More in depth get to know your E- series guys/gals and Rides

[Schmee]

I know its one of those crap posts but Ive had EB 12 years, did a heap of work to it years ago then just drove it and drove it till now...

short list of mods..

lowered lots but still legal used to be lower
2 1/2 exhaust just a cat back nice deep sound
the usual tint job that is now pretty faded
EB/D fairmont seats and door trims, still got wind up windows..lol
ED fairmont alloys
Fairmont boot garnish
was a manual and I swapped to auto coz Im lazy, Bentles bought the ol 5 speed conversion so it lives on
had the motor re-done about 9 years ago, blew a head gasket and got a gut full of water, so figured a quick rebuild was in order, got the basic re-ring and bearing job done, sent the head off got the ports cleaned up a bit larger valves, XR spec, and had a cam done for it, was reground to 2 stages past an XR spec, bit of a slug now with the auto really needs a stally, doesnt get up and boogie till around 2800 rpm

the to do list

Got a 3.27 LSD for it Ill fit it one day
got a good low kms ED motor in the shed, gonna give it a quick freshen up rings, bearings and some light head work, maybe a cam aswell
power window conversion
cruise control to be added
re-tint the windows
since its got to the age it has also going to do a suspension rebuild, new bushes, balljoints, shocks etc


I know it doesnt sound like much but Its been a good car and I figure why lash out and buy a new one when deep down I love the ol girl and four maybe 3g's I will have a pretty much new driveline and suspension and maybe even a lick of paint if I can be bothered

Other Ride is a EF Fairmont Ghia

Recently inherited when my Father passed away last month from cancer.
Its just your basic with EF Mont fitted with XR running gear stock, also had the xr suspension under it and the factory smart bar (coonbar/bullbar).
Only just clocked over 200,000 kms and hasnt missed a beat, it will get a little of the good stuff soon, some superlows and shocks to suit, 2 1/2 exhaust with extractors, tint and maybe a set of bigger shoes been looking at 19's just havent found something I like yet

anyways thats a bit bout me and my rides

Kev

[needfordspeed]

Well it all started back in the day, I really wanted a EL XR6, and my parents said they'd buy me my first car, but then some stuff came up and my parents weren't able to buy it for me. At the end of year 12 I got a job at a factory after about a week after finishing, I worked everyday until about 4 days before tafe started (had a christmas break too) Got a few thousand from working and bought my first car when I was 17 which was a mint manual blue mist EA S-pack factory manual and MPI, the previous owners took good care of the car it had ming protection for the interior, paint and rust, only had about 160,000kms when I got it. Anyways I dont some fairly basic mods to it like, cam, exhaust, stereo, stockies and lowering was a pretty tough car by the time I was done. Then oneday I managed to pull out in front a Daewoo lanos and stacked it (was my fault) ended up having to pay my excess then had to pay to get the massive dent removed from my drivers side rear quarter, to cut a long story short, I found a backyard panel beater who done it for $550 just to repair it and prime it, me and Sundeep were planning on spraying it ourselves, but we didn't end up doing it as I stupidly bought a turbo kit for it. One of my mates (abu on these forums) bought a turbo EF, he already had another kit waiting to go on it, so we pulled the old kit off and put his other kit on his EF and he sold me the one off the EF for a price that I couldn't refuse, I also had a microtech to suit a falcon waiting too.

Anyways, so this turbo project started and it was going all good, had it running pretty well at one stage but then I decided I didn't want a massive cooler hangin out the front bar, ended up pulling the old cooler kit off and selling it, then bought another cooler and needed piping, at this stage I still hadn't installed the microtech which would have needed to be tuned, I took it into Dynomotive to get the piping done, but Mark didn't like the way the kit was designed and wanted to change a few things around (dump pipe etc) and that got me thinking whether it was worth spending all that money on a car that I wasn't really planning on keeping very long. In the end I still needed to get the microtech tuned (and possibly installed), cooler piping, rego was due, insurance was due, needed to paint rear quarter, would have also had to pull the turbo off to rotate the core as the oil return was a bit too close to the manifold for my liking. After thinking about it and doing some sums, I calculated that it would have still cost around $3k-$4k to get it where I wanted so I just thought it would be better off to sell it and to do up something that I actually wanted to keep.

I put it up for sale and this one guy off fordmods came to look at it and said he would buy it, even gave me a deposit, but in the end he just wasted my time, ended up keeping the deposit though . Second person too look at it was Joe (jjm) after looking at it, he pretty much decided he wanted it straight away, and a few days later it was gone. By this time I was in my holidays again after finishing my first year of tafe, I had two jobs and was working pretty much every day, but had some saturdays off. I saved up some money and bought the EF I have now, I always liked this car when George (FPVWEPN) had it, and never thought I'd get the chance to own it, so when it popped up for sale I went and had a look at it as soon as I could, then I came home and talked to my parents about it, and they wanted me to get something newer like a BA or something, they were willing to let me borrow money to get a XR6T, but cars and debt are something I really want to avoid, I was in no position to pay them back, so after a few arguments, and about 2 weeks after George put the car up for sale I called him up, we agreed on a price and he dropped it off that weekend. My dad still didn't want me to get it, but he's over it now

Now i'm unsure what I really want to do with this car, I really want a project something I can say that I built, but then the idea of a XR6T is also tempting. I'm leaning towards pouring some money into the EF though, the way I see it, you only live once, might as well enjoy it! I'm still young so there's plenty of time to save for an XR6T.

Anyways, that's my automotive related life story lol.

[XR8TickfordBoy]

Hey Kev its Ben.
Brought my EL XR6 Manual round to urs a few months back to check out the clutch etc. sorry I haven't been in touch but if u look around ul see why, I wrote the XR6 off and have just purchased an EF XR8. Would love to catch up, good to see u now have a Mont.
Great to see ur on the real e-series forum. We need such knoweledgable people such as urself around, that is what makes this club/forum great!

[XRated]

I'll do more when I can be stuffed.

But I had to say, Dan, $15k for that AU!!!!! FFFFFAAAAARRRKKKK! Steal of the century. I wonder if it's being looked after...

[Schmee]

It all starts out so inocent...lol

I started out on the other side my first ride was a HQ Coupe man I poured more money into that thing than I even want to recall. Ill even make a long story short if thats possible.

It was a warm summers morning in 1989 when I receieved a phone call that this car had come up for sale, A mint nutmeg brown HQ Monaro LS Coupe, one owner slightly modded 308 4 speed, stock to look at even had the original chocolate brown vynil roof, lowered rolling on 15" Pontiac rims (same as GTS just bigger), it was part of a deceased estate that a freind of mines big brother was handling at his legal firm. There was only one next of kin, he didint want the car and asked the firm to sell all assets and just send him the cheque, $1200 of my hard earned later I was driving it home, no licence no problem. Within a week the car was stripped of all its factory glory trailered up and sent to the panel shop with a WB stato front to be fitted and all painted 2pac Glasurit Black, 4 months and 3 goes at getting it right I got the car back, the 308 has been given the flick and a 350 stroked to a 383 with lots of $$$ worth of go gear added to it, backed by a tricked up turbo 350, 3500 stall and a 9" fitted with a 3.9 mini spool, billet axles and disc brakes were all fitted up to improve its go. While all this was happening a HQ Statesman was also purchased for the parts chaser tow car, and my licence was obtained in NSW, I was still only 17, been working since I was 14 so the $$ had been saved for this day, the interior was all redone in black leather wrapped around WB seats and while it was in the panel shop a WB bulkhead was fitted to allow the later model dash setup. the car was originally fitted with power glass this stayed and was tinted super dark, 15"x5" convo pros were bought for the front and to fill out the rear and hope for traction 15"x8.5" wrapped in 295/50/15's. This was a great setup for a while ran consistent 1/4 times in the mid to low 13s, then the bug bit hard and I started pouring countless amounts of money into the ol girl just to go faster.

