thorne

I have been busy working away on the interior of the Darkside Garage Inc. Millennium Falcon Longreach. Still heaps to do.
 

 

 

 

 

 
 

I've had to do this twice, once for my XF (which were openable and had hinges), and once for my XH (which were fixed and did not open). Both times I got them out was using a Stanley knife and scored the window along the outside edges from the inside to cut through the silicon. Then (very gently!) push in from the outside: I actually taped a tea-towel to the inside after I finished cutting, so when I pushed the window back in, it would fall against something soft, rather then fall in and shatter (and @2redrovers is correct, those glass panes are fucking expensive). The XF was a bitch, because it was made to move and has holes punched through it, so the pane is a lot more fragile and needs the hinges unscrewed first.
 
I can't remember if the XG has fixed or hinged quarter windows.....?

I found a drunk under my car last night he was trying to pinch the wine out of the diff

Spare parts is definitely the main focus but Repco does also do car care, accessories etc Repco also has a usable website now so can even look on there

Yeah, will attempt to glue in the old one for now, but I appear to have talked myself into an upgrade over the last few days.   Besides, a unit with Bluetooth would be nice.....!
 
As most cars come with integrated music systems these days, I've found the hard way looking in brick-and-mortar stores there's not nearly as much demand for headunits these days, as the older cars slowly die out. Bit of a shame, really: how do modern car-owners customise their systems?

Sony also return to demo mode after power loss.
Ive considered replacing my head unit in the XF purely because of this haha. Every time I look at it it’s just bragging about all the things it can do and I’m just thinking “Fuck off Sony, I already bought you!”

Got a futon mattress for the back of the van.

 

still waiting on my wheel nuts, but that hasnt stopped me from driving the car. 
 
took it for a drive last night, in anger and frustration after having a pretty heated argument with my father. 
 
so just a few photos i took of it. 
 

 

 

I use a futon in mine, which is light enough to wedge itself around the wheel arches, and plenty of space for storage (Esky, toolboxes, etc) furter along. I have plenty of insulating rubber between the tray and the futon (I had that custom-cut by Clark's Rubber for my old XF panelvan years ago), so when I lie on it I don't feel the tray underneath me. It's comfy enough for me for a decent kip.

If bang for buck is your biggest determining factor, just put a Barra in it. You could buy a whole Barra for next to nothing and install it with its loom for stupid cheap. Have a look in the member builds at the xf race car one of the members built. It goes hard.  
 
The speedway boys throw Cams and a tune at them and get 275rwhp (manually shifted) without raising a sweat.  As said above, to make that power from a xflow you need to be sick in the head like me and many others on here.  But hey it's horses for courses. People still build fast Holden red motors......
 
The Barra conversion is relatively straight forward as many have done it. 

well here it is. 13s finally fitted to the car. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Ok so I am pretty wrapped with the way its come up. 
When i first fitted them and lowered the car down off the jack, i immediately wanted to put the 15s back on. i did not like them haha. 
but the more i look at the car, with the ride height, and the dish on the wheels, and the negative camber up front, the more I really like these wheels  
 
It has opened a new can of worms however  
Im going to remove the drums and paint them. it looks shocking now that I can see the rusty drums, and I desperately need to sort out some centre caps for the wheels. 
 
It drives much  much better. the vibration/shudder is 99% gone. its so minor now it feels like the road surface being rough is the only thing causing vibrations. however I am going to loosen all the tapered wheel nuts, and carefully do them up to make sure the wheels are properly seated and central on the hubs. otherwise, I am happy  

this is one of the images from the weekend. because of the social attitude towards drones, it can be hard to just put them up and get some photos. i only had mine in the air for all of about 10 minutes before i gave up on the weekend. 

I bought a car cover from Supercheap Auto for the panelvan - strangely enough, no one makes them for the panelvan shape any more, had to buy a Large/X-Large for SUVs and even then it barely fit it! - for $150, made for outdoors (rain and dust). It was a cheapie option, but it does the trick: even this "cheap" version has elastics to draw the cover under the chassis - it's low enough to sit halfway down the rims - and has a couple of access flaps (so if you roll your windows down before you put the cover on you can still access the inside of the car without opening the door and still be protected from the weather). It also came with its own bag to fold into when it's not on the car. I guess I'd probably prefer to weigh it down in the case of a hurricane, but because the panelvan is a fairly bulky shape the cover won't really blow off of its own accord unless it's really nasty outside.
As the panelvan usually sat under a car cover behind a fence, it was semi-protected from the wind and heavy rain: now that I stable it inside a roller-door garage, it's more or less become just a dust cover now, although it does allows me to stack boxes on the bonnet without fucking up the paint. 

