Yeah tell me about it, started sanding it back already so i know what ive gotten myself into now

Decided to hit it with a coat of Duplicolor Chrome spray paint instead of polishing the grill so i wont need to worry about sealing the polish. When its done ill post up more pics.

FordFairmont, your grill looks awesome man. Thats the look im trying to get with my surround but the innner parts gonna be black. Im thinking of putting black mesh inside there now rather than the plastic inner as that may look better..

Heres a few pictures i took of the scenery close to where i work

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Looks good as man!
Remove pin stripes and get that foggie cover replaced asap!

Cant wait to get my front end re-sprayed after seeing your nice and shinny one!

Thanks mate, pinstripes are getting removed over the holidays hopefully, aswell as the 4.0 OHC Torque Computer Control sticker or whatever it is

The foggy cover is temporarily off for now (got it in the garage somewhere) until i sort out my cold air intake duct from that hole. Its gonna have a 3" flex tube with a bellmouth at the front of it sitting behind the cover.

The front end is pretty shiney considering its been on there for about 200,000kms . Heritage green always seems to have that shine though. Try polishing your front end with turtle wax, works wonders on my car

Nah mate, my front end is bad..you just cant see how bad it is in pics.

My grille has bits missing from it...my bonnet and front bar has chunks of paint missing...my mirrors where covered in stone chips until i sprayed them about a month ago.

The windscreen that was on the car when i bought it was f@#ked chips and cracks all over the joint.

I start my apprenticeship in 2 weeks from today :D (spray painter) so when i get good with the boss my front end will be re-srayed as well as my rear bar and the panel under the tail lights because im going to debage her and fill the holes...

Finally got around to doing the grill and fitting the rocker cover this week. Been real busy being lazy , so when i replaced some lifters i thought why not and went on with the rocker cover and a few other things.. Rocker cover hasnt really been colour matched but its heritage green and looks alright for now.. Replaced my stuffed battery terminals while i was at it also.. And painted the power steering pump and belt cover and the EEC-V lettering on the airbox, next up is the rest of the intake.. As for the grill, its getting there, just did a quick polish with some autosol to see how it would look on the car so hasnt got as much shine as i would have wanted but its looking okay.. Anyways heres some pics.. Tell me what yah think

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engine bay looks clean, and the grille looks very nice indeed.

I still reckon fill the middle of the grill with silver mesh or chrome paint as it will blend in together more.... but either way it looks good and i know how much work it takes to get it shiny like that !!

Thanks mate, yeah sanding that grill surround was quite a task .. I think getting it sand blasted made it a hell of a lot harder coz it brought out all the pits in the metal. Would of been easier with a buffing wheel or something, it was hard trying to get the right finish but it turned out half decent for a quick job. Still has a few marks so it gonna come off and might start again.

Was thinking of making the grill active and filling it with mesh actually, but black mesh for some reason i reckon would look good. Anyways will see how it goes when i start playing around with things again

I really like the ba snorkel and tube setup- are there any gains or just for looks?

I am thinking about doing it to the ef2 ghia 6- but I like the tickford badge on the bbq plate cover.... is there any point in that duel pipe thing on the efs? or is it s**t? I noticed they changed it in EL to a U bend....wonder why

I originally got the ba xr6t snorkel and ba intake assembly for gains but they didnt really do alot , they dont look too bad seeing as they are stock items. You do get a little more throttle response though. I guess another upside to the setup is a bit better breathing at higher rpms as others have found, but it is barely noticeable. The extractors i have are chrome plated (stupid i know - but better than paint peeling off then rusting) so they heat up quite a bit and the old bbq plate intake was passing over that side of the engine, with the ba intake it is away from the extractors as it just sits just over the rocker cover so it doesnt get as much heat soak. Got a better gain by putting a pod in the box though my old filter was probably old.