7 months was the actual build time on the car to get it back on the road, then the canaries started and shit started to break all the time, final count was 4 diffs I couldnt say how many axles and tailshaft uni's were shattered. Gearboxes had a life of anywhere from a week to 3 weeks, and several motors were good for anchors when I was done with them.

The finished product was a wild 400 small block running twin 4 barrel manifold, 2 complete LPGstems, a 2 speed powerglide with a 4400 stall, and a custom built four link setup with 15"x15" convo pros under the rear, hanging off a very shortened 9" diff with billet axles and a full spool, no back seat due to the size of the wheel tubs was only run on the dyno in a previous build which made 468 HP at the rear wheels on LPG and some stupid amount of torque, (that motor hand grenaded first time out at calder and still ran a 11.9 blew it about 300 meters in...lol...man it was quick), the next motor ran consistent 10.8 until one friday night was about
6-30 when I got my first run in was a coolish night, I'd been playing around with timing and mixtures that week and figured I had it pretty good seemed to pull a lot harder and wasnt running out of gas up top, straight out of the box she ran a 10.2 1/4 and I packed up and retired from my career as a racer.

I was broke and tired and got what I set out to acheive took me 14 months from the original build to get to this, I worked 3 jobs 7 days a week pretty much throughout this time doing what I could when I could, My aim was a sub 10.5 N/A street car, although it wasnt really street anymore it was still driven every so often.

After acheiving my goal I let the car go just took it out and flogged the ass out of it when I could, never really looked after it much I kept it for 3 months after and sold it with a blown motor, snapped a rod destroyed the block, crank LH head and a whole mess of other stuff. Was a bag load of fun but I could never do it again the money the heartache and the countless hours spent doing anything and everything to make it quicker was just too much.

That didnt stop me building a few nice streeters after it, Ive had more cars than hot dinners but that one was just the tuffest, Ive had every shape made in the HQ/J/X/Z series of Holdens, Ive also owned countless Fords a few XW/Y's XA/B/C's Had an XA GT RPO 83 sedan, an XB GT coupe I bought from a caryard as a trade in, even had a 1966 Chevrolet Impala pillarless dropped on its ass and flat black rolling on convo pros, running a stock as a rock 283/2 speed powerglide....that was a cool ride

As the years went on the cars came and went, then the bikes came and went, owned a couple of harleys and a few jap bikes, but decided I wanted to live so they went pretty quickly. After doing a lap of Australia ove a few years staying just about everywhere I came back to good ol Melbourne met a wonderful woman I now call my wife had a couple of kids and got old...yes you can all laugh at the old guy...

well just call this an introduction to add to the above theres lots of chapters and more stories than the folks at golden books...(If you youngungs, (No Offence), dont know what a golden book is ask your folks...)

Thats enough from me for tonight

Kev

[Schmee]

Yeah I did see the pics of the poor ol EL Ben, glad to see youve got a new ride, because at the end of the day cars can be replaced people cannot.

and thanks for the compliment Ben I thought it was best to go with the knowledge and what seems to be a great bunch of guys I actually dont usually post anywhere near this much on most forums but hey I feel nice and comfortable her

Kev

[XR8TickfordBoy]

Yeah mate ul love it here, the reason im loyal to these boys, all the top most knoweledgable blokes without all the dumb noob questions!
Im sure we'll all learn alot more here, u can post as much as u like here, and u will cos u wont get stupid replies etc..
Hope u enjoy the forum and we can see u out at some events!

[Kenaz]

My first car was an EA GL that my parents gave me. It was Pearl Green and in mint condition. It started out as a CFI until Sundeep converted it to MPI for me. It took a week I lowered it with Lovells Low springs and eventually got some EL GT rims for it. I later sold it to my brother and he converted it to manual and put a LSD diff in it. He later sold it to Sundeep who stripped it and sent it off to get crushed. I miss this car like crazy

My second car I bought around the time of my 22nd birthday. It was a VSII Berlina V6. I owned it for 9 months and in that time lowered it with Superlows, put some 18s on it, full exhaust system with extactors, SS Inductions CAI and a K&N filter. I also fitted the JVC headunit from the EA into it. I took it to Heathcote one day after the mods and ran a disappointing 16.0 @ 85mph. The next weekend I went out and bought a new car. I sold the VS to my Mum.

My third car was a Gunmetal Grey EL Fairmont Ghia V8. After the VS experience I wanted to get back in a Ford and when I saw this car in a yard I had to have it. The car went through a few sets of springs and various wheels including 16" Genuine EL XR8 rims, EL GT copies, stock 15" Ghia rims and finally 19" GTPs with superlow springs in the front and ultra lows in the rear. I always said the only car I would replace the EL with would be a XR6 Turbo. Anyway about 2 months ago I bought a XR6 Turbo and sold this car to Andrew.

My fourth car. One Monday afternoon I was out and about with my ex-girlfriend and we were bored so we started looking at cars at dealerships. Eventually we made our way to Ethridge in Ringwood where I was given the keys to a silver BA MKII XR6T. It was the first one I had driven and I could say was "wow". I had to have one. I went back to Ethridge to talk to the salesman. We couldn't come to a deal on the silver car, but he told me about a BA XR6T in Venom Red over at their Vermont dealership. It had low k's and new tyres and was within my budget. That Wednesday I picked her up So far I've only done the F6 airbox mod and a K&N filter, but they're the first of many mods to come.

Ash

[Commando]

Great thread!

Well, I originally had a craze for VWs and couldn't stand V8s. But, I was given the family XE (3.3L, 5 speed, 1000% stock) when I turned 18 and grew to love it. A mate of mine had a 3.3 XD 3 speed manual ute, and another had a 3.3 4 speed VC Commodore, and I thought I was king because I could beat them both.

Then, my mate with the XD scored a job, and suddenly he had an XB coupe plus a spare 302, which he put in the ute. After a quick spin in both the coupe and the ute, I knew straight away that 200ci wasn't where it's at, and was amazed at the grunt that the stock 302Cs were putting out.

After high school I got a job at Coles and saved all my money up. During this time a workmate bought a (stock) 351-powered ZJ Fairlane and took me for a quick spin in it one lunch break. Talk about torque! I'd forgotten all about VWs and knew that I *had* to have a V8. By this time I'd saved a few thousand dollars, and started to look for something to replace the XE (I didn't think of putting a 302/351 in the XE at the time...), and I wanted a Ford V8.

At the end of the year I'd saved around $8k. I'd found 4 cars in particular that I was interested in:

1) An XB panel van. 302C and 3 speed manual. Discoving it had no reverse, plus nearly falling out of the car when the door flew open and the seatbelt "releasing" itself in the process put me off this car straight away.

2) An XBGT (yes, for $8k). It was a shitta, and probably a replica, plus starting uni early in the next year meant i wouldn't have time nor money to get it up to scratch. Upon seeing it I didn't even bother driving it. I should've for shits & giggles though.

3) An EB XR8. It was a 5 speed, but the interior was a bit ratty and in general it hadn't been looked after. I sometimes wonder whether this would've been a better choice than my EB, because I didn't think at the time that the interior could always be replaced!

4) An EB Ghia. I ended up buying this because it had been looked after (except for the paint on the roof and bonnet), it was black, and it felt just as lively as the XR8, despite being an auto.

