1988 Mk2 Fiesta. Classicford feature

Looking great

Well first thing this morning I thought I would have a go with my rear bumper before buying another one. The previous owner in his wisdom must have painted it black at some point which does not match the front and was wearing through and genrally looking terrible. So I thought what have I got to loose I have primer in stock and I had an old areosol of dark grey plastic bumper paint which must be 10 years old. It was not going to cost me anything to try it and could save me £50 which is what a used XR2 bumper seems to go for.
The results are not bad and its close enough that I am no longer looking for another.

It looks a bit shiney at the minuite but that should tone down a bit with a bit of weather.

Next I went shopping to get a few essentials.


The most important purchase



So after I had eaten my daily allowance I changed the oil and at least that is one fluid that does not try to escape when you fill up.

Then I turned my attention to the engine mount, I had brought a non genuine one off ebay but when I removed mine I discovered it was slightly different to mine. I had 2 options here. 1-send it back for a refund or 2-the rubber part of the 2 mounts looked the same and maybe I could switch the rubbers between the 2 and solve the issue.

They came apart easy enough.


Getting the new rubber into the old surround was not so easy but I managed it after much swearing.


Once fitted and with the engine running it offers much better resistance compared to the old one because as you can see the old one was years past it's best.



Inbetween swearing and genrally messing about today I managed to adjust the rear wheel bearings to get rid of the play in them and get all the lights working. I had been without front indicators and rear fog light along with a tail light out but a bulb fixed the rear light. The front indicators was a bad conection on the back of each fitting and the rear fog light is beyond economical repair as the contact and the bulb holder crumbled to nothing when I touched them. I am hoping to get another unit tomorrow. The fog lamp along with a leaking carb are the only 2 thing obviously stopping this getting an MOT. I have ordered a carb service kit and hope it just needs 1 of the gaskets changing.

Cheers. I have painted cleaned of replaced anything that has been taken off. I have a bit of a stock of stainless nuts, bolts, washers and jubilee clips so have fitted those where possible to. But the main let down is the engine block and gearbox. There is years of baked on oil which could do with cleaning off really.

This morning I had a visit from the postman.


He must be well fed up with me and my parcels. He must have carried a car to me bit by bit in the time I have lived here.

Next up a chap at work is breaking a puma so it would be rude not to have a go at this gear linkage conversion everyone raves on about.


So I took the carb off and replaced the gasket that I thought was leaking and fitted it back up to a nice leak free running car. I let it run for half hour and all was good. The car really needs a good drive to clear it out and decide if there are any running issues.



If only I had a spare fog lamp this would have an MOT tomorrow.

It never crossed my mind to do that. Yes I could have but as I have got one on its way via royal snail I should be down the MOT station soon.


Yesterday I got the Fiesta out the front to drain the water out of the radiator. I ended up flushing it out 5 times to try and loose the orange colour out of the water. I have now put some long life coolant it there and up to yet it is keeping the colur but I don't think it will last.

Thanks for the kind words.

I have been on Holiday all week but I got back yesterday and got straight back on it this morning. While I was away I had a delivery which needed collecting from the sorting office and I had brought an aftermarket steering wheel which needed collecting locally so that was the first job after I had washed the Passat after doing a 1000miles in 7 days.

When I got back I fitted the fog light which is in as new condition and it worked straight off.



I was amazed it worked straight off as the wiring on the 3 switches on the dash had been worring me. Each switch only goes into 1 plug but the switches had been modified to go in any plug and the wrong plug marked as FOG. I ignored this and put eash plug in the correct original switch. So all good and took all of 5 mins.

Next up I changed the wheel. The new item is not as good quality as the old one but is in very good condition, the old wheel is poor condition, I brought it 10+ years ago and it was used then so I suppose it has done well.



Here is the old one but I don't know if the condition is going to be visable in this picture.



So I am good for an MOT now in my opinion. I have a couple of things to do off the snagging list tomorrow and hopefully the MOT place I use will have a vacant spot on Monday for it.

spotted it tonight outside your house, looks really good....

Good news on the pass, didn't look like it would be a problem with the standard of work going on.
Nice job finding the Halford's bargain!

John

nah was not for me,
i've looked at two over the last two weeks but not interested in either,
i'm off to ibiza saturdsy morning so i'll take up the search when i get back.

After driving around in this I felt the need for a stereo. I like the induction noise but need some back ground music and if I use it for work I can listen to something at break time.
The previous owner had left a head unit in but a clip had broken on the face so it didn't stay on! I wondered why he had left it in. The speakers he had removed though so I was left with nothing that was fit for use. So I picked up these from a local audio place for £24 to fit in the doors in the original mounting hole behind the door card.

Then I was in need of a head unit which a mate came up trumps with as he once worked at a local limo place and he gave me an old head unit that had been removed for no reason other than they needed units with a usb on the front and each car had a memory stick for music. Works fine.

I now need some speakers for the back. I could have fitted some 13cm ones in the original holes had the previous owner not removed the brackets along with his speakers. I could source some brackets but even then 13cm speakers are not really upto much and a pair of 6x9s in the shelf would be better with a little 2 channel 100w amp then covered in acoustic matirial so it looks normalish. Problem there is my shelf is uncut and I am not keen on cutting it so could do with a cheap shelf that has already had holes cut in. Or I could get some surface mount speakers but options on those are limited and quality being questionable due to there size. These are the best option I can find but I think they will look a bit poor compared to an acoustic shelf.
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CALIBER-3-WAY-SHELF-CAR-BOAT-VAN-POD-SPEAKERS-120W-/171778995468?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item27fed3750c#ht_2159wt_1348
Calibre was good quality once but I am well out of touch with audio gear and am unsure if they are still as good.
While I was fitting the head unit I had to replace the part of the dash that holds the head unit so while I had the surround off I had a fiddle with the speedo cable and managed to get it working.

It could do with a new cable, but now it works that is a job for another day.


Last Sunday I got the Sierra out and went to the Retromania show at Weston Park. Its the 3rd year running I have been and its well worth a visit. Here are a few of my car. I have got some pics of others that caught my eye and will try and get them loaded up in the general area.







Then on final note I have brought another car today (well put deposit on one)

You can guess which direction this is heading.