The Price Of Perfection

[Bernard]

Congrats on the purchase and best of luck with your ownership, that's a nice one.
As for uploading pictures, just paste the link into your post, highlight it and click the img button above the text box.
Just try to keep the size reasonable.

[McGra_FTO]

*NEW OWNER*

Hi everyone, my name's Rory and I bought this very fine FTO from Gary (goz_83) in May this year.

It has been far too long since the last post on this thread, but with me never being out of the driver seat of my new pride and joy as well as being in final year of university, I have been extremely busy!
Anyway, the car has been maintained to the highest order (Gary, I'm sure you'll be delighted to hear) with plenty of money spent so far but well worth it I think!
So just to give a quick update before Christmas on my first 6 months with an FTO, here's the story so far...

The first thing I did was underseal the FTO!
In order to pass MOT, I had to buy standard rear tail lights so that the reflector is visible as it wasn't in the tinted tail lights. I also installed rear fog lights as they are also a requirement in the north unfortunately.

Then one sunny morning in July, while heading out to coach at a GAA Cúl Camp in County Down, I was overtaking a tractor and could smell clutch so decided to slow right down and take 'er easy... but too late, the clutch had gone so I took the opportunity to upgrade to an Exedy clutch.




So after getting her back on the road, I installed the HID kit (I've never had HIDs before) and was extremely impressed with the difference they made to the car!!




There were still a few things I was itching to get sorted! So I made a list:

Small bump in driver footwell (easy fix)
Prolonged starting (eventually refused to start)
Exhaust tilted on passenger side
Radiator leak
Evans Waterless coolant conversion
Faulty HID ballasts (replaced ballasts with cheap ebay ones FOR NOW)
Faulty central locking with indicators on one side not flashing when locked/unlocked
Brittle rocker gasket seals (replaced with Viamoto)


A new starter motor was necessary and noticed an immediate difference; she's now starting as quick as a modern car. The exhaust was slightly tilted (but becoming more and more tilted by the drive) so I had a trusted garage cut the bumper symmetrical to the other side and then straighten out the exhaust.




The radiator was leaking so I bought a 'lightweight' one online and while I was at it, did the Evans Waterless coolant conversion. A component within the alarm was not soldered down properly and so was only occasionally making connections, therefore when this was re-soldered, all indicators were working again. Only replaced the HID kits with cheap ebay ones, but if somebody can point me in the right direction for a really decent kit (preferably in 6000K), it would be much appreciated.

*Note: Never had come across Viamoto before but I find the guy (Mike) a great help with a seemingly unlimited supply of FTO parts and other bits!!


So here are a few photos that I have taken since buying from Gary:


































After a good wash and wax:










Thanks folks, I will hopefully get another few photos uploaded around Christmas or early January of my first real appearance modification...

[Bernard]

That's a great post.
Glad to see you're enjoying the FTO experience, you got a good one there.
Looking forward to seeing more updates.

[McGra_FTO]

Thanks Bernard!

I have a few things planned for her so long as I keep the pay cheques rolling in!
Hoping to get myself to a few meets in the summer once I get all the exams over with!
Plenty of updates on the way, should have something closer to Christmas but no hints just yet

[goz_83]

Thrilled with the update and great to see the HIDs back in again. They really do make a massive difference. Those ballasts should have lasted much longer, but maybe with them being stored in the shed and then in the car boot could have taken some life from them. I got the kit from ftooc.org if you want to take a look there.

Mike from viamoto is the fto guy who used to work at camskill, so a good place to go if you can't source the bits you need.

The exedy clutch must make a huge difference. It was on my unwritten list of upgrades, but only if/when the clutch needed replacing....which wasn't too long a wait for you. The evans waterless was also something I wanted to do...so that's good to know it's done too.

The need for the rear fog is a damn shame, but alas, the law of the land must be followed. It should be possible and legal to mask off the reflector areas of the lenses of the rear lights if you still want them tinted.

All in all, i'm well happy that it's being well taken care of. It takes some of the sting out of not being the owner any longer. I swear that only today I was looking on donedeal and contemplating the purchase of an FTO. Would look great on the gravel in the garden

But thats just not gonna happen anytime soon.

Definitely keep the updates flowing in. I just noticed, the new registration has a bit of my nick in there

[Bernard]

The need for the rear fog is a damn shame, but alas, the law of the land must be followed.

When I bought my car in the UK it already had the inner brake lights converted for use as fogs, some clever bit of wiring and dual filament bulbs...
I'm no expert but it might be something worth looking into rather than having to bolt one on, or worse.

[goz_83]

The need for the rear fog is a damn shame, but alas, the law of the land must be followed.

When I bought my car in the UK it already had the inner brake lights converted for use as fogs, some clever bit of wiring and dual filament bulbs...
I'm no expert but it might be something worth looking into rather than having to bolt one on, or worse.

To be honest, I forgot that the car didn't come with a rear fog light. There are options that look good if a hole is going to be cut into the bumper though. A universal fog bar looks a lot better than the things they usually slap onto the rear bumper.

A quick search gives an example http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10816

[Daz]

My present FTO has the inner brake lights converted to fogs but no longer brake lights. But all of my previous FTO's had the inner ones converted by me too when living in ireland. And were still brake lights. If i recall correctly i bought the conversion wiring and switch from either camskills or freaky parts (was 12 years ago since i last done it but they were my main places to buy stuff from back then) and bought the twin filiment bulbs of ebay which eventually became led ones.

[McGra_FTO]

Hi Gary!
I've never had HIDs before but what a modification! Really transforms the front end of an FTO!

I didn't notice too much of a difference with the Exedy clutch but then again I had barely driven the car a few weeks so maybe I just didn't know her well enough.

Your pride and joy is being maintained to the highest level, I can promise you that! I have 1 modification planned and then it's just maintenance until the wallet gets a bit fatter!

I think you need to get back into one soon Gary, you're making me feel guilty!! I'll keep the updates coming, the next one will be within the next week or so... let's hope we're blessed with snowfall for a few nice pictures!!

I never noticed that on the reg actually, that's pretty cool!

Yeah, thanks Bernard and Daz, that's the same job on my FTO, the fogs are wired into the inner brake lights so no messy configuration or modification! As for the reflectors, I have a spare set of stock tail lights to swap round come MOT time

[goz_83]

Thanks for dropping by Rory! I'm impressed with that little upgrade. Subtle and full of class. I'm still grinning from ear to ear. Now I have to find a good spot for the old plates

[McGra_FTO]

Not a problem Gary, my pleasure!
Glad you like it! All my modifications must be Goz-approved before being posted onto this thread!
I was hoping to have pictures up before Christmas but due to a minor (but constant) oil leak after replacing rocker cover gaskets as well as training for the 24hr Gaelic Football match, I was flat out all of December and half of January! Getting there now though and I can promise pictures very shortly!