Just thought I'd pop up a thread about the newest addition to the ford family

I have been looking on and off for about a year now second car apart from the EL XR6, to be able to take away on weekends or camping trips etc.

I was looking at EL fairmonts and similar, something with a bit of luxury in it. Then I thought about getting a wagon. I have an old R31 that a mate and I are setting up for a bit of trackwork, so I needed something that could tow a car trailer easily. This pretty much meant it had to be auto. The combination of LWB, leaf springs and a live axle pretty much made an E-series wagon the way to go.

My plan was to mock it up as an XR6 using the spare parts I have leftover from my EL. So I started looking for a white or gunmetal grey futura or fairmont wagon. There is an amazing amount of Gli wagons out there, but finding a good higher series wagon at a reasonable price is quite difficult. Some people want 5K plus just for a Gli!!!

Then a couple of weeks ago, I finished uni and stared looking in earnest. Two white wagons came up within a couple of days that looked interesting. One was a white V8 in NSW, and the other was a white EF XR6 wagon in Melbourne. I went and had a look at it, it was pretty clean, the numbers said it was genuine, strait bodywork, reco bottom end. I thought I had no hope, but put a max bid of $3100 on it. The next day I got home, and found out I had won it, for the princely sum of $1800!! For a genuine XR Wagon!! I couldnt beleive my luck, it was like it was waiting for me.

I got it home on a permit the took it in for a RWC. It failed on few things, but should be able to get it all fixed up for around the $5-600 mark, then it should be ready to go

The only thing is, now I'm not sure what to do with it. My iniitial outline for getting a wagon was to lift it up a bit abd put some bigger tyres on it for a bit of offroad action when going away and for towing heavy loads. It feels like a sacrielage to do it to this car though. What I really want to do it lower the hell out of it and put my 19's on it, but that totally defeats the point of buying it So I still have some decisions to make!!!

Last edited by rainoffire on Tue Feb 07, 2017 12:50 pm, edited 3 times in total.

Very nice looking ef xr!
An absolute bargain for $1800!!!
In regards to what you should do with it... MOD IT AND BUY ANOTHER CHEAP WAGON WITH THE MONEY YOU SAVED i say... Nothing nicer than an xr wagon... mmmmm

Cheers

Sam

I say keep it simple and enjoy it. nothing beats an xr wagon

Leave the 19s for another car and leave it as stock as possible. Don't lower it, will be a pain in the a*** with a full load in the back and towing a track car with it.

Not sure if you can get stiffer springs, but don't think you really need it. Maybe stiffer shocks.

If it's just a run around car, the more stock it is, the better, because when it breaks down, you won't feel so bad.

You could do a bit of modification to it to help it tow better. I mean full exhaust and a mild cam with an aftermarket transmission cooler will help you tow it with much more ease.

Either way, it is a really good looking XR wagon for a cheap price ...great grab.

Thanks guys, plenty of ideas floating around!! I just got a 2300kg towpack of ebay for it, so thats a good start, and its now sitting on 16" FTR's which really set it off, il try and get a photo up soon!

Thats what I was thinking, just do tow friendly mods on it, I was going to try and pick up a cheap set of second-hand 4499's, then get an new exhaust for it, full system with a rear resonator. The top end needs a reco, and I have a CMS 2A cam here, which I think will suit towing perfectly. So when I get the head done will probably just get new valve springs, valves and seats cut and slot in the 2A, should be fine for towing then!!

I did read that the XR wagons had lower and stiffer leafs in the back, which should help a bit too. It is fitted with the factory trans cooler, but maybe something a bit more serious would be in order.

I knew heaps of people would say keep it stock, but it defeats the point of buying it. I do want to be able to return it to original though, so I will be holding onto all the parts as I go, just incase I ever want to sell it on or take it back to original. I am also pretty keen on mocking it up as an EL XR6 wagon, as I pretty much have everything here to do it, would make people do a bit more of a double take when they saw it, if they knew their Fords!

When you get a chance if you could, let me know what the rear leaf front eyelets look like, either oval, or I'm tipping round.

That's a good buy for the money. Since there was only 476 of them made - as opposed to 5403 EF XR6 sedans, there's not too many of them around.

In usual XR style, the red strips are now pink - you can restore them without painting.

what can I say but
Bargain,
looks like a good rig, exactly don't f**k with it to much, all you need for the el conversion is the bar, although reo???

as you said bit of an exhuast, maybe K&N and if you desire your topend and cam.
how bigs the factory cooler as the nc one I put in my triton was pretty decent size.

I guess make sure your cooling systems up to scratch, and brakes. remember your pulling up over double what it's intended to pull up.

maybe a stereo being you'll probably do a few k's in it by the sound of it.

looks very very well taken care of, seats wheel and even driver floor insert mat thingamob looks in good nic.

