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.

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. -------------------------------------------------- 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.

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. -------------------------------------------------- Wednesday, 19th November, 2014 Photos taken on the auction day:

The seats in the XR6T ute aren't too bad. The seats in the FPV that I bought to replace it... are that bad... They'll be removed and taken to a car detailer though.

I held the belt out tight and ran a towel back and forth to remove water. The plastic guide was now clean. As it was now night I couldn’t leave the belt outside to dry. I looped the seat belt around the driver’s seat, started the engine and let it idle for a while with the heater on. The seat belt webbing dried quickly. This actually worked rather well. The seat belt in my taxi isn’t retracting quite as fast as when it was new but it’s pretty close. Although I was able to do this at home with my own pressure washer, this can be done by anyone at a car wash. Take the required tools and clean the belt at the car wash. If it’s a warm day then the belt will dry on its own. On a wet day or at night, leave the seat belt out inside the car and then let the car heater dry it. Take something to occupy yourself - laptop, iPad, book to read, etc. Because the webbing doesn’t absorb water like normal cloth does it will dry very quickly. This whole task is very easy to do and can be done in a matter of minutes. I’ll be doing this on each car every year or so from now on. Don’t have a Torx T50 socket? Do a search for “Torx T50 socket” on eBay, Google, etc. Or order one of these from your local tool or hardware shop: Teng Part Number: M121250T (1/2’ drive) Kincrome Part Number: K2767 (1/2” drive impact socket) AmPro Part Number: T33640 (3/8” drive) Snap-On Part Number: FTX50E (3/8” drive)

The seat belt in my taxi is now 14 months old and isn’t retracting as quickly as I would like. This happens when grime builds up on the seat belt webbing and in the plastic guide. The seat belt in another (unlicenced) car of mine is also extremely slow to retract. I need to get this fixed for its licencing inspection. I started by removing the taxi seat belt. The Falcon seat belts won’t unwind once removed from the car, so before doing so I pulled the seat belt out as far as possible and put some lock pliers on the base to prevent it from retracting. If you have’t got lock pliers then just use normal pliers and a zip-tie to hold them shut. Going over the belt with a high pressure water sprayer made quite a difference. Once I had cleaned the belt I sat down with a towel to wipe the excess water off the belt. The webbing is fairly water resistant, so was almost dry after doing this. I cleaned the plastics. I had a go at cleaning the plastic guide with eucalyptus oil and cotton sticks. You could do this if you are unable to remove the belt from the car (eg don’t have a Torx T50 socket). And then I realised that there was a better way of cleaning the plastic guide. I removed the plastic guide from the height adjusting mechanism. This required a Torx T50 socket (which is also used for removing the seats). By now I had three bolts that looked similar, so I put that one back in place to ensure that I didn’t confuse it with one of the others. This grime contributes to slowing down the seat belt retraction. I put the plastic guide on the ground and gave it a thorough blast with high pressure water. Later that night I decided to clean the seat belt in another Falcon and figured out a slightly easier way of doing this. I started by removing the upper plastic, which is done by reaching behind it and pulling it outward. The plastic will unclip and come loose. I then removed the two Philips head screws that held the lower plastic in place. This time, I left the seat belt mechanism in place and just removed the bolt that holds the bottom seat belt mount in place. The seat belt feeds through the upper plastic, so once the bottom mount was loose I was able to feed the mount and buckle through the hole in the plastic. I pulled the seat belt out and put some lock pliers on to prevent it from retracting. I also removed the bolt that holds the plastic guide to the height adjuster. This required the Torx T50 socket. Once the T50 bolt was removed I then had the seat belt loose. The seat belt outside of the car. Like the other two that I had previously done, the plastic guide was full of grime. This grime slows the seat belt down when retracting. I’ve got a high pressure water washer so was able to do this at home. I was thorough with cleaning, including washing the edges of the seat belt webbing. As I was doing this in the front yard, I rinsed the belt off with the hose to make sure there was no dirt on it.

The part number for a turbo engine mount is BA6B032C. Do a search for that on eBay - cheapest price at the moment is around $150.

Check the blower fan and cabin filter tray. http://www.fordxr6turbo.com/forum/topic/89442-photo-essay-replacing-the-blower-fan/

I was going nuts looking for the socket for the lock nuts on the FPV that I picked up on Monday. Tried various impact sockets over the lock nuts but nothing I had would grip enough. Gave up and kept cleaning out the car. Finally found the socket in the pocket behind the passenger seat. Not a bad place to hide it. Its future hiding place, along with the actual lock nuts, will be in the bin.

