The story of how I discovered the where-a-bouts of the car, how I met Rob of Naracoorte and subsequently bought the car is a long one. I’m an ex-farmer and I now work as an Electricity Officer and Vegetation Inspector state-wide throughout the state of South Australia patrolling powerlines for trees/vegetation growing too close to the lines. I patrol a vast area of SA and get to see a lot of stuff on private property that would only be known to the owner of the land/house/shed. I get to meet and talk to many different characters in my work on any given day. So much so, I’ve been given multiple good classic cars state-wide that the owner disregards (which I still haven’t got). I’m always on the look-out for the ultimate ‘barn-find’, with my job lending itself perfectly for the task!
It was Saturday 13th June 2015 when I was working some overtime west of Naracoorte SA when I visited a lonely farmhouse set back off the main road obscured from view, where car & truck bodies in various states of repair or decay littered the immediate farm out-buildings surrounds. I was feeling a little down, as an original XP sedan I was watching on Gumtree had just sold and I’d just missed another opportunity to buy an u********* ‘early-bird’ Falcon. The owner of the farm popped his head out of his shed to see who was entering his property as I pulled up near the 19,000 volt electricity transformer pole adjacent to his shed, as there were a row of trees behind the shed near the powerline that needed inspecting.
I said g’day to him and introduced myself as I spotted a partially restored VG Valiant Pacer on blocks in his shed. Generally in my job, communication with people is important for maintaining an element of trust, as it is quite an intrusive job ‘waltzing’ into peoples ‘back yards’ commonly unannounced and subsequently, I have to gain trust quickly when I meet the sometimes bemused resident. As a past farmer and also car enthusiast, I have the ability to easily strike up conversation based on observation of my immediate surrounds. I said to him, ‘nice old hemi mate, slant or V8’ 440 he says, I say ‘strewth, that’s a bit greedy mate’ and within 30 seconds, I was in his shed and the covers were off the car and I’m drooling over his pride and joy!
His nickname was Poss and we chatted for a while and I told him that I had 4 old early Falcons out at my farm in various states of decay. I’d owned and drove them since 1988 and I’d always wanted to restore one of them, but raising three daughters over 25 years put a (financial) halt on any of my project cars and ideas. I then proceeded to tell Poss about the XP Falcon I was just watching on Gumtree that just sold an hour earlier, so I couldn’t show him the photos of it as the advertisement had been removed. Poss said to me, ‘I’m mates with a bloke in Naracoorte who’s got an old Falcon, he might want to sell it, his name’s Rob’. He told me Rob’s details, I thanked Poss for his time and finished my business on his farm and drove out the gate.
Eagerly, I phoned Rob. Rob answered and was initially hesitant of my call and I told him who had put me onto him and he ‘warmed’ to my idea of meeting him. I told him I was working to midday and had the afternoon free, as did Rob, being a Saturday. I told him I’d come to see him around mid-day, which I did.
We hit it off pretty much straight away, as Rob and I share similar interests, have mutual friends and are of a similar age and era. After about 10 minutes of ‘small talk’, I asked Rob if the car was for sale, which he said it wasn’t, ‘but as you’re here, you might as well come and have a look at it’, as it was in his business premises storage shed nearby. Rob opened up his shed and among his collection of 15 or so cars, there was the sweetest old XK Falcon Deluxe I’d ever seen with her bonnet raised at the back of the shed boxed in by a sea of Holden’s. It was love at first sight!
I had to have it I thought, but didn’t want to show too much enthusiasm except for the fact I found it most attractive and complimented Rob on it and his fine collection of other cars. We got talking and he showed me the ins and outs of the XK, opening the boot and lifting the immaculate rubber lining to see a 'new' looking fuel tank that was actually 53 years old. Rob pointed up into the inner quarter panel rear wheel arches to what was two (one each side) plastic bagged copra fibre (teased coconut husk fibre) anti vibration panel dampeners jammed between the outer wheel arch and the inner panel, I was gob-smacked as I’d never seen or heard about these rust inducing bags of ‘fluff’ used in the early Falcon. It was obvious that this car had never really gotten properly wet and was shedded for all of its life, as there was/is no rust apparent on or in it. The boot where condensation and moisture would normally gather over time if left outside and rust the steel, traditionally in the dogs legs, was as aforementioned, immaculate!
