Odd title I know but that what the next car will become

Picked up a White AU 1.5 XR8 for little money due to a) no registration and b) no keys to start it. Car had been sitting in a carpark for around 2 years and has the usual 2 year weather grime all over it. The XR wheels were stolen at some point and it was dressed in 14" steelies (yup, 14's!).

Ray spied the car and sent me a PM asking if I was interested, me replying back something like "hell yea"!

Over the next few days he contacted the owner who made an attempt to find the key but the outcome wasn't good - no key to be found. As luck would have it Ray brought his laptop up with him to play around with J3 tunes which turned out to be a Godsend. The door lock was taken out and delivered to a locksmith who cut a key for it. Ray then replaced the BEM with a 99 Fairmont version just incase things went pear shaped. He also burnt an AU 1.5 V8 bin with Smartshield disabled onto a J3 chip he had and plugged it in. Replacement key in hand and the J3 doing its thing and the car started!

So it is now sitting on my front lawn wearing AU1 Ghia wheels (trashed the 14's before heading to my place) while I tear down the AU1 Ghia I have, the intention being to Ghia-ise the XR with all the goodies from the green beast. Ray will get the VCT head to play around with too.

Once I get into the XR I will be doing a major cleanup and checking out everything underneath to make sure it will pass blue slip. Once she is rego'ed the transformation will begin.

My sincere thanks goes out to Ray (snap0946) for his perseverance in getting the car going and to my place, without him it just would not have happened.

Oh, and in pulling the Ghia apart I am finding so many bloody things different from E series. Hit a roadblock today in getting the steering wheel off, need a set of 5 point torx bits to get the damn airbag off ... grrrrrr!

Pics to come of how the XR currently sits.

Cheers

Yep, bit of a learning adventure.
Still surprised how well that paint comes up with just a decent wash.

When you get the A/C compressor swapped, YOU can charge the system up, best learning there is.

Now that is scary.... but always up for learning new stuff

Moving from my differences thread.....

I got the Ghia cluster in and it looks like most things are working. Only oddball is the speed reading, the needle is way below zero when sitting still. Just moving the car back and forward does cause the needle to move but I am not sure how it relates to true speed. Will need to go for a quick run down the road to see what it does. and wondering it if it possibly just the needle being in the wrong place on the stalk or something more sinister.

The gear selection window works albeit being dimly lit. Door ajar indication shows the drivers door open only when 3 of the doors were open and the fuel flap indication is also flashing. Should be able to cure that with the Ghia wiring.

So aside from the speed issue it looks like everything would work, rpm, oil pressure, amps, temp, smartshield flasher (just a round light on the Ghia, not a hand) plus all the usual idiot lights on first turn on.

Oh and the cluster I took out had a sticker on it stating Police XR. We knew it was originally owned by the police so that confirms things even more than the interior light switch on the dash.