Finally picked up my FPV Tornado from Pickles Auctions. I've been obsessing about this thing for the last two weeks and today I finally got to actually take possession of it. The auto electrician that I used last time reckoned that there is something different about FPVs and didn't want to do it. I'm pretty sure it's standard BF Falcon stuff. The bloke he referred me to was mobile and was there in an hour. After squabbling with Pickles about their company policy last week (ie all vehicles must leave on truck or trailer, nothing can be driven out) I managed to get someone to let me drive it out of there on a Temporary Movement Permit (similar to a NSW pink slip). Coding the keys cost me $110 (damn good price for mobile). The two key blanks cost me $10 a while ago. Cutting cost me zero (friend). The Temporary Movement Permit gives me 48 hours to go wherever I want and cost $22.80. Didn't have to pay exorbitant towing fees after all. Tow truck drivers (that were already there) were quoting $50 just to move the car from one side of the gate to the other (a few metres). Anyway, smack on 5pm. Put a battery in the car (battery was missing). Put the key in. Turn the key. Nothing. Zip. Nada. Panic. Head racing. After racking my brains for a few seconds, I decided that I'm not a particularly huge fan of the start button on the dashboard. Stupid idea. Duh. The car started and drove home fine. No unexpected nasty mechanical dramas. Engine runs smoothly. Transmission is good. Some diff noise (might just be axle bearings). It's 5am now and I've been doing various things on it all night. Couldn't do the things that I wanted to do, but have done other things that I hadn't intended to do tonight. That interior won't be easy, but it won't be as hard as I was expecting. A tad over the smell of old dog hair though.

That video is an insurance rort. No-one would actually want to steal that particular model of wheel...

All the Perthies need to get together for a late night weeknight cruise to a particular outer Perth suburb. Stuff it, let's just get a cement mixer and fill the damn thing with old oil and dump a few thousand litres at once. Didn't even get to see the Tornado today. Pickles have a company policy that says that all vehicles at Welshpool can only leave on a truck or trailer. They wouldn't let me even push the thing out on to the road so that I could tow it or get a trailer later. I managed to convince a tow truck driver to put it on the truck, drive 20 metres and then let it off the truck. Haggled him down from $50 to $20. Getting somewhere. And then he changed his mind at the last minute (after keeping me waiting). And then it was closing time at Pickles. Not impressed.

I had a close call a couple of years ago. Put my taxi through annual inspection with 6/4 Brembos. Dept of Transport got all uppity and didn't like the brake lines (which were legit). Go home, spend the night putting all the standard stuff back on and then put it through inspection the next day (Friday). The car was in a crash and written off on Sunday, two days later. A few months earlier, I had rung the insurance company and clarified that things like brakes, wheels and a few other bolt-on things would be excluded from the policy, and I could therefore retrieve these items from the wreck if the car was ever written off. Yep, all good. The girl was going to make a note on the file. When the insurance assessor offered me first chance to buy the wreck I clarified that the price would need to be calculated without the ROH wheels. Nup, they're part of the wreck. Anything in or on the car is part of the wreck and not to be removed. Huge argument. Phone call to insurance company. Turns out that the girl I had spoken to about this months earlier was a trainee and completely incorrect. And she hadn't made any note about the conversation. Bimbo. Lots of nasty words from me, and an acceptable price was eventually agreed upon for the wreck. However, if the Brembos had have been on the car that day then it would have gotten really messy. I was cursing the Dept of Transport inspectors for being pricks about my Brembo brakes, but it turned out that they did me a favour in the end. --------------------------------------- At an auction this week I bought an FPV Tornado. There was also a written-off near-new FG XR6 Turbo with an equally new looking 6/4 Brembo setup. I was going to bid on it if it was cheap enough just to get the brakes, but I got there after it went through. The car sold for $6,250. Heck, the wheels and brakes are worth that. I wonder if the owner's insurance had covered the $7,000ish cost of the brakes and wheels...

Get on to www.AliExpress.com Do a search for ELM327. Buy a cable for around $8. Get a cable, the Bluetooth stuff can be troublesome. Get FORscan - www.forscan.org (it's free). With a laptop, cable and FORScan, check for error codes. Very, very, very, very simple. For that price, I keep a cable in my BFIII wagon taxi and XR6T ute personal car. Plus a couple of spare ones at home. The only possibly hiccups are: a) software driver for the cable (Google search or let Windows figure it out), and b) if you're using a Window emulator on an Apple laptop (I use Parallels) then tell it to use the USB port on the Windows side (ie I have to select from within Parallels).

I was there when Adrian got back. I'd already heard from Steve about how he/they had broken two keys for the company VW Amorak in recent times. I got the laptop out and showed them a listing on a Chinese site for VW key cases for $US2.90. That went down just nicely. Adrian wasn't impressed with VW after that - he's paid $450 for each key replacement. Gonna email him a bunch of info about keys over the weekend. He'll be raging nicely at VW by Monday. Grabbed two 20L drums of Syn-X 3000 at the price you mentioned in the email. Works out to half what I've been paying for Penrite, and it's cheap enough to justify having 20L drums at home instead of buying 5L bottles individually each time. Will have used up one of the drums by Monday afternoon (two utes and a taxi). Handy - I need an empty 20L drum at the moment. Someone spewed on the back seat of my taxi a few weeks ago, refused to pay any cleaning fee and then abused me instead. Tipping old engine oil on to a driveway at 2am will be quicker from a 20L drum than from 5L bottles.

