Hey all, another update..

Got rego transferred last week, what a pinch!!

Go to pig pen,
fill out a form
cop comes out,
looks at vin and eng number,
tells me pod will have to be fixed and there's a bit of a leak,
I jumped in the car thinking he'll at least do a light check!
An he walks back inside!

Took the form to MVR and voilà, 3 months rego!

In NT you have to go over pits for inspection first but this was crazy!
Not that I'm complaining, it was good.

Also looking at personalized plates. I'll let you all know.

Played around yesterday lookin for the leak it was right up under the headgasket just behind the waterpump, it only seems to be a seep so I wiped off and see how it goes,
howeer I did find my alternator bolt hanging out! So I did that back up an cleaned up some wiring mess left over from the front end repairs.

@Frd906n: thanks for stopping by mate. If the leak you are referring to was the one from before I mentioned may be rear main, then yeah, I have looked at dipstick and sump gasket, I'm pretty sure it's rear main now, it's prett much the only thing I haven't replaced...Shoulda done it when I put the manual in. Spew. I'll probably have a look on the weekend after I get payed, new neighbor is into cars too so I might have an extra pair of hands too.

Knock is a "VRRRM KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOck KNock on startup and instantly stops. I think my problem is GTX2 20W-50, might go magnatec 10W-40 somthing a little thinner to get around the motor a bit faster.

you need a cop to view the car to transfer rego? glad i dont live there lol. we just get a RWC from a mechanic, walk into the transport department and sign it over and off we go. they only have to view the vin numbers if there is an issue, conversion or mod plate.

Yeah a cop, just looked at the vin on the plate, engine number, that was it.
Didn't check my lights worked, didn't check my seatbelts, he asked what my plans were for it and I said engine conversion and body work,
He told me about the pod and showed me the leak but said he won't defect me there an then (if I get pulled up different story) and away I was.
I guess Cos he wasn't a qualified mechanic the technecal legal crap means he can't judge mechanical stuff, I was surprised tho thinking I would at least need an inspection! Or check my indicators and brake lights work!

Weeelllll!

Went out to play around today and found a nice crack around the clutch cable support in the firewall, so it looks like my next need is a reinforcment plate.

Dose anyone elses CLUTCH pedal sit really high compare to the brake?
I was trying to figure a way to space the bracket the 2 lever buttons sit on when I discovered light shining through.
Any idea what those 2 switches are? One is black with 2 small terminals and looks like a vacum connector, and the other is grey with a bigger square contact to the pedal.
Neither are connected and don't seem to be an issue. Just curious.

fiend on here sells re-enforcement panels for the clutches.

the one with the vac line is for cruise control. and the other im not too sure, i think its to tell the ECU the clutch is in maybe? for idle purposes? but im taking a big guess on that one lol

That makes sense.

The grey one being not hooked up may be the reason for the car to randomly stall.

When I first converted it I was told I was earlier than the auto/manual ECUs, EAs were same apparently.

I was wondering about a Clutch in switch, there's one for neutral and reverse, and my revs do rise a little when I select a gear.

Yeah I've been trawling all night lookin for reinforcment plates. I found troyman/fiends thread so I gotta find some scraps now...

On another note, looking at clutch cable routing, it seems I have a longer cable than others. Maybe an original EF/L one. Hmmm it was off a bitsa car so who knows...

Quick update.
Got a plate made up for the firewall today, that will be going on soon before it breaks completely!
Knocked out some small dents ready for some body work bog and paint.

So more photos on the way!!

heres the latest.

Theres the crack, almost all the way around. The pipe was also bent on an angle but I trial fitted it before taking pics so it bent it back sorta flush so it's nice and straight inside the car too.

I drew up a template on some weet bix box thanks to Troymans plan. The link is below if you ever need this done.

fordmods-technical-documents-diy-f38/firewall-re-enforcment-plate-manual-e-series-t66746.html?hilit=Firewall%20reinforcment%20troyman

When I was at the welders he only had 16mm I.D or 22mm I.D pipe. I got the 16 thinking better too small than too big. The good part was it was 22mm O.D so it has nice thick walls.
I got back home to put it on and found out the hole in the plate didn't match to the pipe, so a quick file and it fitted perfectly.

