Wow yeah the contrast of the red on the white is great!!! I'll try sanding them back to get them to red when we are about to cut and polish the car, as it desperately needs that!

The red on black doesnt do it for me either, I have just finished getting them sprayed body colour for my EL XR6. You cant tell its an XR6 from the stripes and I didnt like that. At least with body colour you know its not a Gli haha

The rear springs are indeed five leaf, and they have round eyelets as far as I can tell in these photos. Might have to look into replacing the bushes, dont think they would be in ideal condition with 300k on the clock.



Also grabbed a picture of it with the FTR's on it, I think it really sets it off. They are my favourite stock rim I think. Also messed around a chopped up a pick with the 19s on it, and a bit lower again

That's what I pretty much expected you to find.
The leafs are XG ute springs - they run a 51mm ID eyelet (XH's are 54mm ID), so good info to commit to memory in case you buy Superpro or Nolathane bushes.
Ford lists them along with std wagon springs, which are vastly different, e.g. oval front eyes.
The primary leaf is flatter in camber compared to a std wagon primary leaf by around 60mm, so they are lowered and reset springs. So I'm guessing ride height to be around 2" lower.
I'm guessing with the ED XR6 wagon, ford used XG springs (the prevailing commercial vehicle at the time)lowered and reset, and carried this on with the EF XR6 wagon.
If you're carrying loads regularly, I'd guess this setup already to be the best you'll get - read BenJ's build thread on the rear leaf saga. Any lower and I think you'll be bottoming out, etc. And don't cut down bump stops - bad idea.
The front's I've found are std XR springs - around 2" less free length than std, with the end coils compressed slightly, you'll probably find the part no tag 94DT-xxx wrapped around one of the coils.

The 15's you had are std fit to them (as I have) - FTR's are optional.
Wouldn't mind finding another 15" alloy to match the others - my spare's a steel rim.

Thanks for all that information, that is going come in handy for sure!!! 2 inches is a fair amount, it almost sits as low as my EL XR, and that is actually lowered further than tickford spec. Very glad to hear they will be up to towing though, as that is primarily what it is going to be used for! I did a bit of research with Lovells, they make a heavy duty spring for the rear, but they are $600 a pair, and going by your description, would raise the rear by almost 3 inches.

The FTR's were fitted as part of the HD suspesion pack aswell I think, or optional on their own. I should have said they are my favourite OEM rim, as opposed to stock haha. My spare is also steel. I will probably eventually get rid of those 15's if you are interested in them

Finally finished with my other project car so the wagon is getting a bit of attention again now. It failed its RWC on front and rear radius rod bushes, steering rack ends, undersize rotors and pads. Most of them were only on one side or the other, but I figure if I'm keeping the car theres not much point doing only one side. Got stuck into it on Sunday, finished up one side, hopefully get the other side done next week.

After what people were saying about making sure of the braking for towing, I ended up getting the QFM A1RM pads, just to make sure I dont get any fade. Should get its first test in the next month, after rego, picking up an R31 and taking it 100km, hopefully it performs well



Wagon, looking a bit neglected, spider webs just werent cutting it anymore in the braking department


The care package

Yeah, I did similar a few months ago, except went Superpro bushes all through front and rear. Did the ball joints, fitted DBA slotted and drilled rotors with QFM pads front and rear (stops well ), wheel bearings, shocks, etc. Fitted the SSPS steering rack. Just need to fit the whiteline front and rear bars to finish.
Wouldn't have thought the steering rack inner tie rods would've been shot ?? Usually the outers are.

Wow you definately went to down on yours!! How did it handle after all the TLC, would have almost felt like a new car suspension wise? Yeah QFM are definately the go, I was running Bendix Ultimates with DBA slotted on my EL XR, still managed to get fade a couple of times, spent half my life cleaning the rims, and absolutely destroyed the rotors.

The inners werent, but on the RWC list it had "Steering Rod Ends" and when I got to pedders they asked, is it the tie rod ends or the rack ends, I had no idea and the RWC bloke was closed. Turned out for the best though, couldnt get the tie rod end off anyway, so replaced the whole lot as a unit,

I was scoping that rear sway bar for a wagon in the for sale section for a while, sould really finish of an XR wagon, pretty pricey though

I go tlucky when we bought our EF wagon dunger.
Was under it the other day and found it has been fitted with an aftermarket rear sway bar already.
Nic elooking wags but mate. Wish ours was that good.

It's pretty good at the moment, won't be at full performance til the whiteline bars are fitted, and I can enable SSPS - the EL wagon is running SSPS, but the suspension is reverted to std, so the steering is 'too' good for it, you do really need a performance suspension.

It's usually the outers that wear badly. Just make sure the ball joint is nipped up tight, and the locktab bent - I did enlarge an old open end spanner for this. Check the dust cover bellows for rips.

