No worrys mate, will whack on trademe see how they go. Let us know how cam goes, still tossing up wether to get one or not, but going by my mates ute im put off them a bit, or maybe its just the grind hes got, Bit of a pig to drive and the gas it uses, jesus lol

Yeah, will do for sure mate. If I do put it in tomorrow, it'll be getting the full work out that's for sure

I guess as long as you choose a proven cam to suit what you're after and have the supporting mods to go with it, it'll all go well. I know what you mean about it being a pig to drive and drinking gas like a b**ch, mine seems that way right now lol

Haha sweet mate let us know how it goes. Its been one of those days here, Got bbm onto xg ute, Got it running, 1st thrash it went pretty good. But then it started missing and cannot diagnose it. Bloody thing, then the leads wouldnt fit. Gave up after that lol.
Oh and link for anyone who wants some leads lol

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing ... =388915705

Little update - the Fairmont got some new kicks - old skool 16" Motoform Sekta's

Had the old set of wheels sitting in the garage from when Dad swapped his wheels for my ROH Reflex's. Thought I'd better grab some cheap 2nd hand tyres, chuck em on and bolt them on Fairmont while I was thinking of getting the Concorde's re-done. Currently one of the centre caps on the Concordes has broken (thanks to the high pressure blaster at the car wash!) and just can't be assed trying to track down a replacement or repair it.

So picked up some cheap 2nd hand 225/50/16 tyres last night/this morning. 1x pair of Ventus (Hankook) HRII almost brand new, but with very slight camber wear on one side and 1x pair of Bridgestone B530's, nice even wear with about 5mm tread left. For the $210 for all 4 in total, it was much easier on the wallet compared to buying brand new ones.

I soon realised why it is a bad idea to have a boot install, could only manage to fit 2 bare wheels in the boot, and had to pack the rest inside the cabin. Enough space? Sure...


Took them down to my old workplace, Firestone Wiri, to get it all fitted up and balanced. Last wheel alignment was done in 2008 when I first bought my new tyres (Firehawk TZ100's) - needless to say, tyres were pretty much shagged. Both fronts, fair bit of camber wear on the inside, left rear not too bad overall, right rear, completely bald from the centre to the inside edge of the tyre, outer edge had about 1.5mm left haha. Verdict? Little bit too much negative camber up front and too much peeling-out on right turns... Solution? wheel alignment and LSD or Lokka

Tyres seems nice and grippy, turn in is nice and responsive, and overall, nice quiet ride. Most importantly, I think it looks much better. I'm pretty much sold on the current look, so I may not even bother with the Concorde's any more to be honest.. Seems to have a bit more of a wider stance, sits real nice in the rear too but front definitely needs to be dropped a bit more. Fairmont was pretty filthy, but needed to take some pic's regardless.. Took it for a drive out to some recently opened roads to grab a few flicks.






Thought I'd grab one with the bonnet up as the intake setup has changed... yet again. The current setup seems to be working better than any of the previous setups in terms of throttle response so I guess it'll be staying..


Now has the old DIY airbox back, this time with the Tickford snorkel feeding the air (still have the 3" CAI ducting, but it's not really taking any direct air), without the top lid (now sealed to the underside of the bonnet) and a big 6" Blox pod + 6" to 3" plastic velocity stack/bellmouth that I scored stupidly cheap thru a speedshop I buy my parts from.. Needed something to fill the airbox so I went big .. Will probably change the joiners to black ones as there is too much blue going on in there right now, may even change back to a BA plastic intake tube as the current alloy 180degree bend is rubbing something chronic on the underside of the bonnet

Cam is still sitting in the garage, as is the swaybar... Didn't get time to do it last weekend due to Auckland's consistent weather patterns for the past 10+ weekends - no surprises for guessing what the weather is like this weekend, you'll pick it up in one of the pictures but don't let the sunshine fool you

car suprisingly looks good on those wheels

and i like the custom intake, similar to what i did with my Ef....... have you thought about making some extra room for air to flow over the top of the radiator support?

couple pics to give you an idea

Cheers FF, yeah does look pretty sweet on these wheels! Thought it wouldn't but it seems to work better on the Fairmont than it did on the XR.

I like what you have done with the airbox feed there, looks good!! I have toyed around with idea of making up a very slim scoop out of some thin aluminium sheet with a few angled/contoured press bends to sit over the headlight housing and rest over the radiator support. Was going to have the outer edges folded upwards to make the airflow a bit more directional too, but not too sure how much room I'll have to play with due to the confined space in that area where the bonnet closes. Lol, I actually did mock up a drawing ages ago when I first had the airbox fitted (just altered it now to include the big a** filter haha - once again, MS Paint FTW). That plan never happened as I decided to put a lid on the box in the end. Now that you mention it, I might put that plan into action after all



I'll definitely have to cut the rubber seal as well as the plastic cover thing like you have to get the scoop to fit and allow air to flow thru. Thanks for the pic's, great help

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Looks heaps better on those wheels man, good upgrade!

Thanks mate, I think so too

Need to get some slotted front rotors on now to finish the look though, the front standard and rusted rotors look pretty disappointing sitting behind the spokes lol.

if you find some good front rotors let me know! im also after a set. Oh sold those leads on trademe tonight too, so thats a relief, get my 60 back minus 4.50 success fee! theiving trademe!

