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| XR-Lane |
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Yeah in you sickness you got your lowering blocks on
 , but any progress on the bonnet today?
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| racedirector |
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Age: 63 Posts: 1584 Joined: 20th Mar 2005 Ride: EDL Fairmont Wagon/AU XR8 Ghia Location: Riverstone |
Wow, looking much better Ben. Makes me think I might put 2 1/2's in mine, currently have 2" and it needs a little more, especially with some new bits coming next week
Hope you are feeling "better" - HA!  <- Ben feeling sick today 
_________________ =1994 ED Wagon GLi body/EL Fairmont spec with *ALL* EL running gear.= |
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| fiend |
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SICKBENJ wrote: I will trim the ends off the bolts after a couple of weeks. Luckily, the rim is lower than the length of the bolts, so if I get a flat tyre, there won't be any problems. Just don't go 4WD'ing and getting airborne and ..... Well.... Don't go misjudging curbs either....! Tell you what - make sure to drive over the centre of judder bars --- No leaving one wheel off the end to find a "smooth line" through the speed bumps.....  Yes, Fiend constantly bent the bottom of his U-bolts......
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| Froudey |
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fiend wrote: SICKBENJ wrote: I will trim the ends off the bolts after a couple of weeks. Luckily, the rim is lower than the length of the bolts, so if I get a flat tyre, there won't be any problems. Just don't go 4WD'ing and getting airborne and ..... Well.... Don't go misjudging curbs either....! Tell you what - make sure to drive over the centre of judder bars --- No leaving one wheel off the end to find a "smooth line" through the speed bumps..... Yes, Fiend constantly bent the bottom of his U-bolts......i can see why you would bend the bolts the excess of the bolts looks massive i suppose they would be to accomdation 3inch + lowering blocks etc.
_________________ R.I.P Tobias my son. |
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| XR-Lane |
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Wheres your Friday night after getting home from wherever it is you go on a Friday night update?
Did you get your quick shifter today buddy? Josh |
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| Rick's EF Fairmont Wagon |
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The EF11 has the larger bolts too, at least mine do. I have spares you could have had since swapping for the 1 ton leafs with the larger mounting brackets.
The new ride height looks good. My standard springs used to scrape everywhere. My LPG tank tray has the dents and scrapes to show for it. lucky it is so solid. I have hardly ever bottomed out since fitting the 1 tonners.
_________________ BF3 Egas XT Wagon |
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| fiend |
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Hello, and welcome, to another addition of the leaf spring debacle... Cough, DEBATE.
I kindly thank Rick old Bean once again for his suggesting the one tonne leaf spring option. My ride height varies sweet F.A between a car weighing 2.3 metric tonne and when it weighs a measly 1.8... Once you get used to the handling with all that load on or behind the rear axle, you can live with it. Combined with the rear sway bar (I know, I know, $350 from Whiteline is an expense you could probably live without and wait for one to come up elsewhere...) I promise you that you'll look at your wagon with a new light. You'll even start considering that you could get around Mt Panorama faster in the wagon with the dogs in the back then you could have ever done with the EB sedan... Or close to it. Fiend, who admits to being a stuck record. |
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| banarcus |
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fiend wrote: Once you get used to the handling with all that load on or behind the rear axle, you can live with it. Combined with the rear sway bar (I know, I know, $350 from Whiteline is an expense you could probably live without and wait for one to come up elsewhere...) I promise you that you'll look at your wagon with a new light. You'll even start considering that you could get around Mt Panorama faster in the wagon with the dogs in the back then you could have ever done with the EB sedan... Actually my ED station wagon handles quite well around Mt Panorama, only one corner that it struggles big time is the cutting with the off camber right hander. / on topic |
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| Rick's EF Fairmont Wagon |
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My EL wagon used to handle really good after I wasted $2400 on suspension and wheels/tyres. Young and stupid.
Now I am a family man its all done on the cheap. My EF wagon handles OK with the 1 ton leafs I found for $34 at pick-a-part. I have not gotten around to doing anything with the front end and the old struts are really showing their age now. I was going to get a good front end I saw at pick-a-part a while ago but they wanted $80 for secondhand struts which I was not prepared to pay. I need to find a rear sway bar so next time I get to the wreckers I will have a hunt for something suitable. Sometime soon I will invest in a set of heavy duty struts.. for now I have used the best ones I had from the 2 cars.
