2006 Fpv Tornado F6 Ute - Cleanup & Resurrection

[PhilMeUp]

Back in July I bought a 2005 BA MkII XR6 Turbo ute at auction. I figured that I’d try it out and see if I got any use out of it.

It was unlicenced and needed some repairs. This took a while, but once I got it on the road I was hooked on the turbo 6 straight away.

With a couple of weeks I wanted more. More power. And the 6 speed ZF transmission instead of the crappy 4 speed.

And then a 2006 FPV BF Tornado turned up in an auction web site listing. I obsessed about it for a week and decided that I’d have a go at buying it.

With auctions it’s important to set your financial limits and be emotionlessly disciplined about sticking to those limits. In the heat of the moment you can end up paying far more than you can justify or afford.

On the day, the auction for the FPV started fairly slowly with an opening bid of $3,000. Bidding was fairly slow, and I figured that this one might just be the gift of the year.

However, although not particularly rapid, the bidding just kept on continuing. Although the bidding was approaching my pre-set limit, I decided that I could always earn more money by working more, but getting an FPV Tornado at auction was a once-off opportunity. I decided that this car was going to be mine, and subsequently was the highest bidder.

The auction price was $10,800 but auction fees took that up to $11,800. The cheapest, decent condition 2006 Tornado advertised anywhere at the time was $18,000 so I figured I did ok. My hope of buying the car in the $8,000 - $10,000 range might have been a tad optimistic.

However, this one is a mess. I had quickly assessed that there was no major permanent physical damage but cleaning this thing up is going to take some work.

Being a repossession, it also didn’t have any keys. However, I already had some suitable key blanks at home, knew a locksmith who could cut them and an auto electrician who could code them to the car.

Over the next few weeks I’ll get this thing cleaned up and hopefully licenced. There won’t be any major modifications at this stage - I want to get the car working properly first.

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Wednesday, 19th November, 2014

Photos taken on the auction day:

[PhilMeUp]

Friday, 21st November, 2014

I picked up two cut keys for the car. I had two spare blanks at home and had taken them to a locksmith. He got the cutting codes from Ford and cut the keys for me. That was the easy part.

Pickles Auctions have a policy that states that vehicles in salvage auctions can only be removed from the premises via tow truck or on a trailer. They can’t be driven out.

Not knowing this, I got there on Friday and wasn’t able to get the Tornado out of there, despite it being undamaged and drivable.

It was getting close to closing time when I asked one tow truck driver for a price to move the car from one side the gate to the other. He wanted $50 for a couple of minutes. No way.

Another driver wanted the same price, but I haggled that down to $20. I waited by the exit gate for a while and finally one of the Pickles staff came up to me and said that the driver had changed his mind and would no longer do it. It was now almost 5pm and there was no way I was going to get the car out for the weekend.

Very pissed off by now.

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Monday, 24th November, 2014

On Monday I was still trying to figure out how to get the car out of there and running without wasting money. To get the keys coded to the car I ended up getting a mobile locksmith to go to Pickles for $110.

When I took the keys to Pickles I again asked why I couldn’t just drive the car out of there. The girl made a phone call and this time got permission for me to drive it home.

I had other things to do, so returned there shortly before 5pm, set up a Temporary Movement Permit with my laptop and was finally able to start the car. Once I remembered to press the start button on the dashboard.



As this car had been repossessed I was curious if there was anything dramatic wrong with it. Luckily, it drove just like it should.

Once I got it home it was time to get to work on it. Finally.

The first thing was to get rid of whatever engine oil was in there. With the way that the car had clearly been neglected previously it was obvious that whatever oil there was would be well overdue for replacing.

Sure enough, what came out was almost black.



Underneath, and particularly the sump area, was a mess.



I had bought two 20L drums of Gulf Western semi-synthetic oil a few days earlier so put 6 litres in.



I got my brake fluid tester out and confirmed that the brake fluid was also overdue for replacement.



Everywhere I looked there was mess of some sort. This was behind the passenger seat.



The previous owner obvious had a dog that went with him everywhere. The passenger side floor was covered in old dog hair.



More dog hair on the passenger seat.



I removed the wheels and put on my set. There was plenty of rust between the disc rotor and wheel bearing hub. I’ll sort that out later with a drill and wire brush.



There was still a part number label on one of the front springs, as well as a part number on the shock absorber. The spring part number confirmed that the car has been lowered - that’s a Lovell Sport Low spring.



There was also plenty of rust on the rear disc rotors.



I got the drill and wire brush to clean the outer surface and the threads on the wheel studs.



