Howdy folks, I thought I'd better get a build thread happening considering some of the changes I plan to make over the coming months.

I decided to look for a bigger family sized car in early 2008 and came across a 1 owner 2001 AU series 2 75th Anniversary Futura. It sounds more impressive than it looks believe me. lol

All these cars came with is 4 door power windows, factory 6 stack indash cd player, cruise control as standard, different cloth interior, rear spoiler and some badges. Pretty much a dealer/factory options.

Anyhoo, I had a mate look out for me initially for a Fairmont Ghia, but these were harder to find in good condition with reasonable kms. Up comes this car, 1 owner, LPG fitted under 12 months prior and only 119,000km on the clock for about 10k. The price was a bit more that I wanted to pay, but this car was kept pretty well and had no signs of being treated badly apart from dog hair inside. (An older lady had owned it and was upgrading this car to a Jaguar). I agreed to the price and organised the cash.






At first I wasnt looking to do anything to the car as it was gonna be my daily for work and interstate trips to take my sick mum to see her naturopath. But knowing I was taking decent trips interstate, I knew that the 6 stack CD player would probably crap itself and leave me stranded with no tunes to listen to. So I decided to purchase a Alpine CDA 9886 head unit with ipod connectivity and usb port. That was my first mod which I did in about March/April.



Since then I have just spent my time cleaning the car keeping the paint up to scratch as much as possible due to lack of funds.

It has only been of late I have been able to afford to do anything to my car, and I promised myself if I could afford to do it, I'd make my car handle they way I wanted it.

So the next wave of questions to the appropriate sections of the forums helped me make some decisions of how I would go about making the taxi spec grandpa car look and handle the way a typical 30's bloke would like it.

First of all, there was a thread I made some time ago regarding my purchase of RDA slotted rotors and pads from a group buy that was organised by the guys at Race Brakes Sydney.






In the past few weeks I had purchased the following:

BOGE shortened shocks - Front
BOGE shocks - rear
SuperPro - Caster/Camber kit
PBR Dot4 brake fluid for full brake flush
Whiteline 27mm HD sway bar for the front only.




I went and picked up some 35-40mm lowered Eibach Pro-kit springs, Bendix HD Brake Pads, and 8mm Eagle leads.

I decided to go the Speedy Mk III's with 235/40/18 tires all round.



packaged Eibach Pro-kit springs lowered 35-40mm




Eagle 8mm leads, plugs and NEW Bendix HD brake pads



pics of my paint in sunlight





clear side indicators


Interior wise:
Interior wise, I really dont want to spoil it too much. Too many people like to 'bling' things up by spraying the dash and console all sorts of colors. I want to avoid that. To me its too tacky and distasteful.

What I would like to see eventually, is perhaps electric leather seats from a ghia with some subtle highlights of leather on the door trims. Perhaps some embossed stitching of the number '75' on the head rest as i'd like the theme of the 75th anniversary to be remembered. You know, something classy and neat? Same with the rear seats. Either ghia seats or get the existing seats re-upholstered in same color leather.
If I dont go proper leather, I might go leather suede which will still feel nice in hotter weather but have an elegant look about it. What do you reckon?

Im not into lights in the footwells or blue light backgrounds on the instrument cluster. I wanna keep that stock. There is no reason for me to play with it, and I dont think it needs to be improved in any way.

Essentially, what I'd like to achieve in the interior is a 75th anniversary futura that 'should' have come from the ford factory. Something that almost nudges on being fairmont spec.

after the suspension was fitted

First of all, I am totally stoked at the way the car sits, and handling is freaken awesome.

When I first rocked up to pick up the car, my initial reaction was, 'how low is this car sitting? Its sitting far lower than I had initially imagined.' I thought, this is a great thing!

The car look so much tougher with the lower stance. The 18's to me really set it off.

The ride quality is the real surprise. This ride is like no other lowered car I have felt before. Its not hard or harsh at all. The car actually goes over bumps and undulations the same as the stock suspension. So smooth and subtle yet when going into corners, very direct and flat. Its kinda hard to describe, but its completely different to any 'king springs' car I have been in. This is what I call the perfect LOWERED car. LOW with ride quality.

Anyway, enough of me, here are some pics I took. I do apologize for the quality, it was getting dark quick. I also apologise for the dirty car too, I did a very quick clean and I think I have missed a few spots. I will post more up when I get more daylight and some better scenery etc.

What do ya reckon?









Since the above pics were taken, the ride height has dropped again. More pics later on.

Pics of the suspension getting fitted


old spring on strut and old sway bar with new sway bar

old vs new. see the difference?

old spring height vs new spring height

new spring in new strut

spring/strut removed

new strut fitted

new rotor added

calipers fitted with new pads

diff area

rear springs fitted

rear spring height. old vs new

height with stock wheels


new ride height with stock rims

fitting new tires to new 18's

with the new rims on and wheel aligned

something i havent really talked about with this car is power.

What plans do i have for the engine?

Well Im not greedy, im not after beating the next guy in power/dyno shootouts or any form of willy measuring contest.

What I do want is the car to suit my needs on a daily basis while still providing great takeoff, solid power thruout rev range, quiet operation, driveable on LPG dual fuel application and reliability on a day to day basis.

How can this be achieved?