He opened the doors and I sat in the driver’s seat looking at an immaculate instrument cluster with a mere 75,846 original miles on the clock………..wondering what it was going to take to talk Rob into parting with this babe! Rob shuffled around under the passenger seat and pulled out a three ringed black folder filled with old papers, service receipts, insurance and registration certificates etcetera, a veritable treasure trove of provenance! Included also in the folder was the original Falcon Registered Owner’s Manual with the perforated original owner ID card and all his details still attached. I had to pinch myself that I could be so lucky to find such a survivor car so close to home or at all for that matter! Furthermore, service records and mechanical repair receipts confirmed the genuine odometer miles thus far accrued.
I further inspected the car showing Rob and discussing minor defects or inadequacies the XK and the early Falcons possessed as I consider myself ‘well-versed’ in old Falcons owning four and downplayed the moment, although my head was spinning inside. I told him how the early Falcon was renowned for cracking exhaust manifolds as I pointed to his on the XK and sure enough, there was a large crack behind the rear of the manifold near the exhaust flange, traditionally where they go. After a while, Rob started to show me his other cars, with one being an immaculate 4 door ’57 Chev with a dedicated gas 454 stroked out to a 480ci engine innit….schwoiiiit maaate!
Rob and I discussed cars, women and other things for the next five hours as the sun set on this fine winters day…. I said to Rob that I’d be very interested in purchasing the XK. I asked Rob what he thought it was worth, he paused for a moment and gave me a figure that I thought was very reasonable. I agreed with his price but he said he’d like to ‘do some research and think about it’. I sensed in Robs mind, it still wasn’t for sale. We shook hands and parted ways.
I didn’t hear or see Rob for a couple of weeks. The thought of owning such a special car had been on the fore-front of my mind since seeing it a fortnight earlier and I was having trouble sleeping. I was back working around Naracoorte for a week in early July and I cold called on Rob in his shop just before close on a gloomy Monday night 6th July. We exchanged pleasantries with small talk and I assisted him in locking up his business premises. After the front doors were locked, I asked him ‘So mate, did you do some research’, Rob said ‘No I haven’t’, my heart sunk. Rob said he hadn’t had time to research the car price or anything, but he’d already made up his mind on what he was going to do. He said ‘It’s yours for the price I said’. My heart skipped a beat and right there I was filled with pure joy.
We both proceeded around to the shed to see the car and to draw up a purchase agreement, I could hardly contain my excitement. Here I was buying a car that I hadn’t even driven, my wife thought I was crazy, but I knew the value of this hidden gem. I was getting hungry and I decided to order a pizza and some beers which Rob and I devoured. After eating our pizza, and typing up the purchase agreement, I put down a substantial cash deposit on the car and we both signed the paperwork with the balance to be paid on delivery on 1st August when I returned from a 3 week stint working away. I took the folder of provenance with me and that evening, I slept like a baby.
I returned to the shed with Rob a few days later whilst I was still working in the area to see if we could get the car to run. We checked and topped up the fluids, put a battery and some fresh fuel in the old girl and removed the air filter in preparation to fired her up, the first time since 2006, when she was last registered. I turned the ignition key and the oil and temp gauge lit up and turned it further until she started cranking. Roughly ten or so revolutions later she started to fire and after an initial cough and splutter, the little 144ci six cylinder engine fired up, I was elated! Running rough, Rob reached under the carby and manually by hand moved the throttle operating lever, giving it slight spurts of fuel and air whilst I ‘feathered’ the choke from the cockpit. After a minute or so the XK was idling sweetly, purring like a kitten, it’s a beautiful thing! I requested Rob, at my expense, to have the vehicle fully serviced and road registered by delivery date upon final payment.
Early on Saturday 1st August 2015, my son-in-law Brett and I drove to Naracoorte to bring home the ‘old girl’. We rounded the corner into the street of Rob’s shed, there she was, parked on the verge all washed, registered and ready to drive. Rob had supplied an almost dead battery to get me home and it was low on fuel. We finalised the sale and tidied up the paperwork, took a photo of Rob and I with the car, shook hands and off to the servo to get some fuel. As I was filling her up, an old fella started chatting to me and reminisced about when he had an early-bird Falcon. Five minutes later, still standing at the bowser chatting, I said I’d better get going, thanked the old fella for his story, paid for my fuel, affixed the Garmin to my windscreen to compare the speedometer to actual ground speed and left Naracoorte for the 105km journey home.
