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Kustom_FTO's Log.

Posted: Fri Apr 30, 2010 10:00 pm
by Kustom
Hello everyone.

Okay, many people saw my new car (J's old car) down at the bonfire and saw what condition it was in (not the best) and I have promised to keep updates for everyone and after a pathetic attempt to keep everyone updated through PM's I figure its just easier to make a thread. :P

Keep in mind I wrote this all at once and may have missed out info / not made any sense whatsoever and doubled up many times. :P
So just quote me on it and will fix it up :P.

I'll get it started with some basic information.



I originally test drove and even went down to the bonfire with his 18" SSR's, and I knew with this front bar it would be low, but I didn't think about later on, when we got stockies for it (because I didn't pay for the SSR's (not a huge fan)). So it dropped even further. Pathetically Low, almost bad enough to not drive it all.
All the consoles where smashed, Stereo didn't work, and half of the interior was painted a faded red. And as everyone else saw, it had some preety bad rust in the roof (yes its common in the sunroof models). :spew:

While on that note, down at the bonfire I had lots of people give me a hand take out all of the console pieces(Thanks everyone), had taffy pull out stereo, re-wire it, and even test another stereo in there for me, and believe me or not, it worked...

When we were swapping over the rims. After doing so I moved the car and noticed an oil leak... It looked preety bad, within 15mins it had at least 15drops there... Was very concerned and checked oil levels - they looked low at the time as well. Oliver with the GPvR (he's on here somewhere), a friend of J's is a mechanic at Holden and was able to get it on a hoist before I left for my fun filled trip back to Brisbane(sarcasm) and it looked real bad, there was oil all along the..... urgh... the long bar that goes down passenger side of the car(not to sure what its called) and another mechanic there told me it was a rear main seal and if i was planning on driving back to brisbane without getting it fixed I should just buy some real cheap oil and check on the way down every 1 1/2 hours and top it up if need be...

I packed up and left and did so, checked every 1 1/2 hours on the way down and I couldn't notice it going down whatsoever, stayed in between the two notches. As I was driving back to Brisbane I thought id pass through and see my mechanic (Joe n Riks) and see what he thought of the car and I needed to book it in for a RWC (so I can transfer it into my name). He told me that it was too low (yeah no sh*t) and needed to be raised to at least pass my RWC, and to get the rust cutout.

After getting home and planning it out what was my highest priority's to be done, and how much each was going to cost, I figured after driving all the way down here and not loosing oil that I should just smack bang out the rust as I thought it would be the most expensive to be done...
I got 3 quotes, First one was $1200, second was $1500 and lucky last was $800. I had a look at all of their work and asked them when they were able to get me in, the first 2 had a month waiting list, the third guy i had to wait 3 days (i ended up going with him). Was very nice and I went down to checkup on him to make sure he wasn't doing a dodgy job and just bogging it up and painting it, On the day I drove down he had already cut it out and plated it, I will post pics of the rust he cut out at the end of this thread.

While I waited to get my car in (3days) I Replaced some more of the red faded pieces in the interior, and had the stereo checked out by a mob up here, they got it working but they said the wiring was fucked ( which I saw after they un-taped it, but luckily it was still working, so they re-wired it for a little fee for me and i put it in but no bingo, so they thought it was a fuse, but it was wierd because I checked all the fuse at the bonfire, so I had another look over the fuse box translations (thanks Dwayne for Completefto.com) and realised I was missing a fuse - got another one and bingo, it works, also fixed my air conditioning was resetting every time I turned off my car and my clock wasn't working so now its all good (though my interior lights still arn't working - I'm guessing they are just blown).

The smash repairer (that was doing my roof) said it would be done in 4 days..... He worked across from Joe n Riks and rick was the one who referred me to him & told me he did some good work, so I got Rik to pick up the car after it was done, Rick said to put in some 2nd hand fto springs in and do the RWC would only take 1/2 day so he'd do it asap... Figures I dropped my car in at the Smash Repairer on Monday(19th) and picked it up today (Friday - 30th) So it went at a little over the ETA but that's what you get.. right?

Okay. So I picked up the car today had a nice chat to Rick, first of all, he said the leak wasn't bad at all, he had it on the hoist from 8am - 4pm (Got interrupted a lot apparently) and it hadn't dropped one bit of oil. So thats a relief.
But he said he couldn't pass me on the RWC because of the following: So a few questions in here aswell.

