I thought id share some ideas and pics on whats been my ongoing Au forte wagon build up.....
They say a picture tells a 1000 words but these pics simply dont cut it when you pull a AU forte from a flooded undeground carpark, write it off and send it to the auctions in hope someone will see the phrase "quick fix" flashing in the back of their mind.
Or at least thats what i was thinking anyway after i picked up my Series 2 AU forte wagon from a place in Broadford vic, and a bank cheque to the owner for $3200.

I took the liberty of completely stripping the interior (except dash) de greasing and pressure cleaning the whole inside of the car with its mud and filthy water smell, then the same with the seats, trims, and anything else from inside you can think of.
Went through a normal persons 3 year equivalent of truck wash and de greaser just to get it looking half decent!
After 2 or so weeks of drying and air-ing out i was getting sick of using a milk crate as a seat to move the car around the backyard, so everyhting began to go back in.
After replacing some fuses, relays, globes ect which got it running properly and the safety restraints module which was needed for the VIV inspection (Vehicle Identification Verification) as well as a full flush of the oil, coolant and all other fluids it was ready to go.








I then had the car booked in for its VIV which went through no worries, then got a roady and drove down to vic roads for their tags and inspection check and it was registered later that day with the standard plates "WGN 485" (still not sure what i can make of the "485")

The car ran like a dream and the rest of the water smell slowly faded away, then my first addition was to tint the factory windows, a few other cosmetic little changes, then i picked up a EL sunroof on ebay for a steal and had a bloke at precision sunroofs fit it in for me






A set of T1 TE50 suede/ cloth seats and trim from a wreck popped up on ebay soon after the roof and i thought $600 was a fair asking price.
I picked the seats and trims up in one hit in the back of the wagon (was chockers!) and they sat in the shed for the best of 2 days before the forte seats and trims came out for the second time.














The only changes to make them fit in was just adapting the rear seat and side bolsters to suit the wagon body, and re-mounting the forte seatbelt pretensioner units to the standard buckle TE seats.
As you can see the forte T series mock up cluster, Momo XR wheel and some stereo changes where part of the smaller additions but at the end of it i thought it didnt look too bad together.

Next step after the interior was to drop the ride height of the car and loose the whole boat handling feel, i found a set of lowered ute king springs front and rear and put new shocks in the front at the same time as well put some decent pads and better rotors on all round.







The car as well as it handled had a ride in the back like a 1 ton ute should, i put up with it for a while as i was in desperate need for some decent looking wheels and wanted to see how i would go with clearance ect.
After watching a set of Verde Koas 20's get relisted on ebay for the second time i called around and got quotes for the exact rim brand new to see if the lowered buy it now price was worth considering.
3 calls and i then realised that they were definately worth every dollar, they come off a 33 skyline so they only had 225's all round but for the price he was asking still with 90% tread i would be pushing to get 3 brand new rims with no tyres!
Only downside was one rim had a tiny mark on the edge from where a trolley jack bumped it otherwise they were immac.

This is how it turned out


The springs in the back were causing me grief it felt and prob bounced like i was driving a lowered BMW sitting on the bump stops.
I put the standard springs back in and had pedders in Lilydale get them reset to how i wanted, it now rids heaps smoother and is still low but also more use friendly.

I had enough working on it for now and just drove the car for a fair while until i got done on a 12 month bond for 92 in a 80 zone.....shattered!
6 month suspension and hellow to the train, pushy and getting lifts everywhere!
bought a GT mountain bike with disc brakes ect after considering the money id save from the outrageous fuel prices at the time.
But having the car just sitting up the back at home with no licence always got me wondering...what else can i do to it?

Then this happened......










I got so bored that after spending countless hours researching a forte to fairmont dash conversion i picked up a T2 TS50 heater box and dash (excluding the TS dash spear, climate control and cluster) from a bloke on another forum for $80 the lot!
The changeover took all of 5 hours to unbolt, unplug then install the new heaterbox, dash and then rewire a few extras like the power antenna and the dual fuel switches and guage ect.

I was still off the road for another few months yet so while scanning ebay for more random stuff i then came across a full AU Fairlane Ghia Sportsman interior and instantly fell for the curtain leather effect on the door trim inserts.
As well as power front seats and leather that was still in pretty good condition i couldnt help myself so it was sold and then out came the whole interior for a third time!

Again i had to adapt my pretensioner units and this time wire in power to the sportsman front electric seats but it was almost just the same as the changeover before so apart from te above it was pretty straight forward.

This is how it turned out













As you can see there were a few stereo upgrades at the same time and i kept the orig sportsman rear door trims and just mocked up a couple of fairmont ones incase i ever have to remove the speakers and change it back.

By now i can say the interior is 95% complete......

Will put the rest of the pics up and where it is up to now in next couple of days.

wow!
looks tops, for an AU aha.
great work!

