Haha, yeah the fuel economy is pretty much non-existant really. Doesn't help when it's running stupidly rich untuned and with me behind the wheel lol


Got it from Repco. Apparently it was on special on Saturday for $99 down from $116 - my mate let me have it for $70 cause he's a top bloke. Luckily too, was the last one left out back. And yep, definitely has extractors under there


Cheers FordFairmont

The black joiners surprisingly make the engine bay look heaps better, all that blue really was starting to go over the top, so it'll stay this way now. Re: polishing the front face of the head, pretty good idea! I'll be doing that with that ported head before it goes on. I think I've seen another member do the same and it looked epic, I'll also have to do the lower thermostat housing so it all ties in together. The wheels do seem to be looking better on the car everytime I see it too, plan was to only have them on while the Concorde's get redone, but now I'm regretting not taking the time to re-paint these while they were sitting in the garage. I'm thinking these wheels will stay until some nice 17" or 18" wheels pop up that I like. Tyre prices would be about the same anyway

Wow, dude the engine bay in the AU looks awesome, nice work!! Looks like a brand new engine with everything so clean and spotless. Gotta love the explorer intake manifold's, they are such a nice looking design, looks mint in aluminium enamel . Had me thinking "jeez, didn't take him long to start upgrading to MSD goodies" when I saw the red coil packs haha, nice touch!! I reckon those rocker covers are screaming out for your metal polishing skills now mate



Cheers Slo!

Haha, mate, when are you coming over to NZ? I'd be happy to give ya a demo of the sound system. It's nothing earth shattering really, but it's a nice system to listen to in a daily.

The firewall insulation is standard afaik, it was quite faded when I first got the Fairmont, but I sprayed some Thermotec black paint (hi-temp paint used to seal heat wrap) over it when I first did the heat wrap and it fixed that up pretty well. It has a little tear just near the back of the rocker cover but I think that's about it which is strange, most of the ones I've seen on other cars are shagged.

It's funny you mentioned the shiftkit box, I've been trying to find somewhere else to place it purely for a cleaner look but just can't seem to find a spot where I'm happy with it. Have been considering maybe pulling apart the internals and using one of the interior panels as the 'box' with a few holes and then securing the toggle switch and adjuster to it. Thing is, I keep adjusting the firmness all the time to suit the situations/conditions I'm driving in so I need it close and in a place where I have open access to it, which just so happens to be right where it is now - with the BEM being right behind this particular panel, I can't fkn win

Pretty good idea with the towbar wiring connector!! I think I might be stealing your idea there mate, When I removed the towbar, I was tempted to do a quick dodgy job and just rip the connector off completely and then 'cut and shut' the wires as I never really bothered to think of other options. The sight of it has been s**t me ever since, until now lol.

ROH ZS are an awesome wheel dude, good score! Pic's?

Pity they aren't 17's, but you're right about the design making them appear larger. It's weird though, with other wheels, a bit of dish usually makes the diameter look smaller, but the ZS work the other way. Easily one of ROH's best designs

Hmm, not sure how much more modding the Fairmont will see to be honest. I still have a few little things to do, mostly engine and drivetrain wise which I'm still finalizing ideas/options on. Interior is pretty much done, will probably only see new or re-trimmed seats, new headlining, but that's about it. Audio wise, it's all done, not looking at changing anything as car audio really is an expensive hobby when you start getting more and more into it. Exterior wise, a full respray would be nice, possibly a change in wheels. Was thinking the other day, if I didn't have this huge urge to get a V8, I probably would be half way through a turbo conversion right now with parts all over the place

Seeing some of the e-series and AU V8's yesterday at the show made me cringe man, can't wait for the day I finally get to own a 5.0

I used a round connector similar to this for the trailer wiring. You can just cut the old plug off, pull the loom back through into the put and install this one. You end up with plenty of length as it doesn't need to run under the bumper:

http://www.supercheapauto.com.au/online ... escription

Your paint looks quite neat in the pics. The NL is shocking, the only way its getting sprayed is if I do it, and I don't think I could do it well enough. Stone chips, clear coat damage, scratches, I have them all.

I forgot to mention too that I like the black joiners in the engine bay alot better. It looks brilliant!

We will be over maybe later this year. We just had a baby boy on Friday so we will have to bring him over to see the family. We will definitely have to meet up.

Go and drive a few Windsor powered Falcons. They aren't that different to the 4.0, especially seeing you have a cam and exhaust etc. The sound and torque is nice though.

As for pics of the NL, I'll have to get some. I have a few grainy washed out ones off my iPhone but I don't really want to throw them up as they are crap!