I had various electrical/cooling problems with the EB in the first six months, but they were all sorted out. I tried selling a couple of times, once because of the problems it was having, and then about 12 months later when I was living with my then-gf, who had sent me broke (she smoked a lot of dope). But, I gave her the flick, and haven't looked back.

The EB has served me well overall, and has ripped some mad skids in its time. I've learned a lot from this car. The modifications it's had over the years include:

Engine mods: AU thermofans, ELGT snorkel, AU 70mm MAF, AU 65mm t/b, Explorer manifolds, Chiptorque HP2 chip, plus a full exhaust system: Pacemaker PH4000 extractors with new cats (flanged), twin 2.5" piping to diff into single 3" pipe + deep offset muffler.
Transmission mods: Custom BA semi-auto setup plus electronic shift kit. 3000rpm hi-stall previously fitted but reverted to stock upon replacement of BTR, plus a 4.11 LSD.
Interior mods: EF GLi tapedeck, custom cupholders
Exterior mods: WK Stato clear side repeaters, clear indicators, 20% tint
Wheels & ride height: Contra 16x9s, 225s up front & 245s on the rears. Low springs (unknown brand) & std shocks.

I've also recently picked up a series 1 EF GLi wagon. It's a 4.0 auto and stock, with a maroon duco. I'm planning on keeping it that way. EANL-spec mods include:

* LPG
* CD/MP3 deck
* towbar
* AU1 Forte hubcaps
* 4 different floormats
* MOE sticker on tailgate which I've come to kind of like for some perverse reason.

Now a bit about me. After working at Coles as a trainee for a year after high school (2001), I started up at uni doing an engineering course at Monash Gippsland. Dezza went there for a short time but he was a year below me. Some of my mates used to give him shit about his EA lol. Anyway, the old engineering course got written off and I jumped over to the new course that was starting up (I didn't really have a choice), and finally finished it at the end of last year.

At uni I was pretty much all uni/work, working at Coles all weekend and on some weeknights, and working at Yallourn Energy, Hazelwood Power, and Gippsland Water during semesters and summer breaks. After finishing uni, I got full-time work at the Wellington Shire as a project engineer, and then scored my current position (design engineer) there a couple of months ago. I don't do too much outside of work now, weeknights usually involve unwinding at home, and weekends are usually spent catching up with different groups of mates, including E-Series stuff every now & then

I'm not leading the most active/exciting life, but I'm happy with where I'm at. No debts, stable work, two cars, living with the gf (renting, until she finishes her course next year then we'll buy a house somewhere between where she works and where I work), money in the bank, and always catching up with a different group of mates each weekend. Next weekend is a big uni/ex-uni pissup, can't wait! Too bad it'll be all sausage and no flange, but you can't have everything I spose.

-Dave-

[Commando]

She rates

I find that living with flange, you get used to it. Then spending a weekend away from it, feels weird.

[Commando]

Not sure about greener, but I'm really enjoying this toasted cheese sandwich right now!

[Sunboost]

**** where do I start.

I bought my first car at 15 (2001) for $485. It was an XF Fairmont Ghia. I can't remember exactly what motivated me to buy it but I think it was a combination of a desire to learn and a possible opportunity earn some cash. I scored on both accounts - I copped a shitload of knowledge on XF door handle mechanisms and how car's shouldn't be designed on paper (just aint chutney, CAD FTW) and I made around $500 when I sold it for $1100 a couple of months later.

Late in 2002 I still had a minute amount of that $1100 left and a guy on the old FordForums (I think his name was VenomEA BITD, now DeathXR) put up for sale a '88 EA S Pack with a few little mods here and there. This was a huge bargain back then and I didn't want to let it go. Plan was to sell it as I did with the XF but that didn't eventuate as I ended up liking it way too much.

There were a couple of problems with my plan to buy it though; firstly I was about to go to India for 6 weeks, secondly the car was in Penrith and thirdly I didn't really have enough money to buy it. With the help of Gill I put down a large deposit and headed to India, waiting anxiously to get back and pick it up.

A week after getting back to Australia I booked 3 one way bus tickets to Sydney for my cousin and his missus and me. We picked up the car from Penrith and drove it back with not a drama at all.

Over the next year I did the car up mainly with the help of Doug (Sphell). I didn't know him very well at all until I msg'd him asking for help (for a fee, of course) with an MPI conversion for the EA. We did the conversion and over the next 2 years that I owned the car he helped out a number of time from transforming it from EA S Pack to near Ghia spec.

I saved my $210 a week Centrelink Youth allowance hard for a full year (2004). At the end of the year I'd saved up enough to spray this EA, but Mum decided it was time for a new car for herself and we weren't getting any good offers for the EA so she suggested I should sell my car and take hers and do that up, mainly because of it's sentimental value.

I departed with my beloved EA S Pack for a princely $2800 with 6 months rego and RWC. As a lot of you know, SLOWEA bought the car and not long after took it to Springnats and got defected. He kept the car for a little while and sold it on again - I never saw the car again I can't say I would have kept the car or I regret selling it, but it would be good to know where it ended up.

Anyways, that $2800 bumped my savings up very nicely. I had almost $5k I think which was a lot of money for me, and a free registered car. I didn't consider for once saving an ounce of that $5k - It had to be spent on making my car look something like FLYRYD (version 1.0). An initial plan for a Envi paintjob and T3 TS50 / Pursuit 18's was hatched and the mods started in the first few weeks of '05.

Before the respray I'd also purchased most of the parts for a non-intercooled turbo setup, but didn't have enough money to even contemplate chucking it on so kept savings.

The respray was completed within a couple of weeks, along with lowering and a whole lot of other stuff including a EB Fairmont interior and new bits and pieces here and there to make it look all neat and tidy. From there the mods progressed and naturally, the bank balance slowly diminished further and further.

A lot of you know the history from there, and I cbf typing any more Nup, it's not finished and I can't ever see an end.

[Schmee]

Nice right ups from everyone so far, Makes for a good read knowing what people started with to where they are today.

That last comment is gold Sunny


Quote "Nup, it's not finished and I can't ever see an end."

never a comment that sums up a build so well, regardless of what we set out to acheive our own cars might be finished in the eyes of others but there is never a finish line as the plan continually changes

after reading more and more of this forum I might even get my shit together and head out to a cruise/meet with you guys one of these days, Ive met a few from here through various deals that have been done but I think I might just have to make the effort now..

Kev

[Eb Barbie]

