Phil's BF SR "GT" Build Thread - Lots of Pics!

[phil545]

Hi All

Well I thought it was about time that I wrote up a build thread for what I have done to my car so far and what I plan for the future.

Bought the car back in September 2006 a brand new BF Falcon SR. I was actually working at Power Ford at the time so got hooked up with an awesome deal.



For the next couple of years I didn’t really do many major mods to the car besides smash it lol. I did actually get an K&N air filter as a spur of the moment thing but really made hardly any difference at all, I was more getting it for the fact that you only had to clean it every 50,000km.

13/8/2007

Got some spotlights installed due to wear I live they come in real handy plus my dad was paying so didn’t want to pass up the opportunity. These are the only pics of the new spotlights I got off my mate but the original ones I got on this date that's why you can see the chrome stripe in this pic even though it was before I got it



7/10/2007

Finally managed to win some cheap chrome striping off ebay for my front and rear bar recess so installed that at a mates place, really fitted well with the blue and looked a treat.






Anyways back to the story, 4/7/2008 was a very sad morning for me, it was raining and well lets say the arse drifted into a curb quite hard and buckled my rim, plus as I mounted the curb I clipped a street sign and damaged the front bar, bonnet and headlight as well – lets say a nice learning experience from muckin around in the wet.








After the smash because I got a new front bar that didn’t have holes in it from the light bar that was previously installed I decided to get a nudge bar for my spotlights because I was sick of them flickering so off to Coldys bullbars and on the 11/10/2008 it was installed




Fast forward a year to 13/2/2009 I decided to get into the modding a bit more and first up were some new rims. I got the Speedy Wheels Race Spec RSX in 19” wrapped with 245/35/19 Maxxis Z1’s. Made the biggest difference to the handling of the car but as a side effect increased the 4wd stance it already had so the next was going to be lowering it. Of course it was raining on the day I got them so they didn’t stay clean for too long






23/3/2009

Back to my mate at Jax to get the car lowered, I got some Peddars “low” springs fitted which dropped it about 1.5” at the time I wish it had gone lower but considering how the car is now I am glad I didn’t.










14/6/2009

Just a small mod on this day but gave it a nice look and that’s some painted callipers aka imitation Brembo’s lol




18/7/2009

I rolled around on stock shocks for a few months but decided its best to replace the shocks as well. So I opted for the Monroe GT Sport. I arranged these through Wholesale Suspension at Penrith. Was the best thing ever, the handling improved dramatically plus it firmed up the ride nicely.




9/9/2009

Decided on getting some new tail lights for the car and found some LED Altezza ones on ebay for pretty cheap. I have since seen others on the road with this design but as yet have not seen any with the LED brake lights :-)




13/9/2009

Also decided on getting some HID lights, sounded like a good idea in principal but through out I have had issues with them changing colour and not spreading very well on the road. Once I got the genuine XR headlights fitted they improved but again I still have an issue with the spread of light onto the road. To be honest I probably wouldn’t get them again as they have just been one GIANT headache, especially with the supplier having such slack after sales support




14/11/2009

Continuing on with the handling theme I needed some new front rotors so decided to go with some RDA slotted ones. I did notice the difference with the braking so well worth it. I will be getting slotted rear later on when those rotors have worn down.




20/2/2010

Now time for some performance mods, upon searching Ebay found a set of 2.5” Hurricane extractors and 200CPSI High Flow Cat for $600 and fitted for an extra $60, I swooped on this deal and made the trek down to Dapto Mufflers to see Darren. I left the standard mufflers on and drove home, man the car sounded soo funny, sort of reminded me like a dirty old ute.




27/2/2010

After dealing with the weird noise for a week I was back down to see Darren the next Saturday to fit up some 2.5” straight through Hurricane Mufflers.






10/4/10

Time for some new tyres as they had been chewed out hardcore after the lowering so got a camber kit fitted to the front as well to fix the negative camber – has been going great now


14/7/10 – 15/8/10

Back onto the visual mods I decided to fit a BF GT kit to my car. I found a cheap one on Ebay through a company called Phat Custom Kits and thought great they are a body kit shop surely the quality won’t be too bad – man was I wrong!! The car spent a whole month at my panel beater getting the kit fitted etc. He did a top job considering the quality he had to work with. I have posted more detailed issues with their kits in the show us your modded au/ba/bf thread so check it out, long story short stay away from them!!






17/8/2010

Worst day ever!! Disaster had struck. Following a foreigner in a bloody Toyota Kluger on the way home from work probably only driving about 10km/h they decided to stop completely in slow moving traffic, not having enough time to stop also I just tapped the worlds biggest tow bar they had on the back of the car and destroyed the front of the bar. I was sooo pissed off after the car taking so long to get to this stage and then bang this happens.




