That video is wicked! I gotta get myself one of those cameras. Also I'd sh!t my pants if I pushed my pedal and nothing happened :S good job thinking quick and stopping safely.. could have been the end of this thread D:

Very cool mate, you weren't afraid your camera would fall off? Think I'll have to head down to jaycar!

The 'Mont sounds pretty damn good too!

Cheers mate

Still haven't even bothered looking at the braking system yet lol, CBF. I've been driving the car around all week and it hasn't done it once, although the pedal is noticeably softer than before. Needless to say, I've been on the brake pedal well in advance before coming to a stop just incase

Since it's a long weekend this weekend, I'll probably have a decent look.


Thanks Mason

Haha mate, I had my doubts at first, but once I stuck the mount to the side of the car, the damn thing wouldn't budge! The suction cup has a locking mechanism so it holds it firmly in place. Just have to make sure the suction cup surface and whatever area it's being mounted to is very clean.

It's probably not as good as the proper 'GoPro' camera mounts, but it's a bit cheaper and does a similar job. Only thing I dislike about it, is the flexible shaft where the camera mounts to is a little short so you are limited in that regard. The GoPro mounts look a fair bit longer so you can get a bit more adjustment out of them.

It sounds okay for a 6, still want it to sound a bit throatier though so I may be making a few changes with the exhaust and will probably get another cam done for it, this time something that more aggressive than my current cam, but not as aggressive as the one I had done recently lol. Sounds pretty s**t at the moment though, you can almost hear lifters ticking over the exhaust note, only seems to be getting louder too so that's another thing to look at this weekend

Well, not much has been happening with the Fairmont lately. Still waiting for funds to stack up before getting stuck back into the mod's. But I have a few things I'd like to put into action this year so here's a little on that front..

Grabbed another spare cam from Pick a Part last weekend. Went in to see what car's were in the yard and noticed a EF with the rocker gear already removed and the cam just sitting there, still with it's 'oil seal' in the journals. Grabbed it and will probably get another grind done, something a little less aggressive than the last cam. Will possibly go for the Auckland Cam's GT sport/Mild grind which is pretty much Wade 977b spec'd. Either that or their Stage 1 grind which has a bit more duration, but not as aggressive at the Stage 2 I had done. I guess I'll confirm this once I get round to sending it off, hopefully in a couple of weeks time.

Audio bug has bitten me again... Recently went to a car audio forum meet to catch up with a few NZICE members and see/hear some of their systems. Sat in one guy's Toyota Altezza which he has put a lot of time and effort into in terms of the audio setup. Overall, was a very nice SQ focused setup, and I pretty much fell in love with the sound. Simply amazing! Alpine source, separate Alpine processor, an array of Boston amps and a 12" Boston G5 sub in a custom boot install, and a 3 way active front stage consisting of raw home audio drivers. Scanspeak Revelator 7" midbass woofers in the doors, Scanspeak 12m 4.5" full range mid's and Scanspeak Illuminator tweeters up off the base of the A-pillar's = best all round system I've heard and easily the best front stage setup I've ever heard, and probably will ever hear - period! The midbass was insane and the high end sounded excellent.

The height and balance of the sound stage was perfect, I was actually lost for words when I sat there listening lol. According to the owner, he found that the 4.5" fullrange speaker helped a lot with bringing the sound stage up, so it has me torn between playing around more with my current 2 way front stage or upgrading to a 3 way front stage, with maybe a 2" or 3" fullrange up in the a-pillar close to the tweeters.

Got him to listen to my system and he suggested straight off the bat to bring the DLS UP6 midbass woofers out, so I think I may be looking at glassing up the map pocket sections and having the DLS woofers mounted there in the bottom front of the door, angled out and upwards slightly to bring them on axis a little. If I do that though, I may as well ditch the passive crossovers, upgrade the 2 channel amp to a 4 channel and run the front's actively. A new headunit is on the card's this year, would love one of the old Pioneer P80RS's just for the simplicity but we'll see what else pop's up. Still haven't put my Image Dynamic's ID12v3 sub's in yet either, but they'll go in sometime soon, most probably in my current box as they'll work nice enough in that for now.

