FTO AUSTRALIA

Howdy folks. You may have seen me lurking around and posting the odd comment here and there, but now I hope I can be a little bit more involved! Or just pester everyone with questions, either or. (don't worry, I know where the search function is).

So, I have just as of a couple of days ago acquired a vehicle from Dstocks small car yard of FTO's Flew up to Canberra from Adelaide on Thursday, and made the long haul back today. Left at 5 in the morning from a friend's in Canberra, and arrived back in Adelaide maybe an hour ago. A big, big, hugely awesome thanks to Dwayne and Kylie (I hope I spelt/remembered the name right! ) for their generous hospitality, and for Dwayne's help figuring out radiator issues. Need to pick up a thermostat, which should hopefully solve the mild overheating problems.

She's stock save lowering springs (getting used to angling a car now, haha), and a vR strut brace. A few rough edges, but has potential.

Here's some pics I took on the trip when I was waiting for the temperature gauge to go down.







And how she stands now:

Wow for something stock that look really really good love the side pic the most

Awesome, I'm so happy for you

Congrats.. Saw this car the other day. I was either going to grab this one or another.. I picked the other.. lol...

I can't stop looking at the pictures, haha.

rock_it wrote:Congrats.. Saw this car the other day. I was either going to grab this one or another.. I picked the other.. lol...

Fortunate for me then!

Congrats on the buy mate. What are your future plans for it?

Now u need to just tell us all your plans for the future as in the way of mods or u goin to leave it like that

Vectose wrote:Congrats on the buy mate. What are your future plans for it?

ZFL45H1 wrote:Now u need to just tell us all your plans for the future as in the way of mods or u goin to leave it like that

Future plans are very... future-y, haha. I don't have a lot of money to throw at it currently, and I moved out of home (again) early last month. But I'm almost certainly going to be full-time at the Woolies I work at in the coming weeks (doing 20 hours currently), so once I have a buffer of savings again, then I might look into a few things.

And, uh, gotta pay my speeding ticket.

Note to self: saving time does not save you money.

bjk wrote:

Vectose wrote:Congrats on the buy mate. What are your future plans for it?

ZFL45H1 wrote:Now u need to just tell us all your plans for the future as in the way of mods or u goin to leave it like that

Note to self: saving time does not save you money.

Thats fair enough and I know how u feel I went to court when I was on my green p's in the early stage was for two speeding tickets one for 10+ and one I think 20+ also had a talk while on the phone all separate occasions but lesson learned

Had a few sleepless nights knowing you were going to be driving it that far. Soooo many things can go wrong. Glad you got down there OK in the end. Really annoying that the problem took over 30 minutes to appear. Made it really hard to diagnose (particularly after having to replace 2 buggered thermo fans and a radiator in the days before it left). It seems that a long uphill grade is what causes the symptoms. Not losing water, but expelling through a new radiator cap into the overflow. The thermostat must be partially blocked. At least thats an easy fix I guess. Sorry for the hassles.

Anyway,welcome to the club as a proper FTO owner. And I do hope you enjoy the car. Now youve had a decent drive, how does it compare to the Mazda?

bjk wrote:I can't stop looking at the pictures, haha.

rock_it wrote:Congrats.. Saw this car the other day. I was either going to grab this one or another.. I picked the other.. lol...

Fortunate for me then!

Lol.. Guess so.. But was a good buy. Never heard of anyone having problems from one of Dwaynes cars. I was unfortunate enough to have the alternator belt on mine snap.. On the way home. But we were lucky enough to rig up a temporary belt, and get close to Dwaynes to fix her and be on the way again..

Looks very tidy, is it a manual or auto?

Its an Auto with 187K on the clock. Has a sunroof. Apart from the lowering springs and the version R front brace, is stock as a rock.

Awesome mate finally got one! bring her over sometime after summer and we can sort any issues you have maybe good old service too

dstocks wrote:Its an Auto with 187K on the clock. Has a sunroof. Apart from the lowering springs and the version R front brace, is stock as a rock.

Actually only has 184xxx Started at 183000 something. As for comparing to the Mazda. Definitely, unsurprising, has more give. Overtaking on the highway was fairly effortless. I'm getting the impression it's not quite as "nippy" in the handling, if that makes sense? But it's more grounded, at least from the occasional corners. Once the thermostat is fixed and I'm sure it's not going to overheat, I'll take it for a run through the hills where I've gone numerous times with the 323 and see how it compares.

vipfto wrote:Awesome mate finally got one! bring her over sometime after summer and we can sort any issues you have maybe good old service too

When does summer end? I'm so bad at seasons. It's had a general service done, but I might start compiling a list of things I want to replace.

Bout mid march mate

Looks nice mate, congrats on the purchase. Enjoy the car

vipfto wrote:Bout mid march mate

Ah, true.

crosso wrote:Looks nice mate, congrats on the purchase. Enjoy the car

Think I will! Already can't stop taking pictures of it. Gave her a good wash, and spray-waxed the windows and headlights. Cleaned up a bit of the fogginess on the headlights, actually. They need a real fix, but it doesn't look bad from a distance for a temporary solution.

Scrubs up real nice!

Bennoz wrote:Scrubs up real nice!

Thanks, it does indeed. And thanks for your help via Dwayne about thermostats and such.