Got some time today to give the old girl a quick wash, Snapped some pics up just before the sun came down too much. She's got a long way to go.. Anyone whose seen my other threads in relation to the countless amounts of problems iv had with her so far knows this.

The plan is fairly straight forward for now.. Restore to running like it should. Looking quite possibly like a new box is in order for that. When (and only when) it gets its guts back. I'll start fiddling with exhaust, wheels, lower it a bit (especially at the back), tint. decent sound system, a lot of GHIA fairmont interior bits (Definitely joining the Que for leather seats), plates

Nothing too out there, The idea is to keep it looking smart. Also have to fix a small rust hole, Get rid of that god awful pinstripe, touch the paint up. etc etc

On with the pics then..

Looking good, can't wait to see how it turns out. Keep us up to date. Have a look at my EL Futura Here

Hey thanks man

I remember seeing your car a few times during my browsing of envy before i got my own eseries. The level of jealousy i have for that score you made on those leather seats and door trims is so high its not funny haha.

If the bucks are high enough this pay i may be going to pick myself up a gearbox 2nd hand. It's getting a bit crazy now.. Nearly got myself wiped out by a truck the other day taking a corner in the rain.. Gear decided to engage and back end decided it didn't want to be in the same lane as the rest of the car. Not sure who p****d themselves more.. Me or the truck driver the a** end swerved at.

I also got a 12" Pioneer sub the other day for a bit of work i did.. Because clearly i have my priority's right. So more pics once that's all wired through.

Btw what do you think those clear tail lights would look like against the gunmetal grey?

Well I guess the main thing is that no one got hurt and nothing was damaged! Lucky this time!

I was pretty lucky with those seats, took a long time of looking and they sure as hell didn't come cheaply, but definitely worth it. I'm very happy with them. Keep an eye out on ebay and search for various terms not just " Ford EL Leather Seats ". A lot of the time they're listed under anything along the lines of EF EL NF NL DF DL so search for them all ( each in a separate search, takes a while but is worth it) and something will come up.

I do like the Altezza Lights, even more so when the car has the boot spear on. I think the chrome on the car along with the lights ties in really nicely,so yeah i think it could look good on gunmetal grey. Try it out and see what you think. You can get cheap second hand ones off eBay if you look out for them. Just polish out any of the scratches on the lens with paint polish.

Can't wait for more pictures and to see what you do with it.

Leather seats can be hard to find sometimes. I was scouting around for some before I bought my DF. Keep in mind that at this age, the seats would have had 15-18 years and a few hundred thousand kms of someone else's fat a*** climbing in and out of the seat, and sometimes the leather can be torn or cracked. Just normal wear and tear

You can get leather re-trims for your seats where you take off the fabric and then fit the covers over. It can be expensive depending on where you go, and the quality of the leather, but at least it will be brand new.

I haven't purchased any but am contemplating it for the electric seats in the LTD. A couple of places on eBay do them. Check this thread, and specifically this post and this post.

To remove those ugly pinstripes see a panelbeater/spray painter and ask if they can remove them with the caramel wheel...Only takes a few minutes and doesn't affect the paint.

Sounds like a good plan, Thanks for that!

Little update:

Today i gave up waiting on a mate to help out with getting the gearbox i purchased in, And reluctantly phoned around.. I'm over it. Every time i put fuel in it has felt like the biggest waste because i know its not gonna last with me having to keep revs up to keep gears engaged.

Found a guy who could do it for me.. Only charged both of my arms and legs compared to what i would have paid doing it ourselves but anyway..

The new box is in and the improvements are SO FAR a little noticeable.. Having no real hills or highways on the way home I'm not locking anything in yet. And yes i know i could go take it to a highway now but its peak hour and I'm tired (Got sweet all sleep having spent the night contemplating the best solution for my dilemma.)

However i did get some statistics off the dash diagnostics to share.. Does this all seem right?

Coolant Temperature: 106°C
And then after starting the car almost immediately dropped down to 92°C and started declining more slowly.

Fuel Consumption:
639 after 30.7ks

Idle: If noticed is still a lot better than it was but seems to have a slight tremble
In diag mode it sat in the range of 583-608-625

It's probably all in my head now, And like i said.. I'm very tired. Once the old girl cools down i may take it out tonight.. Or else ill see how it goes tomorrow on the way to work.. From a cold start use to be a fair bit of hesitation so fingers crossed its all behind me now. As i said.. Over it.. Paid way too much to just get it running like it should.