For now, here's a current pic of the EF I got today while out watching the latest D1NZ drifting round. She's pretty filthy lol, needs a well deserved bath


It's kinda giving me the s**t at the moment as it just sits too low in the front. It's already smashed the k-frame a couple of times since the Koni's went in (adding to the few hit's its already taken beforehand), front swaybar bottoms out on some of the steep short speedbumps we have in shopping centre carparks, and the exhaust (particularly the flanges where the extractors and exhaust meet and the centre muffler) scrape on almost every speedbump. I like the look of it though so I doubt I'll be changing anything.

Still plan to lower the rear a bit more to match which will hopefully be done long before Auckland All Ford Day coming up in April

Haven't had any more issues with the brakes, apart from a spongy feeling pedal, so went out and bought a few bottles of Castrol Super DOT4 fluid. Flushed out the old fluid as best I could by bleeding the fresh fluid through. Haven't test driven it yet, but hopefully it'll firm up the pedal feel a bit. Seems no matter what I do (even doing the old 'lock the bleeder nipple mid-pump' trick) the pedal feel has always been relatively soft.. s**t e-series brakes

We'll a week or so after flushing and bleeding the brake system, it seems to have given a bit more firmness back to the pedal, but it's not 100% to my liking in terms of pedal feel. I did notice a fair amount of travel/flex in the brake booster and master cylinder assembly whilst bleeding the brakes which put a few ideas in my head.

Which brings me to the current mod I'm working on...

Have seen a couple of e-series now with master cylinder stoppers fitted, basically just a made up bracket that limits the travel/flex of the brake booster and master cylinder assembly when the brake pedal is pressed. Whilst bleeding the brakes, I noticed a fair bit of movement so thought doing something to reduce/remove the amount of travel would be beneficial to pedal feel.

So what I plan to do is make a 'L' shaped bracket which will mount off the shock tower, using the studs from the strut top. Then use a decent sized bolt which will screw through the bracket and rest up against the front of the master cylinder, and have a nut on either side of the bracket so I can adjust the bolt to whichever position/set preload etc. I also want it to be relatively easy on the eyes, so it has to have both form and function lol.

Went out and bought a whole heaps of 316 stainless nuts/bolts/washers for the job. Grabbed some 6mm aluminium 'L' shaped plate offcut I had laying around and decided to make use of it as my bracket for the stopper.


Grabbed some cardboard and made a template and this is where I'm at right now.


Pretty happy with the shaping and size at the moment, but I'll find out for sure once I transfer it to the aluminium plate. Being aluminium, I may need to make up some triangle support braces between the 2 faces of the 'L' just incase, but being such a small piece and 6mm thick, I don't think I'll have any issues with it bending under force. We'll see how it turns out once I have it all made up. Hopefully with a bit of smoothing out and polishing, it'll look the part too.

Hey man whats a mean idea, never even though of this lol. should do the trick ay, does the master cylinder already have a whole in it to screw top bolt into or is top bolt just going to rest against the front face? video cracked me up too, nice burnout lol, looks like your in the need for a lsd??!!

Haha, yeah could do with an LSD most definitely. It kicked 2 initially when it whipped round, but as soon as I went to correct it and get it back straight, it decided to spin 1 lol. Stupid worn out SS diff. Hopefully LSD will be done this year

Yeah that bolt will just rest up against the face of the master cylinder. Should do the trick, however a member from another forum just brought up a good fact with regards to using alloy and stainless parts together that I kind of overlooked. I'll see how I get on with it anyways, might be a few changes here and there.

Alright, brake master cylinder stopper thingo has been put on hold for the time being. CBF with it right now, plus I have to take it somewhere to have a support bracket TIG'd in place and I just don't have the time or know anyone that can do a decent job for me on the cheap, lol.

