I agree with you regarding trims - If I do the dash, I'll have to do the trims. I would be keen on running electric windows as well. Wouldn't use XF motors though, I would use a retro kit - I can't think of the name right now, but I saw it at Summernats 2 years ago. Was $200 and fits into any regular wiper setup. Works a treat... I think the company was "blue...." something?

Whats your thoughts on the plastic cover on the doors, the one on the inner side of electric mirrors? Can you just cut the EL/NL one to size without making it look puss?

I read through barnarcus's thread. I'm not sure what you mean with the handbrake. Are you saying the short throw of the EL one will not be enought to pull the existing setup tight (enough to stop car rolling?) I'm not keen at all on changing the rear discs over...

Can I not join the small tail that hangs off the EL handbrake to where the stock XH one connects? I really need to test fit to see I suppose... Hard to imagine while I'm behind this computer.





The covers I have now are way too tall. You can get aftermarket ones to fit, as long as they are 'stock' height. I will be running a phenolic spacer as well anyway. I don't mind too much about using the stock overs. I really love the way the VHT wrinkle paint comes out!!

Yes, the KB lines up no problem. I just had a flick through your thread. An awesome setup you have on the way!! I'd love a dart 363 one day!! When you order the KB kit (if you do), make sure you order the 94/95 mustang kit. The 87-93 kit has a longer snout which wont work with our 5.0l.

You need to get a braket made to support the snout. Jeff (XH5LWPN) is helping me with mine, and he had a bracket from top of power steering support to the snout (I think you can use the old holes from the coil holder).

Saying all that, I recently saw a new release blower coming out - must be the one you are talking about in your thread? 1.9 or 2.3L kit. You can run an intercooler which is the biggest thing!! A bit pricey, but I reckon it would be worth it on a setup like yours!!

I'll be running a snow stage II water/meth injection kit to try keep the KB cool. Will run 2 x nozzles in the back of flowzilla pipe, just before the rotors. Its main purpose is to keep everything cool, and not run more timing - mainly to keep it safe incase the pump fails

Dunno, never done it - pepeguts thread covers it ??
Correct - Mark made a lever out of the existing one - pics are there.
Need the modded lever.

I just looked over the threads again.

Yeah the handbrake should be pretty easy to sort out. Cheers

That XF ute came up a real treat!! Looks factory!! Can't believe those door trims. I'm pretty much sold on the idea, and lucky I have some EF trims I can also practice with before fitting some NL ones. I notice he used the XF style plastics to cover the inner side of mirror...too easy.

I wonder if he took your advice and used the heat gun to mould those few bits? He never mentioned it in the end...

Yeah, have to do mine - have all the bits and measured the respective primary cable travels. EF/EL handbrake will fit alongside the EB/ED/XH console.

Yeah, hot air gun worked well when I converted a non PAB dash to a PAB one.

Hi mate, just read your story so far and was blown away. I better start living!!!, look forward to the next chapters. Best of luck, Ray.

Snap - thanks mate

Razza - Cheers!!

Ok, so took my time today removing everything else from the engine bay. Firstly I removed the guards.









I ended up finding this little culprit stuck somewhere… would you belive this is the nut from inside the air box housing (MAF screws into it). I forgot to mention before cos I lost this – but it had fallen outta the air box, and made its way into my plenum!! Could have been a disaster!! When I pulled the cobra manifold off 2 weeks ago it sounded like a paint can, so I shook it around and this fell out… VERY LUCKY!!




Anyway, today my mind was ticking over trying to plan how far I was going to take this stage/ if it was worth my while hiding wiring etc. I spent a while trying to figure out where the best route was to run driver side loom. I have never hidden wiring before, so this is new to me… I wasn’t too keen on making any new holes. Ended up asking a mate’s advice, and he mentioned the hole that the fender indicator wiring comes out of…. Looks good to me (just need to open it up a bit)




Couldn’t get these off for the life of me, so cut em. Will have to change em to something else anyway, as I think this setup fouls on the KB




Ganna hide this contraption in the passenger side guard.





Cut this rusted POS out to make way for the big intake piping






Pull out the remaining air con stuff, and was left looking like this







Even though some of this will be cut out for the intake, thought I’d try take care of the rust that was forming under the battery tray….seems to be a common thing



Wire brush on the drill…



Found a very small surface spot here too. Better do this as well….



