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Introducing Rick And Donna Virago from
Perth, Western Australia.
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G'Day
from Australia.
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Rick & Donna have just completed
the build of their JBA Falcon Tourer.
The car was licensed on 15th. January 2001. |
The Body & chassis was supplied by
Murray Fraser here in Perth. It arrived on 24 Dec 1999. I had the chassis
set-up painted and suspension installed over my Christmas break (2
weeks)
The build was interrupted by two main
problems. Firstly - I managed to split my leg open on the rear of the
chassis, ending up with 20 stitches to my lower leg. This kept me off my
feet for 6 weeks. Later on in the build I found relying on contractors to do their thing.
i.e.
Electrician was supposed to take one week which turned into six !!,
likewise the upholstery was supposed to be two weeks and ended up being
five.
Aside from that the build was quite quick and
smooth. (I have previously built a Cobra replica ten years ago, and am a
shipwright by trade)
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| The car uses TC and TD running gear. To those of you in the UK.
These are Cortina MK 3's
1970.
Although everything was stripped, blasted
and powder coated.
Brakes are brand new, as is the steering rack. The
front springs are lowered (1.5") Cortina. |
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We have just had a hood made for
the winter.
Also a Bikini Top for the Australian sunshine.
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| A bikini top is literally just
a sun shade. It follows the windscreen line and the bottom of the radius
of the hood bars. The sides and back are completely open. Both tops are interchangeable and use the one set of
hood bars. These bars are made from stainless steel. |
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| One thing that I have noticed from
photos from Australia. Including these ones and others that have
appeared in The JBA Owners Club magazine is that there are no side
windows on any of their cars
Robbie. |
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The windscreen surround was upholstered in
dark blue, but I was not happy with this.
So I managed to get
some stainless steel from work, polished it and fitted to the sides
of the frame. It now looks as it should, I believe.
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The build quality is superb, as these
photos show.
Look at the wood cappings on the doors and the seat
belt uprights in chrome or stainless steel. The wrap round rear
bumpers seen in some of the photos. Robbie.
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| The seatbelt uprights are also polished
stainless steel which is slipped over the stubs welded to
the chassis. The whole structure is triangulated etc for strength.
Basically all metal work you see
that is shiny is either stainless steel or polished aluminium ( I work as
a designer for a shipyard so access to offcuts etc is good) |
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The complete interior is trimmed in
leather. This includes the dash as I got bored with continually seeing the
same old clear finished timber. The timber trim you do see on the
doors and around the back of the central body unit, is good old West
Australian Jarrah.
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This is a very hard timber that is difficult to
work with but has a brilliant grain and colour. All the timber
is finished in two pack polyurethane marine varnish. (see the shipwright
part is coming out again !!) All the instruments are made by VDO and
are the Classic Royale range.
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Rick completed the paintwork himself on a weeks annual leave mid Y2K. |
| The Engine fitted is a 3.8 litre V6 Holden
(Buick) coupled to a five speed gearbox.
The engine is fully rebuilt as I
did not want to risk unreliability.
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In this photo you may notice a
brushed aluminium plate beside the wiper motor. This covers the battery
box made from aluminium and recessed into the bodywork. This frees up some
space in the engine compartment which is needed for a motor of this size.
The impact on the passengers footwell is barely noticeable, particularly
as the ECU, relays, fuses etc are housed right beside the battery box, so
again it looks like it is supposed to be there.
Unfortunately the final drive ratio need to be
sorted as I am using a few too many RPM at this stage. This is just a
preference thing and certainly doing no harm. I will look at this soon.
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Just for the fun of it the bonnet
support (behind the radiator surround) is cut from 20mm solid aluminium,
then routered to fit, and finally polished. (now that is fun - NOT) |
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may have noticed, the underside of the bonnet and sides is not
painted. It has been completely lined in felt. (Donna's grand
suggestion!!).
Rick & Donna plan to use the Falcon as
an everyday car, but feel that this might change, as people keep staring
at the car and rubbing their hands over it. As the car is painted in dark blue metalic Rick is
forever cleaning it.
Welcome to the Joys of being a Falcon
Owner. This happens to us all no matter which country we live in.
Rick is prepared to help anyone who is building a JBA.
Whether it is to finish their car off, if they so desire. Or just to give
that added bit of help, to boost the enthusiasm of the builder. You can
contact Rick by E-Mail.
Look at the beautiful wiper motor, the
bonnet support and the radiator surround. Really superb. I do like the
felt lined bonnet interior as well. Robbie. They
certainly produce beautiful Falcons in Australia.
Also did you know that Rick believes, that Murray Fraser runs build classes on
Saturday mornings. However Rick was unaware of this and found that,
in his case, they
would have been unnecessary, having built a kit car before, he found that the
JBA is quite straight forward to put
together.
I am overjoyed at being given
the opportunity to post this page on the site and extend the hand of friendship
from Scotland to you all. I do receive emails from Australia and it is good to
know that I can put builders in touch with one another in countries, apart from
the UK. This will please Nigel Vincent in Perth, Western Australia., who is
building at present.
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The JBA Agent in
Australia is Murray Fraser at
Fraser Auto Sports Tourers,
12 Bowen Street,
O'Connor, Western Australia 6163.
Phone (08) 9314 7023.
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E-Mail:- Rick
& Donna
Photos Courtesy of Rick & Donna Virago from Perth, Western
Australia.
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J
B
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G'Day Welcome To Australia.