Had a few issues with the Fairmont over the past few weeks, had a random intermittent fault where the car would run rough as guts after start-up, switch the car off, start it up again, and it would be fine. Then a few random times where the car would splutter whilst driving and then cut out when coming to a stop in traffic/at the lights. Each time where the problem occurred, it appeared that the ECON light would light up on the dash which had me stumped. As a process of elimination sort of thing, I removed the J3 chip, and the problem hasn't come back since . Hoping that its not a fault with the chip itself, but perhaps a seating issue on the port. Anyways, haven't had much time to deal with it or play around with it again, so I've left it out for the time being and will come back to that later on.

Lost motivation with getting another cam done. The spare cam I picked up is still sitting in the garage collecting dust lol. Right now, I'm thinking of just leaving the current mild cam in and being done with it. Maybe get the J3 re-tuned to suit my current setup and then leave it as is, keep it as my daily driver, maintain it, and move onto something else to tinker with. It's getting a bit difficult to mod a daily driven car, especially when it's your only car and need to rely on it to get to work lol.

I think I've come to this resolution because I've spent too much fkn money on the damn thing and want to try stop that lol. Modding a daily = fail, period!

Good news - I picked up some different wheels for the Fairmont, CSA Gladiators in 17x8". Wanted a change and wanted something that would just look better on the Fairmont.

Surprisingly, they were in pretty decent nick for wheels that hadn't been reco'd before and came with all centre caps which is awesome. Minimal curbing and deep scratches, although the previous owned did grind/file down any curbing on the outer edge of the rim so that made my life a bit easier. Decided I want to do them in gloss black so got stuck into that tonight. Was planning on doing them in a black graphite sort of colour similar to 'Ego' but darker, but meh, CBF so next option on the list was gloss black for a 'darker' looking Fairmont.

Having a bit of s**t weather here at the moment, so only got one done for now, hopefully the weather clears back up so I can try get the rest done after work during the week and then save for tyres over the next 2 weeks or so. I'm wanting 235/45's up front and 255/40's in the rear to fill the guards a little better.

Cleaned them down with brake cleaner and a high pressure hose.

Sanded the entire wheel back with 320grit wet, primed it with 3 coats of VHT grey filler primer and then wet sanded the surface smooth with 600grit wet

After 4 coats of Duplicolor Gloss Black engine enamel, followed by 3 coats of VHT clear coat wheel paint, I have 1 down and 3 to go lol



Finish looks pretty decent I guess, not bad for something straight out of a spray can

Got Auckland All Ford Day coming up at the end of April, so I've got a month and a bit to get the Fairmont up to scratch before the big day. Shaping up to be a fairly big turnout this year, can't wait!

I love those wheels. Do them silver though just for me.

Haha, no way! I've had 3 sets of silver wheels on the car so far, time to switch it up a bit

Hopefully, they'll look as good as I hope they will, once they are on the car lol.

I heard a rumor that once you're had black you will never go back.... Not 100% sure it had anything to do with wheels though. I had black reflex wheels on my old GTX Mazda; they are awesome as you don't have to clean the brake dust off them every 2nd day. It should look good Nathan definitely will be a nice change.

So true!

I've always had a thing for black wheels, absolutely love the look! I can't wait to see how they will look on the Fairmont. Brake dust is a bit of an annoyance for me also, so a dark coloured wheel which will blend in with the brake dust is a must haha.

Right now, the Motoform Sekta's I have collect brake dust extremely well. The wash up easy enough, but it looks awful when they are all dusted up.

I managed to get some more progress done on the wheels instead. Not a hell of a lot, but its closer to being done.

Evolution


Went and picked up a pair of tyres for the rear this morning, 255/40/17 Maxgrade SIII's. Not a well known tyre, haven't read much/any feedback about them at all so it's a gamble. But they were cheap enough and in otherwise mint condition being 2nd hand so I couldn't pass that up. Hell, if the tyres end up performing crap, they'll get smoked and a better pair will be bought later on to replace them haha

Jetted straight down to Firestone to have a mate chuck one of the tyres on the finished wheel.

Got home and put the wheel straight on and can't wipe the smile off my face, extremely happy with the look!





Now back to getting the other 3 wheels done lol..

That looks brilliant. Needs tyre shine though.

Looks s**t hot mate! Goes well with the colour of the car. I've always loved black wheels too.