Vanilla Fitment - '95 FTO

[bjk]

Had our annual bonfire for our FTO club in Australia, 16 FTOs in total I believe. Here's a few shots, rest of them at the link. https://www.flickr.com/photos/129206829@N05/



Car of the Year edition.


Custom paint job just recently finished.


One of our growing ranks of boosted members Vectose. Currently putting out 15psi on a decompressed engine.

[bjk]

Well, some things got done, some things very much didn't. Took it around to my mechanic mate, and made good headway on a couple small things, disconnected the sub and just secured the amp in a simple way for the meantime; installed both the rear strut bar and also the rear sway bar as well. Just have to get an exhaust hanger as one of them has split and the exhaust is resting on the sway bar.

Thennn we got to the hub.



Not so good. I had been told that it'd been modified, and had also talked to two people about whether this would be a problem, but neither must have quite understood or I failed at explaining it sufficiently. But suffice to say, it wasn't going to be a straight swap over; and I didn't want to mutilate the hub I'd just acquired in the same way the ones on there had been.

Tim (my mechanic there) seems to be pretty certain that it is actually just the bearings that are shot, or the wrong size (and thus shot). So he's going to press them out at his workplace tomorrow and determine what is the case and we can go from there. The most favourable outcome is it just being the bearings, but if the actual hub is irreparable then I'll need to either get new brackets fabbed up (expensive) or acquire new brakes (more expensive, but at least they'll bolt on nicely without some cheap cutting and grinding of components and I'll feel more secure about it in the long run.

We'll see!

[bjk]

Finally got the front left hub for the white FTO, getting it installed on Sunday, along with the 22mm rear sway bar, the rear strut brace, and hopefully also disconnecting the sub so I can get it out of the boot.

Means I'll finally be able to drive it, which means I can get the guards rolled, and swap the stock wheels back onto the silver car so I can put the RPF1s on the white. Put a cat in, get it registered, and get on to selling the silver one.

[bjk]

Was together with some peeps and grabbed this okay shot of our three FTOs together. Mine in the middle and the white GPvR on my right, and custom champagne GS-chassised GR-engined one on my left.

[bjk]

[bjk]

Some quick pics after a decent wash. Pictures and white hide paint imperfections haha. Lot of rough surface, chips, stress lines etc.







Still not sure if brakes are behaving as they should, but passed the OK with the shop. Guess I'll see if machining makes any difference when it happens. Might also investigate getting a single spacer made up to centre the calipers as opposed to the oddment of washers at the moment.

[bjk]

beautiful

Cheers.

Took the car into my mates suspension shop, where they found the cause of the air bubble was the fact the calipers were on the opposite sides to what they should be. Thus the bleed nipple was on the bottom and not the top and therefore not flushing properly. Fixed up a couple small things as well, so fingers crossed they stop well now. Rotors will still likely need machining.

[electricalbox]

beautiful

[bjk]

The white one is great man. I love the advans but I think if you freshened up the calipers and the rpf1's if will look really good. What are the plans for the new car?

Cheers man, I must admit I will miss the lazy comfort of the automatic, but feeling those extra kws with the manual makes it worthwhile.

Most of the plans for the moment are fairly simple, given that essentially all of the financially viable work is already done (why I bought it). But basically when my bank balance has recovered I'll be sorting out the wheel hub/bearing, and getting the guards rolled flat as a pancake so I can squeeze the RPF1s on. I may get the lip rash on them fixed up, but not a priority.

The more exciting things will be fitting the 22mm rear sway bar (guy I bought the car off thought there was already a 22 on it, but we think it might only be a 18-20), and the rear strut brace, both of which made considerable difference for me before. I'll be taking the massive sub out of the back because I like a little bit of practicality. And yet later in the coming months I will be facelifting it with the same bar as below:



For the brakes, would really love to get them done up in the same colour scheme as here. But again, not yet a priority.

[mikey G]

The white one is great man. I love the advans but I think if you freshened up the calipers and the rpf1's if will look really good. What are the plans for the new car?

[bjk]

Almost wish I could keep them both.



Mate got all the good shit off my silver car, extractors, sway bar, strut braces.



Also discovered that while the bearings might've been replaced there is play in the hub on the passenger side so that'll have to be taken care of. Preliminary fit has determined RPF1s fit over the Brembo brakes though! Didn't grab a shot regrettably.

And have some pics from the travel halfway across Australia.

[bjk]

Small update for y'all. Picked up the car yesterday on the latter end of a road trip with friends. Impressively, before even knowing where the car was, my mate who booked the room at the hotel we stayed at got it less than 5 minutes up the road from the car! (go figure). Drove about halfway home today, around 8.5 hours, and 9.5 tomorrow!

Initial impressions are: Cusco needed to work on their differential design haha. Clunks on low speed corners which will take getting used to. And does whine constantly. Will just drown it out with music.

Paint is pretty rough: some scrapes and dull patches, panels need aligning. On the plus side, minimal roof rust apparent.

The manuals pull hard: 3rd gear has never been so exciting.

Brakes: the 4 pots pull up well. They do need pre-pumping sometimes however, suspect air in the line. Getting that checked out ASAP.

Will post some more pics when I get home and have recovered!

[bjk]

Looks very good.

Cheers!

love these damn cars....nice work man...

and damn you got some crazy laws in regards to to car modifications. I thought I had some shitty laws to deal with in Caligornia but shit at least ī dpnt gptta worry about wheel roating diameter!

Yeah, it's pretty shite. Aside from that encounter I haven't really had any trouble though so I'm pleased about that.

A detailer will just put a trim dressing on the plastics and what not. Better off painting what you can because it just dries up after a month or so depending on the product.

I think there's a detailer here which paints (but that was just looking at pics) will suspect it out.

[Thom]

A detailer will just put a trim dressing on the plastics and what not. Better off painting what you can because it just dries up after a month or so depending on the product.

[xavierb]

love these damn cars....nice work man...

and damn you got some crazy laws in regards to to car modifications. I thought I had some shitty laws to deal with in Caligornia but shit at least ī dpnt gptta worry about wheel roating diameter!