With the suction tube off to clear a blockage, I noticed the impeller was looking a little worn and went and ordered a new one.

Well, with the shroud off and the new part in hand, a comparison between old and new paints the picture.......................













So yes, I think I got my money's worth out of that impeller! :lol This is how it looked in January 2022..........................



Stihl uses the same impeller across the BG 56 and 86 blowers, as well as the SH 56 and 86 shredder vacs. The earlier BG 55/85 and SH 55/85 used a different fan, which had a different pattern and was orange in colour instead of black.

BG & SH 55/85 - 4229 704 3400
BG & SH 56/86 - 4241 704 3405

https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B07Q8JHW4S?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title



The worn-down impellor would explain the more frequent blockages, the material wasn't being shredded properly. I have also gone and ordered the shredder blade, which I have a couple floating around somewhere but can't find.

https://bwmachinery.com.au/product/...3ATuHfPuOJuL_ClcW9nm9B1qC4Xq20DRPFR8Yu877bBg5

 

[Tasmania]

Two weeks ago, I replaced the bag on the BG86 that's been set up for vacuum duties. This mostly cured the problem I was having with the inlet clogging up, in turn preventing material being discharged to the back of the bag.



However, I still felt like it wasn't performing as it should. For some reason, the discharge chute seemed to be blocking up more frequently than usual, and when unblocking, the material wasn't shredded. With the suction tube off to clear a blockage, I noticed the impeller was looking a little worn and went and ordered a new one.

Well, with the shroud off and the new part in hand, a comparison between old and new paints the picture.......................













So yes, I think I got my money's worth out of that impeller! :lol This is how it looked in January 2022..........................



Stihl uses the same impeller across the BG 56 and 86 blowers, as well as the SH 56 and 86 shredder vacs. The earlier BG 55/85 and SH 55/85 used a different fan, which had a different pattern and was orange in colour instead of black.

BG & SH 55/85 - 4229 704 3400
BG & SH 56/86 - 4241 704 3405

https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B07Q8JHW4S?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title



The worn-down impellor would explain the more frequent blockages, the material wasn't being shredded properly. I have also gone and ordered the shredder blade, which I have a couple floating around somewhere but can't find.

https://bwmachinery.com.au/product/...3ATuHfPuOJuL_ClcW9nm9B1qC4Xq20DRPFR8Yu877bBg5

Take the old impeller and hot glue some nails on it and throw it at that bloke who complained about the leafs.

 

[DFB]

Take the old impeller and hot glue some nails on it and throw it at that bloke who complained about the leafs.

Nah, I'd wedge it under his tyre in the parking lot. Imagine taking off for home at 5pm, dark, cold, wet.........................a flat tire would ruin his day nicely.

 

[Tasmania]

 

[DFB]

I'm not sure why, but I don't often take interior shots. And on the XR6, it has a somewhat unique look.

For FG Falcon, XR sedans and utes were offered with 5 different interior trims. That might sound like a lot, but on the previous BF MK II model, an XR could be had with 13 different interior trim options, exterior colour dependant. In fact, on BA MK II, there 16 different options.

This customization was very much a strategic play for the BA Falcon. Ford wanted to reengage with the more profitable private market rather than flogging base models to fleet and rental customers. Ford gave buyers a chance to order their new car exactly how they wanted, something usually reserved for higher end brands. That's why there were so many interior and exterior colour options during this era. Today? Yeah, you can have black, or black, or black with black........................

For the BA Falcon, Ford were offering a range of cloth trim colours, which were NCO options, as well black leather trim with red stitching for $1980 (sedan) or $1050 (ute). In April 2004, Ford introduced "XR-Sport Leather Trim", which was available as a standalone option for $2495 (sedan), or via the XR Luxury Pack for $4595 (XR6T & XR8) or $5495 (XR6). This trim was a mixture of patterned leather and suede, and like the cloth trims, was offered in a range of colours. The XR-Sport Leather carried over into the BA MK II, BF and BF MK II models.







The really sad thing is, while some customers could see value in factory ordering their car, most didn't want to wait and simply purchased what was sitting on the lot. Further to that, most dealers would only order stock with the neutral grey or black trims. And this is why for FG, the choice of interior options was slimmed right down to just 5..........................



As with the B-Series, most dealers played it safe and ordered XR's with the Streetwise Graphite or the black Nudo Leather. Some did get made with Streetwise Red, in fact the very first FG I drove was a Silhouette Black XR6 with the red trim. Streetwise Silver was a happy medium in my option as it added some contrast to the interior without being in your face.

Streetwise Graphite -



Streetwise Red -



Streetwise Blue -



Streetwise Silver -



Nudo Leather -



I remember sitting with the salesman back in early 2008 looking through what stock was available in the Ford system, there being no Sensation with Streetwise Blue available. This is part of the reason why my car was a factor order. My choice of cloth over leather might sound like a strange move, but I was not giving up the chance to have some colour in an otherwise black dungeon. If I had the chance to order this car again, I wouldn't change a thing....................other than going for the turbo engine.





In March 2010, Ford discontinued the optional cloth trims, slimming down to the bland Streetwise Graphite with blue stitching and lettering. They even started using the same trim on the R6 Ute (which used XR seats), the base Ute lost its unique trim and adopted the XT sedans instead, and the G6 lost the Cashmere trim option. This was clearly a cost cutting exercise in an effort to reduce complexity on the line and with suppliers. A year earlier, they stopped painting the E-GAS engines green, instead used a strip of green tape across the front of the rocker cover. The turbo engine went from gloss to matte red paint.



So, if you ever see an FG with the red, blue or silver cloth interior, you are looking at something quite rare.