My Car

I first got the fiesta back in may 2002. My mate used to own it, however he decided it looked better ploughed into the side of a van, well thats not strictly true - he pulled out of a T-Junction and didnt see the van.

Anyway, his insurance said they were gonna scrap the car as they rekoned it would cost more than the value of the car to repair - and if it was done professionaly at a garage, i'd agree.

So, here's a pic of the car - Back in 2000 when he first bought the car @ 65,000 miles.

So, Here's a pic of my mate = Back in 2000 when he still had lots of hair (lol)

(Summer 2000)

(Aug 2002)

I never took any photo's of the "ahem" carnage he made, but i took photo's after i repaired it.

To repair the damaged, it required

- Drivers Wing (Pattern part)
- Front Pannel (Pattern Part)
- Second Hand Bumper (Scrap Yard)
- Drivers Front Indicator/Headlight.

Mig welder, Disc cutter.

Ford Diamond White spray, laqure and lots of time and patients.

Work involved ranged from the disc cutting off the old wing, front pannel and then the spot welding, then seam welding of the new pannels and then spraying.

I didnt manage to find the same bumper, the bumper i found came of a 1.6s fiesta and had two little rubber bits sticking out the front.

So lets recap, we have a now - complete fiesta that only cost me £120 in parts plus a couple of weeks work to repair.

Interior is great condition, Only a popular plus - but hey - its a car!

999cc / 4 Speed Manual.

43 b.h.p

0 - 60 supposidly in the 20 second area - Slow i know

Top speed 86mph.

Ok, ICE, ICE BABY....

Aiwa CD-RW player, 4x45w.

Below,

350W SPLX Amp, Sub and Kenwood 200w max 6x9's

(May 2003)

So, after a few months of 4 gears i decided the 4 speed box had to go.

Over a weekend, up came the engine on an engine lift, off with the box, new clutch, preassure plate and thrust bearing.
On goes a 5 speed fiesta box either from the XR2i or a ghia.

Uh-oh problem - 5 speed box, slower take off - need more power???

So - off the scrap yard again, 1.3 fiesta TDLM twin choke webber carb, Bigger and more responsive than the single choke TLM carb.

Top speed 98mph :o)

This little car is now happy doing 90-95 on the flat, still a 1.0L so up hill it's still slow.

(July 2003)

At this point i'm getting itchy to do something with the car, it was a nice day so i thought i'd clean it and polish it.

Earlier that day i had sold my mark 1 fiesta but i kept the Pepperpot alloy wheels - As i liked them - so kept them.

I had to try them on the Mark 3, it had to be done...

But they didn't look right, the original's were better suited.

(Feb 2004)

For xmas the wife bought me a preassure washer for the car.

The arches and petrol filler cap are famous for rust, mine was no exception.- i could really get the car clean now, unfortunately this caused far more work as with all Mark 3 Fiesta's,

The day i preassure washed it was the day the water went straight through the rear quarter pannel.

Time for a nother trip to the scrappy for a good pannel off a donor fiesta to make mine solid again.

After a weekend of cutting, welding and then filling, sanding, smoothing, spraying and drying i finally have a bubble free petrol filler cap.

After a little poking with a screwdriver a little Bit of Rust became apparent.

With some nifty welding we now have an inner skin.

Body filler, sanding, smoothing and more smoothing

Masked and ready for spraying.

So end of story - or is it?

Well no not really, I spent hours trying to fill the arch and getting as close to the round shape but i couldn't get it right.

So - off to the scrappy again - to find wheel arches, or something that can help hide the mess???

(Feb 2004)

Oh dear, i couldn't find anything to cover the rear arches with so i landed up coming home with this...

Full XR2i Body Kit

- Front and Rear Bumpers
- 2 Side Skirts
- 4 Arches
- Rear Spiler

(Only £40)

So when i relised it might work,

It had to be sprayed of course...

(Another £70 spent)

Fitting started...

Adding the spoiler, and red tail pipe...

But one thing still wasnt right - ALLOY WHEELS.

The only alloy wheels i had were Mark 1 Fiesta Pepperpots - Worth nothing but when cleaned and rubbed down, then sprayed look ok.

Still bearing in mind the last time i put them on they didnt suit it, i thought i'd give them another go.

And now my car looks mint!

(Mar 2004)

Ok, i thought i'd better check the brakes, they work but i aint ever checked the pads or discs since i first owned the car

Just as well i did...

One Buggered Brake Pad andvbfnhg hjhg One very Knackered THIN Brake Disc.