Then I found out why a wheel nut was missing on one of the back wheels. The thread on the wheel stuff was stuffed. This will require stripping the axle down to nothing as the ABS disc blocks the wheel stud from being removed. Not a huge drama - I have a hydraulic press at home and have done this before. I’ll end up replacing the axle bearings on both sides…. because I can.



The part number and details about the diff.



I cleaned the engine bay with CT18 and the garden hose. Then I got the high pressure water sprayer and focussed on areas of grime build-up in the engine bay (there were a few). I was careful to keep water away from the black plastic coil cover on top of the engine, as water can seep past the bolts and into the spark plug holes.



The tray was full of leaves and other rubbish.



I decided to go to a nearby car wash and have one go with a vacuum cleaner. This is behind the driver’s seat, after I’ve removed the rubbish that was there.



The passenger floor that was previously covered in dog hair started to look a lot better.



As did the area behind the driver’s seat.



The dashboard, before I left the car wash. I’m not a big fan of dashboard carpets so that one will be removed soon.

[PhilMeUp]

Yep, that floor is looking a lot better, but there’s still plenty of dog hair to get rid of.



The cat stopped by to see what all the fuss was about.



On the first night I wanted to clean up the mess underneath the engine. I went to a car wash in Kenwick that I go to whenever I need to clean underneath a car. This ramp allows me to get under the front of a car.



However, having confirmed earlier that the car has been lowered, before driving up I wanted to double check that the front bumper would clear. Just as well - there was no way the front bumper was going to clear the sides of the ramps. There was plenty of frustrated cursing at that time.



I figured I’d go home and flush the brake fluid. Failed once again as it turned out that rear calipers don’t use the same bleed nipple that is normally used on Falcons. I use speed bleeders as they have an internal valve that allows me to bleed brakes on my own.



Removing the plastics around the gear lever revealed plenty more dog hair and general grime.



The usual dog hair and mess in the tissue box holder area, along with yet another piece of unused chewing gum on the right side.



Heaps of dog hair under one of the seats.



After getting curious and removing the seats, I made the spontaneous decision to keep going and remove the centre console.



Got the console out, along with various plastics along the way.



The centre console cleaned up easily enough with the garden hose.



And the washing up was done inside. I was particularly careful with the plastic gear lever surround as this is irreplaceable.



It all went back together easily enough.



Then it was time to figure out why the passenger door card wasn’t on the door.



Sure enough, the shaft inside the door actuator was broken - you can see where the white plastic shaft has snapped. This meant that the door couldn’t lock. I’ve come across this in other Falcons this year, so bought a bag of 10 actuator cogs on eBay a while ago to ensure that I would always have spares. At least this problem could be solved that night.



The door was easily re-assembled, but there was more mess in the door pocket, including the previous owners obsession with Extra chewing gum.



I took the door trim into the laundry and pored water through the door pocket to flush out the dog hair and chewing gum.



The interior was starting to look a lot better than it did a few hours earlier.



By now it was 5am and I’d been working on the car all night. Time for a quick test drive as the sun came up.

[PhilMeUp]

I had cleaned out the back tray with a high pressure hose the night before. There’s still some of the hardware for a previous hard lid but that didn’t come with the car. As I’ll be carrying motorbikes sometimes, I’ll be avoiding a hard lid and carry a conventional soft tonneau folded up behind the seats inside the car. The tray will be accessible for normal use, but I’ll be able to put the soft tonneau on if required.



Still a long way to go, but it was starting to look like a proper car inside.



I’ve got the lower steering column plastic but not the correct screws for it. I’ll put the plastic on as soon as I get the screws.

[PhilMeUp]

Tuesday, 25th November, 2014

After not being able to clean under the engine at the car wash I was keen to find another way of getting that done. I’ve got a high pressure washer at home so jacked up the front of the car and put some axle stands in place.

It was hard to get the lengthy spray wand aimed at all the correct places but I eventually managed to get things looking a lot better under there.

Of course, this also meant that I ended up soaking wet. At least it was a warm afternoon, so I didn’t get cold.

Tip: remove everything from your pockets before doing this. My wallet and various pieces of paper inside it ended up saturated.

I was also pleased to see that the ZF transmission already had the optional pan with a drain bolt in it. That’s one less thing that I have to buy - the original pans didn’t have a drain bolt and made a mess when getting serviced.

After thoroughly cleaning the engine bay from the top, this now meant that the entire engine bay area was now clean. With everything this spotless I’ll be able to let the car idle in the driveway for a while later on and then get back underneath it to check for oil leaks.