I turned 18 in December last year and wasn't quite ready to get my license yet. After 3 lessons with an instructor in January I decided I was ready. I booked my license and in the mean time was hunting for cars. I wanted a bigger size car, not a lil chicky one. Pete/pHaT'eL talked me into an e-series/ford of some sort so we hunted them down. The deal was I could pink it up to make it girly and he settled for that. I hadnt saved much money at all. I wasnt looking for anything spesh for my first car. Just one to get me to work and back as Pete drives on the weekends.
After looking at car yards, the cars were a bit too pricey for what I had to spend. Finally I found out there was an EB S pak for sale in Langwarrin, where I live so I called the guy up and organised to check it out. Pete was on night shift at the time so I took one of my mates Steve. He was real happy with it and was really good with asking questions etc (he's a real estate agent, good with his words & knows his car stuff)
We then organised for Dad and Pete to check it out that satday. Apparently the guy had someone else going to check it out too so we had to get in quick. Dad test drove it and was happy with it.
It didnt have a rwc or any reg. Apparently it only needed a few minor things for rwc. Tail light, headlights, drivers side mirror and wiper blades.
It was for sale for $1400 and I offered $1200 and got it! I didnt have my license yet so I couldnt take it out on my own. I was good and didnt. Got a permit to drive it on the roads and took it to dandy to get a check over. Unfortunately it needed a few mechanical things and ended up costing $500 for a rwc which was a bugger as I was short on cash. Couldnt complain coz the car was still a bargain at $1700.
Pete got my car to Vic roads and got it checked over and registered.
When I was at work one day Pete came round without me knowing and painted the red strips on my car pink and also my wipers. Was the first step to pinking my car out. Good suprise to come home too!! Then not long after I came home to pink plates to match!! My first lil make overs to my car.
Went for my license in my dads BA wagon without an instructor. Didnt see the point of paying for a dirty old man to sit next to me. Didnt like my instructor, he was a sleeze bag! Lol. Couldnt get much time off work as it was a new job so did my computer and driving test in the same day. Passed them both first time!!
Was so weird driving without someone sitting next to me. I actually hate it! Quite boring. Especially when my car only had a basic radio which had talking crap on every channel when I go to and from work.
First investment for the car was a cd player. Hallalulya. Then I got pink seat covers.
My parcel tray seemed to look a bit bare. Pete had just updated his system and so his pioneer speakers got put into my car, only they were painted pink first
After pink fluffy door trims, parcel tray and a pink dash, my car is now pinked up.
There is a list of other things I want to do to it but I cant part with my shopping money! Lol.
After an incident I had with a cement pole at the petrol station, next up I want to have the front panel bent back out (which is only a tiny bit pushed in) and also the dent in the door fixed which I didnt do! The car had it when I bought it. The guys wife (who is a cop) managed to hit the same pole at the same shopping centre in the same place twice! haha
After the two dents are fixed the next thing will be to lower it and possibly clear indicators. That will keep me happy for now


-The End-

[FPVEB]

hey guys this is my first post. lol.
november last year just after i turned 18 i purchased myself a 92 series 2 eb fairmont for $3,700,
it is an immaculate vehicle with only minor scratches to the paintwork but that will be gone soon as im waiting on a quote to get it resprayed. ive made a few mods recently, purchasing a set of 18 inch BA XR8 RIMS (COPYS) $1500, new northlane suspension, shocks, springs etc $700, New extractors $400, 2.5 inch Lukey sports exhaust from the cats back $370, Camber caster Kit $300, and a 4Inch in dash dvd player with bluetooth, and motorised flip$499. i will post some pics up asap. it has done 127,000 genuine kms and i am the third owner. as it is a 6 cyl naturally i want more power so im in the process of enquiring about a supercharger i saw in a catalogue to fit e series falcons and boost the power up to 275 kw.

Hope to hear from you guys soon. Luke. (FPVEB)

[EFreshy]

hey... im a country bumpkin from down east gippsland way. ever since i could see over the steerin wheel an touch the pedals ive been keen on driving... i turned 18 last yr and i always wanted a big sedan... somethin with a bit of grunt but good for highway drivin... i never liked the style or the v6 of the holden so i looked at e=series... i settled on either ef or el and went shopping... looked high an low for a manual, gotta drive it not jus steer, an found a few in melb. ended up gettin a heritage green 95 ef gli from nth-wst suburbs.
the car was clean. ran well. had some niggly bits but for 4k it was a good buy... i first wanted lpg cos i do a hell of a lot of highway drivin an the 4.0 isnt the leanest puppy around, but the waitin list was long so i began to look at other small mods... fixed up a CAI real easy then grabbed some kings superlows... heres where i found out that i had au2 xr shocks so we had to make a few calls but i lucked in, they had some au superlows in stock... with the ride now how i wanted i went lookin for an exhaust, still waitin for the lad to get back from holiday...
finally lpg went in... true enough the car doesnt run quite as well as b4 now, it has 'depressed days', but it can still haul when its warm... problem now thou is the tank dropped the back another 2" so i scrape everything... im getting kinda pissed off cos i got no money to do anythin about it... but soon to come is the exhaust an kings lows for the back so ill be happy... nice surprise couple o days ago thou, got a niggling suspicion about my diff ratio so under i went an found that i have a 3.23 LSD!!! im stoked.

[slo_sprint]

I got my first car when i was about 16 a 1970 Ford Capri GT3000 it had been resprayed 2 Pack White and was on a set of Simmons FR16's had adjustable koni's and EB falcon brakes all around a worked Essex V6 with a 465cfm 4 barrel holley, alot of head work, some insane cam, crane ignition system, roller rockers, stainless steel twin 2 inch exhaust system (sounded incredible), balanced and blueprinted bottom end, MK 3 Capri 5 speed and a cut down EB LSD. The thing weighed 950kgs and was pushing a bit over 200hp and just went like a cut cat leaving behind a few HSV'S and an XR6 Turbo on one occasion but as i had just got my license i was only 17 so nobody in their right mind would insure me at all, it broke alot and parts were hard to find and depending how i drove it i could get it down to as low as 20L per 100km's of fuel but went upwards of 30 if i put my foot too far in it so naturally i had to sell it and i still miss that car every day.

Initally i was looking for an EB XR8 after seeing a few nice ones sparked my interest in them, i was looking for a few months but nothing really came up so i started looking at my other options and i immediately learned of the XR8 Sprint and i had to have one. After searching for a while i found two which were both manuals one was cobalt blue completely original bar the twin 2.25" exhaust with 230,000km's and the other was a completely original poly green 1 owner car with 186,000kms on the clock and funnily enough after having a look at the poly green one and seeing how crappy the paint was and the amount of oil underneith the engine on the driveway where it had sat for the last year unused i pretty much wrote it off straight away but alas after finding out the other one had sold it was in my driveway 2 days later.

Its now been just over a year since i bought the Sprint and its now a very different car and i'm only just getting started

[SNR]

Well, I'll try and keep this fairly short... or something....

I got my EA from my parents when they bought a VX commodore, the idea was that i'd drive it until I bought something newer/better...
Less than a month after getting my licence I lost it for doing 141kmh in a 100 zone (EA CFI 4spd for the win, I had it up to 195 once!)
While I was off the road I put speakers into it and we removed a bit of rust, thus began the mods. Unsure of exact order of some of these but brought a new MP3 headunit, and Pioneer splits for the front doors, made some huge ass pods out of 1/2" mdf attached where the map pockets go. Eventually color coded door handles and mirrors, went thru a few sets of goodyear eagle GA tyres just out of poor driving and general idiocy.

By this point I was on FF.com (possibly I8 I can't actually remember if I ever signed up there?) and one day when out driving spotted a Green EB with eafalcon.com stickers - I followed it and this turned out the be Karl (NZ, now EF Futura).

We got to talking and it turned out Karl was sharefarming and had to move soon, and had an EA 30thAE with MPFI and Manual box that he needed to get rid of as his new boss wouldn't let him keep it there. I arranged for a trailer to be dropped out there, and karl loaded it up and I had it collected. For $750 i got the whole car, missing only fuel tank, tailshaft, and with unbled brakes. He even threw in the 2.5" exhaust that he'd had on his yellow EA (anyone else remember the pics of when he "got rid" of that with the tractor?)

Unloading the white EA from the trailer in my parents driveway (45 degree downhill slope) the winch cable snapped while I was sitting in the car steering, and having no brakes, no handbrake etc, I careened down the hill towards the shed screaming "**** it won't stop" or something to that effect. Thinking quick I managed to steer it into a tree which unfortunately broke the Ghia garnish I was planning to fit to the EA.

