24/5/08: Escort News: Blimey, its been a while since the last update, the Fiesta was raced at Skegness, theres nothing needs doing to it, so nothing to report there.
Nik came along today, initially to do something with the exhaust on his road car, but that didnt go ahead so we ended up replacing the exhaust on the Escort instead!! The exhaust that was on it had broken at the middle silencer box, so we dropped the manifold out the bottom with downpipe and mid pipe complete, then carefully undone the manifold to downpipe nuts as access was better off the car, with that removed a new downpipe was fitted, the manifold re-attached to the car, followed by the specially trimmed exhaust centre section, it sounds good now and not like a tank as previously.

We decided, that we would start on the suspension, getting it cut etc, so started at the back. There was new shockers to fit, so the rusty nuts and bolts of the old ones were loosened and removed, having to slightly undo brake pipes to get them off.
Nik proceeded to cut the springs, and by his own admission, he botched it!! the spring was cut too short. Quickly sorted by using the drivers side one on the outside rear, cut to suit and then using a cut down fiesta rear spring on the drivers side, this was less stiff so will help give the car a little bit of crossweight from the outside rear [which had the stiffer XR3i spring on] to the inside front wheel.
To stop the springs falling out we bolted in a piece of chain from the inner wing to the bottom suspension arm, this will also stop the suspension dropping too much when jacking the car up to change a wheel. The alignment of the outside rear wheel was adjusted to give a small amount of negative camber, which will help the tyre grip the track better in the corners.

Todays menu featured a rather tasty tuna mayo barmcake, plus tea and coffee. N

What we started with, it was quite high

The chain stops the arm dropping which means the spring wont fall out

It also means the suspension wont drop much when jacking the rear up

Much lower now, perhaps another half a coil could be lost, will wait to see how it is on track before fiddling, the H Frame is still to fit though and that will give the rear some extra weight.

15/3/08: Fiesta News: The fan wiring was looked at, it was the switch that had failed, this was just swapped for a known good one. The oil leak is still a mystery - or is it? the engine had twice its fair share of oil in it, perhaps Phil filled it up twice, no wonder it wanted to leak back out. N

15/3/08 Escort News: When we stripped the Escort, we knew that there would be a problem with rust, even though the car has done quite low mileage, its obvious that it has been stood outside rotting away for much of its life, with all the rot out of eyesight - under sills, under the carpet, behind the front bumper. N
Here are some shots of the front panel, after the bumper was removed:
As you can see there was very little left of the front panel of the car, the bumper mounting plates being made of much thicker metal just about survived, where the front panel meets the lower inner wing and forms a box section, on the drivers side, it had rusted away badly, this also is the place that the anti roll bar mount attaches to, if this car went on a track like that it would have just fallen to pieces. So Mark France took on this massive feat, and found some clean metal to rebuild it:

The pics show that the light panels were also incorporated into the metal that was put back in, the metal used was only ordinary plate that would be used to patch up cars for an MOT, it looks quite extreme, but the whole part had to be remade due to the amount of rust. N

The first pic on the left shows the box section of the inner sill where it meets the inner arch and floor, again, there was nothing left at all as the tin worms had sodding eaten it!! this too was cut out and plated up, and the door bars were installed at the same time. Much of the floor where it meets the inner sills had parted due to the rust, as well as the step sills, so it was all cut out and replaced with new metal. N

4/3/08 Fiesta News: Found the problem tonight as to why I spun. No brakes what so ever on the outside front - evidence of this just by looking at the brake disc, no fluid getting to caliper but fluid coming from master cylinder and fluid where the metal pipe meets the flexi pipe, so its a dodgy bit of flexi hose, the hose isnt very good anyway, its wearing thin. P

29/2/08 Fiesta News: Quite a bit of work to do to get to the track on sunday for the first meeting, got brake lights to wire up, bolt doors shut, some padding here and there, fuel tank firewall, roof fins, plus loads of other stuff no doubt!! I dont even know if the car will even be painted!! it will have door numbers though as we are using the old doors on it. P some pics from today:

23/2/08 Escort News: Today the rest of the wiring was finished, all that remains is the switch panel which just needs fixing inside the car, during the week Phil had installed the inlet manifold and carb. We also fitted the fuel tank utilising the original fuel tank strap [nice fit!] and put in the fuel pipe and tap, connected the battery and tried to start it, it started eventually when the float chamber had filled up but there was a distinct rattle that wasnt there previously, coming from the top end.. we traced this to the distributor which wasnt seated properly as the lower tab had broken off, with that replaced all was well, Phil was worried for a bit there!! N

The rear light covers were also fitted, along with the brake lights in a different place to the norm.

