Hey guys.

After selling the xr6 turbo, then buying a 2004 sr5 Hilux...... Times have changed and its was time to sell the Hilux which was sitting in the garage getting driven once a month, as i have a work vehicle now and downsize to something alot cheaper and something comfy. I had been looking around for a few months from Foresters to falcons, Looked at a few at the auctions where they wanted to much money for the car you would purchase, not to mention the condition some of vehicles are in...... test drove a couple of cars including two Fairmonts and from there for the price and the luxury you get, a Fairmont is perfect. I wanted leather interior and premium sound with a budget. then thought id widen the search to interstate as i don't mind the idea of flying up or across and driving back, as well as the road worthy laws are a little relaxed in Victoria compared to New South Whales.

Id seen a Fairmont Ghia with the works located in Newcastle. A few phone calls later, and a friend of my old mans to go inspect the vehicle. i called the seller and offered him a price. which i thinks a steal which he was happy with and also said for that ill include a tank of fuel as well as pick me up from the airport. WIN WIN

The car is a 2003 Fairmont Ghia with all the bells and whistle's and just done 175.000kms
ill be flying up to Newcastle on Wednesday to pick her up in the morning and then drive her home.

Plans for the car once i get it home will be
Getting a road worthy.
Changing the plates over.
Lowering the height.
Window Tint.
Exhaust.

It will be a weekend car just to cruise around in when i need to go places i cant take the work car. Something that i can also tinker with as well as enjoy, My hands are always busy doing something!

The Photo's are from the Car Sales website

Note : in pic 3 that is not a dent, its a reflection.

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Last edited by lil_lincoln on Tue May 22, 2012 7:14 pm, edited 4 times in total.

couple more

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Looks good. Hang onto your ghia wheels they are like hens teeth

Well i flew up to Newcastle on Wednesday leaving Melbourne at 11:50am arriving in Newcastle at 1:20pm. Ben the owner met me at the airport, nice bloke and more than helpful. Inspection over the car found a few more issues than expected but i guess that is the risk you run. 2 of the biggest were the head lining sagging and the front leading edge on both front tires scrubbed right out. Engine bay looked like it had never been cleaned in its life. Leather interior was looking dry and the car needed a solid clean. On the positive the car drove really well everything works well and air con is ice cold. Drove Ben back to his house where we discussed the issues with the car and then i offered him another price. He accepted and i believe i got a bargain.

Left his house from there at around 2.30pm heading south back to Melbourne. Car drove smooth all the way home, could not fault it apart from the vibration at 90km in the steering wheel, believe it to be the tires and it needing a wheel alignment. stopped only for food and fuel, filled up once it hit half a tank and averaging 9.2 liters per 100km sitting on cruise control with the gps reading 110kph. Rain was constant and did not stop even once i got home, arriving at home at 1.55am

Tomorrow ill do an update of the stuff i have done to it, serviced the car today, replaced the cabin filter, to find i have a broken heater shaft (forgot the name) ill need to remove the dash next weekend, replaced the air filter aswell as the fuel filter. I have a bit of movement in the drivers seat, seems to be the motor which adjusts the seat angle had play in it, not to sure if this is a road worthy issue or not overall i am very happy with the price of the car for 177,000kms, also washed the engine bay out tonight where i got some water down cylinder 5 in turn killed the coil. ill get a replacement tomorrow.

alright so after getting the car home at 2 am on thursday morning i went to bed to go to work at 6 am. On the way home from work picked up some leather cleaner and conditioner. I knew the leather needed a good clean and started on the passenger seat.
BEFORE

i cant believe how well this stuff works.

AFTER



ill continue onto the other seats and show before and after photo's.

Yesterday after finishing work i stopped past autobahn to get some gear to service the ghia.


the cabin filter ehhhh


Air Filter


Fuel filter. i no you cant see anything but i took a photo anyway.....


just a trick i like to do when i change oil is to slide a garbage bag over the oil catch, this makes cleaning up a breeze just turn the bag inside out and i dont need to clean up any oil.


unwashed engine bay!


side


front seats


I need to take a couple of shots of the now washed engine bay ect. also the rest of the interior and ill give the car a polish today and clean the wheels. ill need to get a head lining from a wreck to replace the sagged one.

I am very happy with the car and paid $6500 for it. with the little work it needs im very happy

great effort with the pickup and drive mate.
shame about the dual zone mixer shaft but thats a common problem unfortunatly.
these new cars have too much plastic and compisit metals n shlt that breaks easy.

Nice work! That's a pretty good price I reckon, I was looking at a similar BA Ghia yesterday in a car yard for $14k... no thankyou!

