Hey all
I used do have a thread for one of my cars buried deep within the ford mods garage somewhere but I'll start this one for all my cars past and present and hopefully keep this one up and going.
I was just about to turn 18, dad says to me what car do you want. At the time I didn't care if it was a falcon or commodore. After looking at quite a few cars I found a car that was perfect, a 1995 Cardinal Red EF Fairmont 4.0 with 160,000kms on the clock, 16 inch ROH mags, EL Grille, 2.5inch exhaust, I got it home after a roadworthy and she looked a little dirty. But after a wash and a vacuum she looked a million bucks and she only owed me $2,500
After driving it around for a while I soon wanted to modify it, that's when I come across this site My first mod was altezza taillights, now love them or hate them they seemed to look good on the car and I was happy with them. Next was lowering, I lowered it on King Spring ultra lows with pedders lowered shocks. It looked good, but around about this time I had a small mishap on a gravel road in the Otway’s which ended up causing $900 damage to the front of the car, since that accident I have a new found respect for gravel. Next I got a custom instrument cluster off the net and installed that

Next came the stereo, I had a Kenwood HU, 12 inch sub, 6X9 speakers, and 6 inch speakers all amped. I also installed neon’s under the seats (yeah I know it’s gay but I was 18) Next was performance, I got my hands on a tickford head and rocker gear and installed it all along with a Wade 1636 cam, heavy duty valve springs, and AU 19pb injectors. Then came exhaust, I went with Pacemaker 4499’s, stainless high flow cat, and custom 2.5 inch catback. It sounded really good, especially high in the rev range. Next was the AU XR8 snorkel and K&N panel filter, which gave a little more throttle response. Finally was the electronic shift kit, all this made quite a potent six. And it was a hit amongst my friends and everyone used to love the way it used to sing high in the rev range.
I also added Fairlane turning lamps, Ghia leather steering wheel, Ghia chrome door handles, BA Fairlane bonnet badge and custom door trims. I also got custom plates TUFF4D and they went on the car too. I was very happy with the car and started to save some money to turbo it. However I caught the V8 bug and so I began looking for a 5 speed EL XR8. All Ford day come around and I cleaned it up and entered it with the ford mods group

Not too long after I was searching on car sales and come across a beauty. 1997 Sparkling Burgundy EL Fairmont 5.0 with 180,000kms on the clock, 17 inch wheels, catback exhaust, genie extractors, and best of all, a 5 speed manual conversion.

Me and dad drove up to Bendigo and bought it for 7k. First thing I did was put the turning lamps, leather steering wheel, chrome door handles, TUFF4D plates, and ultra lows with the shocks into my new car, and I put super lows into the EF. I sold the EF not long after my 19th birthday for $5,500. And I at the time I didn’t miss it one bit, I loved driving the V8 manual around, it sounded nice, had plenty of power, and best of all It was faster than my mates cars .
Just Like last time the mod bug hit. I had a AU XR8 snorkel, K&N panel filter, 10mm Top Gun Leads, Iridium Spark plugs, and 5X19 inch FG GT wheels wrapped in Nexen tyres


Around about this time I also got much of the paint touched up and a new BA Fairlane bonnet badge. Next things I did was replaced my old cats with high flow stainless ones, and I also had some custom springs to send her even lower and replaced the chrome trim with new stuff 

Not long after I acquired a full Ghia interior out of a wreck. So I got the carpeted kick panels, leather seats, leather handbrake, and the leather door trims, which I customised by removing the wood grain section and swapping with my old door trims, I also wired in the door lamps, and put a switch in for the turning lamps which also illuminated the fog light on my dash, I also got a new spoilerless boot


Next thing the diff s**t itself, so off it went to Geelong Diffs where it received 3.55 LSD which was a noticeable improvement over the old 3.23. Then I purchased a rear window Venetian off eBay for $80 and chucked that in. Next thing I decided to do was my brakes. I went with DBA Gold cross drilled and slotted, with bendex ultimate pads, and new Castrol brake fluid. I also changed the wheel bearings as I did the brakes. I also made a custom grille with black mesh and painted the centre bar black.