One thing we didnt have, despite trying to get one, as it was left on the car that went to scrap [DOH!!] was the bracket that holds the accelerator cable to the inlet manifold and linkage, the oldest Ford we found in local scrap yards was as old as a P reg!! .. so back to the grind then and this meant that Nik had to fabricate one from scratch, using 1mm thick sheet steel, measurements were taken and it took shape rather quickly, it was double skinned with another section of the steel when finished with lap overs to make it a bit more substantial and the two parts pop riveted together, using the original XR3i cable bracket bolted to it [as this holds the square fitting of the cable], it works every bit as good as an original, it aint the prettiest thing but it does its job.

With the front bumper removed an amazing amount of rust was found on both ends of the front panel - fairly typical of a 3i that has been stood forever and a day, and also to the drivers side front chassis, so the car will be off to have that done in the next week or so now that it can be driven again. Its a safe bet to say that none of our cars will be ready for the season start - which for Hot Fords is next weekend!!. oh well!! N

SF Catering today supplied a rather tasty ham and cheese muffin, with lots of hot tea, having a day off today as yesterday was her birthday [happy birthday Sharon!!]

16/2/08

Escort News: Finished off removing what was left of the original wiring loom and fuel injection equipment, and then started to build a new wiring loom in the engine bay side to run whats needed for racing purposes - the driver side of the loom to be completed next week, the centre window bar was installed, made from some angle iron, meanwhile the arch liner from the passenger side was removed, we thought it a good time to undo and soak the strut bolt etc ready for removal, but the strut bolt snapped off - to get the spring cut we will now have to remove the entire strut complete with hub attached - or we could use a spare hub and cut the other one to release the strut.
The passenger side door was removed to make access better while the car is worked on, and it had its inner panel cut out and top part of the frame cut off. N
 
Fiesta News: We heard today that the welding on the Fiesta is done, and also the door bars are fitted, cant get it back until the Escort is running, so check back in a week or so for that. The aim is to finish the Fiesta off and start the season with that, then continue to get the Escort finished. Sharon popped over the workshop with the camera, the original boot floor [made of flaky pastry] was cut away and new metal welded in, and the rear lower quarter panel on the drivers side was cut out and replaced with new metal. MANY THANKS TO SHARON'S BRO, MARK FRANCE for doing the work.
Todays menu, featured a nice home made egg mayo sarnie, and an even nicer jacket spud with beans later on, Mmm Slurrppp! N

9/2/08
Escort News: Today was the start of the work on the Escort while the Fiesta is off to have some welding done. The Escort was stripped of its innards from back to front, as expected, typical XR3i rust was in the sills, it isnt too bad compared to others that I have seen, but will still need welding here and there to make the scrutineers happy chappies/chapesses.
We removed the bonnet to get better access to the engine, and removed all of the Bosch K Jetronic MFI Injection stuff, the injection plenum chamber had to be removed, followed by the injector plate, the air box with the mechanism that controls the fuel going to the injectors also removed. As was the distributor - it may have worked with carbs but we prefer the one with the small module on the top if it.
Not on todays menu was the Mcdonalds breakfast, as that was en route [webmasters birthday today!!], but todays offering was a very nice chicken barmcake/bap/muffin [delete as appropriate, depending on where you are from] and plenty of hot Tea. N. Some pics:

6/2/08
By now my first car will have gone to the scrap man, minus all of its front suspension and steering rack, this will now make some room so that the Escort will go in the garage for stripping etc, in the meantime the Fiesta we are working on is off to Sharons Dads to have some welding done to it.