What a bargain! I say maybe do a few engine mods like everyone has suggested, but leave the body overall stock as it looks just fine how it is...
Oh and also as OZBMX said make sure your brakes are up to scratch, we've had to upgrade our Disovery's braking system to tow our race car, so I assume you'd have to as well.
Good luck with it mate
Thanks

Still don't know what to do with it, might just start driving it and see where I want to go with it as I get used to it and where is lacks a bit. I got a set of gas tanks for it last week, spoke to rapidflow today and if i supply the tanks they want $2500, so $1000 out of pocket, which seems pretty reasonable. Thats for a GRA system with a S400 or S440 throttlebody.

I can defiantely agree braking is something I wasnt up to scratch for towing another car!!

One of the things it failed RWC on was worn out brake pads and rotors, so I have already got a set of DBA rotors, and new brake fluid. When I got my EL front calipers rebuilt, they came back with Bizztec Maxi Stop pads in them. I already had QFM A1RM pads for the EL, so I was going to put the Bizztecs in the wagon, maybe I should hold out and get some more A1RM's for the wagon though? That should be sufficient braking I would hope.

@snap0964 I will take a look at the eyelets on the weekend for you and let you know what I find, maybe even snap a couple of photos. It seemed to good to be true when I got it, but it seems in good nick and handles great for a wagon!! My usual take on wagons is they dont handle very impressively. I did notice it has pedders shocks throughout though, which would be helping.

Whats the trick to getting the red strips back to red, I was hoping they would come back when I cut and polish the car? You cant win with EF/EL XR Red. I have a red car, faded to pink. So the next one I get in white... and get pink pinstripes!!

@OZBMX
My main idea was to slowly retire the parts off my EL onto the EF as I replace them, to make it actually look like an EL. Theres heaps of subtle differences apart from the headlights between them. Over time my thoughts were to transfer. The EL dash is different, I have a spare one with within 1000km of being correct. The interior is different, you cant see in the photo, but I'm suprised the drivers seat passed RWC as it has a tear in it. Wouldnt mind the momo steering wheel either. Buttons are all grey on EL, but not fussed about that

I spoke to the bloke I bought it off for about an hour before I bidded, it seems like it was pretty much looked after its whole life. Just owned by people who didnt know a lot about cars, so they just paid to have stuff fixed when it went wrong. Thats the best sort of 2nd hand car to buy in my limited experience.

What you posted up sounds like a pretty good outline for what my general idea was, not sure how the cooling system is thought, may need some attention. The factory cooler I will grab a photo of on the weekend too, its not massive, should do the job though. Although maybe not as the auto is in trouble on it! Stereo would definately be a goer!

and i'm still to run into you in town.

looks like a good pick up

Just put some FTR rims so u can get a nice wide tyre and if ur going to keep it for at least 4 yrs dont be shy spending money on it..................

Im interested how u o with the GRA lpg setup as there good but hard to tune but ur in good hands with rapid as they know there stuff.

Well it will have XR lowered suspension. Back springs should have round eyelets and be 5 leaf.
IMO painting just doesn't look right. Fronts and rears will come off - sides, mask off and wet sand with about 600/800 grade til you start seeing red, touch up with 2000 grade. Go over them with cut and polish, and finish up with Meguire's Plastx. Maintain with Plastx when you wash the car, as rain, etc will cause the red to lose it's brilliance. Bringing them up is the labour intensive part, maintaining them isn't too hard.

WILDEB, I still haven't seen you around town either, I keep my eyes open whenever I am up there though. You would probably have a hard time picking me out though, just driving a stock maroon ED currently, nothing special at all. Probably see you at the next cruise though, trying to get my EL done for AFD in Geelong.

I have only heard good things about Rapidflow, and I know a guy that works there so I have seen a couple of setups on E series. The problem is a have heard that they tend to run rich so negate part of the advantage of gas, getting a mate with a setup on an ED to do a fuel economy test this weekend, just to give me an idea of how they run. I post back when I get the gas done, probably be end of February though. FTR's are definately the go, first thing I did when I got it home

snap0964 Thanks heaps for that, that definately how I will go about it, I love the contrast of the red so I want it nice and bright. I know it has the XR suspension, I was very suprised at the improvement over standard EF wagon suspension. It handles better than my ED sedan, which has EL XR6 suspension in it. Very impressive. I will grab the photos of the suspension for you tomorrow when I move it

There's a white one local to me - looks after it, and the red on white looks really good. I do like the metallics as well - mine's Polynesian Green.
Red and black strips don't do much for me ford-parts-for-sale-f17/fs-1995-ef-xr6-wagon-5-speed-manual-t99704.html .
Yeah, SuperPro bushes and whiteline swaybars transformed my EL wagon - now to transfer all of that over to the XR.
I wouldn't bother with pics - just if you could confirm my info, and I'll let you know what I've found with the rear springs.

with the red strips i used Autoglym Bumper Care. big mistake. when i come time to get my spray painter to paint them it reacted and went all blotchy. he had to have the car for a few days so he could sand and prep etc. all he did was sand them back and re-clear them with a monza red tint in it. come up a treat

this pic taken before the resprayed wheels and quadlight front


and like everything on the car. now even the red strips have a shine to them