The family Truckster

[wello]

Got around of takeing a few pics og the ute I brought a few weeks back
Its 1986 XF spac I brought it for $400.00AUD a guy at work owned spent a load of money fixing it up for rego it got stolen just before rego he lost interest in so I brought spent about $150.00 doing repairs that happened when it got nicked new lower control arm cut and shut the roo bar and then I got it on the road
I have done a few extra things to it since I put a new bulkhead in the tray area to give me more interior storage space fitted a XF ghia dash
I had a LSD disc brake diff laying around so I put that in as well
It's duel fuel so cheap to run has not missed a beat since being on the road has around a 180000 kms on the clock now from new
I was lucky to be in the right place at the right time :p
http://home.kooee.com.au/wello/ute1.jpg
http://home.kooee.com.au/wello/ute2.jpg
http://home.kooee.com.au/wello/ute3.jpg
http://home.kooee.com.au/wello/ute4.jpg
http://home.kooee.com.au/wello/ute5.jpg
http://home.kooee.com.au/wello/ute6.jpg
http://home.kooee.com.au/wello/ute7.jpg
http://home.kooee.com.au/wello/ute8.jpg

[blackice111288]

http://home.kooee.com.au/wello/ute4.jpg

is that seriously what the bar is for, kangoroos?^_^ ROFL oh my goodness, thats hilarious!!!! we should have deer bars for those pesky deers! brush gaurds dont help. nice car tho. i like it, its like a newer version of a el camino, its the same chassis pretty much right, with them both being GM's?

[wello]

yep its for Roos

and for people that don't cross the road quick enough :p


only problem with it being like a el camino is that its a Ford

[Y2kGoofball]

Wellos is a Ford

Yes, the roo (or bull bar as their known ...) do work :) looks like its all in good nick too, and for the price :rolleyes:

180 000 k's isnt bad, our 1997 VS Commodore has 170 000 clicks on it for a 97 model, so 180 000 isnt bad ... the rule is a 'stanbdard' car does 20 000 km per year

[NFSracer]

So it's similar to the Ford Ranchero then right?

[VQ]

Well in concept, they are sedan based utes, generally based ont he LWB wagon chassis, they have allt he comfort of a sedan, but the tray of a truck, so therefore it's a ute.

And yes, those bars are annoying, I personally hate them unless you really do lice out int he bush and come across em all the time, because they are genrally on 4x4's where the owners never even leave the city and are more likely to hit and kill or main a human.

And The Falcon is different to the American cars as are the Holden utes, Holden and Ford Australia generally develop their own chassis and body, only the original series falcon (XM-XT isn't it?) where the same as the yanks' falcon, but even then, from the second falcon model onwards it was a lot structurally strogner then the american version cos our Roads then were rally shit in comparison to the smooth highway's the american's get, still now, we have bad roads out of the city, but with all the imported Gm products anf ford products, their suspension is retuned for australia.

Holden has always designed their own suspension and chassis, and they are genrally shorter then the equivilent american car too, The Monaro is a good example of how good our sporty suspension can be, and it will still handle all the dirt and crappy roads we have.

[wello]

I agree VQ bullbars have no place in the city
out here its a different story

for our US friends here is the history of the ute


The story of the utility truck or coupé utility– the ute – began in 1932, when a letter was received by Ford Australia’s plant at Geelong, Victoria. It was written by a farmer’s wife who’d had enough of riding to church in the farm truck and arriving in saturated clothing;
‘Why don’t you build people like us a vehicle to go to church in on a Sunday, and which can carry our pigs to market on Mondays?’ her letter asked.

Bank managers at the time would lend money to farmers to buy a farm truck, but not a passenger car, hence the plea from one very fed up woman!

It arrived on the desk of managing director Hubert French who, instead of dictating a polite dismissal, passed the letter on to sales manager Scott Inglis.

He in turn showed it to plant superintendent Slim Westman, and the two of them took it to Ford Australia’s design department, which in 1932 consisted of one man…

Lewis Thornet Bandt was 22 years old and had already been singled out for bigger things with Ford.

Interviewed shortly before his death in 1987, Bandt recalled the moment when Westman and Inglis came to him with the letter.

The brochure for the first utility"

The whole thing had already started to germinate," said Bandt.

"Westman quite rightly reckoned that if we cut down a car and put a tray on the back, the whole thing would tear in half once there was weight in the back.

"I told him I would design it with a frame that came from the very back pillar, through to the central pillars, near the doors. I would arrange for another pillar to further strengthen that weak point where the cabin and tray joined. I said to Westman `Boss, them pigs are going to have a luxury ride around the city of Geelong!’ "

Bandt began by sketching the coupé utility on a 10 metre blackboard, depicting a front view as well as side and rear elevations. When they were seen by Westman some weeks later, he told Bandt to build two prototypes.

On a wheelbase of 112 inches, with a rear tray that was 5ft 5ins long and had a payload of 1200 pounds, they were the first vehicles to also offer a comfortable all-weather cabin.

On first sight of the prototypes, Scott Inglis authorised a startup production run of 500 vehicles. Westman asked for – and got - £10,000 for tooling, and the first coupé utilities rolled off the Geelong assembly line in 1934.

Born out of a woman’s frustration with car designs of the day, the enclosed cab utility was initially regarded as a luxury. But the `ute’ was quickly accepted as a necessity of bush life, and won recognition around the world as the ideal farmer’s or tradesman’s vehicle.

Epilogue:
Lewis Thornet Bandt died on March 18, 1987, in an accident near Geelong between a sand truck and the vintage Ford ute that Bandt had rebuilt for himself (rego number UT 001, ). This talented Australian is survived by the legacy of his design, which wins new friends around the world every day.
http://home.kooee.com.au/wello/1934.jpg