23/10/2010

So after the smash a bit more saving and I decided to buy the GT kit again but from SSV this time as my mate could get me trade discounts plus their quality is 100x better. Anyways I bought the XR headlights (Thanks George) plus the XR8 bonnet as well. The other beauty of it was the foglights from SSV are of much better quality and actually produce light onto the road unlike the crap PKC “free” ones. Anyways only took my panel beater 2 weeks to paint and fit the bonnet, front bar/fog lights and also side skirts which I had bought a month back from SSV as the PCK ones didn’t fit at all. I also got the GT stripes put on at the same time which really completed it. At the end of it all I was so happy with how the car looks (Even though I have spent a small fortune), even my panel beater can’t believe how well he could get it to fit “looks like genuine” was what he said 















11/12/2010

Finally got around to sorting out my air Intake and decided to get the SS Inductions Growler Kit fitted. Managed to source it for $450 and my panel beater installed it for 2 cases of beers. All I have is praise for this kit, it has made my car sooo much louder, tunnels are awesome fun to hear the bellow of it all.

George also hooked me up with a XR6T standard intake which is huge compared to the standard XT one so got that plumbed into the growler as well.

[phil545]

5/1/11

Here is a nice photo i captured on my phone on the way to Jenolan Caves today!



13/1/11

Big thanks goes to Justin at Tuff Car Parts - I highly recommend him, huge amount of knowledge and extremely quick replies, I was emailing him questions and it was like we were instant message chatting!

Anyways getting this bad boy installed on Saturday - stay tuned for the results. Then I think it will be time for a custom tune and be it



Here is a pic of the actual harmonic balancer, its actually bigger than I thought!



15/1/11

SO! got the under kit installed today, took about 2 hours after a bit of stuffing around.

Anyways we had a bit of trouble getting off the old harmonic balancer. At the time didnt know but now do and that is from the AU onwards ford changed the design. Usually there are 3 screw holes that you can attach a puller to and then unscrew it. Well my mechanic didn’t have this new puller tool so we couldn’t get it off. He rang ford but was on hold for a while and couldn’t get through.

I decided I would ring Ford as I knew they were open (plus worked there for 5 years so knew a few blokes) and got onto spare parts in a hope we could buy the new tool. The shop needed it anyways so thought why not, anyways spare parts don’t sell the tool so we moved over to the service manager at Power Ford. Spoke to him and he agreed to let us borrow it. So me and the mechanic jumped in the car and headed down (as they are only 5 – 10 mins away) Anyways back at the shop we removed the old balancer and put the new one in

We then replaced the 2 idler pulleys which came as part of the kit and then fitted the new belt as well which the design was inspired by nascar :-D hahaha

The car definitely seems to rev up easier and hwy cruising is awesome, has probably dropped the revs about 100-150rpms, also the air con and power steering etc is all the same as it was before so it doesn’t affect that either, I guess because they are over driven so its just wasting power as stock.


Anyways pics below

Removed the fan and intake pipe so there is room to work with. No need to remove the radiator which is great :-D


And a close up of the space to work with


Old belt taken off


Removing the old balancer using the puller tool borrowed from Power Ford


The new balancer on the left and the old on the right. You will notice the front of it is actually the same size but in the other pics you can see the size difference where the actual belt runs, the new one is smaller


New balancer and one idler pulley installed, we put the other one in as part of the tensioner but I didn’t grab a pic of it


12/2/11

Just a little update today! I decided it was about time for a transmission service because I am pretty sure it hasnt been touched since day one when I got it and it just ticked over 100,000km. I went down to see Joe at Crescent Motorsport in Liverpool, top bloke! Really friendly and a wealth of information.
I stood around and watched as he went to work and snapped a few photo’s at the same time. The colour of the old oil was disgusting, so brown!! The shifts are much smoother now and the reverse actually engages a bit quicker after being driven around. Anyway pics below









Old Filter


The guts of it


New Filter

[phil545]

28/2/11

So bit of an update today thanks to spur of the moment, I had taken the day off work because I went to soundwave yesterday and thought I would have been too ####ed for work. I took off to Windsor Exhaust about 10am to get some quotes of exhaust tips etc, it worked out well as they are only open mon – fri. Upon chatting to Russel I had the 2 options, either run the pipe properly or put in a fake exhaust tip on the left side. I initially opted for the fakie as I liked the loudness and tone my current exhaust made, but upon discussing and really thinking about it i decided to go the whole hog and get it done properly. The price difference was only a couple of hundred bucks so I thought, do it right! Do it once! Anyways i was lucky enough that he could fit me in that afternoon at 1:30pm as it was a 3 hour job!! All up only cost me $480 which i thought was pretty damn good as he had to make the pipe from scratch so a full custom job 

Anyways as soon as he fired it up I was so happy, it’s so much louder than my old exhaust and even gurgles at times. I opted for the split pipe to be run 2.5 inch not the usual 2.25inch so my entire system remains 2.5 inch. Driving around in the wet on the way home is none short of scary, it definitely seems to have freed up the power a bit more, as the rear is now just 2 straight through small resonators it is #### loud!

Anyways as always I documented the progress with lots of photos below



























26/4/11

Had a photoshoot done over the weekend and here is the result :-) There has been no photoshopping been done, this is just using the portable lighting the photographer had.

I also set up a make shift carport so i could spend the day cleaning and polishing my car, it worked suprisingly well!



And here are the photoshoot pics :-)













2/5/11

Just a little update.

