Finished the drivers side of the chrome tape on the bump strips, except that I didn't buy enough of the stuff and now they have run out!!:






The car is up for rego in April so there are a few things that I need to fix before that time.

- Exhaust. I've been busy building up wife credits and a new PROPER system has been approved. I need a few more credits to get a couple new catalytic converters and have my eye on some magnaflow ones.

- Brakes. I bought and fitted new rotors and pads. It seems that the fronts have warped which gives me that old BA brake/steering wheel wobble feeling. Rotors need skimming.

- Automatic gearbox.[FIXED!!!] The car has been behaving strangely on light throttle. The gears have been going crazy, jumping up and down gears which I suspected of being the inhibitor/gear position switch. I did a diagnostic test on the TCM and sure enough my suspicions were confirmed. When I got up under the car, I saw that the heat shielding was not there and a wire to the gear position switch had shorted out on the LH cat. Fixed that up, cleared the fault codes on the TCM and a new diagnostic test reveals that the problem is fixed. Thank Ford for electronic diagnostic testing!!

- Tune up the LPG and a re-gas of the aircon.


People may remember the little project that I revealed in regards to my car PC. I'm going to be using my old Dell Inspiron notebook . This little project is MK1 and I hope to lay the platform knowledge wise on a more powerful and integrated setup. MK1 will be laptop, existing AM/FM tuner and existing speakers with a 7" or 8" touchscreen LCD VGA monitor mounted into the dash. Of course, I have to get past rego and then I'll start doing some work on this.

Alloy heads, rockers etc have also been put off until after rego. I have to spend money on my house. Priorities, priorities & home ownership.....

Looking real good man. Pitty you ran out of the chrome tape. You will have to pester them to get you some more!

Cheers

ToranaGuy

It's coming along nicely Banarcus, looks much better with the chrome striping

Have you got a Repco near you? You mentioned that you got the striping from Autobarn, but Repco does sell the Saas chrome pinstripe tape that Snap was talking about earlier - they come in 9mm as that is what i used on my EF (i think they go up to 12mm thickness) so you may be able to get some from there instead of waiting around for them to become available again at Autobarn, just a thought

I still have some of the chrome tape, I looked at the sides as mine are crap, how the hell do you get the side chrome strips off?

I used a razor blade to take off the clear plastic skin stuff before I painted them. Four years later, I have then added the chrome tape and so far so good. Sticks very well.

Some may recall my air con compressor endeavours, specifically where a particular mechanic said that an ex fitter-machinist couldn't possibly fix one with a seal kit. Well the place I booked the car in for a re gas had another mechanic there who said the same thing as well.

The bloke gassed the aircon but the compressor wouldn't engage. He couldn't get it to work so but said that if the compressor would engage, I would have cool air again but would need to return the car so that he could make sure it had enough gas in it. He shook his head and then let me go.

The problem turned out to be a dead air con relay. I have cool air again, for the price of a $5 seal and a $50 fee for a re gas and new filter/drier.

The car is going in today for a new exhaust. I bought some new magnaflow high flow cats. These will then join a twin 2.25" into a single 3" over the diff and out the back. The days of the functional twin system end today for legal reasons. Although I could get the pipe to clear protected fuel lines, the exhaust fitter wont do it so fair enough. Pictures this afternoon. Sound later.

Nice work on the a/c pump mate! Good on ya. I hate workshops who say "you can't / couldn't do it" when it comes to repairing something.

Cheers

ToranaGuy

yeah im getting the same s**t with the LPG parts, like surely replacing a few o-rings is ok, same s**t as aircon, and the LPG still needs to be tested for leaks before RWC anyways. $250 minimum to re-kit a converter/dryer thing.

i wish i knew someone who worked on LPG lol

Its a pain about the exhaust mate.
I went through the same thing when I got mine done. I wanted a twin system by hell or high water but noone really was interested in it because of the fuel lines.
I honestlythought I would be dissapointed with the 3" single but in all honesty Im not. It sounds good and made a very noticeable performance difference.

Well, it's done. It looks like a pretty good job. It has one 3" high flow muffler that is basically a straight through glass pack muffler with the 2 x 2.25" pipes from the new magnaflow cats flowing into it. This system has much better flow too, it's amazing how the motor revs freely compared to the old home made system. Probably something to do with the dead original cats that were 16 years old. The bad part is the drone. It will need a couple of hot dogs in the mid section to take the resonance out as it is painful at 1800-2000RPM. Enough chat, here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_XLYWHJcS4

Jeez that thing sounds mean!!

Shame to hear about the exhaust fitter not being able to do the twin system. I liked the tone the old twin system had (in one of your older video's), but this one sounds good too

sounds nice man. it does seem to rev freely

Well it could be worse, a 6 cylinder and the drone

I know but worser still, if ever there was a word, it sounds like a 6 cyl when it drones. It has definately gone backwards in the sound stakes all for the sake of rego time. With the foot down, it sounds like a V8 still.

I worked on a BA XR8 ute that sounded like a 6 right until you have it heaps, I would have taken it back to the exhaust shop which fitted the crap system.