1.Rear Engine mount is shot - He said he can order a brand new one for $110 and put it in for $60 labour, is this good?
2.Rear Exhaust pipe has some holes in it on the bend near the Muffler - Plan to get a varex system in there so not to worried.
3.No Parker lights due to the Facelift T's factory front bar... Where can I get some aftermarket ones?
4.Rear tyres don't have enough tread - Nps i can get 2nd hand ones as I plan to get some new rims in the future anyway.
5.Brake pedal has no rubber on it - nps easy fix.
6.My Right hand mirror the glass wobbles abit

So yeah.. that's where I'm up to at the moment, I guess I may as well chuck up what I plan to do to the car as well after I fix everything else up.

1)Rusted roof fix. [DONE]
2)Stock springs bought/installed. [DONE]
3)RWC & Leak Fix.
4)Service.
5)Paint Front bar.
6)Side skirts (Dwayne's GB)
7)Paint/install Side Skirts.
8)Air conditioning fix.
9)Exhaust System.
10)Rims/tyres.
11)Alarm / remote central locking
12)Dials.
13)Leather seats.
14)Green Carbon fibre dip interior.
15)Carbon Fibre door sills.
16)HID's.
17)New sound system.

Keep in mind I will remember other things and this isn't a set order but I generally prefer to smash out the expensive sh*t first.

So I've got a fairly big wish list. :( But I plan to stick at it and get it all done.. After this if i'm happy i'll be moving onto swapping a Mivec in there and a Manual Gearbox. Ive got 2 years left on my P's then i'll be looking at either dropping in a 6A13 or a turbo on there so not sure which way I wanna go about it but it'll only be something running really low boost, I'm not a huge fan of racing but would just like that extra power :P

Thanks for reading guys, and I will update as I go along.

Heres some pics as well - I'll start off with the rust.
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Re: Kustom_FTO's Log.

Posted: Sat May 01, 2010 1:54 am
by Fto_Jason
Far outt man; wicked effort on the fixup already, I guess i should start up a list like that :P but looks like you have some goals set.. good luck with it all :)

Re: Kustom_FTO's Log.

Posted: Sat May 01, 2010 2:27 am
by Kustom
Haha thanks bro.

Yeah well I gotta set goals otherwise it'll just go on booze. :P

Re: Kustom_FTO's Log.

Posted: Sat May 01, 2010 3:08 am
by mr-charisma
Hey mate, do you have any pics of the roof after the rust removal was finished? Or can I drop round and check it out sometime? Will take you for a spin in the turbo beast :lol: need to get some rust fixed up while it's not too bad.. Did the guy finish it at the quoted price? Abs was that including repainting?

Re: Kustom_FTO's Log.

Posted: Sat May 01, 2010 6:17 am
by J
finally getting the love it deserved...

p plate hasnt moved either LOL

after-rust pics?
doing a great job mate

Re: Kustom_FTO's Log.

Posted: Sat May 01, 2010 1:20 pm
by Kustom
Hey guys,

Im at work at the moment but when I get time I gotta give her a clean an will take some new pics of the roof.

@mr charisma - Yes he did finish it at quoted price Which did include painting, and yeh your more then welcome to have a look at the job done.

@J - Yeah dude by the time I'm finished with this thing you probably wouldn't even be able to recognize it! Haha I like to take care of my cars as much as possible.

Will update soon,
kustom_FTO

Re: Kustom_FTO's Log.

Posted: Sat May 01, 2010 7:52 pm
by aza013
Doing a great job mate well done :D

Re: Kustom_FTO's Log.

Posted: Sat May 01, 2010 8:55 pm
by dstocks
+1

Doing great. At the rate youre going, im sure itll look good as new before you know it.

Re: Kustom_FTO's Log.

Posted: Sat May 01, 2010 9:09 pm
by Astron_Boy
We all expect to see it at next year bonfire looking pretty as a picture :D

Great effort.

the cost to do your mount is generous.
Good luck finding a mount though, I was lucky to get the last one from Dwaynes collection. :D

Re: Kustom_FTO's Log.

Posted: Sat May 01, 2010 10:34 pm
by Kustom
Astron_Boy wrote:We all expect to see it at next year bonfire looking pretty as a picture :D

Great effort.

the cost to do your mount is generous.
Good luck finding a mount though, I was lucky to get the last one from Dwaynes collection. :D
Joe n Ricks can order them in, so yeah he said $110 for a brand new one & he said they normally last about 6 years, sound correct?

Thanks.
aza013 wrote:Doing a great job mate well done :D
dstocks wrote:+1

Doing great. At the rate youre going, im sure itll look good as new before you know it.
Thanks guys, appreciate it. I do plan to have it looking a lot better by next Bonfire. :)

mr-charisma wrote:Hey mate, do you have any pics of the roof after the rust removal was finished? Or can I drop round and check it out sometime? Will take you for a spin in the turbo beast :lol: need to get some rust fixed up while it's not too bad.. Did the guy finish it at the quoted price? Abs was that including repainting?
Hey mate, got home today and while i was at work I had a proper look over the roof ...

