Hey all!
My name is Tim and I am from northern Victoria.
I’ve been a member on here for about two years now and have read a lot of stuff and learnt heaps. I thought it was time for me to add a build thread. I have read a lot of other peoples builds and they make for a great read and give lots of inspiration. I am hoping to have even half as good a car as some of the ones on here.

I bought my car in March 2006 a few months before I turned 18 and got my license.
It was a stock standard 1998 EL Falcon GLi Sapphire with the exception of the 15” XR rims.

Since then I have done many a modification, starting small while at uni and moving onto some more major ones as I saved up the money. Now that I have finished uni and have a job I can do some of the better ones.

I haven’t got any gallery images yet but will get some up soon. I am going to the All Ford Day in Geelong on the 20th Feb which has motivated me to do a few things to get it looking a bit better if I have the time.

Since I bought it I have done the simple things like:
-Trip computer
-Mid series cluster
-Custom dial faces
-Blue LED dash lights
-Fairmont door trims (front only till I get rear electric windows put in)
-Pioneer headunit (birthday present)
-and other Fairmont interior bits and pieces

When I had started to save up a bit of money I got a few more expensive goodies:
-Gas conversion (Sprint-gas, cheap after rebate)
-Wildcat extractors with Hi-flow cat
-2.5” Redback Exhaust with single muffler
-Started sound system with a cheap Audioline slimline sub and Cadence amp

Then one fateful day on Murray Rd in Coburg, Melbourne I ended up last in a three car collision. What a s**t situation that was haha. No-one was hurt which was the main thing but I only had third-party insurance and was left with a car with a smashed in front end.

So home it came and to work I went, pulling it all apart. It needed the usual bonnet, lights, bumper, radiator, a/c, thermos, support panels, grill etc. Most of this came from eBay. Mum and Dad being so generous and my 21st coming up helped me out money wise. I decided it would be a good opportunity to start a body kit on it.

I ended up getting:
-Typhoon style front bumper with foglights (from Newgel)
-EL XR bonnet with Boss bulge (from Kurnell Kustoms)
-EF Headlights and
-EF style grill from SSV

I loved how it was turning out but couldn’t afford to get it painted yet so I had a black bonnet and grey bumper for a few months. Ended up going to the Gold Coast the day after Boxing Day having just finished fixing it Christmas Eve. Got pulled over a few times. Guess it stood out a bit haha.

Anyways, since working and to date I have:
-Had it painted up
-Lowered on Superlow King Springs with Monroe GT Sport shortened shocks
-Typhoon/EL side skirts
-Kenwood DDX8036BT DVD 7” touchscreen
-Pioneer TS-D1720C splits in front
-Pioneer TS-D1602R speakers in rear
-Pioneer GM-6400F 4-channel amp powering them

I love working on it and my plans for the future is to turbo it and manualise it and have some fun with boosting and putting it all together. I’m going to get a Snort Stage 3 Turbo kit and all the other goodies to go along with doing it properly. I want to have it dual-fuel using a GRA S400 kit which I already have ready to go and want to tune it with a J3 chip which I also already have with separate tunes for both fuels.
I am doing a lot of reading trying to learn how to tune it with Tuner Pro and am going to make sure I do it properly so I don’t blow s**t up.

There’s a few things I want to do before the AFD.
I have a set of lowered rear springs with which I am going to replace the superlows to even up how the car sits. Since my front is lighter due to the fibreglass bonnet and the rear is heavier due to the gas tank it sits down more at the back and I wouldn’t mind the extra suspension travel. It’s a pain in the a** when I have any sort of weight in the back. The roads here in Kerang area aren’t always the best and I live down a gravel road (still covered in water due to floods ).

I just received my Whiteline heavy duty swaybars. Should make it sit even flatter round the corners. I am putting them in tomorrow. Got 24mm rear and 30mm front.
And the other thing I want to do before the 20th is paint my exterior plastics around the doors especially because as with everyone else’s they pretty crappy when they this old. Should make it look heaps better.

Anyway so that’s my story so far but I’ll take heaps of photos whenever I do something new and keep it updated.

Cheers everyone!

Robdog

Some photos...






Boring old engine bay. Paint some stuff in it one day





Kenwood DDX8036BT 7" DVD touchscreen


Hope you like!

Last edited by RobDog on Tue May 03, 2016 4:24 pm, edited 5 times in total.

mate the front of that car looks tuff as man.how much did the bonnet and front bumper cost ya all up?

Nice looking car.... just needs tickford badges

Yeah I do need some new badges.

It ended up costing a few $$. Bonnet was about 900 and front about 700.
Couldn't find them any cheaper elsewhere. And then I had to get it fitted and painted which was another grand or so. So in the end it was an expensive exercise but worth it

So I installed the Whiteline swaybars on the weekend and wow! what a difference!

After lowering and installing new shocks a while ago i thought it was fantastic how it handled over stock but eventually i got used to it and noticed how there was still a little bit of body roll.

I installed the rear low king springs and both front and rear swaybars and rebushed the swaybar links with nolathane bushes. I suppose it will take a bit to really settle in but there is next to no body roll anymore which is awesome!
The ride is a bit firmer and feel a few more bumps and yet to give it a good run round some corners but i can tell its gonna be pretty fun

that sounds good..i reckon you just need a nice set of rims:)

Looks tops dude
I like the body work to it, some bigger rims will really make it pop ! Look forward to more updates !

The rims are definately the next thing on the agenda. Got to find a nice set that i like!

typhoon twists would look good in 19inch..i think so any way but its all what you like:)

They are actually the ones I was considering

They are actually the ones I was considering

yeah they look tough i might get them for mine.i was thinking darkagents but very tom, d**k and harry has them these days.also the ba gt-p's look nice aswell.

Yeah the dark agents are pretty nice too.
Im unsure about the 19's tho coz I live in the country down a gravel road and a bit more tyre might be a good idea. Don't want to go cracking the rims
I remember seeing 18's somewhere once..

i dont no i no the 19's would obviously look better but i no there not good for towing and if u hit a pot hole ur better of just throwing em in the bin.18's would probably be the way to go.if u want to go brand new and you live around the northen suburbs of melbourne fawkner wheels and tyres have really good prices on wheels and tyres.depending on if you can find cheaper but i went in there for a quote for 19inch twists and they wanted $1200 and 18 inch dark agents for $1300 all come fitted with brand new mag nuts brand new tyres wheel alighment and wheel balance. so its not bad.and trading in my wheels which are the el xr6 mags he wants to give me $350 for mine..

Thats a good price on the twists , I payed 2k for My twists .
Also mate how did u get the oil pressure and volt needles to illuminate so bright, I've tried a few different blue LEDs and the volt and oil needle don't illuminate to well all the others are good, I'm beginning to think the tickford dash facias don't like blue very much as they make the light duller , ive had the standard el dash facia and the light up good, I've tried 2 different LEDs , I think I'll swap my facias and see how I go