Hello everyone, my name is Marvin and I live in Germany, I am new to this forum because I have recently aquired a 1999 Fairlane AU Ghia in Lightning Silver powered by a 5.0 Litre Windsor V8. The car was exported from Queensland, Australia to England, UK back in 2002 it was registered in Britain and has lived there for 10 years having had 3 previous owners, the last owner brought the car over to Germany in 2012 because he moved here for a better job opportunity. He left it on its British registration and continued to drive it until the insurance and registration expired which was last summer, the car then sat in his backyard for over half a year before it appeared up for sale at the start of this year.

Needless to say I found it and decided to buy it, I have always been a fan of Australian cars, Fords much alike as Holdens, but I would never have thought of owning one myself because they simply do not exist here, the only export market for them was the UK and even there only a small number of these cars were imported, most of them have been converted to stretch limosines by coachbulding companies. My car is the only one of its kind here in continental Europe and I think it was an absolutely unique once in a lifetime opportunity to own it.

The car has currently 83.000 kilometers on the clock which is basically nothing for being 15 years old, it still has a British title and is not registered at the moment, I am currently working to covert it to meet our strict German TÜV specifications for registering it here in Germany. The most difficult bit will probably to covert the headlights for right hand traffic but there is also a few other issue that I need to fix and I know nothing about these cars so hopefully this forum will be able to assist me getting the Fairlane back to its original shape. Here's some pictures of the car which were taken just after I picked it up from the previous owner last month.




Anyone interested in seeing more pictures check here --> http://www.supermotors.net/registry/26222

very nice, hard to find with such low KM.
the stickers are a bit much though

I was surprised to find it having such low KM myself it wasn't driven much after it came to Europe.
I agree on the stickers and they are gone now I have removed them already.

Why not retro-fit some HID projectors in to the low beams?

That isn't the problem, it's the reflector/lens arrangement.
I had a TAFE teacher who was from England, and he said they used to use a stick-on ( suction cups) lens over the headlights when they took their car to France......BUT, that was back in the days of round headlights..... ......also, I think France had a thing for yellow h'lights back then too.

There is what they call Beam Adaptors which just stick to the headlight and allow British motorists to travel into continental Europe but if I want to register the car permanently in Germany they are not allowed, I will have to convert my headlights for left hand traffic.

Vehicles registered in France were required to have selective yellow headlights up until 1993, it was actually a law back then but don't ask me why that was. Today you rarely see them on the road here but they still use them high up north in Scandinavia sometimes and that is to distinguish an oncoming vehicle from the low sun light during winter months.

Ha, I'm very pleased to see one of these in Germany! A set of lights from here are about $NZ150 (60 something Euro).

Stickers arent my personal liking either, but each to their own.

I'm needing BMW E39 and Mercedes w201 parts if you are ever needing AU parts from NZ

Thought I would post a little update on the car, we had some fantastic weather in Germany this past weekend considering it's still winter over here so I've done my first full detail job on it; cleaned the interior, washed and waxed the outside, cleared all the crap out of the engine bay and removed the ugly stickers from the paint. Not bad for the first detail that the car saw in years, looks great from a distance now but you still shouldn't look up close.

I'm currently in the process of investigating which parts I will need to change for German registration, I will need to convert the headlights for left hand traffic and that will require a bit of a custom job so it's good knowing that I can get spare ones for €60, although shipping them will be much more expensive I guess. My mechanic friend has suggested to experiment with motorcycle headlights and try to fit them into the original housings which probably is my best bet because there has never been a left hand version of this car. Furthermore I will also need a new exhaust system, the original one does not comply with German emission requirements and is also rotted pretty badly. Rust is a big issue on this car having spend most of its life in wet England, the undercarriage and the wheels arches are affected by it and I need to get that sorted, you can see the blue rust protector paint on the photos. There are also some minor things that require fixing in time, the air con and heater doesn't seem to work properly and the traction contol warning light on the dash is constantly on and I cannot switch it off because the traction control button also doesn't do anything. The actual traction control however works fine and there does not seem to be a problem with it. The paintwork could also use some cosmetical touch ups it's not in good shape and has lots of scratches and dings in it and is faded in some spots but that's something to worry about when the main parts are done.

Here's some pictures of how the car sits right now. If you like to see more click HERE.

So are you a German? You type better English than me...