I fitted the exhaust to the EA first as it all bolted straight up, this really sounded quite rediculous with the CFI setup, but I went and got a tip fitted and was happy enough for the time being. Karl convinced me to lower it and with his help in went a set of King Superlows. It looked a bit silly on the stockies and superlows, and Karl had two sets of EB Spac rims formerly used on an EB race car, so I grabbed the spare set for $150, not in spectacular condition finish wise, they're actually fitted to the EA at the moment... I had to get centrecaps ($30 each) and a set of wheel nuts (Around $120?) to complete the look.

Then I polished the MPFI fuel rail, and grabbed some clear indicators to tidy up the exterior. I toyed with the idea of doing MPFI but didn't want to do it on my own, having only previous experience changing spark plugs and the like, and no real mechanical background. Karl was too busy to help and since I had a week off work for holidays I decided to give it a go, he told me he'd come and help me fix it if it didn't work. It took me two days but eventually I actually managed to get it to start and took it down to the end of my street, where my CFI coolant hose modification failed and dumped the coolant (Fixed shortly after!) - what a massive difference from CFI!!! It was still very slow but it felt a whole lot faster to me! And I was stoked that I completed the conversion on my own with nothing other than the original guide....

I went on an eseries GOR cruise (2004) and decided I needed to do more to my car to get it to a similar standard to others on the cruise (performance etc wise, appearance wasn't sooo bad)... But then I blew my 2.92 diff doing neutral -> drive at 4500 rpm. A mate built a 28 spline 3.45:1 open diff into an EA housing and this made for a bit of a take-off difference.... I got hold of an Spac/Ghia front bar extension after seeing these on a few cars at the GOR cruise and fitted it, making the front of the car look a little nicer/lower. Also an aftermarket wheel/boss kit was fitted.

Put in a K&N filter and slotted RDA rotors all round. Somewhere in this time frame I began full time work (gave up TAFE out of boredom and was doing part time work at the Photo Lab of the local K-Mart, went full time here) so my income started to increase a little...

Fitted a set of extractors I swapped one of dad's workmates a slab for - they came with a gutted cat so I fitted this too... Made a little more difference up top of the rev range... Also converted the car to T5 manual... OMG what a difference! Similar difference auto->t5 as was cfi->mpfi, so t5 must be worth 20fwkw in seat of the pants value! This was a bit of a culmination of mods as everything started to work together, crazy 3.45:1 diff with ea 3.5:1 first gear meant redline at 50kmh and WRX defying launches with the decent 15" bridgestone g'grid tyres.

I took it to a hallam dyno day and got 117rwkw, beating a few au's with exhausts, so I was stoked... then the headgasket died a week later. I replaced it with an AU steel gasket and it didn't have any further gasket issues.

K&n panel, XH snorkel and a wade cam I can't quite identify (came from one of the Johns, zervos maybe?) because the specs sheet was lost, got fitted and holy crap my 6cyl ea could beat karl's 8cyl manual eb all of a sudden. Took it to heathcote that weekend for my first run down the track, with a modified headlight assy ran a (still) p.b. of 15.29 at around 90mph.

I cut the white ea up with a gas axe and loaded it onto the trailer after salvaging all the good bits.

At this point I was discussing with Karl what further to do, i'd already done all the basics and to make the car faster would require replacing bits I had with "slightly better" versions of the same. At the same heathcote day i'd ran my 15.29, dan's EB had blown its rings and I'd been having a good look at how it was all set up. Karl told me during our discussions that I should buy dan's turbo gear (he had it listed for sale for $6k) I went to the bank and sorted out a loan (I was shithouse at saving, but figured hey i'll pay that off easy enough). In the meantime Dan had found a buyer but I appealed to his better nature and rather than having to pull all the turbo gear out and part off other bits of the car I offered him $7k for the whole lot, $5850 in advance, then $150 the next week, and $100 per week for each week after til paid off. Karl vouched for me as i'd done similar when I bought the EA from him.

I went down to bayswater and picked up the EB, i'd arranged a permit for "highways" as it was unregistered (Rego had lapsed a week or two before) and drove it to the servo. One of the funniest things I can remember is when filling it up at the servo a little buzzbox full of lebs pulled up and one of them said cool car, reminds me of my dad's car we put a turbo in it - smelling bs I said how does that go? and he said oh dont know doesnt run properly yet... I dosed at them as I left the servo (nice big cloud of oily rings-be-gone smoke?) and a little while later they overtook me in traffic staring hardcore. Just as they passed me a cop on a motorbike pulled me up and questioned my permit, type A permits say you can only drive in daylight hours (7am-7pm) but it doesn't specify that this is for all types, I STILL don't know what the go is with this but he let me go, and commented the car didn't sound like it was running real well (3" exhaust, no compression hahaha) I told him it was going to be a fixer upper and cost me $1k, and I bought it for the ghia interior... he turned out to be not that bad for a guy stuck on a bike patrolling melbourne, LoL...

I didn't realise the shiftkit was on and as I got to the 100 zone on the FWY near werribee gave it shit and got it to boost... holy crap even with stuffed rings this thing went HARD, faster than the EA which at the time was in perfect running order. Unfortunately at about 10pm and with nothing in sight the shift kit changing gears managed to snap the alternator belt. We had to run back and forth to the servo in a mates car (how we got up to melbourne) to get supplies, we even tried using leggings or whatever for belts, but they snapped too quick. RACV don't come out to unregistered cars either, even if you have a permit... So we had to wait til morning to get my ex's father to drive to us from colac with a new belt. Got the new belt on and got on the way. Used a few litres of oil on the way (flying out of the dipstick and exhaust) but got the whole 300kms back to warrnambool relatively unscathed.

A while later when the EB had been sitting around for some time and my EA gearbox started making horribly bearing noises, I decided I wanted to be manual turbo, so spent another few thou getting a T5Z from mal wood, along with billet flywheel to take 10.5" clutch, and a cushion button clutch ($880!!!). Had some issues fitting this as they hadn't measured clearences and we had to pull the box in and out about 5 times before we realised there was -2mm of clearance, forcing the clutch plate to bend -- it was being pulled on that hard by the bellhousing bolts. had to send the clutch back to have a little machined off the input shaft side of the clutch so it slid on far enough to move freely and disengage. I also bought some 18" ANZ Tycoon rims after seeing them on a FFAU member's car in geelong when karl sold them a front lip.

Transferred the half velour half leather interior from dan's EB into the EA, along with (Eventually) electric windows all round (I actually had the fronts some time before, when I had the EA interior; as my knees always rubbed the manual winders which irritated me to the point of changing to electrics.

Bought a ghia garnish at another GOR, from John_Xr6, and fitted this. Started dismantling the EB, modified the front bar from the white EA to suit the FMIC same as the EB bar, because the rosewood EA and the EB both had damaged bars (scuff marks etc). Painted the EA bar rosewood ready to go on.

Bought a low Kms' AU motor and did the necessary mods to fit tri belt, grinding down sump etc. Put in an ACL copperhead 1.8mm head gasket as my goal was to run more than 10psi, and AU's have higher compression than EB so this may have posed an issue. Had a local place fit oil drain to the sump etc as well.

