Remember when XB Falcons were virtually worthless and used by young ’uns as paddock bashers? Glenn Rewell does, because that’s exactly what he did with this Falcon back in the day.

First published in the June 2025 issue of Street Machine

“I got the car as a trade-in at the local Ford dealership in Castlemaine, Victoria around 1985. It was $300, and as an apprentice, I needed something to get around,” says Glenn. “They weren’t a sought-after car, so we bush-bashed it, jumped it, did burnouts, and used the wheelwells in the boot to store beer and ice – which young me didn’t realise created the rust I had to fix years later!”

Despite the abuse, the trusty Falcon never let Glenn down. Once he started his business in 1990, the XB was retired for a shop ute and sat dormant in his parents’ shed for the next 33 years. “In 2023, my son was showing interest in it, so we chucked a battery and some fuel in it and she fired right up, and we drove it home,” says Glenn. “My son was super keen, and without telling me, he entered it into Summernats and tore it apart. But then he lost interest and I ended up building the thing!”

While this is by no means Glenn’s first build, it’s certainly the first with this much detail. Things began with Glenn throwing a fair chunk of the Rare Spares catalogue at the car to fix all the rust and rallying damage. But as he finessed the Falcon’s bodywork, the rebuild started to get a bit out of hand. “I did the underside and decided I couldn’t hide it in chassis black, so I painted that body colour, and then I had to do the top side even better again, so it was full-on,” he says.

Full-on is right, since everything you see here except the interior trim was done by Glenn at home with his own two hands – and yes, that includes the three-layer candy paint. “I chose the colour off one of my Harleys; I wasn’t keen on a boring factory colour,” he says. “When I got it scanned, we found it was a three-layer candy job, which had to be done with the car assembled, and that was a real challenge and took around 10 hours to do in one go.”

Glenn didn’t hire a spray booth, either. Just like the rest of the build, he did it in his home shed, making a temporary spray booth out of an old gazebo frame, along with plenty of drop sheets and fans.

The base-model Falcon 500 was a six-banger when Glenn was hooning around in it in the 80s, but that’s now made way for a little 302 Clevo wearing attention-grabbing, Hilborn-style Garlits Street Induction trumpets. “I was inspired by Sam Gauci’s old XB Falcon back when it was yellow with the injection; that era is right in my wheelhouse,” he explains. Now, Glenn is unashamedly an old-school fella, so much so that when he filled out his tech sheet for this story, he did so by hand before personally delivering it to me to avoid having to use a computer. “I’m rubbish at that stuff!” he laughs. So, the ‘injection’ you’re seeing here is actually all for show, as underneath it is a Holley 750 carby. “I wanted a carby for the reliability and simplicity; I didn’t want EFI, as it’s expensive and complicated,” he says.

He did a tidy job of fooling everyone, too, as there were plenty of punters – including us – who were taken in by those enormous trumpets sticking out the bonnet when the car debuted at this year’s Street Machine Summernats. “Sometimes I feel bad about it, but it’s just easier for me, and the style is what I was after,” he says.

Underneath all that, the 302 is still basically a stocker – for now. “It’s a Marketplace motor I found, just with a Crow cam,” says Glenn. “I have a 347-cube stroker kit for it; we just ran out of time before Summernats to do that.” Those who’re a bit miffed about the pretend injection can take solace in Glenn opting for a period JP Performance gear drive for the timing.

Glenn pulled back-to-back monster weeks of 16-hour days to get the XB together and ready for debut at Summernats 37, barely finishing it up before making the trek from Castlemaine in Central Victoria all the way north to Canberra. “My son Jackson did come back at the end of the build to help me finish it off and also towed it up to Summernats with me and spent the weekend,” says Glenn.

“I was a bit embarrassed when we had it there for judging; it still had cutting compound on it in spots, and it just wasn’t presented how I’d like,” he says. “So, we’ll take it back next year now I’ve had time to clean it up properly, and maybe do MotorEx and the Victorian Hot Rod & Street Machine Show as well.”

Despite Glenn’s reservations, the XB still garnered quite the response from the punters at Summernats, with plenty enjoying the old-school throwback approach to the induction for the Clevo. “It did fool quite a few, but even then, people still generally liked how the Falcon presented, which is pretty good for a car that never left my shed for the entire build.”

We reckon ‘pretty good’ is underselling just a tad, Glenn!

GLENN REWELL
1974 XB FORD FALCON 500

THANKS
Perrows Automotive Paints Bendigo; PPC Coatings Bendigo; Bendigo Electroplating; A&H Trim.