Hey guys been checking these forums for quite a while now and thought I might have a crack at doing some mods on my car.



1998 EL Falcon Sapphire, had her for about 2 years now. Pretty much all stock apart from speakers and head unit. And I replaced the snorkel with a BA one today. Will be putting in a K&N Pod Filter hopefully tomorrow if I can chase up an EF Airbox lid or some PVC pipe.

There's a long list of modifications and fixes that I want to do to the car ranging from changing the cluster to replacing damaged pieces.


At the moment I plan on getting a new exhaust system and peacemaker extractors, was just looking for some opinions from everyone else as to other possible mods I could do for performance as well as aesthetics.



What do you guys think?

lower it, brand new cat back 2.5 inch exhausts can be had for $220 odd delivered off ebay, as long as you dont mind getting dirty and fitting it yourself
springs for lowering the car can be found cheap second hand or brand new king springs arent all that expensive altho you should fit shocks to suit the lowered springs so the car still handles good

Reasonably new to terminology so bear with me

Cat back meaning past the cat converter? is there any benefit to getting a full replacement?
And whats the expected time it would probably take me to fit it myself without any prior knowledge vs. the cost of getting it installed? And would most shops install pre-bought items?

{DESCRIPTION} Something like this look correct? Or seems like a cheap version?

they wanted more than 300 "doll-hairs" for exactly the same one fitted at carline i think, as long as you have all the spanners and can remove the old one ok(if it isnt rusted on like most exhausts are) or if you have a grinder to get it off a little easier if its rusted on and you have car ramps or diff stands to gain access to under the car than its a piece of piss,

thats the one i have, its mandrel bent, i think once i payed for it the australia post had dropped it off in less than a week, i noticed some sort of gain by fitting this exhaust on my ef without extractors or a high flow cat and also got a bit more economy

Eh unfortunately I don't have access to anything that would even suffice as a car ramp. Guess I'll ring around to the local exhaust places tomorrow and get quotes just for labor.

they would probably only wanna sell you their off the shelf ones, but ask around you never know

Hey mate good to see there are a few EL Sapphires kicking round

With your exhaust it just depends on how much you from the car, the cheapest way as bry40l said is to get a cat back exhaust. Where abouts do you live ? I dealt with the guys over at Northern Car Care (224 Settlement Road, Thomostown - 9465 3211) I was getting a replacement exhaust pipe for the rear section. They seemed to be pretty well priced and they were helpful. So that might be a place to start in regards to pricing things up... and deepening on where you live as well.

Check out my build thread if ya feel like it cause I have been doing similar stuff to my car just got to get round to up loading more pics.

Howdy, I live in a small town between Ballarat and Melton, lovely place called Bacchus Marsh.

Yeah I was poking around you're thread the other night, was one of the cars that made me decide to have a crack at mine. Very nice car you have there

theres plenty of info on here and people willing to help by sharing their knowledge,if you lived near me id come round and help you with fitting the exhaust, i dont mind when it keeps me out of trouble for a few hours, melbournes a bit far to travel just to lend a hand though

Got a few quotes today for a 2.5" cat back ranged from $290 to $745 in the local area, much head down on my next day off and check what brands they're using.


Got a broken On/Off cruise control switch thats been bugging me for ages, works fine just looks like s**t.


$20 or so off ebay for the entire harness, clips and buttons, probably could have gotten it cheaper from a wreckers but I've got very little experience with them and was sort of scared. Atleast I'll have spares if anything happens :p



Also appears that someone had opened their car door onto mine and left a nice red rash.



What would be the best bet of getting this out, or is there no hope?


Also had someone run into my rear end about 4 months ago, their insurance paid for it all, was a big 4x4 crimped my spoiler, boot and bumper, also the piece between the boot and bumper. Which is why its got a GLI badge rather then a Sapphire, apparently they're hard to come by... Doesn't bother me that much, however I get the feeling that someone doesn't quite match up anymore, doesn't look right to me. While we're on the topic of bumpers, is it possible to remove the towbar and get something to sit in the gap. I never use it and I'm not particularly fond of it.




After I got it back from repair they tried telling me that it was impossible to find a spoiler brake light. I'm 100% sure that this isn't a Sapphire spoiler but one they've just chopped up to make look like one.



Doesn't also help that there are screws missing from it, I remember my old one being a solid unit. I could be wrong though. Anyway would I just be better getting a LED light strip and wiring it up in there or not even worrying about it. If the police were to pull me over would they fine me for having a brake light out?


Last but not least, my seats. I've always thought they were ugly and have kept them under a seat cover, I recently took them off for a clean and thought, 'hey they're not that terrible.'

They're in need of a good clean and theres some discolloration in the middle which you can see in the photo. Do they suit the interior color of grey?

thats definatly a ef fairmont spoiler from what i can see in the picture, not sure if the saphire one is diferent though

pity you dont live over the otherside of town, i fitted my exhaust myself, got it from same seller on ebay only difference is i bought the redback one (australian made and a bit more pricey), would be happy to give you a hand, im in hampton park. If your keen forthe drive one saturday id be happy to help you with it, dosnt take all that long

There were 2 types of boot spoilers for the EF/EL;

1) XR6 Type, which is the low one that is pictured and fitted to GLi, Futura, XR6, XR8, Fairmonts etc.

2) XR8 High Sharkfin. Optional extra and fitted to late model XR8.

There is no spoiler specific to the Saphire.

As for the Towbar, all you need is the bar plug, I think I have a white one here somewhere, but they are easy enough to pick up.

Guess I'll start hunting for a plug for the bumper.

Went down to the local servo with the car cleaning devices (vacs etc) tonight and there was a wet/dry vac.

Though I might try it on my rear seats as they were stained with something probably someones drink after getting called around midnight to taxi people down to the pub when i have work in the morning.

Anyway they turned up reasonably well all things considering. Left them pretty damp but it was a warmish day and they dried pretty quickly. And they looked pretty decent in my car, nice and even. I've previously had this (now that I think of it) pretty terrible seat covers on, black try hard racecar covers. (will upload pics of seats and covers tomorrow.


Next area I'd like to work on is the inside doors. the doors carpet patch is pretty dirty, how would I go about cleaning them? do they come off and I could scrub/wash them out? Or do I have to scrub them on the doors?