Hey everyone

Thought I'd start a build thread for my car, it will be a slow build thread as I don't even have a job! haha (still in year 12) but I can still get money slowly

Well a few weeks ago (Mar 12, 2009), I got my first car. Its an EF series 2 fairmont ghia for $1400 ungreisted, 280,000km's, engine didn't want to rev past 4,000 RPM, water leak, air conditioner not working, heater not working. Other than that everything seems pretty sweet. Gearbox shifts smooth, LSD seems tight (locks up in carparks, draws 11's instead of 1's)














So before rego, I went over the car and fixed all problems I could find and was able to fix myself...

With a water leak, and engine not liking to rev out... I thought it was possible I had a blown head gasket... So I took the spark plugs out, did a compression test and got these results;

6-180
5-185
4-195
3-195
2-190
1-190

Looked good to me.

While the spark plugs were out, I noticed they were pretty worn down and should probably be replaced... I measured the gaps at about 1.5mm+... so I re-gaped the plugs to 1.0mm, take the car out... it now revs past 4000 easy

So thats that fixed, next problem was the water leak.
While having the car parked in the drive way, I filled the over flow tank right to the top with water, I let it get up to operating temperature... then looked under the car... couldn't see any leaks besides the water coming from the air conditioner...
Within the next couple of days, I decided to degrease under my car... clean the sump and K-frame.. so I Jacked the front end up, while I'm under there wiping things down with a rag... a drop landed on my arm... I found my leak it was the short bit of heater hose, about 6 inches long.
Went down to super cheap, bought myself 1 meter of 19mm heater hose.. $14.95...
Went back home, and after an hour or 2 trying to pull the heater hose off... I got it replaced, started the car and let it build up to operating temperature... and the leak is gone, the coolant system now holds pressure

Ok, next problem was the air conditioner was not working..
Press the A/C button and noticed I don't even hear the "click" from the magnetic clutch engaging, went and checked it and sure enough it wasn't spinning.
Went through my EF/EL ellerays book looking for fuses etc, couldn't find anything so I decided to test if there was any power getting to it... As I look for the connector I found it disconnected from the A/C pump... plug it back in, start the car up and turn the A/C on and the clutch is spinning.. yay, another problem fixed without money spent on it

Heater still isn't working, but I'll worry about that more when it starts getting colder


Next thing to happen was get it registered

So I went over the car, checked everything out... decided to do an oil change as it wasn't recorded anywhere when it was last done... better to be safe then sorry.
Found the front blinkers were blinking yellow, so I put some new globes in.
Found the exhaust was leaking, the previous owner had put an oval shape pipe into the standard round pipe and sealed it with gasket gue The exhaust had broken just after the wheel on the last sharp bend... they put a strait piece of pipe in its place.
So I pulled the exhaust off my dads EA, which had the same problem but it had been welded up... for some reason the pipe didn't seal properly into the back of my exhaust... but I thought I'd take it down and try getting it registered anyway.

Took it down, and it failed... and yep, it was the exhaust...
I was eating macca's with dad and parked looking towards a wheel shop, and noticed a bin full of old exhausts... so I thought I'd have a look in there, rather than paying for a new exhaust... found the piece I was after.
Put it on my car
Took it back to get registered and it past.

Less than $2000 to get this car on the road, I'm pretty happy



So it had been a week or 2 before I touched my car again, I decided I didn't like the front grill... It looked like it had been painted with house paint and it was starting to flake off, I noticed in spots there was chrome under the paint..

So I spent an afternoon with a paint scraper, scraping all the black paint off the grill and come up with this;



And this is from yesterday


I think it turned out pretty good, just don't look at it closely otherwise you'll notice all the little stone chips


I then decided I wanted to lower it, my dads old EA had some low springs in it so I attempted to install them.
Got both front springs and shocks off the EA easy, got the passenger side shocks off easy... went to take the driver side shock off and its stuck.. the main bolt at the bottom of the shock is glued or something, it just wont come out... I've belted it with a sledgehammer and a long peice of metal lined up aiming at the bolt... it wont budge..

So for a day, I drove around with one lowered spring and 3 standard height springs... and to my surprise it didn't feel any different, just one side could corner sharper than the other... didn't put my wheel alignment out or anything. This was yesterday, and that's the shorter springs and shock installed in the last photo above.



I put my standard shock back in last night, and realized that my dads old EA springs had been cut... not lowered like I thought.

I'm not sure what height I want, either super low's or ultra low's... does anyone know what size that cut spring looks equal to?




Anyway... that's the long and detailed story of the life of my ghia since I've had it, hope someone enjoys reading it


Cheers

Wow! Nice car for a 16 year old - job well done finding and fixing all the little niggly problems yourself.

Cheers
RD

You can say that again

Very nice first car indeed. You got lucky and even got the tickford spec engine and woodgrain/chrome/leather interior, nice pick up!!

Excellent base to start your mods from

Nice car, what you got planed?
Should change over the headlights they'll look alot better when they aren't yellow.

Yeah I'm still surprised I found this soo cheap, I was honestly expecting a lot more wrong with it too.



Fixing the yellow lights is definitely on the to-do list... I'm gonna try the wet and dry on it first before I go and buy a new set.