Took the day off work to go visit my mechanic and get a 105k service and a few other bits and pieces done. The shop was nice and quiet which was perfect so I managed to snap a few pics along the way.

Along with the service I got the radiator and brake fluid flushed, my Throttle Body cleaned and also a new o2 sensor installed which I organised through Papa Smurf. Also as part of the service I got the fuel filter replaced as it was about time and seems to have solved the issue of it being a bit surgy down low in the mornings. Anyways as you may have heard the stories I was one of the unlucky ones with Ford cross threading my fuel filter thread when they put it on from factory. This is a common thing and can cause problems however mine wasn’t too bad and we were able to tighten up the new one properly. Anyways pics below.

Next on the list will be a complete rear re-bush and some nice new fat Whiteline sway bars.

Car on Hoist


New o2 sensor


While the car was on the hoist I thought it might be a good opportunity to get a close up of the exhaust split next to the dif


Mmm nice dirty oil


Bleeding the brakes during the brake fluid flush


17/5/11

Well a slightly eventful evening, went around my mechanics place for a few beers and on the way home (literally 150m up the road) i get out of the car at my place to a nice sound of air rushing out of somewhere. Looking at the front passenger wheel i could see any puncture so i went ahead and took off the wheel to find the inside sidewall had completly crapped itself. There is a nice 15 cm gash in it and another out of shot thats about 3 cm long. No wonder i couldnt find it, anyways they are Achilles ATR Sport and i know people have said in the past they have weak sidewalls but i wouldnt have thought it would happen to me, they had done about 25,000km and were still just legal so i really didnt want to have to replace them yet. Might be able to get this one covered under manufacture defect warranty but will see. Its ironic as my mechanic also owns a tyre shop so go figure!!!

Anyways pic below, its shame as they have a treadwear rating of 400 which is pretty damn good for a 19" tyre.



18/6/11

Went for a cruise with the Ford boys today, went up to Lake St Clair, was very nice except for the wind, nice clear and sunny skies, snapped a few pics along the way, the pro ones are thanks to Mitch!




















28/6/11

Finally decided to take a vid of my exhaust. I want to get some more done but this was the first time i had actually been outside the car when it was going WOT past me - #### it sounds soo much better in the flesh!!

‪Ford BF Falcon twin exhaust‬‏ - YouTube

[phil545]

8/7/11

So a nice update to my car today, spent the day out at Wholesale Suspension Penrith, getting the rear end re-bushed with super pro bushes and my sway bars fitted up. I got the left, right and centre diff bushes, upper and lower control arms, plus some others that I can’t remember but while the cradle was out it was a good idea to do them to save on labour. I have an itemised receipt if people want more info. I got 27mm front sway bar and a 22mm rear sway bar. Organised them through Tuff Car Parts for an awesome price, I highly recommend Justin.

Overall the process took less than 5 hours which is awesome, the bloke had the cradle down and out of the car within 45 minutes. I of course took lots of photo’s along the way.

The car handles sooo much better now - it is like it’s on rails, best ever handling upgrade!! However while the car was on the hoist I noticed I had 2 buckled rims AGAIN!! Sydney roads are so shithouse and I really don’t have any faith in speedy wheels, I think they just make a crap poor quality rim as this brings the total repairs to 5 rims now!

Anyways lots of pics below

Getting ready to go up on the hoist



Cradle is out!







Also got the 2 bushes on the arms of the far left replaced – can’t remember what they were called



Left, right and centre diff bush



Close up of the actual diff





Hmmm something seems to be missing :-P











Front Sway Bar







Buckled Left Rear Rim



Buckled Left Front Rim



Rear Sway Bar

[VKCOMMO]

Did someone spill a drink Phil?


TAXI!!!!! ..haha

[phil545]

lol i dont get it, but its the best looking taxi around!

[HUX 90]

I like what you've done with it, the mods suit it well, good work.

[phil545]

Thanks mate, appreciate it!

[nemesis_adrasteia]

any more power mods planned?

[mr calais 5.0]

I can't see half the pics..

[phil545]

Yeah just a custom tune is on the cards hoping for about 175 - 180rwkw. Not sure why you cant see them all, they are def there, i can see them, perhaps refresh?

[minux]

Nice tidy build, shame about the horrific wheels and tail lights :/

Does this Tangcla fellow ever change his photos? It seriously looks like same spots different car.

[phil545]

Hahaha thanks mate, each to their on the rims and i know lots of ppl that dont like altezza but they are LED so it really attracted me to it.

Dunno about Tangcla, these were done in the gong but he usually goes for an industrial look so usually a warehouse looks just like other warehouses however they are different spots

[phil545]

A little update today, went back to Wholesale Suspension for a free 1000km checkup after getting the rear end re-bushed a few weeks ago. During that time though I actually won a Whiteline facebook competition where I could select the product I needed and they would give it to me. Seeming as though I had already bought most of the products available for my car all that was left was some front heavy duty adjustable sway bar links. When I did the rear sway bar I replaced the links then with some new ones (not heavy duty etc) but was still rocking the originals on the front and they needed to be replaced.
As always I took lots of pics

Old Links

New Heavy Duty Links

Drivers side link

Passenger Side Link