Then shortly after Christmas my clutch died, So in went a brand new Exceedy heavy duty button clutch and I also got the selectors in the gearbox replaced

The clutch was awesome, surprisingly light however it had little play in it, so driving in the wet was always a careful task. Next came a new twin 2.5 inch exhaust, it sounded awesome and I was beginning to be really happy with the car. It was a very punchy 5 litre. Was quicker than my mates XR8’s and SS’s with more mods but at the end of the day it was just a 5 litre, and I was thinking about getting more power out of it.
All Ford day 2009 was approaching and I wanted to do something wild and different. So I put Stewart Warner gauges in autometer chrome cups and mounted them to my bonnet and wired them up 2 days before all ford day and spent the next day getting it ready.


The all ford day was fun, and inspired me to stroke the Fairmont to a 347. However I seen a 1967 HR 186 Special for sale (I know it’s a Holden but have always loved the HR’s) I purchased that for 2k and decided to sell the Fairmont to fund the HR, and buy a motorbike. So I sold it on car sales for 9k and it left on the day of my 20th birthday. I was sad to see it go but also accomplished that I had a car I loved so much. Since I’ve sold it the person who bought it had wrecked nearly everything in the whole car including the new diff and clutch which is a shame.



I bought a Suzuki GSX which was originally red; however I sprayed it black and upgraded a few things to make it look better. Its good fun to ride and plenty fast enough for a 250, I’m currently saving now for a Suzuki GSXR 1000 and then after that Hopefully a Harley Davidson Soft ail Custom.

My next daily was a 1995 cardinal red NF Fairlane 5.0, with sunroof. I paid 3k for it and I didn’t do anything much to it except buy some LTD alloys and put them on 225 Sumitomos, rear window Venetian and lowered it. I did however change the speakers and take the pinstriped of it. It was also on gas and it was much slower than my old Fairmont 

I had the NF, the HR, and the GSX for 10 months, I’ve been collecting parts and erecting a shed for the HR so it hasn’t been touched much yet, motorbike remains the same, but I got sick of the NF, and I also needed a Ute so I sold the Fairlane for $2,900
So two months before my 21st birthday I began looking at cars, I test drove many XR8’s XR6T’s, and SS’s but I purchased a 2005 Black BAII XR8 Magnet Ute, It’s a 6 speed manual, and it came lowered on 18 inch FG XR (same as XR5 turbo wheels), hard lid, and all the magnet goodies.

First things I’ve done to it are removed the bonnet protector, installed an IPod aux cable, TUFF4D plates, Cadience mono block amp and Cadience 12 inch slimline sub, and 20 inch FPV Typhoon wheels (dark agents)



Since those photos were taken I’ve also got window tint which is two shades darker then legal, an FPV gear knob, and a BA Fairmont Ghia leather console lid. Future plans are for a full exhaust, Blue power CAI, Flash tune, possibly diff gears, underdrive pulleys, billet oil pump gears, and a towbar. I don’t want to spend massive dollars on it as the HR is my project car and I’m also saving for a house so half of those future plans probably won’t even get done but fingers crossed.
I’m sure I would of left lots of things out, especially with the 2nd Fairmont as I done so many little mods to it I can’t recall them all myself but some of my friends will probably mention them for me. I love the XR8 and I turned 21 last week so have money to go towards an exhaust. It feels much different to drive then the old 5.0 litre, it doesn’t seem to rev as quick but has much more grunt behind it. I’m looking forward to do doing some new mods to my ute and any recommendations would be awesome. Thank you all for stopping by my garage .

Last edited by Burns on Sat Aug 27, 2011 11:22 pm, edited 3 times in total.

Wow, just wow.

Have you still got the 5L manual ghia?

Love the dark argents on the XR8!

Hard work and focus.

Nah dont have the 5 lire fairmont, sold it. Really wish I kept it and followed through with my plans of a 347. Still probably be slow compared to todays 8's and turbos but atleast it would be unique.

Haha well I live at home so I only pay board, and a phone bill. No mortgages or water bills etc. Plus I have a well paying job luckily. I also do as much work myself, anf do things as cheap as possible without skimping on quality

Did you ever have the diff hitting the floor in the EL being that low?

GSX250F Across...awesome fun bike with compartments . Mine's silver though

Looks like you have one hell of a collection ...I've seen your car somewhere before...can't remember where though.

That's not a bad collection there at all dude!

What's the plan with the HR? Stock cruiser? Grampa spec sleeper?