Greased the pin and bushes for the cable end while I was under the dash and I was off again feeling a bit more comfortable my clutch wasn't gonna engage with a snap at any moment, and most probably the worst possible moment :p






You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.

Last edited by Lowlane7 on Wed Oct 20, 2010 8:35 pm, edited 3 times in total.

Hi, just read thru your post and had to say, Castrol GTX2 in my old 6 had it rattling on startup BAD. I only bought it cos it was on special, had it in the engine 2 days then drained it out, cursing the `filthy bat piss ' as I referred to it at the time. Used Shell Helix since then , still use it in my Cleveland, never heard a knock or rattle in the 6 since so its good enough for the clevo !!

Hey man.

Yeah, I reckon it is the oil. It seems to burn it a bit more too,
as I was sayin I used magnatec too (10W-40) and that rattled veery slighly on start up.
What weight is Helix? 15w somthing?

From memory I think I used GTX3 in my clevelands, wichever is the "best" of the three.. Didn't have lifter tick issues.
I think it's a bit of a mix of too think and it will tick, too thin and it will tick.

Thanks for the info too.
I'll try helix ony next service, better do one before the dyno day a least..

The normal procedure here is just to fill out a form and wait in line, then pay the fee. I'm guessing because he is in a country area it is different.

Even if a cop has a quick poke around, would you rather that or a mechanic who needs work looking at it up on a hoist?

Trust me, in SA anything goes. We dont even have RWCs!

It was a bit of a "culture shock" for me coming from NT, Haha.

Up there it's a full MVR inspection every year for cars over 10 years I think.
I used to like it cos I knew my car was all working good, lights aligned, brakes tested etc, also if I got the right guy I'd often aak to go under the car when it was over the pit, showing the interest got me a lot of "yeah, just fix it when you get home".
Somtimes the dude didn't get lucky that morning and he'd rip the car apart and do me for everything.

At least I knew everything was good.

Also most mechanics did inspections,

What spun me out was that he didn't even check the lights! No so much that it was a copper doing it, I figured he'd at least want to know basics were functional. Haha.

I know I want my car to be all ok for my own, the familys, and others safety. And I'm always checking myself anyway, but I wonder how many young blokes who don't GAF are cruising round with rooted brakes or no blinkers and don't care..

It was an experience to say the least,
I've heard though if you get a defect you have to get an inspection done,
can that be done at any mechanics or only the MVR (or Whatever it is here haha.)

What a week!

On Monday night I had a mate come around, telling me he had seen a fairlane at a local dump.

So the next morning all loaded up we headed off to find a complete car minus motor, box, and front end.

Ended up with a heap of parts that saved me spending a packet at the local wreckers.

Re wired the rear door looms (I had a genius idea I the early stages to delete central locking and power windows because they didn't work at the time)
Hooked up the rear power windows again, and central locking now works onthe passenger front and both rear doors, just need a actuator for the front now.

Amongst other small extras it's nice to have, I also scored the switches, taillights and rear fairlane garnish.

Got stuck straight in and fixed that all up, also did a little rust coverage and touch up on the paintwork with a small spray can of colour match paint.

As we were heading back home we came across a random bloke who said he has a complete wagon minus engine and box we are going to check out this weekend.

Rear main seal is getting close too, apparrently there is a pit somwhere around town in a old shed I may be able to use..saves playing car snakes, an lifting gearboxes with my chest lol..

Nice build thread! I am keen to see a few more full side on pics of the car though (I like the idea of the base model front on the fairlane )



The cop inspection would have been purely because of the fact the car had to be transferred from interstate rego (NT in this case) to SA rego.....obviously no inspection when renewing SA rego here

Hey mate.
Yeah I think that's all it was (the cop check), just to make sure it wasn't stolen or anything.

I'll see what I can do for a side on, I have tweaked the bonnet alignment and got that neat and also done some touch up paint work so I'll take some more photos and put em up.