I bought a car cover from Supercheap Auto for the panelvan - strangely enough, no one makes them for the panelvan shape any more, had to buy a Large/X-Large for SUVs and even then it barely fit it! - for $150, made for outdoors (rain and dust). It was a cheapie option, but it does the trick: even this "cheap" version has elastics to draw the cover under the chassis - it's low enough to sit halfway down the rims - and has a couple of access flaps (so if you roll your windows down before you put the cover on you can still access the inside of the car without opening the door and still be protected from the weather). It also came with its own bag to fold into when it's not on the car. I guess I'd probably prefer to weigh it down in the case of a hurricane, but because the panelvan is a fairly bulky shape the cover won't really blow off of its own accord unless it's really nasty outside.
As the panelvan usually sat under a car cover behind a fence, it was semi-protected from the wind and heavy rain: now that I stable it inside a roller-door garage, it's more or less become just a dust cover now, although it does allows me to stack boxes on the bonnet without fucking up the paint. 

yep that's the spoiler! Am guessing your at Alfa Fiberglass?
I still have my spoiler under the house although it needs some minor repairs, that bar hated speed humps.
Here is a pic of my old Millenium
 

OK 1 crossflow ready for another life,this was just a block this morning.

Look your door with the key manually, and then the car will be locked and lights stay on for their pre-determined time. Took me a while to realise that in my FG.

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It's one of the reasons I actually keep the LPG system on my XH panelvan: it's great for long-distance travels (650km total on full tank of petrol, plus 500km on full tank of LPG), and as someone already mentioned, should the fuel pump seize you can still at least continue onwards. Okay, so you shouldn't tow on LPG and you don't have as much power on LPG than on petrol, but if you're doing highway/freeway driving without the city stop-start habits, having another fuel source is handy.
Really it comes down to the price of the fuel and operating costs. Even with the price of LPG going up recently, it's still cost-effective to run on LPG compared to petrol. Most of the time, money saved in daily operation will easily outweigh the price needed for re-inspection/tank re-stamping. Then again, I specifically looked for a Ford panelvan that was already converted because the advantages of another cheaper fuel source still trump the alternatives of it without.
Ultimately it depends on what you want out of your vehicle. If you want more performance from your engine and eliminate wiring, converters and the tank to save on weight, then trash it. Otherwise it's too handy. Yes there are performance panelvans, but most of them (like mine) are still being used for dailies or work purposes where having LPG is still advantageous even today.

in Victoria the retest of tank can be done for under $150.. lines etc don't need changing unless obviously bodgy..
as for running cost Vs petrol 
gas 15 litres per 100km at 70cents a litre = $10.50 per 100km
petrol.. people have got down to 8litres per 100km but i never got better than 12 so $15 per 100km is on average.. 
driving 10,000kms a year $1000 of fuel on gas..
driving 10,000kms on petrol $1500..  
naturally heaps of kms(i was doing 50,000 a year in an XF.. fuel savings were justified..)
another note, My XG fuel pump died... .. handy when you can still drive on gas, especially on road trips. also doubles the distance to servos when both fuels work
 

Mythbusters proved the golf ball effect on a car was more efficient.. even with the added weight of the clay they troweled

Just picked the FGX from Ford 1hr ago, and thought I'd ask about it.
For Sync1, yep, it's as you said. However, the guy I spoke to had to check with two others, um'ing and uh'ing, and the verdict still wasn't 100%, so clearly even they are a bit uncertain of the process. They don't get a lot of FGs/Sync1 Nav updates I guess.....?
Sync2 is covered for the next 7 years, either via dealer or online USB flash-key downloads.
Sync3 is different still, as apparently Ford suggests connecting the system to the Internet via wi-fi and it updates itself in the background, including maps apparently.

Jeez, and to think I got the maps in my FGX (running Sync2) updated so easily! Details in my FGX Showroom thread if interested.
Ford Australia guarantee free map upgrades for 7 years (on regular servicing of the car, one free map update a year) until September 2024 at the latest....but only those runnnig Sync2 ICCs. After a quick check I can't find any such agreements for those running Sync1 systems, and even the Ford Navshop are only offering AU v19/NZ v8 for FG Falcons (doesn't specify MkI or MkII), but AU23/NZ12 for other non-Falcon models. WTF?
It might be possible that Ford dealerships may update Sync1 maps like they do Sync2, but probably only if you bring it to them for servicing, which really doesn't answer your question. Sorry. 

For those dead bugs stuck to your bumper after a weekend away, stretch a soaking wet beach towel over the area and leave for an hour. Then wash off as normal.

Figured I'd chuck these here so they don't get lost in the off topic.

Starting point

First version

Shortened to same wheelbase as a '16 ranger

With ranger ghost for comparison

The way I did the rear pillar /window is more like a sedan but actually neither ute or sedan exactly. The rear door is a blend of rear and front door sections. Tub is shorter too. I think I liked the more upright pillar but this uses standard glass everywhere.

That's gold, quote of the year