Two brand new THICK disc pads!!!

(May 2004)

After hearing my mates car rev or rather a ROAR from his K&N induction kit, i thought i might be able to do something to make mine a bit noisier.

I searched the net for a cheap K&N but never found one.
In the end i settled for the easy - Drill holes in the air cleaner approach.

Hey - it worked, more airflow meant more power and that roar sound it gave is nice.

I even buggered off the warm air feed - cold air has more oxygen than warm - more power again!

After a week of this roaring sound, one day i was caining it through my local town and it really got noisy - so noisy it sounded like a bloody tractor, i knew it was loud - but not this loud, i got home and had a nose.

Turned out the Exhaust manifold had cracked and thats why is was extra noisy...

(July 2004)

1.0 HCS now at 107,200 miles!!!

Time for a new engine and it's either a 1.3 HCS or a 1.4 CVH.

Due to complications it's looking like the 1.3 HCS. But thats its still a nippy engine.

1.3 - 60 B.H.P it aint bad, with a wider boar exhaust and a K&N i'll get 65 B.H.P out of the thing!

(End of July 2004)

I have just been given a 1.4 escort.

Bodywork is shagged but engine is ok, done 110k but its a 1.4 - 75bhp!

Let the transplant begin...

Unclipping, un-wiring everything.

Ready to drop the engine out.

I have no pics of it comming out, but pics of when its out....

So now, out with the geiser (de-greaser) and rags to clean the baby up...

Off with the gear box and clutch assembly to reveal the fly wheel....

Seeing as its the CVH, better do the cam belt too...

Before i took the HCS engine out, i had to shop around for a few bits and bobs.

- Odviously the cam belt - above

- Clutch kit - preassure plate, housing and thrust bearing.

Exhaust System - bigger than the 1.0L to aid gas flow - more power :o)

Engine mount for the drivers side, there is a diffrence apparently....

Ok, now the tricky bit....

Out with the HCS 1.0L engine....

Same again, undo everything, all clips, nuts and bolts.

I found it easiest to remove the gearbox still on the bottom cross member and drop it to the floor.

This is tedious, to begine with, the engine hoist had lost its oil, so i couldn't just lower it, i had to progressively lower it on concrete blocks, with my car jacked up really high to the the engine can slide from underneath.

Jacked up high to get the engine from underneath.

Its out, my car has no engine...

Ok, now - off with the gear box and time to swap the gearbox over and do the clutch on the CVH engine.

HCS Flywheel - with clutch and housing still on.

CVH flywheel without the clutch assembly.

Unfortuantely i had to return to work - VIA THE BUS :o( as this transplant took longer than my hols.

So, i didnt really take any photo's of the re-instalation "1392 cubic capacity internal combustory ponie replacement unit" - Ahem - engine.

Naturally i had to get a nice K&N bolt on to give it a little more poke and a nice PHWOOOORR sound!!!

So now recapping, i am now running a 1.4 CVH with

75bhp,

0-60 in 13.2 seconds, but i've had it in 11 seconds.

When looking for the engine mount in a scrap yard, on a mark 2 XR2 fiesta i saw a MINT set of XR2i alloys...

I asked how much and the scrap yard owner said - £50 - Bargain!!!

And look at the tread on these, Yokahoma's ALL round...

So, on with the fitting....

Now that looks like an XR2i

Well, i think i need to loose the orange indicators and get clear ones like my clear side repeaters.

Thats even better still.

Also, i now have blue side lights (E-Approved - Road Legal)

So there you go, thats my car up to date, XR2i replica.

INTERIOR-UPDATE....

I put in the car matts from the escort, they actualy look ok - i just machine washed them!

25th Sept 2004

Now with an aging parcel shelf and nothing to do, i felt its time to make a new one - a quick removal stealth shelf!

MDF £8
Accoustic Matt £22.99
Wadding £2.50/metre

Equipment needed, Jigsaw, Staple gun, Scissors.

I'm not gonna give a step by step giude, just a few pics!

Thats my new shelf, complete with quick release XLR connections...

Sunday 10th oct 04.

When trailing the scrap yard for an alternator for my bro's clio, i saw an XR2i and as usual i always look to see if theres something useful that i can use.

Pretty much untouched other than the front bumper, lights and spoiler.

So, after pushing the price for £8 to £5 for the console, i thought time to fit, easily installed and looks better.

And thats it, XR2i Center Console.