I'm going to get flamed for this but I picked the car up on friday night and I couldn't see properly and I know you guys are all (DONT LEAVE UNTLIL YOUR HAPPY WITH IT) and all but I really needed the car and it looked fine at night. But now in the day time, I can see in 3 spots there is like where he's sanded back and yeah I dunno, i'll definately go back and see if i can get him to fix it, dunno how well I'll go about it though.

P.S i'll get some pictures of the roof once I clean it, never know they could come out with a Cut & Polish but don't think so...

Your still more then Welcome to come have a look at it. Not sure when you work or anything but I work all weekend and Mon-Wed Nights but during the day i'm generally doing something with the car or sitting around on the computer :lol:

Been thinking about it all day actually - Because ive found some small dings around the place aswell (not really noticeable) but i'm kindof thinking if I wanna just get it all fixed and get a respray. Might work out cheaper if I can just buy the panels from Dwayne that I need if they are straight then it would be to get all mine beaten out and all...

I'll give it some more thinking and find out some quotes to get a respray - id be looking at staying the same colour as I don't wanna rack up a huge bill at the moment.

Thanks everyone guys, I'll keep you updated!

Re: Kustom_FTO's Log.

Posted: Sun May 02, 2010 4:07 am
by dstocks
Joe n Ricks can order them in, so yeah he said $110 for a brand new one
Thats a good price for new ones. Youll not likely find a cheaper one.

Re: Kustom_FTO's Log.

Posted: Sun May 02, 2010 9:40 am
by Kustom
dstocks wrote:
Joe n Ricks can order them in, so yeah he said $110 for a brand new one
Thats a good price for new ones. Youll not likely find a cheaper one.
Okay sweet - thanks, I had already have him order one in anyway :P

Re: Kustom_FTO's Log.

Posted: Sun May 02, 2010 7:43 pm
by FTO_GPvR
Great effort mate. Well done, your doing a good job :D
Its going to look good as new once your finished :D

Re: Kustom_FTO's Log.

Posted: Sun May 02, 2010 9:24 pm
by Kustom
FTO_GPvR wrote:Great effort mate. Well done, your doing a good job :D
Its going to look good as new once your finished :D
Thanks mate,

Yeah sure it'll look good once i'm done - I just wish I didn't have to fix up everything first. It will set me back a fair bit but yeh gotta do what has to be done right!?

Will update as things happen,

Thanks guys.

Re: Kustom_FTO's Log.

Posted: Mon May 03, 2010 1:15 am
by silverGPX
mate all this stuff seems a bit like my car haha, might come down and visit ya and we will work on em together.
just waiting for mine to get back from the panel shop, getting side skirts, rear bar and dcuatro rear apron fixed up and
sprayed along with my boot being despoilered and sprayed, its only costing me 450 and he also quoted me 500 to fix the roof rust.

Re: Kustom_FTO's Log.

Posted: Mon May 03, 2010 1:17 am
by silverGPX
If you want when you come up here to do your aircon i can get my guy to quote you on a respray,
does very good work, already done a fair few fto's now. just takes a little time thats all, do you have a second car to run around in?

Re: Kustom_FTO's Log.

Posted: Mon May 03, 2010 10:39 am
by Kustom
silverGPX wrote:If you want when you come up here to do your aircon i can get my guy to quote you on a respray,
does very good work, already done a fair few fto's now. just takes a little time thats all, do you have a second car to run around in?
Yeah, thats what my mums car is for - right?. It sits at home anyway :P

Ummm. Yeah dude that guy seems more then reasonable on price, I wonder how much he would charge to paint a front bar and paint & install side skirts. Heh.

Re: Kustom_FTO's Log.

Posted: Mon May 03, 2010 10:58 am
by silverGPX
ill ask him for you either today or tommorow when i go down there to check on my car.

Re: Kustom_FTO's Log.

Posted: Mon May 03, 2010 11:33 am
by rock_it
Top job mate .. Good to see another Black FTO coming back to good repair .. Love the look of these things in black ...

Re: Kustom_FTO's Log.

Posted: Mon May 03, 2010 9:38 pm
by Gholdwayne
wow this is monster effort man, i never thought you would go for a full respray and fix those small body imperfections, thats good man! and if you're going for a respray, are you staying with the stock pyranese black ? pretty sure it wont be too expensive as it looks like an easy color for paint