Nige - thanks mate - yes I think I've already spotted 1!!! We welded a hole on passenger side - would have been perfect for the alarm bonnet switch. I previously had the switch on driver side (and left that hole), but haven now realised the air box cover will cover it up!!

I'll have to drill out the passenger side now...



Thanks Coops! You joined up!?? You should have kept your XF ay!!



Thanks mate. Yeah, I tried to use as little bog as possible, and stick to the fibreglass stuff. I can tell you I was well and truly p****d off and over it that day!!

So yesterday I spent most of the day sanding the engine bay and K-frame with 400 grit paper, getting it ready for paint tomorrow morning.

I also managed to finally find a genuine EF/EL manual pedal box. I wasn’t keen on a mal wood pin kit, and didn’t really wanna cut my XH bracket up. Had to get it posted from the east coast, but at least it’s here…


I forgot to take pics, but its very much so reinforced – heaps of extra welding on it. At first I thought someone had done it themselves. It was also painted black (all the one’s I’d seen from factory are unpainted… Ford must have made some changes after they released the EF/EL… this box was obviously a replacement – see the date on the sticker from Ford.


I also put the steering linkage back in, as the painter wanted steering for ease of moving it around the shop…

Today I just went over everything, and tried to finish up some loose ends. Started by sorting out the handbrake pulley/lever system. Reason it took so much stuffing around, is I have to change the ratio the handbrake lever puts on the existing system – the EL handbrake has a different ‘throw’, as compared with the XH lever.

Put a bolt in here, as I preferred not to drill any new holes in the rail. A washer fit perfectly in the hole (with a bigger one inside rail), keeps the bolt centred.


Used this scrap I had, notched out a gap, and drilled a hole, then bolted in this (from the old assembly)


Bolt it all up. This was taken after a few adjustments, and a few hours trying to get it all right…






So stupid me, after finally wasting so many hours on this, and thinking it was all sorted – I stood back and looked from the front and realised the exhaust is probably ganna foul on the lever. If not, it will be very close… I CBF changing it again now, so will do so if/when the time comes.

I pulled up an old pic today to have a look, I reckon theres a small chance it will just fit (lever is pivoting on rearward hole on RHS)


Ok, after that I turned to trying out my new (now favourite!!) tool I bought off ebay – Rivnut tool. Awesome, very handy piece of kit….and addictive! Pics…








Also realised I can no longer utilise the hole (on driver side) for bonnet alarm switch. So drilled out the weld (yes, we welded it shut a few weeks back!) on passenger side, and made the switch fit again…




Had to choose a wise place for them, but found a spot to feed power cables through into rear of battery terminal mounts. Dummy fit the inner plastic shroud in wheel arch to make sure it would work…






Been putting it off for months, but finally changed the lock mechanism in driver door…it’s going to be hard to find these in the future when they all break! Need to stock up now I think



Old, and new…(well, working)


Had a think about how I’m going to run the water/meth injection… I am now going to cut away the windscreen washer squirters for now, and use that bottle to hold the meth. I was curious to know the comparison between the Snow Performance supplied bottle, and the ford bottle – not much in it at all!! Surprised me actually… So I’m definitely using the Ford washer bottle – both for factory looks, and ease of re-filling it!! Plus I’ll have a nice little warning light on my dash when it’s getting low.

(The Snow bottle was FULL, then I poured what I could into Ford bottle, you can JUST see the level left over – bugger all…)



Pushed this out for a clean-up…. Could hardly move in the garage as of late. I can’t believe how much crap fits into 1 ute!!



Due to no longer having seam sealer, I used panel bond to seal the firewall seam, and small seams either side…




I put the fairlane handbrake lever in…nice leather and chrome button. I need to somehow make it BLACK to match the rest though…


All ready for a very early morning departure to get some paint!!



Also got this stuff in the mail…

A very hard to find part…centre console delete (when I was thinking I was going to run my AU centre console)


This after I changed my mind… sticking to the EL console (but I have 4 switches atm being the fairlane)

Ebay – EL console lid. Black leather with red stitching…matches the seats!! This actually surprised me. I was expecting ebay crap, but the quality is actually pretty decent


That’s it for now… hopefully on my next update there’ll be a nice engine bay to look at!!

Hey teach, I'm pretty sure the AU Ghia had a black leather handbrake that's the same as EF/L & you can get black leather hadbrake boots off ebay also similar to the consol lid cover you got.

Everything went pretty well. I apparently saved myself a lot of money by doing the prep myself, according to Dave who painted it. They touched up a few spots with their buffer wheel, but in and out in 1 day wasn’t bad!!