Well I have been tossing up whether to go forced induction or NA. And to look at the above list and continue to be mindful of it, forced induction seems to go over what I want from the car as well as exceed the budget I have in mind.
As much as I'd love boosting, I'd just be going overboard with it as a daily driver. I just cant justify the cost, legalities and fitting/tuning down time Id need to get this done right.
Im not a power freak nor do I race every hoon on the street. So going down this path seems overkill for my needs.

This has sort of made me come to a non-confirmed conclusion. N/A is the best way for me.

Ok, what kind of power am I looking at?
For me, I'd like to see a comfortable 160-170kw atw. But improved low-mid range torque.

Im thinking full 2.5" exhaust with headers. Hiflow cat maybe?

Cold air intake of some kind? tickford snorkel. mandrel intake. That kind of thing

Cam install with vernier gear, stronger springs and lash adjuster kit.

Head work? port & polish, and increased CR.

Aftermarket ecu lke EMS stinger or similar?

Higher flowing petrol pump and bigger lpg converter?

Some tuning and adjusting?

Is it feasible? Am I over my head? What else am I missing?

Whiteline HD rear sway bar and SuperPro caster camber kit for other side. (Car Torque forgot to supply the kit for the other side the first time)

Some issues I encountered when fitting my LSD:

AU xr6 diff live axle, non IRS. 3.45 gears. LSD

I got my AU xr6 diff fitted last night, got everything swapped over ok.

I took the car for a test drive and noticed a rather heavy vibration which sounds like its coming from the diff. The vibration occurs mainly when not under load and slowing down. Under load its still there but less noticeable.
I know when my mate put the diff in, he checked both axles to see if they were bent which the werent.

We rang up a few people about this, and was told that this vibration could be the fact that I have re-used the futura trailing arms, and not used the xr6 ones. It was mentioned that the xr6's had a different geometry as they sat lower as opposed to the futura geometry which sits higher. (ride height Im talking about)

So if I was to get the xr6 trailing arms fitted, do you think this will fix my vibration issue?






obviously the diff angle was wrong, so I had to correct it by rotating the diff and bolting the upper trailing arm into the alternative bolt hole.

ok here is the situation.



In new position.


Diff now in new position


As you can see its in a far better position and seems to sit straighter

and the verdict is:

we have a winner!!! Took the car for a little drive up the main road, and what do ya know, no vibration, smooth as a baby's bum.

Im so relieved its not funny.

For anyone looking to do this mod, just be real careful where the upper trailing arm is positioned and check the position of the diff.


outcome
Before, I believed I had a 2.92 or a 3.08 open wheel ratio. To put it mildly it was lethargic off the line. Ordinary grandpa takeoffs. Nothing to comment about really.

With the new diff in, well taking off is heaps better now, much more noticeable and responsive and way less lethargic in comparison. Its competative on take off now and the LSD is grippy as anything. A worthy investment if your after improved handling, grip and better acceleration.

RPM wise, its well behaved and sits at 1800-1900rpm @100km/h approx. in top gear.

Fuel wise Im yet to assess as Im still running on the same tank. Give it some time. But I doubt it will be significantly changed.

I have had a 3.45 LSD in my old EB XR8 for those that have known me that long and even in those days there was no real change in fuel economy if driving style doesnt change.

lotsa pics!>.. great work... betcha she handles soooo much better than factory now!..

oh definitely mate. Its a mixture of comfort and improved handling.

Its not aggressive, but its not sloppy either. Plus with the Eibach springs, its given some road comfort without my kidneys dropping out. lol

Certainly worth investing in Eibach IMHO if your looking for ride quality.

Thats some great work there mate. i love the fact that you've realy focused on the handling of the car first, instead of doing the usual mods first. The look of your car is great, but what about going spoilerless, or getting a bobtail ( if they are made for AU's). I think it would realy set it off, just an idea. Top work so far

Its interesting you mentioned that as I was discussing that very subject in another thread.

I personally dont like the thought of ANY rear wing as I reckon it cheapens the car IMHO. But on the other hand they kinda look bare with nothing there. For me, if the car looked too bare without a rear wing, a T1 series bobtail could be an option. Just not sure at this stage. I might have to remove the current wing and take pics and post them up to ask for opinions.

I agree with you on that one, it does cheapen the overall look. The bobtail would add abit of class, without look too much. Ill be watching this thread, as this car looks like its got lots of potential.

no problems mate.

One thing I do is I dont rush out and get any old mod to chuck on my car.

I have spent many a month doing research on just about anything I buy.

I think all avenues need to be investigated for anything you are looking to purchase to give you the best informed choice.

bobtail spoiler ftw..

i didnt mind the xr wing on my BF T.. but like the cleaner lines without it.. although when i took it off it looked a little bit weird.. so i installed a genuine DJR 320 bobtail spoiler and is now smooth and tidy without looking weird...

bobtail spoiler ftw..

i didnt mind the xr wing on my BF T.. but like the cleaner lines without it.. although when i took it off it looked a little bit weird.. so i installed a genuine DJR 320 bobtail spoiler and is now smooth and tidy without looking weird...

fordfreak - can u lead me to the link to your BF bobtail picture?

here is... http://www.fordmods.com/forums/bf-xr6-t ... 6-140.html

fordfreak - your car definitely looks the goods with that bobtail. I think what sets it off also is the quad pipes too. Thats a better example I have seen. Thanks for those pics.

I was thinking about it a bit more last night and am thinking of running a bootlip spoiler similar to yours or a T1-series bobtail.

Boot lip




T1 series bobtail