I have just re found my copy of Freelancer and put it on my new PC (Windows 7)
But would like to add a new ship or few to play with but before I go picking and downloading ships are there any files I NEED to download to make the mods work?
Any help would be great thanks in advance 
there are some ship packs which can be used with the Freelancer Mod Manager
simply get that tool, install and use it to activate mods
if these ships packs are in flmm format
isn't there a tutorial for this somewhere?
First you need this: Freelancer Mod Manager
Then you double-click on downloaded mod files *.flmod and they will be automatically loaded into the Mod Manager. In the manager you just double-click on mods you want to activate.
If a mod name is orange it means that it is in conflict with an already active mod and could cause problems
If a mod name is red it means that it is heavily in conflict with an already active mod and the combination will most likely not work
But be aware that many major mods like Crossfire, Tekagis Treasure or Shattered Worlds - War Torn work best if applied to a fresh installation of Freelancer that hasn't been modded before