I needed a runaround and at the time was quite impressed with the fun factor of my then gf's TX3 laser, so started looking for a cheap to run 4cyl car. Not really wanting FWD, I began looking at early Mazda mx5's and then moved on to the 1.8l versions (NA8A on) - test drove a few, getting around the 14k mark, then made the mistake (?) of test driving an NB8A in geelong. They wanted far too much for it but from there I was convinced I wanted an NB8A. Looked at a lot on the net and decided to test some, didn't really want green as most of the ones around were green (most NA's were red, most NB's green... not sure why?) but saw one listed as NB8A with NB30P2 (NB8B) VIN - decided it was worth a look. Indeed it was, priced as an Nb8A, I picked up a decent Nb8B with 111000 k's on the clock for 19,500 incl ORC and insured it full comp at 21yo for under $1000 with JCI. Nb8b mx5's for those who don't know, got bigger brakes, ABS, 16" rims, factory strut brace, variable cam timing, better seats, 6 speed instead of 5 etc) - at the time I got it, the car (if the dealer had realised what it was) was worth around $23k. I still like to think I could get back what I paid even now, over a year on and with yet another new model.

The MX5 was a revelation in terms of handling, infinately throwable, and able to handle corners at huge speeds. Now that I had this I could begin work on the EA. I took the EA to a dyno day and it made 129rwkw with a dying engine, by the feel of it, at it's prime it would probably have had about 140rwkw. I took the mx5 to one and it made 78rwkw; considering the mx5 weighs only just over 1 tonne, and the ea weighs about 1700kgs, it really wasn't a trade down in terms of straight line speed; i've kept up to 150kmh with a manual EB xr6 from a standing start, and haven't found a car I can't keep up with or lose thru corners.

I pulled the motor out of the EA and dropped the AU motor in, along with wiring in the Wolf (what a nightmate! - even tho i was just cutting from one loom and joining to another (The EB was smartlock)). I had to modify the k-frame for proper clearance of the AU sump, even with the grinding it still JUST touched. I bolted up the turbo gear and manifold, intercooler, cut holes for piping, fitted that up, trimmed a little more bumper and got that fitted. went to tow the EA to rank rotary and the tow car's rear axle snapped at 100kmh with the EA on the trailer... a little scary. Got antoehr tow car and went up two weeks later, unfortunately I managed to smash chunks out of my mint front bar when I was loading the car onto the trailer the second time; it was a tilt trailer and nobody was holding it up, and I was going a little fast and not thinking.... No damage to the FMIC so all good

Took the car back to rank and got it tuned, 211rwkw at 12psi with ignition problems.

I still haven't fixed the ignition problems and last dyno i had it on the car made 194rwkw @ 12psi with major overfuelling (9:1 AFR!!!) - I plan to see if the M&W ignitor can handle three channels, if it can I will wire up an AU coilpack to run spark, keeping the EA dizzy in place just with no coil to run the trigger. The other day the wolf started playing up so now i've got to try and get that fixed too, it's not reading the TPS or engine temp.... I've decided to pull it off the road a bit and do things a bit better, mount the catch can for starters, and run a hose from the PCV to catch can as currently it still goes into manifold (only the rear hose goes to the can). I have to neaten a heap of wiring, heatshield the turbo area as its been melting things (clutch cable is missing it's plastic lining, a set of stereo wiring melted and has since been replaced, the altenator wiring has half melted). I need to redo starter motor wiring and altenator wiring so it runs to the LHS of the engine bay, currently it runs to the standard spot and into a distro block, then across the front to the battery. Currently severely out of money however so modifications will be coming along very slowly (so tidying is a good idea, this takes more time and effort than money!)

Haven't run the car down an 1/8th or 1/4 in this setup either.... hope it would run better than dan's 13.xx but probably doubtful as I still can't really launch... my 18's just axle tramp although the 15s are a bit better.... the 3.45:1 LSD I took out of dan's eb doesn't really suit the stupidly tall BA/T5z first gear (goes to about 70kmh) I really do miss my 50kmh redline first gear. I reckon a 3.73 or similar would really improve off line spool time. The car starts to boost at 2000 rpm and is making 12psi by 2500 in any gear (yes that includes 5th) and pulls easily past 200kmh. Power really seems to drop off after 3500 rpm and looking at a dyno graph it looks like it peaks at about 3000rpm (190ish rwkw) then dips and climbs, dips and climbs around that power figure til redline... still unsure if this is a result of too rich, ignition issues, or both... some people have said the excess fuel could be looking like an ignition issue which is a point too.... will have to fix the wolf before I can do anything however.


-SileNceR

[Kenaz]

Bloody hell that was a massive post! lol

Nice write up mate. Like so many EAs in this club it's come a real long way.

[Eb Barbie]

True to that, that post was longer then mine!! Lol

[SNR]

I typed it on a laptop too, my poor, poor hands!

[EFFalcon]

i was wondering who SNR was
welcome clint!

[EdFairmontGhia]

Being a quiet e-series member for a while now here is my attempt at a substantial post... enjoy

Having grown up around fords all my life i new from the very begining that i had to have one, i initially took particular interest in my dads XE on Gas and was hoping to have this when i turned 18, When i was about 17 dad found himself a nice XE GHIA with the fuel injected engine. I had my eyes set on this but eventually had to divert my attention elsewhere. With all the family cars being auto's and wanting to drive a manual on the road not just in the paddock i found myself a 1982 Ford Meteor with full rego and it very good nic for just $450 (after the negotiations took place), initially i was going to use this as a spare parts car for the bomb i had picked up for $50. It was in too good a condition to part it out and already having the rego it made sence to keep it on the road.

So i tried to toughen up the good old meteor with some nice hotwire rims and oversized tyres, and a fully sick sound system from Clints along with neons and metalic wiper washer arms. Eventually the suspension started to seaze up and the ride hight got lower so i didn't really complain that much. Wanting to bust out of the 4 cylinder car i came accross a 1987 XF wagon and snapped it up for $500 but then the owner thought he'd make some money by taking the plates back to vicroads and not going through with the roadworthy, so i kept this for a while trying to save up for all the paper work but not being on gas and only being a student ment the wagon had to go, so i sold it off again for $500. Then one day on the way to uni one of the CV joints decided to blow up in the meteor. so pinching a replacement from the bomb i decided it was deffinetly time to upgrade to a real Ford, not a re-badged mazda.

A week after my 20th birthday i found a really nice 1993 ED Ghia already on gas and had a cat back exhaust system and sat on lows with better then average mags. i picked it up for $4000 with r.w.c and half a tank of gas. i now had 2 lovely fords and only 1 licence so i cleaned up the meteor and sold it off for $450 no r.w.c. Whilst the Ghia had the stacker in the back i wanted a freasher look in the front so i went and got a mp3 player with mmc and usb slots in the front and also got some blue led washer jets for the bonnet. That was about it as far as mods, Whilst i have many plans for the Ed; T5, thermos, and Eb GT kit thats just sitting in my garage due to lazyness. All plans got put on hold due to picking my pride and joy at the start of this year.

After months of searching i found a 1997 El Fairmont Ghia fully optioned out with all electrics and leather and sunroof and SVO GT bodykit, and 17" speedy longchamp rims sitting on lows. I was very please with this buy at just $8000 and it's very low kms. I've recently converted the El to gas and it only set me back $450 thanks to the rebate. Some possible future mods may include superlows and a tow pack and changing interior lighting to all blue leds to match the existing white cluster. Now that this car is taking up all my attention i gave the Ed to my fiancé and made her sell the her Crona.

I have been living in Geelong for 21 months and work as a Social Welfare Worker and have just bought my first house back in March. So anything to do with my cars is on the backburner whilst i try to get my mortgage under control

[Commando]

Good to see you posting here Shane

Meteors definitely don't cut it.

I can help with the thermos one day mate, whenever I'm in Geelong next (or if you come up my way one weekend). Thermos take a few hours tops.