Future mods in roughly this order;

Lower it

Buy a touch screen - will be installing a car-pc (already made the pc lol)

2 x 12" response subs - will be using standard woofers / tweeters as they handle a lot of power and sound alright for stock speakers. Just need to upgrade the subwoofer, thats holding the system back IMO... doesn't handle much power. Will use one of their 4 x 100watt RMS amps to power the subs

Possibly upgrade the other speakers with response speakers - and buy another 4 x 100watt RMS amp to power them... maybe

exhaust - maybe

pacemakers - maybe

tint

maybe some wheels, still haven't found a set I like... was thinking maybe Advanti Gauntlet; commercial-sponsors-forum-f53/my347-s-v8-ef-mont-ghia-new-images-and-updates-page-3-t70549-40.html - probably depends on price

manual conversion - maybe

N/A mods - maybe

Wouldn't mind a turbo setup, but its a lot of money I could be saving for a newer car.....



I'm not sure if I'll spend too much money on this car, I might just start saving now for a newer car once I'm off my P's...

hahaa... looks like someone bent the exhaust tip for a "reverse ricer look"... lol... i see the chrome strips on the front and rear bumpers are aftermarket... going to chase the original chrome inserts/strips?? and door moulds from a fairlane ghia??

Lol nah the tip's only bent because someone shoved a piece of bent pipe in and took the last muffler out. (last muffler broke off)

That exhaust is gone, took it off the day I got it.

The chrome strips are actually just 2 pin stripes

Yeah I was thinking I'll chase up some chrome inserts one day...
and the door moulds, I wouldn't have a clue what they were from.

The car was owned by some old people, so I would think they are the originals?

lowerd and a sit of 17's or 18's and your set if you look at the garage thread on my car, its running on ultra'a at the rear and supers on the front which i think would really set of your ghia.

The moulds are the originals.

I think FordFreak was trying to say you should chase down some genuine moulds off a Fairlane.

If that's what you are into, they were found on NF2/NL's I believe. Also EL Ghias had them, EL Fairmonts did too but had a grey insert. Would be the same if you painted them though.

BTW Some Good speakers will make a huge difference. I still have the Premo Sound speakers in the back and some Pioneer Three-ways in the front, and it sounds alot better in the front.

Gidday, I will also say you are lucky to have a really nice base car. Many members spend a lot of time trying to add all the bits you already have to their rides.

When you go to lower your car, remember to think about the practical side of having a low car. If it is too low for the roads etc that you normally visit, you will always be scraping things.

Cheers
BenJ

"Many members spend a lot of time trying to add all the bits you already have to their rides."
Thats half the reason I was wondering weather or not to start a build thread... I kinda feel bad that even my parents drive an older and lower spec model falcon.. 95 EF GLi, while I'm only 16 and driving a ghia.

But then I just see it as I got real lucky, its exactly what I wanted... its like it was meant for me to buy it... like a gift from god or something haha

I just pictured in my head a white EF series II ghia in decent condition... ever since I got my L's, that is what I wanted.

My dad always says to me "if its meant to be, it will happen... easy, don't force things to happen"
About 1 year ago when I got my L's and I realized I needed money for a car, he said to me "don't worry, when you really need a car, the money will turn up... it always does"

Not trying to sound like a hippy, I don't normally believe in that sorta stuff... I never believed him, but I'm not too sure about it now... what he says to me all the time has always seemed to work for him :S money always turns up just when he really needs it... through extra computer work or something. I think I might listen to/believe him a bit more sometimes lol.

I was considering going to QLD to get a ghia for $2500 unregisted... it wasn't the colour I wanted, wasn't an EF II so it didn't have the tickford motor, didn't have full leather seats... paint was stuffed in places... didn't end up getting it, sold too quickly.
Then just at the right time, 1 and a half months before I get my P's this turned up... I couldn't believe it, it was white, it was a series 2 EF, the seats had no rips... and at a price I could afford... its exactly what I had pictured in my head... me and dad put our money into it, dad was going to sell shares to pay for it... but we just got it for the right price... $1400, we both had $700 to put in so no need to sell shares which was good too.

So yeah.. I got real lucky I know

And about the suspension, I'm thinking of super lows in the front and super super lows in the rear... just need to find a set cheap. The only place I'll need to slow down for is just entering my drive way, around here the roads are pretty flat.


SLO247, thanks for clearing that up haha I see what he meant now... just read it wrong.
My uncle says he has some chrome side moulds in his garage somewhere.. not sure if they're gonna fit though but I'll see

I didn't like the sound myself from the standard speakers, I found after turning the system up the sub had dropped its suspension all over my boot... so I went into jaycar, picked up a 8" paper cone woofer for $25... good value, perfect replacement and didn't even need to drill holes to fit it (it now clamps in using the original grill cover).. the front speakers had too much mid-range though, so I decided to try turn them down a bit by fading towards the back and that got rid of the mid-range.. I rekon they sound pretty decent for now.

Did your car come with the tweeters in the dash?? or did it come with the woofer with the smaller cone in the center?


Thanks for all the positive comments guys

Hey dude, nice car looks real similar to mine except i have FTR's instead of the Ghia wheels at the moment, any chance of some more photos now its been lowered?

Yeah I got a few more pics, I only lowered the front though... and they are cut springs I noticed so they aren't in there anymore... and also thats only 1 shock done, the front passenger side, I couldn't get the other side out (I mentioned why in one of my earlier posts)


(these wheels dont look that great, but it had been raining and these tyres get much better traction in the wet than the crappy tyres on my standard wheels)


and to make my thread more 56k friendly, i'll just link these pictures instead;

http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh61 ... ure830.jpg

http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh61 ... ure832.jpg

http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh61 ... ure834.jpg