There’s a familiar saying in the classic car world, “It’s only original once”. Well there is at least one outfit in the game that likes to think otherwise. Dave Barrett reports.
Dan McAliece with a 1970 yellow ochre XY Falcon being readied with the back to factory look for MotorEx and the GT Nationals.
Grand Tourer in Melbourne’s north have been restoring the sporting variants of the iconic Australian family car from Ford since 1990, when former owner and now sadly departed Neil Thompson set up the business.
So if you have a GT and you need expert work done, Grand Tourer is likely to be on your radar. Especially so, if you are after that back to factory look which in today’s financial climate is increasingly the way to go with cars of this kind.
"The cars have got so much value to them when back to their original state that most people are doing that. Plus, I wanted to drive the car the way it came out of the factory”, said Chris Srbinovski, the owner of the featured yellow ochre XY.
With values heading ever northwards, owners are insisting the best work be carried out on them. “They demand high quality body work to realise the potential from an investment point of view”, says David Cockle, general manager at Grand Tourer. “If you cut corners on them they just don’t don’t have the longevity in the bodywork and because it costs so much these days you’ve really got to get it done by the right people.”
After a hiccup that saw the car lingering at a panel shop for the best part of three years, third owner Srbinovski found painter Justin Zane who had just completed a black XB GT sedan that blew the Falcon GT scene away back in 2019.
Contrary to all that is taught in the game today, when it comes to the high end restoration of one of Broadmeadow’s finest - it is not just about original nuts, bolts, loom clips and fasteners. At Grand Tourer especially, it is all about visible overspray and orange peel. The way they came off line.
“Back then on the production line they didn't have time to mask the car up and make it look perfect”, Zane says. “They had a certain amount of minutes to achieve each process.”
And despite the lack of care which the overspray and orange peel might suggest, getting them right today is a lot harder than one might think. “It's a lot easier to do a nice job than to do an original restoration job to be honest”, says Zane.
Henry Royce’s mantra of “Accept nothing nearly right or good enough" may not have been the ethos with which Falcon GT paint was applied forty plus years ago, but it’s a saying that rings true in the ears of those at Grand Tourer today.
Dumbing down
“It's very challenging to get an extremely high quality job but dumb down the finish so it looks like a mass produced product.” says Cockle. “So we’re not trying to build high end show cars as such, we’re trying to build cars that look like brand new mass produced cars.”
In the ensuing 40 plus years, the product and the tools with which they are applied have of course come on in leaps and bounds but that’s not a help to the classic car restorer. “Because of the paint system they used back then it is very difficult to achieve the exact same effect. Two pack paints cover a lot better and they travel a lot further,” says Zane. “And, of course, back on the factory line, they were applied a lot differently.”
“No two GTs are the same.” says Grand Tourer’s Dan McAliece, who is regarded as one of the foremost experts on GT restoration. “For proof, take off any door card or look in any wheel arch of an original condition car and you’ll see overspray that changes from one car to the next.”
Luckily for painter Zane, he has two GTs in the family for reference as well as McAliece’s helpful advice just a phone call away. “I have a nugget gold XY Falcon and so does my brother. They're three months apart, both original factory cars,” he says “But if you look at my paint job on my car and you look at my brother's, the back of his shocker towers are so transparent, it's not funny. There's hardly a coat of colour, whereas mine is fully covered. So the bloke who painted my car did a much better job compared to my brother's.”
The over restored cars of 10 plus years ago barely cut muster nowadays and having worked on around 200 GTs to date, McAliece’s knowledge is second to none. He knows the limits to which paint and stone guard is applied, where and how much.
Zane says it is important to educate yourself thoroughly, even down to getting the correct application of seam sealer, another area of McAliece’s expertise he was able to call upon.
“I want all my sealer in real nice and tidy first of all so the car is still protected and sealed nicely. And then over the top of that sealer work, I would make it look messy, brush it in like it was factory. Otherwise, if I just went in there and brushed it in and made it look rough it's not giving the car justice because number one, the car got acid dipped so I've got to make sure I go in there and seal everywhere, add epoxy and make sure the metal is treated. If someone's spending big money on a paint job, you also want to give them that longevity as well.”
“This car was painted in direct gloss. I chose to do it that way because I believe it gives the most authentic look.
“The two packs of today, they have a totally different look compared to what the old acrylics on the GTs had. But what we're trying to achieve is basically the best interpretation of an idea of what they should have looked like.”
According to the happy owner Srbinovski, Zane has done an immense job bringing this highly desirable (thanks to its factory windback Golde sunroof) XY back to life.
With a completion date for the build drawing near, it only remains to be seen whether the judges at this year's MotorEx and Falcon GT Nationals agree.
Owner Chris Srbinovski bought the car at a Shannon’s auction pre Covid. This XY was special because it had the extremely rare Golde factory fitted sunroof. Last registered in 1989 it’s original condition meant some might have kept it that way, but Chris wanted that out of the factory gate shine.