Wheels suit it well mate. Needs some fat 245's or something on the rears I reckon. Your car is immaculate, I wish I could be less lazy and clean my engine bay as good as you do!

Oh and lowkey, TM certainly are rip off merchants these days! They take quite a large chunk out of the sale, I'm surprised businesses can afford to sell on there as they wouldn't make much!

I sold something for $100 last week and they took nearly $9.

Cheapest I have been quoted was $120+gst each for DBA slotted rotors from Race Brakes NZ (surprisingly!) but that was years ago.. They are probably $220+ now lol.. Ones on TM are going for like $400 a pair though . Pisses me off when I go on Ebay and see how cheap they sell for in Aussie.

I'll be a few weeks away from getting new front rotors so I've got a fair amount of time to shop around for prices, but I'll keep ya posted

Good to hear you got your cash back too, even if you did get robbed by TM in the end


Thanks for the kind words mate . The Fairmont is far from immaculate but it does look pretty schmick in the pic's, especially for a car that hasn't been washed in over 4 or 5 weeks. As usual, camera has done it more justice than it deserves. Engine bay has heaps of dust everywhere, BBM and PWR tank have dulled a tad so need a quick once over. The lower sides of the car especially the rear bumper are caked in dirt, right rear of the bumper is caked in shredded rubber after a few attempts at killing off the single spinning tyre, almost suceeded, lol.

245's on 16's on the back of an e-series would look pretty menacing hahaha. I was trying to chase down a set of 235's for the Concorde's just to make the rear end look a bit 'tougher' (although 'tough' is impossible with a 130 odd rwkw 6 banger, lol) but anything over 225 width in a profile under 50 for a 16" wheel is pretty hard to come by. Can be ordered in, but the price is unbelieveable!

Yep, TM will rape ya of $$ anyway they can. I'm almost over selling stuff on there now, but sometimes you just gotta sell your stuff. Usually if someone asks a question on something I list, I tell them to contact me directly for a cash price, usually by typing out my cellphone number in words - luckily I haven't been warned by TM admin.. yet.. Suckers

i had 245/50/16 Nexen's on my Concordes @ $145 each fitted

Pic next to some 225's



sorry for all the pics, but im having flashbacks here

FFS, I cannot stand NZ's over inflated prices. Then again, the ones I did get quoted on were Pirelli's so that wouldn't have helped the cause

Jeez, those 245's look nice and chunky FF, no issues with scrubbing on the rear at all? Haha, don't worry about the pic's mate, keep 'em coming if you have more!! Bet you miss the old Fairmont quite a bit, really was a beautiful car. Why the hell did you sell it?

Lol, just had a quick look on Trade Me and 245/50/16's are actually more readily available then I thought. Wish I knew this before jumping the gun and buying 225's.. Brand new Toyo Proxes 4 in 245/50/16 can be had for just over $200 fitted, whereas the cheap-s**t Sonar branded 245/50/16's can be had for $120 each.

Now I know my options for next time

there is also eagle f1's in that size, but at over $300 each haha.
toyo proxes are a good tyre at an ok price.

Hahaha, yeah spotted a set of 4 eagle F1's on TM the other night, guy wanted $1200 for the lot.

Got a bit of progress done on the audio front yesterday. All the wires have been run, amp mounted, DLS UP6 woofers and Rainbow x-overs in etc, but not without a few hickups along the way

DLS mid woofers all wired up ready to go. Gotta love neo-magnets, they use up so little space!


Mounted in door. The door trim now has a satin black arm rest to get rid of the beige/brown/grey discolouration - will need to follow suit with the other 3 armrests now, lol..


Amp mounted and place, just making a start on the wiring. Black leather hand brake boot also installed.


Amp fits beautifully underneath the seat, managed to mount it horizontally to give better access to amp dial settings and wiring connections. Ended up using some right angled RCA adaptors to save the RCA connector plugs from getting trampled on in the back.


Now onto the issues...

Issue No. 1 - Can't mount the x-overs properly in the drivers side map pocket. Drivers side pocket seems to be a lot shallower in depth compared to the passenger side, so all I could do was try wedge it in place in the corner of the pocket. Looks ugly as, but i just needed to get it running first.

Issue No. 2 - I noticed that these DLS mid woofers are more of a 6" than a real 6.5" driver. I thought that I may be able to get away with mounting them directly into the door without them fouling on the inside of the door trim...Wrong! Getting a nice thud and rattle behind the passenger side door trim when the volume is up. Drivers side is okay since I had already done that to fit the Hertz woofer. So the passenger side door trim will definitely need to be hacked up a bit to clear the entire cone of the woofer

Issue No. 3 - Lack of midbass! Seriously, compared to the Hertz and DD woofers, the DLS woofers don't have near as much. They are great SQ woofers, nice, detailed midrange but the lack of lower end midbass they produce is pretty disappointing in deadened doors. Doesn't seem right though from reviews I've read regarding their midbass output, so I may have to re-check things first.

So I've pulled a sickie today in hope of maybe fixing the issues. If things don't turn out right I'll possibly stop being a b**ch and put the Hertz comps in