[PhilMeUp]

Wednesday, 26th November, 2014

I started with an easy one - changing the diff oil. As expected, it was almost black. I left it draining for an hour or two while I did other jobs on the car.



I bought complete new windscreen wipers during the day and put them on. The one ones unclip and the new ones clip in easily enough.



The insides of the windows had various marks on them. They’ll get cleaned soon.



The driver’s door handle will need to be fixed before the registration inspection. I haven’t got a solution figured out yet, but I suspect that there will be some plastic welding involved.



The driver’s window also had marks all over the inside of it.



I had a quick go at cleaning the passenger door trim.



Not perfect, but a lot better than it was.



The passenger window also cleaned up pretty well.



On the window behind the driver’s door window there was some sticker residue from a previous sticker. That was easily removed with some eucalyptus oil aerosol spray.



The side window cleaned up well.



The driver’s door trim also got cleaned.



The dashboard console was also looking pretty terrible.



And looked a lot better after being cleaned.



I removed the plastic and rubber part that sits on top of the steering column.



That got cleaned inside with water and then dried with a towel.



There are some tabs on the rubber that need to clip into their relevant holes underneath the speedo cluster.



This took a few minutes to sort out, and I ended up using a small flat-blade screwdriver to push the rubber tabs into their correct places.



The ICC got the Windex and towel treatment.



The rear vision mirror was also covered in smudges so I cleaned that. I also got a cotton stick to get the grime out of the outer glass area.



The mirror ended up perfectly clean.

[PhilMeUp]

Then it was time to continue my cleaning rampage and have a go at the top of the dashboard.



There bits of old Blue-Tak all over the gauges, so that all got picked off with fingernails.



The gauges also looked a lot better after being cleaned. I’ll get the dust in the middle with a cotton stick later.



It took a while, but I got all the smudge marks off the ICC screen. I also used cotton sticks to get into the corners on the outer edge of the display.



Finishing off the top of dashboard.



The glovebox is easy enough to remove - it just unclips at the bottom. I also removed the mesh filter (ie the cabin filter tray) - drop the glovebox down, slide the tray to the left and pull it outward.



I cleaned the tray with a brush.



The glovebox got cleaned inside with water. Surprisingly, that was about the only part of the car’s interior that didn’t have chewing gum sticks stuck to it.



Another photo of the passenger seat. That’s going to be thoroughly cleaned by a car detailer as soon as possible.



By now the diff oil was well and truly drained. I replaced it with Penrite Pro Gear 80-140 synthetic oil. The Motive Products Power Fill bottle that I got from the US makes it easy to put diff oil in. Just pump the handle up and down to create air pressure inside the bottle, hang the metal tube in the filler hole and turn on the tap. When diff oil starts to flow out of the filler hole then turn the tap off and remove the bottle.



It doesn’t look so good with the effects of the flash, but the interior of the car was starting to look tolerable.



I wanted to clean out the windscreen washer reservoir and replace the front indicator globes. The washer reservoir is accessed by removing the plastic splash guard inside the wheel arch.



After removing the two plastic scrivets and one metal screw, I was able to peel back the splash guard to reveal the windscreen washer pump.



This is one of the reasons why I wanted to flush the reservoir. The previous owner has added some detergent to it, but all that does is create a bunch of white streaks on the windscreen outside of where the wipers go.



I stuck the hose into the top of the reservoir.



And flushed out the reservoir. There was also some algae and other junk in the bottom of the reservoir that got flushed out.



I removed the rubber seal from the pump and put that into place first. The pump then slid into the seal easily enough. If washer pump dies then a replacement can be bought from car accessory shops for around $20 (they are a common part).



That orange thing with the yellow wire leading into it is the holder for the indicator globe. Luckily it came loose fairly easily and I was able to remove the old globe.



There wasn’t a huge difference between the old and new globes, but it was worth replacing them. The new one is on the left and the old one is on the right. I once had a car knocked back at an inspection because the person reckoned that the indicators weren’t orange enough. The front indicators are not the usual BA15s globes that most other cars use - they are a BAU15s. There is a minor difference in the bayonet and a major difference in cost.



Once I had replaced both front indicator globes I put the hazard lights on to ensure both were working.

[PhilMeUp]

I then finished the night by spraying a bunch of silicone spray into each of the window guides and then running each window up and down a bunch of times to spread the silicon up and down the guides.

This made quite a difference - each window ended up moving noticeable quicker, which mean that each window regulator was previously pushing quite hard to overcome the friction in the window guides. This friction shortens the lift of the window regulators (ie the mechanism inside the door that windows the window up and down).