She seemed to drive pretty good at 50km/h in the town limits as this was my first drive of my classic old girl. I listened, looked, felt and sniffed using all my senses to detect abnormal operation, but all seemed fine, so far. Leaving the town limits, I slowly built up speed with my heightened senses ‘feeling her out’ as the speedo crept further across the dial, all the while Brett tailing me in his 100 series Landcruiser. Past the 80 km/h zone I built up speed and courage to edge up to 55mph (90km/h), all good it seemed. I sat on that speed for 10km or so to ease it up to full operating temperature and hoped the tyres held, as they were well over their use by date (by 10 years) according to the date-stamp on the tyre walls, although there was still plenty of tread to burn. Nothing problematic at this point with Brett still right up my ‘clacker’, I edged gently up to what seemed an ‘elusive’ 100km/h or 62mph with the 144 and air cooled 2 speed tranny seemingly running pretty damn good for a car that hadn’t seen the light of day for 9 years!
Up to this point, I hadn’t mentioned that the brakes were not great with the standard single master cylinder set up of the early Falcons, so I have to be fully aware of what was in front of me and mentally prepare and devise alternate ‘escape’ plans whist constantly moving forward, building speed. The brakes on the early Falcons were really just an afterthought and they were marginal at best, even when fully reconditioned. Stopping power was estimated by the pressure one put on the brake pedal. Furthermore, with the single master cylinder, generally when one applied brake pressure to the brake pedal, the front right wheel closest to the master cylinder ‘grabbed’ first and the other wheels followed suit, thus pulling one into the path of oncoming traffic! To compensate, upon breaking, one would turn slightly left then slightly right then straighten up to stop, a skilful procedure to the educated early-bird driver and a ‘horror story’ to the uninitiated!
I broke through the 100km/h ‘barrier’ and all seemed pretty good apart from constant traffic passing me on the single lane country highway from my ‘slow’ speed although I felt like Alan Campbell breaking the land speed record as I sailed down the road with a grin from ear to ear. Okay I thought I’ll take her up to 70mph. I slowly built up speed further and at about 65mph a slight vibration emanated through the drive-chain, it felt like a unbalanced wheel, I paused momentarily………but I pushed on with the phosphorus red speedometer needle edging ever closer to the ‘magical’ 70mph increment on the instrument cluster…….veritable warp speed Dr Spock! The vibration disappeared and I glanced over to my Garmin and it was reading a ‘heady’ 111km/h or 69mph, at this point I backed off the throttle as I didn’t need a tyre blow-out and slowed ‘the beast’ back to a steady and comfortable cruising speed of 55mph. I continued this speed through to the outer city limits in my home town.
As I neared the turn off to my area of town in the 80km/h zone, I slowly applied braking pressure and the engine stalled……damn! Fortunately, there was no oncoming traffic and I coasted around the corner and pulled up on the road verge. I placed the column gear stick into park and turned the key……..nothing, the old battery was dead! A mile from home stranded roadside on a Saturday arvo without a battery or jumper leads. Brett pulled up behind me and saunters up to the driver’s side window, and said ‘what’s wrong’, I said ‘It stalled and the battery’s dead it won’t start’. Brett replies, ‘I got a brand new battery at home you can have’. So he trundled off to his place and 15 minutes later, I’m back in business. I drove her back to my place, our home, her 8th SA owner.
The greatest thing about my purchase of this car is that Rob and I are now great friends. We both share a passion for our cars. I respect he is a Holden/Chev guy and he reciprocates that respect. It is something all car enthusiasts can relate to, as it’s not about what the car is worth from a pecuniary viewpoint, it’s about its historical and cultural values and the emotions that it evokes in different people. For example, some people might like a modified V8 XP Fairmont (who doesn’t), or a USA ragtop, a coupe or a delivery van…..me, I’m a bit of a purist , but I’m just happy to own and drive an early Falcon because life is too short for what ifs and maybes…..