_________________ BF3 Egas XT Wagon |
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| fiend |
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Mount Panorama being a bad example, as the roads there look pretty nice for racing on (other than the off camber entrance at the Cutting... and a couple of the downhill bits look scary, but are probably easily do-able...) Anyways, just what does your wagon have in the back in Banarcus? Surely it is not......... Standard............
For handling well on NZ's often bumpy, regularly off camber, and always poorly maintained roads a standard wagon was / is just plain scary. No way you'd ever consider putting new cams, chips, turbos, blowers, etc into a plain wagon if you were driving around NZ I'd say........... Up to you, but just remember to brake WELL before any indication that the road is taking a corner. NZ - The land of the long treacherous corner, where the longest straight is 10km and the road surface aspires to be a motorcross track...... 
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| banarcus |
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Hey Ben, just reloaded the page and discovered that you have gladiators on your wagon. Nice choice of wheel there mate!! Also looks great with the new height. The big question now is, when are you going to give it a new coat of paint? Your photos remind me of a little chore that I need to do on mine that is way overdue, cut those damn U bolt threads!
fiend, I had a brain snap mate, I actually meant the worst corner was the chase on the left hander. The cutting is my favourite bit, especially when my wagon was a manual, just loved powering around that corner in 2nd and giving it stick up the hill. Love it, and all in a standard rear end apart from 2" lowering blocks and Monroe GT shocks. A sway bar on a already stiffened rear end would only step out mid corner with bumps on the road. A little bit of sway with leaf springs isn't that bad 
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| BenJ |
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Hey, thanks guys for the kind words.
Now, re rear suspension. I have considered the suggestion of the 1 tonne springs. However, in my situation where 99% of the time I carry nothing in the back, I believe the 1 tonne option will be too harsh for a daily. You need to have 'some' movement and pliability to assist with getting traction down while cornering, and to accomodate the 'top notch' road conditions we have here in Western Sydney. I will add some Heavy Duty shocks, and am looking for a sway bar myself. I am pleasantly surprised with how well the wagon on cart springs does handle, but it has a bit much body roll at the moment. I will also adjust the 'Load Helpers' to tighten up the rear slightly. ************************************************************** I did do some work on the bonnet on Sunday. I sanded the bog work and layed down a coat of primer, which I wet sanded with 400, before laying down a second coat of primer. I played with the gun settings while painting the first primer coat, and got some interesting results. Some of it was quite powdery, but I have now got a nice spray pattern happening. I will fine tune this over time. Cheers BenJ
_________________ BenJ's EB T5 DOHC Ghia Wagon - Current Ride |
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| Rick's EF Fairmont Wagon |
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I have been riding on the 1 tonners for about 7 years now with no complaints, You only really notice the heavy springs when you hit a speed hump. I did kill a set of shocker rubbers though!
 I considered just adding one extra leaf from the 7 in the 1 ton set up but I was lazy/ short of time etc and just fitted them as they came off the panel van. Since I pick up loads of tiles or bluestones or bricks or whatever else weighs a great deal from time to time, I am glad I left them fully stacked for loads. The suspension job I had on the EL was the addition of 1 leaf and GT shocks all round and lowered front springs, camber kit which was pretty good but really high a*** without any load. The car did handle like it was on rails. I know now that It would have been even better with thicker front and a rear sway bar. oh yeah, and I have gt gas rears which are still great after 230ks incredibly.
_________________ BF3 Egas XT Wagon |
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| ausedwagon |
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i just put hd rear shocks in mine and its a big difference i didn't know how rooted the old ones were.
_________________ 94 White ED Wagon |
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| BenJ |
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Me Again.
On Monday I got home after work and blocked back the primer with some 400 wet and dry, in prep for today. After work today, I got out the paint gun, filled it up with half a tin of spray putty, and layed down a couple of coats. The bonnet is now a 'lovely shade of blue'. NOT. Reminds me of a Holden colour. YIKES!   And here is a snap shot of the wagon waiting patiently for me to finish, and get that bent piece of oversprayed wannabe bonnet off of it.  I am having a half day off work tomorrow, so I intend to spray a bit of a guide coat on and block back the spray putty and see how much work I still have ahead of me. I have no intention of striving for perfection. I want the bonnet on the car for the Doyalson, Walk in the Park car show, on the 17th. It may not have a clear coat, but it should at least be black. Cheers BenJ
_________________ BenJ's EB T5 DOHC Ghia Wagon - Current Ride |
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