I ended up buying my whitelines through Autobarn when they had a 20% off day - about the only time I've ever bought through them. The 30mm front/20mm rear is a good combo.

Just realised I havent updated my build thread in quite a while so i though I should get around to it. Wagon is all registered, RWC and operational now. Handled quite wierd for a while, but finally got around to getting some Kumho KU21 tyres for it, and a wheel alignment.

Turns out the front was running 5mm toe OUT each side, probably from me messing about with tie rods. Sorted the handling out big time though, I think it would give the EL a run for its money now, having driven them back to back. The real reason it handles though is that it needs camber kits and is running 2deg of camber each side. I am keeping an eye on tyre wear, but the handling seems worth it so far!!


The camber in the rear is really helping, looks to be almost 10deg which is great!! Feel like I am driving a VT haha. Needs more offset though

Since then its just been a daily, with the odd towing duty, which is pretty much the reason I got it. First thing it towed was the R31 drift pig a mate and I are setting up, and it did it with no problems at all. Much MUCH more stable than the coil sprung ED I previously used, plus it has just enough go to make it a bit easier. The only issue I have been running into is ground clearance with the towbar, I have been scoping out a polyair bag kit if I do much more towing to help out with that. The towbar itself hangs VERY low under the car, not really sure what to do about it though. It hits standard sized speed humps and scrapes on most driveways


Doing what it was made to!

The other issue is with the gas tank, maybe some of the gas guys can help me out a bit here. It has a Manchester scuba tank in it and it sits up too high in the passenger side due to the cover. Just curious if the APA tank does that same, as I might have to track one down and swap it over, as its really getting to me. Wanted to be able to sleep in the back haha

Yeah, that tank is sitting too high on the passenger side - the tank should be resting on the petrol tank. And of course the spare wheel mount is removed to do that.
With the stock cover, you should find it to not fit at the rear by about 15-25mm height.

That's what I found when I mounted the APA scuba tank setup.
You'll need a specially made cover, as proper tank fitment will still see the rear not clear as mentioned above. The one that was ordered in for me for the XR wagon was a manchester, it is fibreglass but does flex a fair bit when you lie on it, so does need some extra glass ribs to make it stronger.
My EL wagon got an APA lid, which is made better and is stronger - so it found it's way into the XR.

I had a bit of an investigation, the fuel tank is sitting down on the fuel tank, so I am guessing that means its down as far as it can go? I may have to change tank brands as its really not working for me having it sitting like that. What brand is the tank in yours snap? Im spewing I turned down an APA tank for my Manchester one now

In other news, managed to score a full genuine EL XR bodykit the other day.



The rear bar is a bit damaged, and wouldnt fit up to the wagon anyway, so hoping to sell that to fund getting a glass one to fit up. Then steal the glass sideskirts off my sedan and put the plastic ones on, then extend them to fit the wagon. I am a little unsure of exactly what to do with the kit though. I have seen two different styles. One is to fit the door pod to the door exactly how it does on the sedan. then fill in the C-pillar behind with a bigger piece. Or I am thinking of extending the skirts in the middle and ending up with a smaller door pod because most of it is on the C-pillar. Still undecided, but leaning towards second choice mainly because it is a little more subtle.

Got a few more plans for the wagon over the summer months now that Uni is finished for the year
-Fit the EL XR kit
-EL XR Front
-Extractors and exhaust (exhaust is FUBAR from scraping over rocks)

Yep, seems APA stuff is made better - the manchester lid does seem to have a higher 'bubble' to clear the tank, but geez does it flex . . . . .
Mines an APA tank - you'd think they'd be same spec.

Finally managed to do a couple of mods on the wagon. The tailpipe ended up falling out of the rear muffler and it was so rusted we couldnt weld it back in. The rest of the exhaust was looking a bit sad and dented to I went out and got the Redback 2.5" exhaust for it. Unfortnately the only one they had in stock has no tailpipe muffler. It was okay at first but is getting pretty droney now, and I have never been a fan of loud exhausts on auto's. So sooner or later I am going to get a hotdog put in the tailpipe to quieten it down a bit more. But it seems to have made a fair difference to the power, more than I was expecting.

The other mod I have finally gotten around to doing is putting in EL taillights, I think they really go with the white wagons a lot better.





I think I defnately need to track down an APA tank to sort out the rear sleeping quarters very soon though!

Yeah, a two muffler system is pretty much the best compromise.
Other thing is the wagon exhaust system is about $50-$60 more than the sedan system - bit raw me thinks.

A friend of mine got a twin muffler redback system, and it sounded too quiet to me. I am hoping that a hotdog is a good compromise between the two, I have heard a few sedans with exhausts like that, they sound stock at idle, but at high revs have a bit of a note. It is a bit raw that an extra few inches on the exhaust adds so much price. I got mine for $290 fitted, it was $250 just for the exhaust, but I've changed enought of them to know I'm not doing it for the sake of $40