With the shiftkit controls, what about the fuse box cover or under the steering column cover?

Awesome, thanks for that mate! Might have to give it a go this weekend if I get a bit of time. Re: shiftkit controls, those areas would actually be quite good. Will have to check how much room I have to work with though, IIRC the base on the potentiometer had a fair amount of depth to it.

Unfortunately 5.0 e-series are fairly hard to come by around here in the car dealer yards, but will try see what's around and take whatever I can find for a quick fang so I can get an idea of what I'll be starting with... if things go to plan

Congrats on the baby boy too dude, good stuff! Be sure to let us know when you're over this way

Wow KWIKXR, your car looks amazing, like it's so beautiful I could stare at it all day..

f**k top job you've done there

agreed...... actually my VCT Ghia would have smashed this windsor ghia by a long shot, so i could only imagine how dull a factory E-series windsor goes. The VCT was just a really revvy motor, i reckon something like a manual Series III VCT XR6 with 3.7 diff gears & usual exhaust/intake mods would be a very fun car to drive

XR8's aside, my Ghia weighs 1650kg and with an auto & 3.23 diff it does chug along like a truck, then you have the ordinary AU Windsor Fairmonts that weigh 100kgs lighter so that would help things a bit. And also the Series III AU windsor Fortes which are a further 50kgs lighter again and have the option of a T5

Having said that, the novelty & note of the windsor outweighs my urge to go back to a 6 again

Nice ill be heading to repco one day soon then, actually might see if supercheap can get it in, i hate repco lol. My deading on the firewall was mint as, no marks at all, Until i got extractors. then it started burning! Might have to give it a paint up, ill put it on the list of things to do. Then it will probably find its way to the to hard bin haha. But man your engine bay is looking tidy, Whens that big shiny turbo finding its way in there?

I'm getting the feeling that an AU windsor would be the one to go for then guys? Unless I find a nice EL XR8 185kw version

I'm yet to even get behind the wheel of an AU, be it a 6 or an 8. I really do need to get out to car yards a bit more and start taking cars for a spin. Spotted this AU which is somewhere in Auckland so I might go check it out, obviously with no intention to buy, purely a test drive

http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-ca ... 446004.htm


Haha, thanks mate! The photo's make it out to be much nicer than what it actually is lol


Cheers dude

As for that huge shiny turbo, it probably won't end up getting boosted now as the money spent towards doing that could cover other areas such as brakes and suspension that are more important to me. Really don't have the money to spend on turbo'ing it right now and seeing as it's my daily, I would want something reliable which you can't cheap out on. As great as the Ford 6 is, I have realised that a nice V8 would be more my thing at the moment so that's what I'm gunning for

cars looking the goods, pitty it doesn't have the 5.0L then you'd be set!
specially if it looked as clean as you're 6

heres a nice au. bout same price, but down here.
{DESCRIPTION}

how about this one, been on there for ages lol.
{DESCRIPTION}

theres a few nice el xr8's on trademe, but over priced for my liking.

i gotta say sorry KWIKXR for going off topic, its just that you mentioned a couple times now your thinking about going to a Windsor so i thought id steer you forward with my biased opinion But this is taking nothing away from your car, i certainly have a soft spot for EF Mont's and im lucky to still see my old one cruising around

If you have any inkling of buying another car, probably a good idea to slow down on mods, or it will hit your pocket harder when it comes time to sell.

And omg i had a look on Trademe, and im left wondering does NZ have its own car depreciation system or what !! If you were to go a windsor, id certainly skip the e-series, and even the AUI model because it shares to many e-series parts and it wasnt till AUII & AUIII they made a fair few improvements even simple things like laminated firewall for less engine noise



I sold my EF after test driving my father-in-law's 300,000km AUII Futura that never had been serviced nor ever had money spent on it, realizing how much more refined it was than my EF. That was a couple years ago, and he still hasnt touched the car and it runs reliably doesnt leak oil or water. Hes afraid to do anything to it incase it upsets the karma

I only found a couple AU windsors that imo worth having a look but still overpriced though...... the rest look like theyve been bastardized by Fast'n'Furious wannabes

AU II Fairmont Ghia .... 129,000km
http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-ca ... 117219.htm

AU III Fairmont (Ghia?)...... 145,000km
http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-ca ... 195427.htm

and this one is only a 6, but @ $3900 thats a bargain
http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-ca ... 579155.htm

Cheers Troy, yeah mate would be sorted if the Fairmont was a V8, wouldn't have to muck around with anything else then

There has been a few cheap 5.0's on Trade Me in the last few months, seems they have already been snapped up though.


