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2006 Fpv Tornado F6 Ute - Cleanup & Resurrection


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  • Member For: 17y 15d
  • Gender: Male
  • Location: WA

Nice work and sure looked like it needed some love that's for sure. I'd be interested in the outcome of total cost from your original purchase to end result.

Keep up the good work

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  • Member For: 10y 8m 27d
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This thread makes me very happy. You've really saved that ute mate. Mine needs a good detail too. I'll use your thread as a good guide I think

(And f*ck that thing has seen some abuse for only 90k!)

Edited by FiftyOne
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  • Member For: 15y 8m 12d
  • Gender: Male
  • Location: Perth, Western Australia

This thread makes me very happy. You've really saved that ute mate. Mine needs a good detail too. I'll use your thread as a good guide I think

(And f*ck that thing has seen some abuse for only 90k!)

The first time I removed a centre console was last year. I was freaking out about it at the time and took hours. As with most things, once I've done it once it's no big deal.

Removing the centre console, cleaning it with the garden hose and then cleaning the various individual plastics makes quite a difference. It's worth doing.

Abuse on the car: it seems ok mechanically. No major dents anywhere from driving into things carelessly, except for the scratches on lower left bumper. The problem is almost all cosmetic - this guy just had a knack for putting grime everywhere. Each time I clean or tidy something up it's as though it was never dirty.

The seats are sitting in the carport still half wet. When I get home tonight I'll put them back in the ute and leave the engine running for an hour or two with the heater on full.

Cleaning the seat belts made one huge difference. The seat belt in the Tornado wasn't retracting at all before and now retracts fairly quickly.

http://www.fordxr6turbo.com/forum/topic/89678-photo-essay-cleaning-seat-belts/

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  • Member For: 15y 8m 12d
  • Gender: Male
  • Location: Perth, Western Australia

Thursday, 4th December, 2014

Bombing out badly on changing the axle bearings. I couldn’t use a hammer to loosen the axles late on Wednesday night (noise) so had a go at it on Thursday afternoon. The disc rotor has rusted on to the centre of the axle and no matter how much I belted it with a hammer it wouldn’t come loose.

What should have been a fairly simple job is now going to be quite a challenge. I spent a bunch of time on Thursday thumping various parts of the disc rotors to try and get them to break loose, but could not get either rotor off. Plenty of frustration there.

I picked up the seats from the car detailer and now they’re all nice and clean. No dog hair, or dog smell, on the seats!

FPV_Tornado_Ute_1_4_12_2014.jpg

The foam is still wet, resulting in moisture coming through when I press on the seat cover. I’ll leave the seats outside for a few days to dry out properly.

FPV_Tornado_Ute_2_4_12_2014.jpg

FPV_Tornado_Ute_3_4_12_2014.jpg

Edited by PhilMeUp
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  • Member For: 15y 8m 12d
  • Gender: Male
  • Location: Perth, Western Australia

Monday, 8th December, 2014

Some wheeling and dealing resulted in me picking up an original Typhoon airbox. The difference from a standard airbox is the additional intake snorkel at the front of the airbox.

The car came with an aftermarket K & N pod filter. To get the car through the registration inspection will require either a permit for that modification or to fit the original airbox. The pod filter doesn’t give any particular gain over the standard Typhoon airbox, particularly without the lid (it didn’t come with the car). I also keep my engine bays clean by washing them regularly. The original airbox means that I can do this without getting water on a pod filter.

Before putting the airbox in I cleaned it with CT18 that I keep in a 5L Hills weed sprayer. Once it was rinsed I dried it with my petrol powered weed blower so that I could put it in the car straight away.

FPV_Tornado_Ute_01_8_12_2014.jpg

FPV_Tornado_Ute_02_8_12_2014.jpg

The pod filter was easy enough to remove.

FPV_Tornado_Ute_03_8_12_2014.jpg

FPV_Tornado_Ute_04_8_12_2014.jpg

The Typhoon airbox went into place easily, resulting in one less thing on the list of things to do before registration inspection.

FPV_Tornado_Ute_05_8_12_2014.jpg

As mentioned, the seats were cleaned at a car detailing place. However, they’ve managed to break a plastic bracket in each of the seats, and now they won’t tilt forward. Now I’m kicking myself for not just stripping the seats down and washing the covers in the washing machine at home. I’ll check with Ford to see if it is a replaceable part, but I’m expecting it to not be available.

Very pissed off. I was looking forward to putting the seats back in the car tonight, but now I’ve got yet another problem that will probably not have an easy solution. Lots of four-lettered words as I went back into the house in disgust.

FPV_Tornado_Ute_06_8_12_2014.jpg

Putting the seats and seat rails back together.

FPV_Tornado_Ute_07_8_12_2014.jpg

Ute seats tilt forward to allow access to the back of the cabin. There is the metal rod that runs from one side of the seat to the other. Someone has forced the seat forward without pulling the lever and this has broken the plastic bracket that holds the rod in place. This means that when the lever is pulled the rod moves instead of rotating and allowing the seat to tilt forward.