Got myself an exhaust for the Escort, good old ebay! P

2/2/08
Fiesta News: Inlet manifold, carb, accelerator pedal and cable, hoses, exhaust manifold all added to engine, exhaust pipe connected up and mounted at the rear, battery and isolator installed and working, we arent bothering with an alternator on this one. When we were certain that fuel was getting through to the carb the engine was fired up and ran great, but we didnt run it for more than a minute or two as the radiator needs plumbing in.
Todays menu consisted of tea and coffee, and a potato hash [it wasnt a hash, it was very nice in fact!!] to finish off a productive day in the garage. N



 
Excuse the poor quality, but the vid features the start up for the second time of the engine, sounds good with its single Brisca F2 type silencer.

31/1/08:
Fiesta News: Engine fitted into car, but no parts connected up. P

30/1/08
I took the engine out of the old car [car 1] last night, took the front wheels off and dropped it on some blocks as low as I could get it with the jack under the engine, jacked engine up as far as possible, then put a piece of 3x2 across the top of engine with the chain round it and my Dad got one end and I got the other and lifted the engine out and put it in the garage while we had hold of it. I also took the petrol tank out tonight and back wheels off and put some crap ones on to get rid of them, took mirrors off, started to undo one of the hub nuts but got nowhere, its really cold out there tonight so gave up, might tackle it again tomorrow night. P

27/01/08
Escort News: On the left is a pic of the new H Frame I bought from banger driver Pete Corbett for the Escort, gonna be well up to the job, pictured next to my old car which is to be split to donate some spares and then be scrapped. P
 

21/01/08
Fiesta News: In the last two weeks I have managed to get some of the smaller jobs done, as the fiesta was originally a 1.4 I have changed over the front suspension, driveshafts and struts to XR2 items off the damaged car [aka car 2], along with the brake disks and calipers.
A pair of new gearbox rubber mounts were obtained, and these were put onto the diesel 'box I have and the box put onto the mounting tray, its now ready for the engine to go in, I already have an engine out of the damaged car sat ready to put in, but I am going to use the engine from my old car instead which still needs removing.
The tailgate was also put back on after removing the window and the wiper motor etc, dunno why I took it off really, was probably going to put the old one back on. P
Pics:

Escort News: Its still on the drive awaiting stripping, nothing much happening there at the moment, I got a good contact for a new H Frame for it and this was obtained from Buxton Banger driver Pete Corbett, its really well made as you would expect if was to go into a banger or bomber, its made from 50mm box section with two crossbars and sized so that if needed, it will fit into other similar cars too which is a bonus.
For the Escort, I am in need of an XR3i exhaust middle section, perhaps you have one?? email me. P

Some pics of the Escort on the drive just recently

5/01/08
Today we started to get some of the smaller jobs out of the way, as the car has no engine and box in at the moment a piece of 3mm steel plate was welded to the outside front suspension mount where it meets the inner wing to give it some support, the bonnet corner plates and front light holes were also cut and spot welded into place.
The original tank was removed during the week, and the racing tank was fitted today as well as the fuel pipe.
The gearbox mounts were taken of the petrol 5sp gearbox and remounted onto the diesel gearbox, the diesel box will allow us to permanently run 13" wheels on the front without running out of revs, leaving us the 14" wheels for the Escort.
There was much umming and arring about whether to use a door plate on this car, jury is still out on that one, tune in at a later date to see what the decision is!!
On todays menu there was tea and coffee, flavoured water, and a hot meat and potato pie. N

We sent some requests for sponsorship to a few companies during the week, and to date we have been supplied a FAI head gasket kit, and a K&N air filter, we are still awaiting replies from some other places, in the meantime check out the sponsors page for links to the nice people at FAI and K&N. N

30/12/07
Little bit more done - H Frame in, sunroof panel done, and a bit of rot found, pics of that later. P

29/12/07
It was decided that if we were to go racing in 2008 then we had better start work on the cars! As the new Fiesta [aka car 3] was in the garage covered in my building stuff and parts of the car I stripped, we would start work on that first.
Starting at the back, the car was stripped out, revealing a very good [for a mk2 fiesta] floor pan, no welding needs doing inside but a small patch on the drivers side door sill is needed, mainly as its near the point where the harness fits, so its just to put some strength back really.
With all of the interior thrown onto a big pile, then loaded into the van and taken to the tip, there was enough time in the day left to put some parts on the car, rear light plates, front window bar, dash panel and visor were all fitted in place, its starting to look like a race car already.
Todays menu consisted of tea and coffee, and meat and potato pie.N