Ash, I reckon rules and reg's with engine conversions would be much more laid back in NZ compared to Australia. Haven't really looked too much into it, but it seems pretty simple to get things certified/engineered over here.

Haven't considered an engine conversion, mainly because of the cost of 5.0 windsor motors in NZ. From the wreckers, they are in the ball park of $2000-$2500 for the motor alone, then you need to buy whatever else needed to get it all in and running etc. Would be pretty straight forward and a hell of a lot cheaper if you could find a complete donor car, but even then they are quite a rare find.

What's funny is we still have the 351W sitting in the garage (still in pieces, lol) so I really don't know why I would bother trying to find a motor when there's one right there staring me in the face


Hahaha, no worries at all mate! It's great to have some opinions from those in the know, so thanks guys for the help

I'd have to say the more and more I think about it, an AU would be the best option for me, especially when the mod bug hits as it has a much better base to start with but the average prices that they are advertised for is a bit high for me. In saying that, I wouldn't mind a cheap EB or ED 5.0 Ghia just to start off with, but even they are still selling for $5 - $6k which is heaps for a near on 20 year old car

E-series and AU's V8's are still pretty expensive over here, but some nicely priced ones pop up from time to time through private sales. I guess market value must be fairly high for these sorts of cars still. I like that Ghia in the second link, such a nice example!! There's a Ghia like that one just up the road from me, in that same blue your old AU was I think, jeez it's sexy lol

I love the look of {DESCRIPTION} too, fairly low k's, mint condition, well looked after etc but at 15k that's way past what I'm prepared to pay. Ah well, I'll keep dreaming for now lol, will be a while before I even seriously start looking at buying so hopefully the prices start getting lower and lower

Not 100% sure on that one mate, but I'm picking that to be the case. Just found this brief overview of what can and can't be done without needing a certification (called a low volume vehicle cert over here).

States that the car will need to be cert'd by a LVV engineer if a engine of a larger capacity is fitted. However it doesn't really say if that only applies to the motor fitted from factory or the largest motor fitted to the vehicle in that range. So basically in terms of engine conversions, to avoid a cert the engine needs to be of an equal or lesser capacity, equal or lesser weight, use the same fuel, same engine ancillaries and bolt straight in using standard engine mounting points as well as being the same configuration as the original motor - so if I was to avoid LVV cert, I'd legally be limited to an AU i6 motor... but this is NZ and you can get away with almost anything

I think we might be a bit more lenient in the way the cert's are done though, not too strict with things depending where you go. There's a guy I know who DIY turbo'd his EF Fairmont and all it needed to get cert'd was slotted rotors and decent pads which technically is an upgraded braking system according to the engineer. I think it would probably be a similar situation with upgrading to say a 5.0 windsor into my Fairmont, making sure everything is mounted correctly and bolts in as it would from standard, and then upgrade the brake's to compensate for the added power and weight. There's probably lots more to it than that, so it's something I'll have to read up a lot more on.

i don't think they are to picky over here for cert, you could carb a ba if ya wanted (not that you would) as long as it's all safe ect
http://www.lvvta.org.nz/documents/stand ... rsions.pdf

Spot on Ash, would be a hell of a lot simpler to just buy a V8 equipped car. I know exavtly what you mean about the stat write off's, you definitely can pick up some gems through that way. We have similar things over here, like this classic example.

http://www.tickfordclub.org.nz/forum/vi ... php?t=5221

That auction is now long gone, but from the photo's that were in it, the car looked like it had SFA damage, apparently it turned out to be a million times worse than it appeared lol. Still, $15k for a BF F6 with lots of goodies still damage free is a wicked score, could easily use it as a donor car for a decent conversion of part it out and make get $15k and then some back


I'd have to agree with ya there Troy, they definitely aren't as picky at all. I remember there was a guy selling an EA Fairmont with a 4.0 1UZ V8 motor bolted in and certed. What was funny is that the trans was a 4 speed auto, yet only gears 1, 2 and 3 were useable as the wiring job was shonky. How the f**k that would pass a cert is beyond me, there's so many other examples out there lol.

Here mate. post1271223.html#p1271223

So, bought a 5.0 yet?

Commented. (Looks sooo damn nice man, pity it doesn't have the 5.0 sound hey?)

No, I haven't bought a 5.0... not yet

I'm just about to pop out and get a few parts for that head, seriously need to get that thing finished so I can bolt it on over the xmas holidays. Will be checking all the good car yards on the way back to see if there's anything worthy of being caned this morning