Time to start the wiring!! I’ve already prepared, and just popped 2 panadols...

Engine bay turned out a treat! Great work there mate, will look epic once the motor is back in

Thanks mate.


I need some help please...trying to slimline my wiring. First question (of many to come)

What does this do, and can I remove it? It doesn't look familiar to me. Both wires are violet with white mate. Its located near the brake booster connector...




Thanks!

Brake fail pressure switch. One wire to the dash and one to the start side of the ignition according to my wiring diagram.

Such a great read by the way.

EDIT - ok, Im a retard, I didnt look too closely at the booster. I just saw the switch, thanks for that!!

Theres also a white connector im looking at now (looks similar to the O2 sensor one), with orange wires. Is this the speed sensitive steering one? I cant find anywhere for it, so was going to delete it as well

I can't find it yet in my book, but a picture would be great.

How many wires are there? Are they plain orange or with a stripe?

I managed to find my max errorys manual... as s**t as it is, the wire clour coldes have all been correct so far...


it was the steering sensor...deleted it.

just working my way through the rest of it all now, deleting what i dont need

Should keep it - SSPS is great .

The plug looks similar can't recollect the brake fail lines to be purple though

Don't worry about the door locks - any E series front door lock or XG door lock will suit.

Great paint job BTW.

Thanks Snap I really LOVE the paint

As for SSPS, I have a non-SSPS rack, and CBF changing it out! I suppose it would be nice - im assuming it helps with steering at speed somehow!!??

I cant remember what I asked about door locks?

I'll update properly tomorrow....for now the missus is cracking it for spending more time on my car - on forums!!

Nice progress mate, that bay come up great!

Cheers

ToranaGuy

Update from yesterday’s work…

Started early, and couldn’t stop looking at how sweet the bay came up. Looks awesome in proper daylight. The rest of the ute spoils how mice it looks!! Here’s some more pics of the bay…









Next I pushed the car out so I could actually move around it, and laid out the fairlane wiring loom (with the bits that were chopped off as well!)


Put the guard back on, so I could visualise how much room I had to play with. Turns out there’s heaps….


So I used my (not so) trust max ellery’s manual to figure out what was doing what, and strip out what I didn’t need on the ute. From driver side, deleted speed sensitive steering, cornering lamps, ABS, cut and extend the cruise control, move the wiper motor wiring back inside the cab (this will be run a different route, as I deleted the normal hole for it on plenum)


Make this hole….


….Turn into this




Just another random shot! It was a shame to bolt any bits back on (that would be seen – excuse the airbag sensor) that weren’t looking new. I tried early in the morning, then removed them. So every bolt or screw I have put on so far has been cleaned and sprayed in satin black.


Don’t need this…


Use heatshrink to close off, then tape


Or this




Vacuum ‘ball’ mounted (for climate control). Mounted in almost factory EL position!


Cruise control was next…found a nice spot here. I had to keep in mind that my throttle body would now be facing the wrong way with the KB (forward), so this position actually works out better




And it only JUST fit beside the intake pipe. Obviously I will extend the wiring to here to suit…


This was a pain in the A!! Soldering FAT wires is never fun.

All done, with individual heatshrink (‘Rayspool’ - the good stuff, with glue inside)


It looks like I didn’t do too much, but I was really just taking my time, ensuring I don’t stuff any of the wiring. It’s the last thing I want when changing so many things at once on this thing. A lot of time also spent trying to figure out where the hell to hide stuff/route stuff. About to get back to it…

Will try mount the meth injection pump, and finish joining the relays etc that are cut off on passenger side

Ok, another question for the experts on here!!

I have been thinning out the passenger side loom, and started up near the ABS wiring. Since the ABS connector was cut off, its just a bunch of taped up wires with a missing plug.

So after pulling the tape off, its revealed that the 2-pin black plug (plugs into driver side loom to connect the two sides) leads to the ABS module.

That means I have the Tan/yellow as +12v for the ABS (which I should not need now??)

And the BLACK wire leading to - now, nothing.

Upon checking diagrams, it seems the ABS module might loop the BLACK wire (earth), to the 'signal ground wire (BLACK/GREEN mate).

Should I be joining the BLACK wire from the plug, to the BLACK/Green wire? (and forget about the TAN/Yellow??)


That black/green wire seems to feed a lot of stuff between the ABS module back through to the ECU connector....




And one more...more out of curiosity... are these plugs for LPG (if fitted)? The dont seem to do much, and I'm tempted to cut them all off... heres a pic of 2 of them