[biased99]

OK, not really a new member but anyway...

A few years back, I purchased an early-90s EB Fairmont Ghia with 5lt/auto combo. Nice, solid car which we owned for a while before moving on to something else...I joined up here initially to get some info about that car, and have only been back sporadically since (hence the handful of posts in some 9 years).

More recently, we owned an XH 1 tonne GLi ute. Again, a solid piece of kit, with the obligatory Ford "No Cost Option" rust additions. However, a 1 tonne suspended ute, with 8 ply light truck tyres and an open-centre diff makes for a less-than-inspiriring handling experience, especially in the wet. It got to the stage where the Mrs said "I'm not driving that thing" if it was even remotely damp out. Fortunately we have a late-model VE Commodore she's happy to drive in all conditions.

Still, I did want a viable 2nd car, which had some practicality in terms of load carriage and towing. Being mid-40s, with a possible change of life direction beckoning in the next few years, I also wanted to own a decent V8 manual car, most likely for the last time...

...Then, a nice ute came up on ebay. The owner (Matt - MrEL on these forums -) had done most of the hard work to the ute, grafting a Fairlane front on to it, and installing Fairlane dash (with Climate Control etc). As for the rest of the car, it's an eclectic mix of base Falcon XLS, Fairlane, and XR8 (instruments and seats are XR-based).

All-in-all, a good car. Like anything, though, there are things you look at and think "I'd have done that differently". (To be fair to Matt, these would most likely have been done at some stage, but competing projects and priorities got in the way).

A few things we either didn't like, or were forced to change are as follows:
1) Gear shift/clutch. *Very* heavy clutch action and notchy gear shift (owing to installed short shifter). Clutch action didn't bother me (as I have driven road ranger-equipped heavy vehicles in a past life), but it did bother the Mrs. The other worry there was that with my continual mashing of clutch into the firewall, I'd exacerbate the firewall weakness issues these things are known for. As for the shift itself, it often felt we were "fishing" for gears when shifting, which meant more concentration was required than strictly should be necessary. The Mrs, again, said "I'm not driving that 'till it's fixed..."

Hmmm.

What we ultimately did was to fit a high clamping force/low effort clutch, and replace the short shifter with a stock Facon one. Car is an absolute delight to drive now, with no more effort required than, say, a small FWD car.

2) Lowered suspension. The car originally sat on lowered struts (King SLs) and reset factory leaves with load helpers. Had a very nice stance, and was done in such a way that the best compromise of looks, ride, and load-carrying ability was achieved. Unfortunately it also failed road worthy, as no lowering is allowed in the ACT. So the lowering stuff had to come out, and standard right height stuff went in. I'm unlikely to change it back, as I'm worried about insurers dodging liability in the event of an accident citing "vehicle un-roadworthy". (People will argue that they need to prove the lowered suspension directly contributed to the accident, but the reality is they have more moeny to fight these things than do I, so better to just live with it).

3) Rims. Ute came with a set of beautiful Starcorp Fusions in 18x8 (front) and 18x9 (rear). Again, unfortunately, staggered widths are illegal in the ACT. I tried (I have a VERY understanding mechanic - even he couldn't get those passed for RW :( Ended up selling those, and getting a set of quite nice 18x8s all-round with 235/40 tyres, which means they differ only very marginally from OEM rolling diameter.

Some other thing in the pipeline are as follows:

Given that the "theme" of the car is one of "general confusion" (i.e is it a load carrier Falcon ute, or a luxo-barge Fairlane?), I wanted to carry the theme through as far as is possible. The ute came with just the OEM driver's airbag (with some "splitters" mounted in the space behind the passenger's side blanking plate). I procured an airbag from ebay in the appropriate colour, and mounted it in the appropriate space. Naturally, it's also wired to the (thoughtfully supplied) factory wiring. To carry that a bit more logically forward, I also procured the OEM dash-side warning sticker, and two OEM Fairlane visors, so that both seating positions now carry the appropriate airbag warnings.

Whilst in the donor Fairlane, I also procured the two front seats - which was why I was there in the 1st place -, which not only (IMHO) fit the theme better, but are also in better nick than the XR seats they are replacing. As a bonus, the driver's seat is 6-way electrically adjustable. I also scored some odds and ends, including plastic trim pieces (to cover the leading edge of seats rails etc), the back vent piece for the centre console with footwell light (still to be wired in), and the small "Ghia" door card bolt cover trim pieces. I also scored the two front "Ghia" floor mats, as I believe they convey the Fairlane theme a bit better than the included "XR" floor mats....

A few other odds and ends to be tidied up are:

Fuel sender to be cleaned up/replaced, as the fuel gauge (and hence trip comp. "range-to-empty") are all over the place.
LCDs in climate control are missing. (Common issue with these, I believe), so that will be pulled and sent off for repair).

I'll also replace the speedo transducer in the gearbox, so the speedo will read accurately, even with the 3.9 ratio diff installed in the ute.

So, a very solid base (thanks Matt!), from which to add one or two finishing touches. I'm reasonably confident that by the time we sell it, we'll leave it in even better condition than when we bought it (and that's saying something).

Sorry for the long post...

Michael