Ok so the interior is bout 95% complete and am still just chasing the black bezel that goes around the clock on the dash, if anyone knows where i might find one let us now as theyre now out of stock at ford, and bayford parts.

Anyway after the interior was in i started comparing the inside to the outside of the car and began to think of a few things to set it apart from just wheels and lowered.
I did a bit of reasearch into aftermarket bumpers, sideskirts ect and found that if i put sideskirts on then the rear bumper would sit up way too high and not suit them so i would have to look at changing that as well.
But after some serious consideration i came to the conclusion that being long wheel base it was already getting low coming up our driveway and with a lower rear bar it'd just scrape on everything.
I ditched the sideskirt and rear bar option eventhough there has been a couple of good ones made up before.
I was considering the XR50 front end with the spotlights and then by luck a series 2 XR front come up on ebay.
The front had to be plastic welded as it had a small crack and while the bidding war continued i got onto a bloke just near me who said hed have it done forr $20!
I won the bar for $350 and after the plastic welding it was sitting in the shed at home.
Took 2 weeks to find a pair of headlights for it, i had them sent down from sydney, then a pair of indicators from ferntree gully auto.
I then needed a series one bonnet and had already had in mind the BA bulge, i got onto a bloke from sydney who said he'd make me one up and send it down....what a mistake that was!
After a month i heard nothing then i gave him a call to try and find out what was happening, first off he didnt even know who i was which i later found out was crap, then he said they didnt have a order for one eventhough i had paid for it, he told me he'd check with his business partner (who was himself) and get back to me.
1 week later and nothing i called him again and got every excuse under the sun.
In the end i had to threaten legal action as it was getting beyond a joke he wouldnt return my calls and he changed his ebay account and phone number on me.
I finally had one sent down it arrive completely fked the bulge had cracked and popped out and the corners were bent up and ruined beyond repair from being dropped (prob in transit)
I called him back and he said hed get back to me again and the same process followed. In the end i cracked the sads ripped the fibreglass bulge off which was hardly attached and started again on my own with a new bonnet.
I got it finished then dropped all the panels and car off at Dorset Panels (highly reccommend) to get sprayed and blended in, they called me back to say the car was done and the bumpers were ready to pick up.

This is what followed.











The new bonnet was proving to be a bit of trouble in lining it up so i dint get any pics until 2 days later when i finally got it sorted and took it on my first ford cruise/ meet.





The exterior with colour coded plastic side strips, debadged and de-stickered, rear wiper removed and hole covered and a few other finishing touches.











This is how it sits for now, theres a couple more things that im working on at the moment that will go into/ on the car but without knowing exactly how its going to go ill prob just save it till its done.

Almost forgot.... just so happens another bloke was changing his woodgrain interior bits to TS bits and had a spare TS cluster as well, this is now how it looks....
I reckon the silver face still suits the wood pretty good, although the silver one looks awesome at night when lights up that blue/purple colour.

Awesome wagon mate! Love the ghia leather!

Mate, this is quite possibly the sexiest AU wagon i have ever seen, its mint

Nice work

Cheers for the comments, interior is now 100% complete with the last few finishing touches and thanks to david21 for the plastic bezel around the climate control clock i was missing its now all done.
Will get some more pics when its back on wheels and out of the shed again, hopefully sooner than later, the list is now down to 5 things left.

Nice station wagon there That sportsman interior leaves that ugly T1 interior for dead. Have you rigged up the power bases to the front seats?

Yeah wired the seats up just need 12v and earth, got all the 8 way functions working only thing couldnt get working was the memory as it runs through the BEM and incorporates the side mirrors ect, i think its mainly for when there is more than one driver tho so im not that fussed.
Yeah those T seats you either love or hate them, mind you they were really comfortable with the lumber support ahd hugged well when cornering or on twisty roads.
Thinking of getting the side bolsters beefed up a bit in the sportsman seats, took it for a drive in the hills and was a bit like sitting on a old bench seat.

very nice mate, you've done a top job! easily the cleanest au wagon iv ever seen. interior looks incredible too, im impressed... now you just need a blower

love it man, not enough hot AU wagon goin round

think iv passed urs a few times, sit's good.
wish i had time to do the dash in mine

Excellent conversion man.. well done!

cheers for the comments again, hopefully be able to do a big update by this time next week, trying to get it running and back out of the shed for a long overdue wash and run with all the new gear!

Holy s**t!! This is awesome, an AU that i like! Very well done mate, that is bloody awesome, why didn't Ford make one like this? Idiots.

You need some sideskirts now to set off the look, looks great with the XR front end too!

I've also always wondered why people doing up AU Fairlanes don't put the XR front on...

Mate Im in love.That is a real wagon as the last bloke said ford should have done that and do you have the old interiour.