[EdFairmontGhia]

Thanks mate, wanna help with the Gt kit onto the ed as well???

[Commando]

I'll give it a crack, what can go wrong?

[braiden]

I know this is an old thread, but I stumbled upon it and thought I would post.

Well, my mum picked me up from school one day when I was on my L's. She handed me a set of Ford keys and said, 'You can drive'. Thing is, we didn't have a Ford. So I had to wander up and down the street pointing this remote and pushing the button. Finally found a car that it unlocked. Stock as a rock aside from a Pioneer headunit (best headunit I've had and probably will ever had, what a beast!). Drove to the dealer, signed the papers, and it was mine.

Now, at this stage I really had no interest in modifying cars. So it stayed like this for a year or so. Neons were obviously the first thing, seeing as they are cheap, easy, and seeing as I had just discovered The Fast And The Furious, I thought they were cool.

Bad time in my life.

Anyways, after talking shit with one of my friends from school, who is also my housemate, we came up with the idea of a computer in the car. We thought we were the fuckin bee's knees with that idea. I quickly researched it and made a piece of shit computer with no screen running off an inverter. I set it up to run Winamp with a keyboard to change tracks and stuff. Anyways, started to get into cars, bought a touchscreen which ran a playstation for a while, that was cool.

Did a bunch of other electronic mods. Remote start, killswitch, cluster conversion, seats, (got the cluster and seating out of a mates POS EA Fairmont Ghia, footwell lights, electric aerial, gauges, 3rd CarPC build, etc, etc. Pinched at XH snorkel off my mates old mans runabout ute and swapped it with mine, AU3 repeaters, clear indicators, Fairmont grille, etc.

Then I got slightly more serious. Bought rims with tax return money, exhaust, lowered it last Christmas, thermos, that sorta stuff.

And that's pretty much where its sitting now. Plans for the future are changing the struts so the car sits as low as it is meant to, and possibly King ultralows in the rear if it sits uneven. After that, its all turbo. Nothing else. Just a lack of more stopping me from starting to collect the bits. Not sure what exactly, probably a Snort kit with a Haltech. I actually have two turbos sitting here at home, ones a monster CAT thing with a bent shaft (Garrett remake I believe), and this tiny IHI thing. Thinking about making a turbo go-kart with it. Both for free.

[Kyle the ED4LTR]

Well I will make a post in this thread as well.

I have been interested in cars nearly all my life ever since i was 6 years old, to the point that when I was walking down the street with mum i would make car sounds and pretend I was driving a car. And as I grew up i wanted a car I could call my own but was too young and didn't have the money, so occasionally dad would let me have a drive of his old old car (97 Toyota Camry Conquest) on a quiet road, i was about 9 at this stage, then in 2001 the Camry went goodbye and dad got a 2001 Toyota Avalon CSX which we had for a long time.

Then on the Melbourne Cup weekend in 2006 my family and me had to attend a cousins wedding in Myrtleford on the 4th November, mum decided to stay at the homestead the wedding was at so me and dad went to the Temora airshow and stayed in Albury, on the night of November 5th I was cramming in all of the things I needed to know for my L plates so I could pass the test the next day, then on November 6 I turned 16 and was ready to go for my learner permit.

I went to do my test at Wodonga (NSW/VIC border) and passed with a score of 80%, so as a treat my dad let me drive all the way from there to Melbourne CBD, it was a great birthday. I slowly kept practicing and practicing and then started aiming for goals for a car, my dad was planning on giving me his Avalon but I decided against it as it had been treated pretty badly, so I aimed high and wanted to get a WH Holden Statesman (Dont Start ) and slowly drifted to a VT COmmodore. then later in 2007 I hung out with one of my best mates who had inherited an ED Falcon and he would do small things to it like radio, cluster etc etc. After helping him with these things I started to grow a liking for Falcons and it kept on growing.

Around October 2007 my mate bought an EB S-Pack factory manual and I saw how hard they went and my small liking for Falcons turned into love. So for weeks I tried hunting for a manual ED (Because I had a soft spot for ED's for some reason) but could find nothing, but then I came across a 1993 Cardinal Red EB2 GLi, this car was pretty well perfect as it was in good nick and had full rego, you name it! for $2500.

Only have one pic of it handy but this was meant to be the original XR6 Ghia


It was February 22nd, 2008 (Friday) and I was all hyped up about picking up my car on the weekend until I got a call a little bit later in the morning, it was the seller of the car telling me that the car had just been written off because of a dumb **** in a Mazda 6 rear-ending him, it was a sad weekend. Mum knew I was very upset about this and suggested that i should go out car hunting again and I came across a 1994 ED Falcon GLi, always fully serviced since 1995, the car was being sold for $1250 without RWC or Reg on the condition that the guy thought the reco BTR Auto he had put in was shitting itself but it didn't matter as i would be converting to manual. so on the Sunday dad and me went to go look at it and said "A mechanical check will be done before you buy this car!", so we took it out for a test drive and found it was a bit rough but it had not been driven for a month, dad told me to pull over and he had a look at it and said "**** the mechanical check, this car was too good to pass up" so we went back and put a $50 dollar deposit down on it and signed an agreement.

These were the pics off of Carsguide.com.au from the listing of my car



We called the next day to organise a time to go pick up the car and pay for it, we found out that we were very lucky as 2 people had enquired about the car the same day, so we picked it up on the Thursday (February 28, 2008). I had spent about $800 on getting the RWC and the parts and took it to Vicroads the next week to get it rego'd, the original reg of the car was the factory reg "FMG-721"., but due to VicRoads being shtknts and saying we missed out by 2 days (Weekend days btw) I had to get a new reg "WIW-799", but I still have the old plates as a memory. And from there my history of my mods can be found in my showroom thread (viewtopic.php?f=7&t=3123&st=0&sk=t&sd=a)

My inspiration for the XR Ghia idea was from my dad's new car (Toyota Aurion Sportivo ZR6), the concept of sports whiole retaining luxury inside, and I decided on calling it a Ghia on the basis that the high end luxury plush Falcon was the Ghia.

That is my story, if there is anything else to add I will after.

Kyle

[Dezza]

OK. About me. I grew up in Maffra in Gippsland, and went through high school as a massive Ford nut. in year 12, 2002, I turned 18 so the hunt started for a car. The plan was that my parents would own the car but it would be my runaround. The first couple I checked out were EA S-packs. One was a silver one with a 3 speed! It looked tidy but I wasn't keen on an auto. The other was a red one with a 5 speed. The thing was a rustbucket and the interior was terrible so we gave it a miss. My mate ended up buying the silver one. It gave him a lot of trouble, so I was probably a bit lucky in that regard. We then came close to buying a Ford Telstar. It was mint with a manual, but it just felt too cramped for a big bloke like me.

Then we found the EA Ghia for sale at a yard in Sale. 148,000kms, original books, and it was mint inside and out. The only imperfections I could see were a crack in the front bumper, and a small dint in the bootlid. I decided despite the auto, that it was the car for me. We bought it, and I must say I loved the thing.... until 9 days later when I pranged it. When my Dad saw the damage, the first thing he said was "It'll never drive again". Despite that, we took the wreck to my uncle's where the damage was surveyed. After ripping off the front bodywork, we came to the conclusion that it was fixable. The engine, steering and suspension all survived. Over the next 2 months (it was basically a weekend project), the radiator support and inner left guard were both replaced, as well as most of the front panels. Mechanically, the radiator, aircon condensor, water pump, and engine mounts were replaced.