In other news, and continuing on with post whoring... Wandered out last night to take some photos of the current BA XR6 Turbo ute. Couldn't think of where to get lots of fluro lighting for the photos so went to a car wash. I removed the BA GT 325mm x 32mm brakes that I had on the front and put the standard stuff back on. Still trying to comprehend just how crap the standard 298mm x 28mm front brakes are. Wow. Paid $500 for the FG XR6 wheels with near-new tyres. Not bad. They do go well with the Lightening Strike (silver) colour of the ute. The ROH Flares are now cleaned up and ready to go on the FPV.

I got a price on a new door card (ie trim) for someone's BF Typhoon recently... it was $816.4 retail and $612.30 wholesale... and they don't make them anymore anyway. Blimey. I've also got a pair of door cards from a BA Super Pursuit so I'll use them if I have to, but my driver's side one looks like it can be repaired with some plastic welding. How is it that the door card on my 440,000km taxi is in perfect order but the card on a 94,000km FPV is broken? Got two keys cut today and went to Pickles to at least get the thing outside the gate so that I could get it home tonight by either towing it or getting a trailer (ie steering lock). Nup, Pickles won't let anything leave the premises unless it's on a trailer or a truck. Ummm... it's a repossession, not a damaged write-off! Nup, that's their company policy. Rang Dept of Transport. The registration expired in April this year, so I wasn't able to just renew it and turn it into a licenced car. Ah well, worth a try. I was doing everything possible to have access to it over the weekend, but I'm going to have to wait until Monday. I'll just get it towed the 4.5km to the same auto electrician that coded the keys on my XR6T ute a few weeks ago. The Tornado should be mobile by Monday afternoon. Might be able to get it in for a registration inspection on Tuesday and have it on the road Tuesday afternoon. If that goes to plan then at least I have the option of taking the car to somewhere to have it cleaned and polished (ie carpet and paintwork). My Aprilia motard bike is making some dodgy engine noises (ie it's rebuild time) but my KTM is road licenced so I can just put that in the back, drop the ute off and ride the KTM home. Meanwhile... Need. To. Get. At. That. Thing. With. Cleaning. Stuff. Dammit, lock me in the yard with it, some food and cleaning stuff for the weekend! After consultation with Ralph Wiggum I bought 2 x 20L drums of Gulf Western Syn-X 3000 semi synthetic oil this afternoon. Doing an oil change on the XR6T ute, the Tornado and taxi will use up one drum straight away and the second one will be for future oil drums. The cost-per-litre worked out to half of what I've been paying for Penrite HPR Gas 10 for the taxi, so I'll probably be using Gulf Western from now on. It was funny at the place - they've got a VW Amarok and have broken two keys recently at $450 each. I got my laptop out and showed them where to get VW key casings from in China for $US2.90 each. (www.honrow.com) I have spent waaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy too much time over the last two days staring at the 11 photos that I took of the car on Wednesday - would like some actual reality now. Rather miffed that I couldn't get it cleaned up over the weekend so that it's ready for registration as soon as the keys are coded. Sigh. Time to go stare at photos for another hour or two...

Penrite Pro Gear 80-140 http://www.penriteoil.com.au/products.php?id_categ=4&id_products=377

Don't forget to have a chat with your insurance company to either get them included or excluded from your policy. ie Car gets crashed and written off. You want something recorded now that determines whether you can remove the brakes from the wreck or not.

