2025 AFD highlight – C1983 XE Falcon panel van

When you have more than 1,600 cars on show, you’re guaranteed to see plenty of cool metal. Such was the case at this year’s All Ford Day in Geelong.

Marking its 34th year in 2025, the All Ford Day also celebrated 100 years since the foundation of Ford Australia, so Ford owners and fans turned out in record numbers.

From the earliest Model T to the latest Ranger, the variety on show was enormous, covering English and American Fords, as well as plenty of Aussie offerings. Ford-based hot rods were in the mix, too.

Ford panel vans had their own showcase area at the All Ford Day, but others, like the one featured, were spread throughout the general display area.

By the time of an XE panel van like this one from the 1982-84 period, the “sin bin” craze was fading away. Holden and Ford had all discontinued their “recreational” panel vans, although both were still building the standard commercial version.

Ford’s recreational panel van, the Sundowner, came to market in late 1977, more than three years after Holden’s Sandman and five months after Chrysler’s Drifter. The Sundowner outlived its rivals, though, hanging around until 1982 on the XD platform. By that stage, it was just a mild upgrade of the standard panel van, adding driving lights, graphics, a rear spoiler and some interior extras.

The panel van shown isn’t an interpretation of what a XE Sundowner would have looked like, but rather a “sport van” that marries the XE platform with a bodykit from HO Phase Autos.

Created by former Ford stylist Wayne Draper, and now run by his son, Rob, HO Phase Autos produce and supply body kits to suit the XD (Phase 5) and XE (Phase 6) Falcon sedans. These kits comprise bumpers, spoilers and wheelarch flares in the style of those seen on Ford’s Group C racers from the early 1980s. As an aside, Wayne Draper designed and built the XB Falcon-based “FT” panel van that featured on the show circuit and in magazines in the 1970s.

As the XE Falcon panel van’s front end is identical to that of the sedan, it makes the integration of the Phase 6 add-ons easier, with the rear wheelarch flares a relatively easy fit, too.

Obviously, those wheelarch flares enable a much wider wheel-and-tyre set to be added, which in this instance, appear to be 18-inch BBS RS-style alloys wrapped in low-profile tyres. The stance is enhanced by lowered suspension.

Gunmetal Grey paint is another custom touch, as are yellow inserts in the lower body rub strips. The bonnet vent is part of the Phase 6 package, but the Blue Oval badge that’s offset on the grille is the owner’s addition and works well. Clear indicator lenses up front are another custom touch, but the tail lights remain stock.

Interior trim and what resides under the bonnet of this custom Falcon panel van is a mystery, but presumably there’s something special going on to match the exterior!

In a solid field of outstanding panel vans - both new and old, - at this year’s All Ford Day, this one attracted plenty of attention.

To see JUST CARS’ report from the 2025 All Ford Day, click HERE.