Cheers

ToranaGuy

I used to get the tailshaft slapping the floor on gear changes, and that only got worse once the button clutch went in. I could of chose to put some rubber bump stops in but I never did, best way to fix it is raise the damn thing so I raised it and ended up selling it anyway

Heres some of the damage it caused



raised ride height




yeah its a great bike, best part is the boot I can fit plenty of beer in there. I've got a full licence now so im after something bigger. Yeah i met you at the bendigo cruise in 2008.

looks wise it will be stock apart from being lowered on airbags. Mechanically It will have a hot 186 turbo. Just on low boost, its more of a cruiser then anything plus its a 3 speed on the tree so it's probably not going anywhere in a hurry with me behind the wheel hahaha

Cool dude, Sounds a little like my torry in regards to engine & gearbox... My Lh is a front bench seat model, running a 3 on the tree manual, still the 173ci with a T04B turbo, big waste gate set for 9psi & gas research to provide the fuel. With 3.36 diff gears it went pretty well upto about 140, then it ran outta puff. The crappy stock cylinder head let it down. The LH is in about 1 million pieces atm.

Cheers

ToranaGuy

Man I love toranas, one of my dream cars is an LX Hatch with 4 on the floor. Holden red 6 is a good little motor, very easy to work on, I've got a yella terra head for it but concentrating on fixing the body up before I get too carried away with the motor. It's good too know someone whos turbod the holden six, you'll be a very valuable resource What plans do you have for the torry?

I saw the second picture and i was like WTF, then i lol'd. Love the collection, especially the Sparkling Burgandy Fairmont (i suppose i'm a bit biassed) and the fact it's a manual V8 *drool*.

Yeah sparkling burgandy is the best colour for e series monts . Yeah it was awesome, shoulda kept it and stroked it to 347, oh well. I'm a fan of yours too, been following the build thread closely

I done it, I now have a full di filippo system, Headers, cats, and twin 3 inch big boy system. No better sound in the world Pics and video clips coming soon

Wow its been so long since my last update so I think now is the time. As far as the ute goes after the Di Filippos I tinted the windows to two shades darker then legal which with the Dark agents gives it a tough blacked out look. After that it went up to Bluepower for the day in which chris added a CAI and flash tuned it to 232rwkw which was an big improvement but he said if you give the manifold a good clean you should get more out of it, few months later I added herrod oil catch cans to prevent the inlet manifold getting yucky again and also gave it a good clean, I also added a Herrod TB spacer while I was at it. After all that it run a 240 rwkw which I was happy with and bar smashing two 20's on potholes and replacing them I never really done much else to her, just enjoyed her new power good looks.







Then I sold my little 250 and upgraded to a 1988 Kawasaki GPZ 900R Ninja, I was actually looking for an 01 GSXR 1000 but this ninja popped up at a price I couldn’t refuse and I always love these bikes due to the movie Top Gun When the bike came out it was the fastest bike in the world but compared to modern machinery its quite tame but after hopping off my 250cc all i can say is f**k hell. The thing is a weapon and my interest in fast car suddenly plummeted.

One good example was this guy was in an FG F6 with a bluepower sticker on the back and he tried dragging me, I was so far ahead of him it was hard to comprehend and I really wasn't going that hard so I thought to myself why did I bother with the flashtune etc. So I stopped modding the XR8 and started looking for a new cruiser, something that demanded respect, sounded good, didn't need to be a powerhouse but had the grunt to surprise a few commodore drivers as well. I have always wanted an ED XR8 Sprint and have been looking ever since I fell in love with Jareds at the Ballarat Fordmods cruise way back in 2007. Finally one came up. It was immaculate with low kms, factory 5 speed, cobalt blue, and all original, I decided if I don’t buy it then one like this will probably never come up again so I bought it, for those that know him Dan (nothing suss) happened to be at the right place at the right time and picked one up cheaply. I bought it off him 4 months later paying good money for it however I believe its a good car and these things are really starting to become sought after. My plans with this car are to just keep it as stock as I can, so far all I have done is changed the exhaust, fitted new plugs, and 9mm ICE leads and gave it a good clean (not that it needed it) I’ve done about 300kms and would like to keep the kms down so as to not affect its value too much. The sprint is such a lovely car to drive, I have never owned a car that feels so smooth and tight, not too mention I never realise how much better the Sprint motors were compared to the asthmatic 165kw wheezer five litres I have had in the past. Here are a few pictures with my mates VN SS, hopefully I can get some better pictures soon, enjoy

Love the sprint! It's hard to go past them for a cool early E series. I'll be happy enough to settle for my EB xr8 5speed, as I couldn't afford a sprint with paying my mortgage & all my other toys lol.

Going to keep the sprint close to stock or give it a few mods?

Cheers

ToranaGuy