This particular can of silicone spray has a useful plastic tube that flips up and down. The can sprays like a normal aerosol can when the tube is down. That would be a useful feature with a lot of other spray cans.



By now I had gotten rid of most of the filth and grime that was inside the car when I got it. There is a lot more to go yet, but it felt like progress was being made.

Then it was 3am and I’d had enough for the night. Time to go inside.

[PhilMeUp]

Wednesday, 3rd December, 2014

After spending way too much time trying to decide what to do about the suspension I figured I’d better get some other things done. It needs to be raised for its licencing inspection (it’s too low), as well as have a practical amount of ground clearance for general use.

It was time to get on with some other things while I finalise the decision on springs.

As mentioned earlier, the handle on the driver’s door trim is broken. Although it can be re-attached easily enough, there is a bit of plastic missing next to the window switch. I went looking for a standard BF door trim that I could extract the handle from.



It took some looking around, but I ended up with two suitable door trims. The second one will be for someone else who needs to replace a Typhoon door handle.



Today, I decided to get the seats cleaned. There was plenty of dog hair and grime in the carpet.



This will all get cleaned properly eventually. I am very, very, very much looking forward to that day.



My efforts from the late nights last week have paid off. The centre console area, the dashboard and speedo gauges are looking a lot better.



I put the seats in the back of my XR6 Turbo ute and headed off to a car detailing place.



When I got there I made the spontaneous decision to remove the seat rails. This made the seats much lighter to move, but also ensured that no water would get into the electric motors or connections.



All this took was a 13mm ratchet spanner and unplugging the cable on the driver’s seat.



Tonight, I decided to replace the rear axle bearings. I’ve got a spare pair of suitable axles, which meant that I could put new bearings on them and then just swap the axles over. I pressed a new Timken 2985 bearing kit on to each axle with my hydraulic press.



I already had a stripped wheel stud to replace, but managed to snap another stud when removing one of the back wheels. I’ll be putting some grease on the wheel studs on the replacement axles.



I started removing the rear caliper. Although the whole lot can come off in one piece, I find it easier to remove the caliper from the mounting bracket separately. I used a 12mm ratchet spanner and 18mm spanner for this.



This photo shows the easiest way to change brake pads. Remove one bolt, swivel the caliper upward and then push the calliper piston back in. This can be done with a g-clamp or a specialist tool. I use a Disc Brake Piston Spreader from Radum (stock number BM94-4062) - www.radum.com.au



Once the caliper was out of the way (hanging off the chassis with a pot plant hook) I was able to undo the bolts holding the mounting bracket on. The bracket bolts were on tight but a long ratchet spanner had the leverage to loosen them.



Once the bracket was off I could remove the disc rotor.



And this is where the fun really begins. The disc rotor has rusted to the end of the axle, and will need to be broken loose by hitting it a bunch of times with a hammer to break the rust loose. However, it was too late at night to make noise, so I tried spraying Wurth Rost-Off Plus onto the centre and repeatedly hitting it with a rubber mallet (ie quieter). This is a very effective penetrant, but after half an hour of spraying this stuff and wrestling with the disc rotor on each side I had to give up.

One of these days I’ll locate and buy a large pulley puller for this task.



This also meant an end to the other plans that I had for the night. I already had a replacement wheel stud to replace the stripped one, but now I’ll need another one to replace the stud that snapped tonight.

I also bought new upper and lower radiator hoses, a new fuel filter and a new drive belt. Although these items don’t need replacing yet, they didn’t cost much and replacing them now will ensure that they won’t be a problem in the future.

The new coolant tank will wait until the car is on the road - I’ll put that on when the cooling system gets flushed.

Apart from the fuel filter, I have seen each of these items fail and cause dramas on taxis (taxis don’t need fuel filters due to dedicated LPG) so I figure that I’ll have renewed ones on the car from the start.

I get this stuff at trade pricing but here are the part numbers and retail prices:

Item: Upper Radiator Hose
Part Number: BA8260AMC
Price: $19.44

Item: Lower Radiator Hose
Part Number: BA8286AMC
Price: $24.50

Item: Rear Axle Wheel Stud
Part Number: AU1107B
Price: $17.67

Item: Drive Belt
Part Number: SX8620A
Price: $54.70

Item: Fuel Filter
Part Number: AFG55AA
Price: $22.00

Item: Dayco Coolant Tank:
Part Number: DET0003
Price: $44.60

[Buf-Phoon]

she certainly needs some love. Keep us updated.

Good luck with that fur. You will be finding it for years

coming along nicely though

Edited 03/12/14 09:31 PM by Buf-Phoon