FPV_Tornado_Ute_08_8_12_2014.jpg

Edited by PhilMeUp
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  • Member For: 11y 2m 20d
  • Gender: Male
  • Location: Wollongong

wow....its really sad to see how some people treat there cars. Looks like you're putting in a great effort to get it back to good condition and I'm sure you'll make a nice little profit if you decide to sell it.

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  • Member For: 15y 8m 12d
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  • Location: Perth, Western Australia

Thursday, 11th December, 2014

There was an advert on Gumtree for a pair of BA ute seats so I got there quickly and bought them for $60. I check Gumtree daily for various things and this is the first pair of ute seats that I can remember in recent times. Good timing.

The driver’s seat is well worn, which is why the guy was selling them (he had put a pair of better seats in his ute). That wasn’t a problem - what I was after were the plastic brackets in the back of them. I also figured that there would be a few other parts from them that I could keep for future use.

As mentioned, the driver’s seat is stuffed and the passenger seat is in good condition. Typical Falcon.

FPV_Tornado_Ute_01_11_12_2014.jpg

These are the plastic brackets. The top left one is from one of the seats that I bought. Out of the four brackets (two per seat), two were already broken, but I only needed two good ones. The one on the right is from the Tornado seat. As you can see, they’re a useless design and easy to break. Something at least twice as wide would have lasted longer and cost no more to manufacture.

FPV_Tornado_Ute_02_11_12_2014.jpg

One of the unbroken ones in the Tornado seat. The rod rotates, but the plastic bracket is required to hold the rod in position when the tilt lever on the side of the seat is pulled (the lever is connected to the rod). The rod rotates the fork, which then pushes the other rod, resulting in the seat tilting forward.

FPV_Tornado_Ute_03_11_12_2014.jpg

Getting the replacement plastic brackets into place without breaking them wasn’t easy. I felt the pressure, as I knew that if I broke these then I would have to go looking for another pair of ute seats to get more brackets from. The white one in the middle of the photo is the replacement one. I had an aerosol can of grease in the shed so sprayed some of that in there to ensure future lubrication between the rod and plastic bracket.

FPV_Tornado_Ute_04_11_12_2014.jpg

Getting the bracket into place and getting everything working on the first seat was difficult and frustrating. I was ecstatic to finally see one of the seats tilting forward properly.

FPV_Tornado_Ute_05_11_12_2014.jpg

When I went to get the brackets from the other seat that I bought I found that the same problem had happened with these seats previously. I was a bit amused, as I had told the bloke clearly that I was only buying the seats to get these plastic brackets. He’s the original owner of the car that the seats came from, so he would have known about this quickie repair (and one less bracket for me to use).

Still, if I break another bracket in one of my FPV seats then at least I’ve got a head start with figuring out how to fix it without using another bracket.

FPV_Tornado_Ute_06_11_12_2014.jpg

The base of the other Tornado seat before I finished putting it back together. You can see the white plastic bracket on the left and the original Tornado one on the far right. Both are held in place by a single screw.

FPV_Tornado_Ute_07_11_12_2014.jpg

Once I had both seats back in one piece and tilting properly it was time to put the rails back on. The station wagon taxi came in useful for this.

FPV_Tornado_Ute_08_11_12_2014.jpg

After all this, both seats acknowledged my masterful skills and bowed gracefully before me. About time.

FPV_Tornado_Ute_09_11_12_2014.jpg

I finally got both seats back into the car. All this drama just to get the dog hair off them.

FPV_Tornado_Ute_10_11_12_2014.jpg

I received a bunch of stuff from the US today, including some Motorcraft FL-820S oil filters. I was going to do an oil change but I’d had enough by the time I got the seats finished. Continuing with the pattern of everyone trying to break my stuff, the oil filter that I opened was badly dented.

FPV_Tornado_Ute_11_11_12_2014.jpg

This thing has taken quite a hit to dent that much.

FPV_Tornado_Ute_12_11_12_2014.jpg

A second dent, on the other side of the filter.

FPV_Tornado_Ute_13_11_12_2014.jpg

FPV_Tornado_Ute_14_11_12_2014.jpg

The remnants of one of the seats that I bought. I’ll be removing the wire mesh and four spring clips to keep as spares. The spring clips have a habit of breaking when gravitationally-gifted (ie fat) people like me sit on them.

FPV_Tornado_Ute_15_11_12_2014.jpg

I’m rapt to finally have the Tornado back in one piece. What was meant to be two simple tasks - replacing the axle bearings and getting the seats cleaned - has taken over a week and consumed a bunch more time and effort than they should have.

Now I need to finalise a decision on how to raise the car (reset the leaf springs vs buying new ones) and fix the interior driver’s door handle. From there it’s not far from being ready for a licencing inspection.

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