My 98 EL GHIA

Hey guys, new to the forum so i thought i would share a few pictures and a brief history of the E-series i have owned throughout the past 6 years.

i have owned alot of different vehicles, from big turbo supras to landcruisers to SS's etc since first getting my license back in 2008, but i have always found myself going back to e-series GHIA's and XR's as i love the shape and the affordability of them (no car here cost over 5k)


my first EL GHIA that i owned in 2009.

supercharged straight 6. built by chipmaster in the early 2000's.

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...3/IMG_1139.jpg

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...3/RIMG0125.jpg

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...3/RIMG0130.jpg

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...3/RIMG0132.jpg


unfortunately due to my very poor driving abilites at 19 and thinking im all that, it ended up in a pole


http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...3/IMG_2427.jpg


so after parting (not by choice) with my lovely heritage green ghia, i stumbled across this sparkling burgundy fairmont with a twist.


AU XR intech swap with EL XR front end conversion, LSD, T5 SWAP, rip shifter etc.

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...3/IMG_2849.jpg

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...3/IMG_2895.jpg

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...ps74a0ec41.jpg


which i eventually sold to a friend who drove it into the ground for 3 years, until i bought it back off him last year in 2013 and completed a small restore on it (last picture)


after selling the burgundy XR/MONT to my friend i purchased a gun grey EF XR6 with fully ticky kit etc.

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...3/IMG_0012.jpg

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...3/IMG_0010.jpg

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...3/IMG_0008.jpg

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...3/IMG_0002.jpg

which i dailied for a while until i got a company car through work.


in 2012 i went back to uni, and i required a nice reliable daily driver. so i found myself looking for another EL GHIA, and so after 2 years the EL's were back in the driveway.

i eventually settled on this heritage green EL GHIA

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...3/DSC01204.jpg

which i planned to keep stock and just use to get my from A to B


which ofcourse lasted about a week

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...3/DSC01433.jpg

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...psb5825424.jpg

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...3/DSC01441.jpg


http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...3/DSC01467.jpg


http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...3/DSC01469.jpg

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...psf9e265f3.jpg

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...psa25c012d.jpg




sadly i then got a job and another company vehicle so with nowhere to store the GHIA, so i sold it :( and immediately regreted doing so


a couple of months went by and i couldnt resist buying just another one for a bit of fun.

so i ended up stumbling across this EL XR8 manual with full tickford kit. (my first windsor)

did basic headers,exhaust and shortshifter for some sound and fun.


http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...ps23bb2cd4.jpg

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...psfbd75191.jpg

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...psac84fb4d.jpg

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...psd3157310.jpg


i then ofcourse sold this off in the middle of last year and remained E-series free for a while.


until about 2 weeks ago, when surfing gumtree i spotted a sparkling burgundy 1998 EL GHIA with 150,000km's and for under 3k, from the photos i could see that it was clean and well kept, so i raced down to have a look at it the next day.

it was tucked away at the back of the lot, covered in dust. i went around the car looking for the usual signs of rust and general wear and tear, the books revealed it was a one owner with a full service history all the way till 4000kms ago.

so i had to have it, and for the price i didnt care.

i got it home, detailed it and went over it.

the only fault i could find was with the BCM....the auto dim function for the interior lights was playing up and sometimes they would stay on, sometimes they wouldnt. (pretty common)

but other then that, i could not fault it!



this is how i purchased it, still wearing its bonnet,window and headlight protectors.

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...ps2f2a2cee.jpg



and then after its cut and polish

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...ps4a69bdd1.jpg

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...ps49a9b5e0.jpg

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...ps36d4d46a.jpg


http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...pse7c46955.jpg


so far all i have done is purchased ultra lows with shortened shocks, clear side repeaters, fairlane cornering lights and 19" FPV silver argents (in e-series offset)


once the sun comes out ill get some better photos of it lowered

but for now

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...ps21d9fda5.jpg



and once the guards are rolled ill fit the Silver argents

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...psce73a60a.jpg




anyway, sorry for the huge first post!

hopefully by the end of this week ill be able to update it again with some shots with the new wheels.

WOW!! very nice history of your Falcons and welcome!

Great first post, welcome. Very nice cars the ELs. Still classy till this day especially when taken care of like you've done.

heres a couple of nicer photos of the GHIA lowered on standard wheels.

guards are getting rolled tomorrow, so i should hopefully have the silver argents on by wednesday.

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...ps0ae66d2c.jpg


http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...psa5c75d2b.jpg


http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...psc2a98faf.jpg


they will settle a couple more MM over the coming weeks.

i really love it when e-series are lowered, gives more credit to the lines of the car IMHO

If you ever get odd problems with the BCM, we've found they're starting to get dry solder joins on the circuit board and it causes silly little issues, one I helped fix the other day was dry solder joins on the BCM causing the car to imobilise itself, but everything else was working fine.

Resoldered the entire CB and problem gone.

So not a fan of the E series I gather?

Welcome!