After it hit the road again, I just drove it. After 2002, I got accepted into Engineering at Monash Gippsland. In 2003, I started there, and met Dave (commando). He told me about the forums. I wasn't really interested in joining forums at that stage though. That year, I also had 2 other scares on the road when first, my front right wheel fell off, and second I got rear ended on the way to my first exam. In both cases, damage was minimal. The damage from the second incident was fixed under the other bloke's insurance (including the dint in the bootlid that was already there!). It took 9 months of hassling the insurance company before they payed us out though.

At the end of 2003, Monash closed down the engineering department at Gippsland, except for the Civil and Environmental degree, which is what Dave did. I chose to specialise in Electrical, and got shifted up to Clayton. At this point, I bought the car off my parents, so it became officially mine. I replaced the tape deck with a CD-MP3 player, and fitted new rear speakers. I spent 2 years living on residence. In my second year on residence (2005), I decided to start looking at the forums again. I became a member of e-series and went on a few cruises. I became known as the bloke with the 4WD-spec EA. I had no interest in modding it at that stage

At the end of 2005, I moved into a house with a few mates, which finally gave me room to move. This was probably the point in which I had freedom to start modding the EA, as I had room to store parts. It started off with small things like an XH snorkel and clear indicators. But at the end of 2006, I saw a T5 conversion for sale, so I grabbed it. The auto was nearly dead, so it seemed like the logical thing to do. I had a mod day, which ended up being a really great day, with a lot of people around and a BBQ. I did a few other mods before the end of the year including the EBII climate and trip computer, and a 2.5" exhaust.

Then in February 2007, on the Black Spur cruise, I stuffed up big time, and nearly wrote off the car again. I'm sure most people know the story behind that one. Thanks to help from a number of e-series members (I'm still grateful), we managed to pull the front back out, and kept it on the road. I grabbed another bumper from the wreckers (which ended up being a waste of money) and did some panelbeating on the bonnet. It's this point that I decided, it's not a mint stocker anymore. Also, I'd deferred uni for a year, and was starting to earn quite a bit of money, so it was time to go all out and make something of it. The rest is history.

[BLCKED]

my first car was a 1982 fd LTD

was a 351 clevo on gay with a shift kitted auto, had extractors, edelbrock manifold, impco gas carbie, 2v cast heads ported and polished, roller rockers, 4mab crank and flat tops.

went pretty hard for a first car, only had 2.77 rear end tho, had great top speed (highway diff)

paid 3 grand for it off my brother when i was 17 (2002) drove it on my l's till i got my license, it ran 14.9 thought that was pretty good for gas considering it was a big heavy car. had full electrics, sun roof, amp and sony sub. i planned a respray for it and a 9 inch with 3.55 gears.

it had 15x8 and 15x10 csa globes on it, rear end look tough, fat 265 rubber on the back, i later got some b45 simmons, again 15x8 and 15x10.

my brother only owned it for a few months and didnt really want to sell it, was verry immaculate condition. be bought it off a old lady who owned it since new, orginally a stock 351, he did the mild rebuild when he had it. i bought it off him with the intention to sell it back to him when i found my valliant charger project i allways wanted.

i went for my p's monday at 2:30 pm, passed no worries and a mate drove me to my car ( was at my brothers house at the time we worked together and he picked me up from my place and i drove on my ls to work)

went for a drive on my own after my mate left down the street, gave it a hard fang, 105 in first 185 in second and backed off (love the old 3 speed autos with tall diff gears) it was that moment i knew i shouldnt have a tough v8 for my first car.

wednesday night that week (58 hours and 7 minutes after i started my p's test) i decided to show off and rip a skid in the wet, lost it and wrote the car off into a pole.

i learnt the hard way haha, althought i got $3900 back on insurance and sold all the bits off it to my brother for another 2 grand.

with that money i went out and bought a 93 eb falcon series 2 for 5 grand with 245,000 on the clock. stock standard auto in good condition and have loved them ever since. its a shame about the ltd, really was a mint car but i learned my lesson.

my love for ebs will never die, im still driving one today, i have had in total: 7 ebs , 2 fd ltds, 3 xe ghias, 1 xe esp, 2 xds and a vh commodore

more then half of my cars have been v8's, never owned a 4 cylinder !

[ELDanny]

haha mines easy
I'm 17, and was on the lookout for my first car. I was looking into the NC/DC's as i love the square look, and i think they look mint dropped on their guts. I mentioned to my mate that i was going to be buying a car soon, and he said he's selling his EL soon.
So about 4 weeks ago picked up my first car, a 1997 EL GLi. My mate had purchased it off his parents which they had owned it since new. Very clean example, only has 195xxxkm's on it for $3000.
At the moment i'm still in the planning stage of modifications as money isnt rolling in because i cant work as i pulverised my ankle in a car accident (wheel went over my heel and pushed it into the bitumen, scraping all the skin off to the bone).

[YBYAVL]

id be here all day an yuz would be here all night if i started....so ill leave it at this

the EB is my 43rd car...1st E-series ive owned though
1st car was a TE cortina ive since had 7
then there was the datsun phase, had like 4 180Bs a 1200 and a stanza
then came the rotaries, had an RX3 project with 13Bxp and an 808
and alot of other bagga's in between inc. magna/subaru outback/good ol' mitsu scorpion
still the best car ive owned would have to be my '68 fairmont with 351c.....i miss the old road yacht.
and that led to my last cortina with the 250 turbo an now im here....
the most ive ever spent on a car or for a car in 1 hit was 1500 for the 351 for my XT
other then that everything has almost been under 1000bux apart from the cortina which with everything i had on it owed me 6k
ive since sold the body as a roller with upgraded brakes/5stud conversion/factory leather interior/sunroof yadda yadda for 1k
im in 2minds atm, i cant decide weather or not to build a 4ltr for the EB or slap the x-flow in it jus to fuk with kunts heads
x-flow went 11.7 in an XE on 7psi so might be worth while....or itll be up for sale with all the turbo gear on it for 4k...duno yet

so ye, that prety much covers any interesting shit to do with cars in my life

if any1s interested in learning how a car reacts, i strongly suggest a datsun 1200 4speed and about 6acres of land

[Eb Barbie]

the EB is my 43rd car...1st E-series ive owned though

Are you for real!? Thats a shit load of cars for someone who doesnt seem all that old??

[YBYAVL]

im 26....wat can i say, i like cars
i got my 1st car wen i was 14.....

[Schmee]

Good to see some of the newer members are posting a bit of history up here

43 cars and your 26 sounds like a Dandenong thing I stopped counting at 100 and I was 21-22 I think....lol...that was 100 registered cars not counting wrecks and bangers

most cars owned at one time was 30 something, 22 of those were registered

when I lived in Dandy the council loved me 18 cars on the property, standard house block in Nth Dandy, thats within the fenceline 5 out on the street/naturestrip and 3 towtrucks...

[YBYAVL]

hahahah, i like ur style

[Commando]

Kev, that's awesome!

But I thought there was a law against selling more than 5 cars a year? (you have to be a licenced trader to do that?)

Unless you just let the reg run out & sell them as wrecks or something...

[Dezza]

Makes my 2 cars (the second one was a spare parts car, which we later sold for a tidy profit) sound pathetic

[Schmee]

Ive been approached by Vicroads in the past to apply for a LMCT and declined..... alot of the cars I used to buy with rego drive them for a bit then sell them on without transferring into my name, looking back I should have got my LMCT as it was worth bugger all just a hassle...

the law has changed somewhat back then you could do 8 cars a year with no problems now its 5

I have no idea how many cars Ive had to dat now and Im not even going to guess lets just say lots....

[Commando]

At least you didn't get stung or anything then