My 2c,
Get a full mechanical check done, read What the give you and listen when they tell you what's wrong with it, because like said above, no point making you're car low if the bushes are f**k, no point making the exhaust louder if it has a leaking water pump and dirty water for coolant.
Trust me, last thing you wanna do is spend money on mods for a car that isn't mechanically good.
Plus if everything's up to scratch when you dump it on it's guts and get defected for it you're blueslip report won't be in the thousands.
I've seen a Honda crx some young fella owned, he'd put the usual full rice onto it and got defected when he got his Ps. The thing had broken engine mount, exhaust manifold was cracked, blown out struts and numerous bushes flogged out, plus the things he'd did that failed.
I saw Car was on eBay days later.

+1 on the extractors, the whole exhaust system alone makes a fairly noticable difference on power economy and sound, and if you ever want to do other mods on the engine later, you will need an exhaust and extractors already
if you can drive manual save up 700-1200 for a manual conversion, that alone puts a smile on my face every time i sit in my car, or take off from the lights

Manual conversion, 3.9 diff, pacemaker 4480, 2.5 inch exhaust with 1 hi flow muffler and punched out standard cat, good panel filter and a second feed to the box top it off with au injectors auto lite spark plugs and a j3 tune. It'll be a rocket.

Make it illegal before he can even drive it himself, awesome idea.

Spend the money on your car not fines.

Hmm you all make a very strong good point, I already have enough for rego, I am currently just getting spare money just incase there is something rooted in my car when I go to get a new rw, I will get a full mechanical check and then I will start looking into the mods.

I know a few people who can help me with installing things and I have a few mates that are welders..

I know for sure I'm not getting cheap crap stickers and neons, this is a ford after all, not a rice burner.

I think rims might come first, as it is the easiest thing to do, brakes, lowering and exhaust will be the toss up for what I do next, I underestimated the help I would get on this website thankyou heaps everyone

I'd be getting rims after you learn the cars dimensions perfectly so you dont rash em

and if you punch out a cat you lose power, this is what i experienced on my car, the exhaust gases go crazy in the extra space and effect the flow, the only reason i punched mine out is because it had colapsed and i almost couldnt drive the car,

wheels
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/EF-EL-XH-XR8 ... 4164c79e26

I will never agree with you that you loose power. When I done mine I instantly had way more pull like I was like holy f***n s**t. It was like sooooo noticeable

But we are talking about a 16 year old+ part, who is to say it wasnt partially blocked? I also punched it out in my vp commodore, all it did is turn an engine light on lose power and sound like a tin can.... Its ilegal anyway

a) Giving a 16 year olds advice to punch out their cat....While you may accept the fact you are up for a big fine for having a punched out cat, I think it slightly irresponsible to advise someone without this knowledge to go ahead and do it. This is particularly in light of the fact there is minimal difference between a new cat & no cat (obviously there will be quite a difference between an old s**t one).
b) Stock cam with 1 "high flow" muffler off the shelf exhaust will likely sound like a**. If you run a glasspack/cherry bomb and decent muffler you can avoid having a droney exhaust with minimal (if any) affect on performance. Many decent mufflers that don't come as an off the shelf exhaust actually flow better than Lukey/Redback/Rage etc off the shelf "high flow" systems. Seeing as he will be going onto his P's soon the last thing he wants is something that sounds like a riceburner with a canon on the back.
c) He has little to no mechanical knowledge, so I doubt will be doing any of the above work himself (particularly the manual conversion or diff change).
d) He stated he only earns up to $200 a week so looking for cheap options - even if he could do the work himself he would still be looking at a fair bit of coin (relative to the situation).
e) If he did all your work he will be getting his P plates and driving a car running stock tyres, suspension & brakes with quite a bit more poke than factory...I'm sure you can use your imagination for the results.

...I call s**t, unless your cat was so rooted, your car was running like a bag of s**t before hand.

How do you know you didn't lose power, did you dyno it before and after you punched out the cat? If so where are the dyno sheets? Also you may think you got more power...it's called the Placebo Effect. Until you have dyno proof, I call s**t.

i suggest trying yourself i was looking at getting my super lows and kyb shocks done at the mechanic this was the cheapest quote i could get so ill be looking at doing it myself lol got the max ellery manual for about $40 from super cheap its great for step by step and the gregory one that i got before i sold my ea had a lot troubleshooting both together seem to help alot

"So 4 x 1.5hrs = 6hrs @ 88 per hr is $528 with this to be an odd amount we would be happy to fit for $500
So alignment is $80
For a total of $580" add 200 to that and its almost the price of my rego and green slip due next month lol

I got a quote from my mechanic and was about $400 including alignment, but would be more if they had to use the shim kit I was providing. It is a father/son only business though, so low overheads.

I agree, I have a piece of 2.5 inch pipe inside the cat housing when I put on my extractors (naughty naughty, I'm getting a proper one put on ASAP) and I noticed barely any difference, because it was only the extractors + no cat + normal 2 inch peashooter exhaust. So even with just a straight through pipe it didn't really improve it.

But as for the OPs original subject, a gregory's manual or similar should be a priority, I have one and it will save you hundreds of dollars in time. It's not just the nitty gritty mechanical stuff, they give good tips on cleaning your interior, items that generally wear to look out for etc. etc.