Took it for a bit of a drive tonight. Definitely seems to shift a little better (The jerking between gears feels a bit better) Up hills seemed smoother, and from cold start it didn't seem to have that flat spot. But i don't want to speak to soon.. I'm pretty skeptical so far..

I'm genuinely starting to think yes.. maybe i still needed this new box.. But maybe it is not the biggest problem with it. Overall the car still feels like it has a lack in power. The idle seems low, And it feels like a bit of a struggle to get off the lights and get up to speed. I also believe i can hear a slight ticking noise under acceleration but had my partner in the car with me tonight and she thinks I'm just batty.

It also refused to do a standstill light up, Which i attempted purely in the interest of testing purposes.

Hate to even think its never been the box and all that $$$ could have gone to something else to get it running like it should. Kind of over this.. Anybody live local that owns a timing light? Trying to eliminate all i can but really don't even know where to start.

Any progress?

Well since you asked

I took it up to a mechanic who works with my father in law today. Car actually played up on him too (Woohoo!) so we tried cat convertor first.. Found it had no gasket on it whatsoever but definitely was not collapsed.

So back to the drawing board (with a new gasket on the cat) we had a go at the timing.. Man i wish i took it to this guy before changing the box and anything/everything else.. He retarded the timing just a little.. It ran worse.. so he advanced it just a little.. And on the second test drive i immediately noticed power when reversing out of the warehouse.. But the fun began when i put it in drive.. Goes like a weapon now.. Whips like one too. Very VERY Happy chappy. 4 months or so after buying the car and i can finally enjoy it..

Bad news is:
Power steering pump has to be re-sealed.. particularly at the front

Welsh plug at the back of the engine has a small leak that for some reason the gearbox fellow i paid hadn't noticed. Going to get it some "Stop leak" for now and consider best option to get it fixed.

Fan belt is pretty chewed (I knew this already and it will fixed shortly)

Rocker cover gasket needs to be renewed

So yeah.. "well looked after" my a**. But at least now I can drive it. First things first is that power steering leak.. before it starts killing my alternator too bad.

So glad i brought it a trip computer.. Now i can see the consumption is how it should be. Other things i wanna do shortly is get it tinted all round. Maybe a new exhaust. Iv got some low profiles in the boot donated to me with plenty of tread left by my gf (She traded her car with her father and got a commodore with new tires on it) So i get to have the old ones.. Don't know much about wheels.. will the tires from a VX commodore suit a wheel? I'll have to look at the size tomorrow.

Also for some reason i noticed tonight.. My odometer is not lighting up at all now.. Speedo and everything else is all good.. But its probably just a bulb.. Id been tinkering around that area trying to add blue leds but i think some of those EF bulb holders i got from a wreck were a bit too far gone. I had half the dash lit blue and the other not at all at one point. Ended up giving up and putting the white original lights back into the EF holders that did work.

Shall investigate tomorrow.. its all the stupid little things I'm more happy to go back to working on now the main issue is sorted. True test comes tomorrow when its dead cold but its looking damn good!

Brilliant news. Always good once a lingering problem is fixed. How did it go the next morning when it was cold? I hope for your sake it's all fixed and the modding can begin! Very keen to see what you do with it. Great work.

Been so busy driving i completely forgot to talk about that.

Morning after was just as good. Very responsive throttle and i no longer feel like
I'm making the car do anything it doesn't want to. When it shifts its no longer
wrecking my back.. Even the partner is happy again to get in the car with me.

I have noticed now that people have mentioned it to me (when it was getting
looked at) It is quite a noisy machine. So ill start changing gaskets and belts
and fresh oil etc.. Iv also noticed the shifts though smooth.. are noticeable still
so i think the stuff in the torque converter has gotten mixed in with the good
stuff and it probably wouldn't hurt to drop the pan again for good measure.

Other than that.. Tint, Lowering, exhaust etc to start with.. But first up its
rego time.. Which I'm a lot more inclined to do now its running as it should. So
thanks to all who offered their advice.. I won't stop smiling for weeks. Will
keep you posted on the progress.. Hope it comes up as good as i envisioned

Any progress since your last post?

umm.. I broke it.. Then fixed it today See Here

Other than that..not spending as much time or money on it as id like to (See last post in above mentioned thread). But I'm slowly chipping away. Was a huge mess up with my tax file declaration and turns out i was paying way more tax than i was suppose to. So fingers crossed i will be able to reward it soon for all its hard work getting me to and from work.