If i had to start again, i probably wouldnt have gone and bought the snorkel and intake piping. I had to stuff around with the radiator fan shroud cause it was hitting the snorkel and not allowing it to sit properly. I would have got a mandrel bent 3" pipe made up with an EF/EL XR6 snorkel. You could always leave the intake you have now on the car and upgrade the snorkel to a BA XR6T snorkel or EF/EL XR6 snorkel if you can find one, high flow filter in the box with a cold air intake from the front bumper up through the guard and through underneath into the airbox, that should work fine. The bbq plate intake seems to flow pretty good even though it looks like it wont, something about the air velocity or something so i've heard.

Bit of an update on the ol Fairmont

Picked up a Fairlane grill for $25 lol, what a bargain, better than paying $180 for one, which was the cheapest i could get one for at the wreckers until this showed up. Is in pretty good nick, not one crack in the plastic, the chrome is alright, repainted the inner part between the fins black as it had flaked off in places. Has a few chips in the chrome but not noticeable unless up put your face up in the grill



Once fitted, it looked a bit out of place without cornering lights so i thought, stuff getting foggies though, cost too much lol and im poor. Got about $20 worth of chrome stripe tape and did the front and rear bumpers, and just chrome striped the original Fairmont moulds, again cant afford to waste my money on fairlane/ghia moulds when these look just as good. Makes the chrome grill a lot more appealing now, doesnt look out of place and breaks up the heritage green quite well. Now just need some clear repeaters, polished up Fairlane rims and dump the a** end of it..





The money shot


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geez $20 is a steal..... especially from a wrecker !!..

i had the lane grille on for awhile, and really needs the fairlane driving lamps to finish it off

Yeah wasnt too bad of a pick up aye, i seem to get good bargains from people who dont know the worth of some parts lol.. Driving lights would be next on the list of things to break my bank had i not already rigged up my CAI from the front vent in the bar. So im gonna keep it how it is for now as the CAI i made up works quite well

Im not sure how long the Fairlane grill will last on the car though, might take it off when i get the car resprayed and get the EF Fairmont grill chromed.. Had the polished grill on for a few days without sealing it and it turned s**t, so took it off, re-polished it about 2 days ago, then hit it with a coat of clear and i f**k it

So heres the to-do list lol..

- Get a new set of headlights, my current ones are cactus, already tried polishing them
- New pair of front indicators, one of them was letting water inside the lamp, tried to fix it with super glue, f**k that up too and now the glue has clouded the lense lol
- Clear side repeaters, orange sticks out very bad
- Superlows for the rear to even out ride height, the front is okay for now, has trouble already getting up some driveways and it doesnt even look that low, the guard is just above the tyre but it could always go a little lower
- New set of rims *maybe*.. Thinking of some chrome NF Fairlane rims to suit the chrome currently on the car or maybe a set of dished 18's when i win lotto lol
- Reconditioned auto trans, bigger trans cooler, electronic shiftkit
- Change over to LSD or just find an XR6 diff, single spinner sucks fullstop
- Cam (maybe 1636), bit of headwork, bigger exhaust valves, AU gasket
- Respray the whole car, get the EF Mont grill chromed at the same time, debadge rear end possibly, remove rear spoiler.....

List will be continued whenever, if ever, i get to end of the current list

the other EFFIII is looking good.
I dont normally like the Fairlane grilles but on your car it looks really good!

Do you have chrome strips on ur Ef door moulds?

Yeah i was having second thoughts about getting the Fairlane grill at first, but for $25 why not aye lol, could always sell it again for a bit more if it doesnt suit, but its kinda growing on me even though its only been on for a few days haha

I reckon it looks quite good, would be better with different rims, lowered rear end, no spolier and clear repeaters

And yeah just used the standard EF Fairmont moulds and put the chrome strips on them, couldnt be bothered trying to find Fairlane/Ghia moulds as they'd probably cost a fortune to get with the prices people charge around here. Looks just as good to anyways so im happy bout it lol

Another picture to add to the collection lol..



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