Nah, don't want a hard lid. Don't see the point of them. Too much hassle trying to get a motorbike in and lay it down sideways under the hard lid. I'll actually be putting the soft tonneau buttons on the outside and keeping a soft tonneau folded up behind the front seats. That way I can carry motorbikes but have instead shelter if I'm carrying other stuff in the and it starts to rain. I'll have a go at the carpet. Did some Google searching and found solutions such as rubbing a rubber glove over it to make the fur bunch up into a ball that can be vaccummed up. New carpets are on eBay for $165 plus $25 postage (ie $190 total), so that's a likely option. Would mean a bit of work stripping the interior, but would ensure zero dog hair left. The dashboard, console, etc, will be a matter of a bucket of water and various cleaning stuff (Eucalyptus aerosol spray is good for this sort of stuff). The interior handle on the driver's door card/trim is a bit loose and will require some plastic welding. I'll take it to a place that repairs motorbike fairings and see what they can do, but I also have a pair of BA FPV door cards here that I didn't put in the XR6T ute yet. It's got the optional dual-zone ICC. Looks lowered, but I'll be raising it a bit - I need practicality. I've got some Bilstein shocks here that I hadn't gotten around to putting on the current XR6T ute yet so will get some new springs and put all that on. I've got front and rear 4 piston Brembos in being powder coated. Should have all that back next week, so the FPV will have new-looking Brembos front and rear. I've got Hawk Performance ceramic pads sitting at Shipito.com right now. The Earl's turbo oil line feed that never found its way onto the XR6T ute will end up on the FPV. The SuperCharge MF50 battery (ie very high capacity battery) in the taxi is six months old. They last about 12 months in taxis, so I bought a new one for the taxi one today and the existing taxi one will go in the FPV. The MF50 has 650CC and 107RC for $130. If I get restless in a few months then I'll replace all the control arm bushes, ball joints, shackle bushes, etc. Will probably replace the upper and lower radiator hoses, the drive belt, thermostat and a few other consumable things straight away (ie I get that stuff wholesale). I bought a set of FG XR6 18" wheels last night to go on the XR6T ute for resale, and the ROH Flares that I've had on it will go on the FPV (ie I've got the same rims on the taxi and are Brembo compatible). Hopefully the Tornado will be licenced within a week or two. It didn't come with any keys, but I should have some blanks cut for it tomorrow afternoon (locksmith is waiting for the cutting codes from Ford). This thing will take some work, but nowhere near as much as the XR6T ute that I bought a few months ago. Lots of effort had to go into that one. Auction price was $10,800, plus $1,000 fees for a total of $11,800. Not the bargain of the year, but 2006 Tornados are starting at $18,000 on Gumtree and CarSales.com at the moment. 94,000km on mine is pretty good for a 2006 car. Overall, there's not much that's actually broken on this car (ie parts required). It's more of a labourious cleanup job that can be knocked out in a day or two.

Bought a BA XR6 Turbo ute at auction a few months ago. Figured I'd try it out. Keep it if I used it enough or sell it if I didn't take to it. Took to it... a lot. Having a blast. Now I want more. More power, 6 speed transmission, Brembo brakes and a few other things. Found a 2006 FPV Tornado at auction, so went and bought it today. Not the bargain of the century but I did ok. It needs tidying up. Looks like the previous farmboy owner wasn't really into keeping things clean. Getting that dog hair out is going to be a bunch of fun. Tornado #164 is currently looking bloody terrible, but will improve over the next few weeks. If anyone has suggestions for someone in Perth that can cut/polish/whatever the bodywork then let me know. Also open to suggestions about getting all that &^%$# dog hair out of there (tempted to just replace the damn carpet). I’ve got front and rear Brembo calipers in being powder coated at the moment, so they’ll be going on the F6. The current Brembos will then get powder coated and sold. The Bilstein shocks that I’ve got sitting in the carport will probably go on this thing soon. Not sure why the LH door card is off but at least it’s there. The handle on the RH card will need some plastic welding but at least it’s repairable. No keys or books with it at all. Luckily, I already had some spare BF key blanks at home. Dropped them off at a locksmith who will get the cutting codes from Ford and hopefully have the keys cut tomorrow afternoon. Then I’ll get them coded to the car and get it mobile. It’s going to need a radar detector and laser jamming setup as well (legal here in WA). If anyone knows the previous owner then I’d love to get in contact with him. From: To:

I bought one from a diff place for $150 a few months ago. Damn shame you're not in Perth, I've now got a spare pair from when I replaced the diff a few weeks ago. Bearings: use Timken 2985 bearings. Pay around $30 a side. Taxi mechanics use that bearing kit because it lasts the longest.

Check the ball joints. Worn ball joints = harder steering.

I bought an XR6 Turbo ute a few months ago and ended up losing the only key that I got with the car. - Didn't want to wait weeks for key blanks to arrive from China (I've got spare BF blanks for my taxi, but no BA blanks), so found a locksmith on eBay that had blanks for a reasonable cost. Bought two flip keys and a normal one for around $90. - A locksmith that I know got the key cutting codes from Ford after I supplied him with the VIN. - He cut the keys once the blanks arrived. Didn't charge me for it. Win. - I towed the car 6km to a nearby auto electrician, who coded the car to the keys for $99. Total cost of around $190 and three keys for the car. I was lucky with getting the keys cut for free; that's normally around $30-40 per key.

Scored some well-used 4 piston Brembo calipers for my XR6T ute. They'll need to be rebuilt before using. Seals are easy enough to get in the US for $US10 each. Prices that I've seen in Australia so far have been a hell of a lot higher than that. Keen to get these rebuilt sooner rather than later. Anyone got a source for seals and dust boots in Australia?