user272

I had a brake fluid leak on my old BA a few years ago, before It was found my mechanic said to test if its the booster/master cylinder to pump the pedal with the ignition off until it goes firm, then start the engine with your foot still firm on the pedal and see if it pulls in. Pulling in being normal operation.

Sounds like an air bubble has worked it's way in. Spongy and inefficient.
 
Do you have a big vacuum booster on there.?? Is the vacuum line blocked, or fallen off ??

Simple fact is that noone will be able to restore a plastic car even if they wanted to. Fast-forward 30 yrs and there will be no stockpile of plastic parts like guys hoard steel panels. No one will invest money to remake plastic bars etc for current cars by then due to the expense and reliance on petroleum components for manufacturing.
 
You'll have the odd enthusiast making hand made panels from a composite material but the cost would be huge. I'm sure you fellas with early plastic barred cars will already be noticing a difficulty in finding replacements and it will just become harder as time goes on.
 
Forgive the rantings of an old fashioned metal man.

What shits me about it is that what we drove is/was different to everywhere else in  the world. We had our own identity. You knew you were in Oz.
 
What's the point of travel if everywhere is the same...McDickheads on every corner and Kia's & Hyundia's in all the parks. 

It will sought of be like that era again after the falcon is gone with nissan xf utes and mazda tx-5's ? Then ford put the 5.0L in the eb and thought eerrr we should av kept the v8 as a option in the xf and ea,honestly a 5.0 windsor roller would have gone so well in a xf ghia or s pack with a t5 .

With the old cars, further back you go the more likely that it's enamel paints. You get the nice patina from enamel because as it ages and degrades, it powders up with a chalky oxide an slowly falls away. A lot of metals were used in oxide forms to generate the pigments and flow characteristics of enamel, some of which I'm sure were zinc which would have helped protect the metal along the way.
 
Later paint is acrylic and then 2k, which will go porous as it breaks down, allowing moisture to penetrate. Because the paint is more like a plastic sheet covering the panel, it keeps its structure longer, trapping the moisture under the surface and allows deep rust to grow. Eventually the paint looses its ability to hold together and flakes off instead of powdering off.
 
I think the high temp paint is more like an enamel base too. When you add in the heat cycling I think you'll find that the cold gal isn't behaving the same way any more and would have a different bond and degradation effect.
 
When they say it's not a suitable base, it's not that it won't work or that it won't work for a while, it's more that the results are not able to be guaranteed to give you what you want. There's a lot of variables and sometimes it will work ok, others will be disastrous results that haunt you no matter what you do with it.

Someone with more paint experience can correct me if I'm wrong, but as I understand it cold gal / zinc isn't what you would call a stable surface. The nature of zinc as a self sacrificing agent to prevent rust by converting to zinc oxides would mean that paint layer over the top wouldn't get the solid anchor hold it needs to bond permanently. Eventually as the zinc began to break down under the paint, it would create powdery oxide layer and allow the top coat to bubble and peel off. It would happen slower under paint than an exposed zinc surface but would still happen.
 
I believe you can use turpentine based paints over zinc rich coatings, but it's still not truly long-term adhesion.
 
(no offence taken if I'm incorrect)

Hope you get on top of it soon mate, Nothing worse than doing that fiddly shit over and over.

Cunuva job! Here's a pic of the other mirror, this one hasn't been ass snapped!
Nice black shiny 2k, this is the result i'm after.
 

I sprayed my mirrors with rattle can acrylic as I was lucky enough that it comes in silver grey, I rubbed back the old paint before using the plastic primer filler that I used on the bumpers then sprayed the colour and clear.
Mine came up great but i have once had a reaction very similar to your description which was because I tried to make enamel and acrylic be friends when I sprayed my wiper arms.
 
I used all acrylic products on my mirrors, Ill have a look through the shed and see if I can find what brand primer I used.
 
 
Pretty sure the primer I used was Motospray bumper prime & sand also just rattle can. Mine needed a bit of work to neaten up when I started.

to much reading in here my head hurts

all I can read is blar injector electronic blar blar cant find anything refering to a turbo so im out

good looking TBs but jonstons did this in the late 90s 11.7 and driven to the track not bad for a 250 back then

They couldn't drive past a Krispy Kreme without stopping and created an uncontrolled desire in the driver to pull over any nice lowered cars "just for routine checks"

Well many have said that the crossflows days are done. Well I say nope. Why?
 
Because the weekend just gone, 68 modified productions took to Lismore Speedway to battle for the Australian Modified sedan title for 2015-16.
 