Small Cosmetic Mod

Fiesta Badge

(Thursday 13 Jan 2005)

After "Lifting" the badge from a Mark 4 Fiesta in the local scrappy, i decided it would look nice on my Mark 3 Fiesta - Besides i didn't like the sticker on mine, not a badge but a sticker.

After body kitting the car, The sticker still said "Fiesta Popular Plus" which contradicted the kit, so i took the "Popular Plus" Bit off.

To Leave This...

I had the choice of getting a propper Mark 3 Badge, there as loads in the scrap yard to choose from but i thought it was too "square" and "blocky" so the Mark 4's Italic writing seemed softer yet more stylish.

After cleaning the "Pocketed" Badge (Removing the old double sided sticky pad) I tediously applied new self adheasive trim stripping, cutting with a scissors and a stanley knife to get it to match the lettering.

Next came the very irritating job of removing the sticker using HOT SOAPY WATER and a plastic window scrapper (metal would scratch the bodywork)

Here's a few pics...

Once the sticker was removed, I had to use some T-cut to remove the "glue" and to even up the finish to the true "Diamiond White" before applying the new badge.

Yeah, the pictures are dark and grainy - it was half 4 and light was fading fast!

Sunday 30th Jan 2005

Several tweaks to the car today.

Firstly, I'm now using a 1.6 Escort ignition module (ESC) I had to make an adaptor to fit the Escort ESC to the Fiesta wiring loom.

I can now hear you asking "why didn't you use a 1.6 fiesta ignition system?" well the fact is thar more a mk3 1.6 fiesta, they useded a coil and distributor rather than electronic ignition, so there is no ESC, merely an On Distributor module like the Mk2 XR2 igntion system.

You can just about make out my Multiplug adaptor in the photo below, to the right of my K&N - The silver pannel with blue wire crimps near by.

Why did i got to all this hassle?
The 1.6 ESC is a Vaccumm advance system, this controls ignition advance/retard according to readings from the crank sensor, water temp sensor and air temp sensor along with the vaccumm it detecs from a depression in the inlet manifold.

Up untill now i was using the 1.0L ESC and as such didn't use an air temp sensor, neither did it have the correct settings for the vaccum for a 1.4 Engine.
The car is better now as the Brakes are vaccum assisted, meaning i've got even sharper brakes.
Also the ignition is advancing correctly according to the correct ammount of vaccum so i've got better response from the engine and much quicker acceleration. Its also got rid of that annoying flat spot at 3k, which is the start of the engines peak torque range - which was irritating.

This photo brings me to my next modification, As you can see i now have a cold air feed, while this is not complete cold air, in the sense that wair air can still be drawn in from the engine bay, some cold air is drawn through and this means i'm getting a correct reading on the ar temp sensor (See photo below)

The last modiciation is not mechanical, but electrical and cosmetic.

I saw my brothers neon light he paid £30 for from a car customs shop in our town, it's purple and lights his boot up nice.

I felt like doing something similar so went to all the shops that do this sort of stuff, i found what i wanted in Halfrauds, I mean Halfords.

£16 for 15" Plasma Tube, Light Blue.

I have hard wired this to the boot light connection (removed the boot light) so it switches on/off with the boot light switch on the tailgate.

I've solderd the wires into a signle Phono RCA connection for quick release, matching the quick release system of 3 and 4 pin xlr's i'm using on the parcel shelf for amp, sub and 6x9's.

Sunday 6th Feb 2005

I thought that this weekend i'd further the Plasma Light instalation with WHITE boot lining!

(Bearing in mind it isn't finished yet, gotta spray the back of the seats white to help intensify the plasma tube.

I bought some hardboard - only thin stuff, bought some white fleece.

Used the original black carpet as a template - cut the boarding to shape, covered it in the fleece to make a false floor
(Thats my son in the top left corner)

I T-cut the white paint work around the rear shocks to help make it whiter.

After putting the new false floor in i took everything off the custom stealf shelf and lined the underneath with white fleece, cut the speaker holes and threaded the wire.
The fleece in all parts is stapled with a gun.

So heres the finished result.

Next sunday i may spray the back of the rear seats white to help reflect the wonderfull blue.

Dave

Tuesday 05th March.

Just bought my new Car, Escort Si 5 door.

05/04/2005

The fiesta has been sold and better still... its gonna be a lady's first car :o)
It was my first car, my mate (jet) it was his first car and no this lady's first car. Cool!

So thats that, 06/04/2005 signing off for good on this page!

Dave