They're very nice cars though and at the moment my first choice for my next car...one day.

spot on, way to much plastic all the mounting tabs break when you pull stuff apart. yeah ill pull the dash out next weekend to replace the shaft, get the old man to help me out with that. went to pick apart yesterday to look at how they come apart, it will be a day job but shouldn't be to hard.



thanks alot i like the ghia, just a cruiser that i can have for a while make it nice and pretty haha 14K little bit steep!

well friday night i thought it would be good to give the engine bay a quick once over at the car was because it was filthy, not caring to much about where i was spraying the water, killed a coil on cylinder 5, i bought the car with knowing that the 2nd cylinder coil was replaced by a mechanic 2 weeks before hand. so it gave me a reason to buy a set. looking over ebay, i found a set around the corner for $70.00 so i snapped them up. i no they are not genuine but for 70.00 you cant go wrong even if they come with a 12 month warranty to.
old

new next to old.

all installed.


also after i had done that the windscreen wipers had all the paint flaking off of them


so i hit them with the wire wheel on the drill and then followed up with a wet and dry 1500grit.


resprayed them in flat black


and fitted them back on the car.


after that i looked at the tow bar which was really rusty and same was done to it.





painted.



Purchased a new chrome tow ball aswell.
finished


was time to give the car a quick polish.






now just about to finish off the leather, fit a new windscreen, two front tires and wheel alignment, either repair or replace the head lining. and go get a road worthy.

Very nice mate. I'm quite thoroughly jealous! haha

thanks mate few other things need to be done but it will be nice once its done

getting everything done for a road worthy this week and once its got it ill book it in for window tint, lower it and put an exhaust on it

well as i got the car from nsw, ive been getting things ready for a road worthy, things on the list were
2 x front tires
roof lining sagged
front windscreen as it has a chip
exhaust manifold gasket as its leaking,
one tired exhaust hanger.
and just a general tidy up.

went and got the front tires done today to realise that the front pads need to be replaced. no big deal. whilst the car was getting a wheel alignment i took the chance to have a peek under the car, found all the front end bushes have been replaced with nolathane bushes. all the rear end bushes are in good condition. but the center bearing for the tail shaft has totally s**t itself. so off to bursons to invest in a new set of front pads, manifold gasket and center bearing. turns out to be 2 types of bearing a 30mm ID and a 35mm ID only a hand full of 30mm ones in aus and heaps of the 35mm ones. i got the 35mm one on the thought its just a falcon......... went home pulled the tail shaft out, removed the uni join, (rubber seals just perished in my hand) remove the old bearing to find i have the wrong bearing! mr angry came out. ill do a write up on this to show how its done diy without a press.

the car was suppost to get a new windscreen tomorrow but ill need to put it off untill
thursday.

the car is coming along and i hope to have it in for a roadworthy for friday

so as of now the car is sitting on jack stands in the shed waiting for its tail shaft to be reinstalled with a new center bearing (the right one!) and a new uni joint. ill post pics soon

Love the Fairmont I like that colour, it looks real good in the sunlight when its clean. One thing you might not have picked up on yet is she may have had a crash in the front. The headlights I believe on the Fairmonts are all chrome and not the pov spec black units. It might be worth dropping the front bumper off for a look at the structure beneith. I could be wrong and I may have come with the black lights because its a blue (dark) car maybe, but I'm 95% sure that the Futura's, Fairmonts and Fairlanes had the upspec chrome headlights. Regardless the car looks great and should be a NICE cruiser.

Nice car mate, I Love Fairmont Ghia's, I have a BF Mark II, in steel Blue, and I have the headlights with black inside them, I would say yours are right, maybe worth a check but being a BA

thanks for the kind words , in regards to the head lights i believe the darker coloured car's got black and the lighter colour car's got the silver as your talking about..... I went over the car really well before i purchased it. no taps in the front end all the rad support was straight to, mind you that was looking at the car with a torch and not having the bumper off itself, could be a weekend job as i think it needs to be re fitted anyway.

got the car finished off tonight after work.
how is this for a car parts store rip off.
for the 30mm center bearing the pricing is below at retail.
Bursons $173.85
Repco $183.00
Ebay $60.00

As i needed a 30mm center bearing today repco nor bursons had any in Victoria. I had a quick look on ebay and found a store located in East Bentleigh Vic who had 9 in stock and were posted on ebay for $60.00each Bargain i say! Purchased the bearing off ebay and picked it up today after work, Picked up a new uni joint from bursons for $23.00 and went home to install it all in the car.

After finishing re-installing the drive shaft i fitted new front pads to the car and a exhaust manifold gasket. No more leak! but still has a leak coming from the cat :-S ill try get away with it and if they pull it up on the road worthy...... out the welder will come.

The car now drives smooth as! no vibration in the steering wheel thanks to the old tires, no more clunks from the center bearing, alot less road noise in general aswell.

pics will be posted tomorrow.