Everything from BA/FG Falcons to latest model v something alloy tec Commodores. Throw in a couple of old Cortys, xf's and VL Commodores as well.
 
And the fastest car and highest point scorer from the heats was a big xf falcon with solid roller cam crossflow goodness. Yep good old crossflow power sitting there on pole at the national title.
 
And we would have had Australia 1 if it were it not for a deflating RR tyre!!!!! But all was not lost as a Ford still won, all be it a BA. The good old crossflow grunted on for very commendable 3rd.
 
If your on Facebook get onto Ash Media and watch the final laps. Watch Gavin in his all conquering crossflow powered XF giving it to the late models. Its pretty damn impressive effort. Yes Gavin can wheel but it still takes serious mumbo to stay competitive against the late model cars.
 
Long live the Crossflow !!

So does my missus,but jeez it leaves a nasty red stain in the sink.

Yeah the xf rocks

Thanks heaps for the replies guys.
This proved to be far to fiddly for me so after hours of trying to make it work, a lot of swearing and the death of an innocent iphone who was just in the wrong place at the wrong time I decided to call upon a lock smithing wizard.
This guy was a fucking genius, he said its an anti theft feature so the car cant be started without the key and then got out some dentist tools to click it back into place.
At first he said the column may need to come out but after a couple of tries he fixed it while in position.
The car still needs to go to Ford about the intermittent starting issue but at least now I wont be getting it towed there.
 
No more tools on this car, sticking with the XF from now on...
Thanks again guys.

Thanks heaps for the replies guys.
This proved to be far to fiddly for me so after hours of trying to make it work, a lot of swearing and the death of an innocent iphone who was just in the wrong place at the wrong time I decided to call upon a lock smithing wizard.
This guy was a fucking genius, he said its an anti theft feature so the car cant be started without the key and then got out some dentist tools to click it back into place.
At first he said the column may need to come out but after a couple of tries he fixed it while in position.
The car still needs to go to Ford about the intermittent starting issue but at least now I wont be getting it towed there.
 
No more tools on this car, sticking with the XF from now on...
Thanks again guys.

Thanks heaps for the replies guys.
This proved to be far to fiddly for me so after hours of trying to make it work, a lot of swearing and the death of an innocent iphone who was just in the wrong place at the wrong time I decided to call upon a lock smithing wizard.
This guy was a fucking genius, he said its an anti theft feature so the car cant be started without the key and then got out some dentist tools to click it back into place.
At first he said the column may need to come out but after a couple of tries he fixed it while in position.
The car still needs to go to Ford about the intermittent starting issue but at least now I wont be getting it towed there.
 
No more tools on this car, sticking with the XF from now on...
Thanks again guys.

Option B - if you can't find the leak, remove engine & replace with clevo. 

One day I plan to be as smart as you Dave, If you were a centipede, you'd be a good one.

All hail to the soothing sounds of Metallica whilst sorting out satans handiwork.
 
Righto, where the hell do i begin. Fuel pump wiring checked out fine. 1st problem out of the way.
 
2nd, get into the fuse panel again and look for where the short is coming from. Check.
 
Found that if i pulled the eecV relay the short on the eng fuse went away. Righto.
 
Check for shorts on the eecV relay wires, found 1. On the bloody red feed wire that powers everything that the ecu sees... Damn.
 
Traced the harness back until i got under the air box, then i found this little demon hiding in the shadows.
 

 
You see that innocuous looking self tapper screw above the 3 wires that are all torn up? That was dead set driven through the centre of the loom pulling it hard into the inner guard.
 
Thank you to the panel beater who screwed that back in after it's large front end impact.
 
So, all fixed now. Wires reinsulated, loom rewrapped (and wrapped in a piece of heater hose just to be sure to be sure) and the little bastard of a screw cut short.
 
Since we have owned the car we have had only 3 issues with it (in 3 years).
 
1 - Every time you hit the starter the battery would blow (The red wire in the middle is the starter solenoid wire)
 
2 - The neutral safety switch was ineffective (The red/Blue wire above the starter wire is one of the 2 neutral safety wires)
 
3 - The ENG fuse would blow when the ignition would turn on (The red wire at the bottom of the loom)
 
All sorted with some beer, frustration and some sailor speak.
 
Thank you for all the suggestions, very helpful.
 
Onto the next drama.....

He'd definitely be a good centipede.
 
Become a centipede you should!

One day I plan to be as smart as you Dave, If you were a centipede, you'd be a good one.

One day I plan to be as smart as you Dave, If you were a centipede, you'd be a good one.