Sure I seen this a while back on another Australian Forum? I usually only post on this one but and just browse the others occasionally...

Depending how you sit financially you might be worth while getting a handheld diagnostic scanner which does Australian vehicles because no one over there is going to be able to help diagnose the traction control and message control centre... I bought myself the Autel MD802 loaded with Australian vehicles for about $300 and it has earnt it's money already for me... It'll do almost everything from all over the world... But is one of few that will do Aussie vehicles...

This is exactly what I purchased... I only bidded and got it for the $349... Not sure if there is a postage charge to you but it is free to Aussie Land...
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Autel-MD802- ... d98&_uhb=1

Only thing this wont do is do the PATS reset so you can't add new keys... Big question... Do you have 2 programmed keys? If so, make sure you never ever loose one otherwise you're going to need a much more expensive diagnostic unit to do the PATS reset...

Re the headlights... Depending how stringent they are about aftermarket lights... Buy some HID restrofits to suit right hand drive traffic?

I have these fitted in my ED XR

http://www.theretrofitsource.com/comple ... wXVVmKSxqg

You'll see you can specify LHD or RHD... Send them and email and you might be able to get apackage that works for you... Easy to fit in your instance... You just separate the front off the headlight... Fit these in through the H4 headlight hole (may need some cutting) and then fit the bit nut to the back and then it takes D2S HID globes and will be right for your side of the road...

Your exhaust... They're cheap enough and readily available here... It's probably easiest for you to get one custom made...

Darn shame about the rust... Coastal cities get that here due to the high salt content in the air blowing in from the ocean... I live 6 hours inland and have very little problem with that here!

Cheers,
Tim

Hi Marvin,
I know someone who is wrecking an AU Fairlane (6 cylinder though). Are there any small interior parts (switches/buttons etc) you are looking for for yours? If so let me know.
Also, a lot of the Fairlane and Fairmont (smaller sedan variant) interior items are the same if that helps you when looking for parts.

Just on that OBDII thing
an Ebay OBDII Adapter (I have a $13 Bluetooth one for my laptop), and ForScan (free) will get you diagnostics codes from most of the ford systems. I used that on an AU 1.5 falcon and it hapilly pulled the Dash, ECU, BCM and ABS Codes

Dude.....they use SALT on the roads in winter time over there.
I once worked on a 5 series BMW that these people brought with them from England, and the diff in it looked like a big ball of rust.
I had to remove the whole cradle from it to fit new fuel, fuel vapour, and brake lines to it, they had rusted through.......becuase of the salt they lay on the roads in winter to try to keep ice forming on them.

as per USA .... [my understanding]

Goes to show how many really snowy cold places I've lived in!


Cheers,
Tim

Timmy, yes I'm German but I have spent a lot of time over in England where I also have friends and family.
You might have seen it in other forums I have also posted on BoostedFalcon and AussieV8 upon advise from a friend but those guys didn't really seem to care much.
Investing in a diagnostic tool might be a good idea but I don't think I have $300 to spend on that at the moment having to buy some other parts first. I only have one programmed key for the car, should there be two with it?
As for headlights I was thinking of fitting motorcycle headlights into the original housings, it requires a bit of a custom job but I think it should be doable. Something like this might do the trick: http://www.louis.de/index.php?topic=art ... r=10033012
The HID retrofits sound like an easier option but I don't think those will meet European Union requirements as they originate from the United States.
Getting a custom exhaust made up will probably be my best bet because getting a spare part exhaust over from Australia will cost me a fortune on transport costs.

Esteven, thank you for your offer I will let you know if I need anything which I will find out as I progress to work on the car. My traction control button doesn't work anymore but I have a spare part coming already that I picked up from ebay hopefully it'll solve the problem. Another thing though my car has a very poorly fitted aftermarket radio in it, the problem was that the original Australian unit could not pick up on European frequencies so the previous owner replaced it and what makes it worse he didn't keep it but sold it back to Australia. I would like to make the car all original again and need the original radio back for that because if I can prove to German authorities that the car is all original and the only one in this country I might be able to apply for a collector vehicle registration which could save me a lot of tax money on it.

If I where to buy a cheap OBDII Adapter locally would I be able to pick up on the Australian Ford codes through the ForScan software still?

They do use a lot of salt on the roads in winter it's especially bad in England where the mix of wet weather and road salt creates excellent conditions for car cancer to evolve it's a very bad issue on this car.