First used rust converter, then wait 30mins. Clean and Paint with some killrust enamel I had laying around (Blue – I had to use this a lot on my XF!! )



I wasn’t keen on this stuff that joins the seams along the firewall. Well, its everywhere in the engine bay. It looked really bad on the firewall though (big chunky, saggy sections). So took to it with a wire brush. Painted with some primer for now so it doesn’t rust. I’m assuming it’s similar to body filler? Hope it’s not too structural, as I don‘t see how it could be….





Don’t know if I’ve got the motivation to do that for the rest of the engine bay – it was only supposed to be a ‘quick paint job’. I suppose this is how it begins!!

I didn’t have time to start today, but I need to remove the dash, wiring and heater box. Will remove the brake boost (which is stuffed anyway), then it should be sweet to ride on a tow truck down to panel beaters…

I would really like to have the dash out before this weekend, but I have a lot on this week so we’ll see how we go…

Can run the vaccy reservoir line through there too - if you intend putting in the EF/EF dash.

Nice work. I think that stuff you removed from the seams is what is known as seam sealer, designed to keep crap & moisture out of the seems?

Cheers

ToranaGuy

Snap, noted mate cheers. At this point I'm waiting until engine is running before the dash conversion. For the simple fact I can't afford to throw another spanner in the works with so much happening at once.

Once the car is running, I'll do the conversion...

Toranaguy, no problem. Cheers for the info!

In other news, I got this from Summitracing in the mail today!

Still waiting on another box load (had to split the order to avoid tax)

No probs Dude.
You should be able to remove it entirely - that's the BBM manifold switching solenoid isn't it ??? - I forgot this car started life as an XR6.

Yeah I was trying to work out if I could completely remove it...

I got the green (heater control) and black (vacuum) coming thru firwall still. Surely I can just put the black one back on the manifold and the green one back on the heater tap....

then cut that whole unit away...

Yeah, have to check the vacuum line chart in the Gregory's.

Update time… A semi productive day today…

Got the rest of my Summit gear in the mail a few days ago




First thing to come out was the dash







Climate control removal….Anyone got any tips for replacing the old sealer padding stuff?







Brake booster out. Got the new one there to replace it, as its stuffed…





Removal of underlay, pedal box, steering wheel etc







The plan is to hide this:



Ok, so I’m now thinking I’m ganna have to get rid of some holes…




This is testing out where I plan to run the bonnet release cable. Seems it will fit no problem, and wont be able to see it!!



After seeing it all bare, I got some motivation to scope out how hard it would be to convert the handbrake to an EL one… I ended up just doing it. Means I could get the ugly handbrake hole welded up on the firewall as well. Not no mention I’m still keen on putting the NL dash in once the car is running….not game enough to attempt a full rewire with so much happening atm

Pics:










As you can see, I made a hole in the floor for the cable. The handbrake itself bolted straight down, but there was no hole for the cable (not that I could see). I decided to make it face forward, with intention of setting up a little pulley system.

The stock handbrake had a fair throw on it to lock the brakes, where as the EL one has stuff all throw. There’s no way I’m swapping the brakes etc over, so wanted to make it work with as little modification as possible. I’ve tried to take some pics, so you can sorta see how it works. For now, I’ve only used some cable to link it up – that will be removed. I will use a steel bar, and pivot it off the chassis rail. It will link up with cable to the stock lever underneath, and another cable linking back to the EL handbrake. I will offset the pivot point to give the ratio required to lock the calipers on….

That probably makes no sense, but once it’s finished I’ll update the pics. Didn’t have time to get to bunnings today…








She’s looking pretty bare now!!


And I seem to be running out of room in my garage


Having second thoughts about the engine bay, and how far to take it… I have done some welding before (not much!), but was considering borrowing a mate’s MIG to try my hand at some of the small holes. The bigger ones I’ll leave to the experts when it goes to paint…

Yep, know what you mean - EB/ED/XH handbrake travel is much more than the EF/EL - you need a lever where the pivot is much closer to the handbrake cable - I did measure and write down the respective travels, and then you can work out the lever needed.
Here's Mark's pics: the-garage-f53/banarcus-ed-fairmont-v8-wagon-t67189.html

Yes, yes it does!!

Thanks for the link. I did have a looksie in there but couldn't find specific info. I was just ganna wing it and offset the pivot point. Hopefully it will be tight enough... :/