Dannyk

After my Mito was condemned due to rust, I decided to go old skool for its replacement - 50 mile drive home - goes spot on. Forgot the pez shot sorry 😎

UPS delivered a big brown box this afternoon.
I opened up the box and laid out all the bits on the garage floor.

All the elements are clearly labelled and one look at the instructions booklet was enough to understand how they fit together.
Within 40 minutes, with the help of my wife to lift the roof structure, I achieved this.


Ok, I haven't aligned and tightened up the ridge bracing, nor have I installed the eaves bracing, or the roof tarp, or fixed the structure into the ground but it's looking good so far.
The outdoor parking space outside the workshop will now be fully covered by the car port.
Weather permitting, I will finish the installation this evening.
 

Went for my first spin in it. Wouldnt idle- noticed a split vacuum hose to the dizzy, which once sorted helped a lot; it seemed to also need a fair bit of choke. Its got an MOT currently so wonder if they leaned it off for a pass? So i ticked it a bit richer. After i got to a petrol station and added some fresh pez it ran better still. 
I think it probably still need needs a proper service and tune up but its running really nicely now…..

Also a cool book arrived…..

Bought this in the mid 90s, I was still a teenager. Did lots to it but eventually it went on eBay. Still out there, last pics that popped up were someone proposing they use it as a drift car


Run to the Sun 1998 in my 1600 Ghia auto

The previously midnight blue 1300 Ghia I ended up with. Drove like a sack of shite

Signal amber 1300 Ghia I co-owned with my mate. Awesome colour

1600 Sport I bought out of the Basildon Evening Echo, fitted with a 2.0 Pinto using all the proper RS2000 mounts, bellhousing etc.
I ended up scrapping it before realising it was registered alongside some of the works rally cars

A random wide arch 4 door that turned up at work

My friend's 1300 Ghia (same silver/red colour combo as my 1600), that had been his mum's when we were at school. He spotted it for sale in the local paper years later and bought it back. Was a low mileage car and everything felt tight, best driving Escort I've experienced 

Should be black behind the grille though

Not many, because pre digital and all that - here's when I bought it from an ad in the Sporting Escorts owners club magazine

The whole reason I bought this one was because my parents had an identical T-reg (local FN registered) from 1980-until the mid 90's

As mentioned before, when dad sold it, I kept the Serck plates, which to this day are in the shed

Number 2, a Fujimi issue of the Nissan Fairlady ZG (Datsun 240Z with aero nose):

What I started with. There is an engine, but as there's minimal underbonnet detail then I've kept that for another Datsun project.

Went for a distinctly non-stock colour - Tamiya Lavender with pearl clear and then gloss clear. Arches, bumpers and spoilers were painted dark metallic grey.

Wheels by Aoshima, tyres from yet another kit. Window trims finished with foil, and wipers and some other brightwork done using Gundam chrome marker.

 

Interior painted metallic salmon pink (!), with a bit of light grey and felt carpet to give it a bit of texture.

 

A couple of quick outdoor shots that still don't really do the pearl finish justice - it's subtle but works well, slightly different to a metallic/mica finish.

So the paints knackered, and its a bit accessorised. So very 1990. But then again its unwelded and original- not very 1990 at all.
 

However- 
this one can stay

And this one ive added….

But first matter of business…. lets just turn the orgy of stickerage down a bit….

 

 

 

Once off loaded….

1990 just arrived with someones first set of wheels…..

After I fired up the engine via the battery charger on Monday evening, I left the battery to charge overnight. In the morning, the charger battery level light was still only on amber, which I assumed meant that the battery was refusing to receive / hold charge. Time for a new battery. 
Getting hold of the correct replacement battery should have been easy but Euro Car Parts, specifically their website, made the process very complicated and it took me two days to source the correct battery.
I have been advised that the battery that was in the Sierra was not right for the car. Apparently, the battery was more suited to a diesel engine or a much larger capacity pez motor.

I measured the battery.

I also measured the battery tray, which has three holes for the clamp bolt, which means that the battery tray can accommodate different sized batteries. Clever.

Replacement battery purchased and fitted.

The weather forecast for today was dry and sunny so I decided to take the Sierra to work.
I got my surveying kit in the boot.

I drove from home along the M40 and M25 to Old Windsor, then into Windsor, then along the M4 and A404 to Marlow, then to High Wycombe, then back home, approx 65 miles, I think.




The exhaust fumes smell has been fixed. Evidently, exhaust fumes have been getting past the old gaskets / loose manifold and downpipe fixings and replacing the lot has fixed the problem.
On route home I popped into Wickes to buy a fence post.

Which fitted easily inside the cabin.

I have a few more jobs in mind for the Sierra but you will hear about them next week as I have non car related plans for this weekend.

in better REV news, I have been informed the kingpin and bushes have been refitted and everything buttoned back up! I am very pleased to hear this, as this has been one of REV's longer-standing issues that was first noticed all the way back in 2021! so I am glad to see the end of it so to speak
 
and with that Duncan discovered the fun that is the Model 70 fasteners! 
have to admit that gave me a good chuckle
however in the course of putting things back together, this was noticed!

 which I find most interesting from a “I am a sad bastard who studies every nut and bolt of these machines” perspective  
because one of the things written in the parts manual is

"STY403 Steering top plate (C/W 2x 5/16" BSF bolt x 3/4" long packed in sets) NOTE: For use with Left hand Steering lock when LP 1161 wheels (Store STY 474) are fitted"

(Dunlop LP 1161 wheels are the standard 10 inch Mini 21A2744 wheels that later Model 70's like REV have)

The thing, I have never been able to figure out what "Left hand steering lock" actually is! It’s not listed anywhere else in the parts manual apart from that note, but I have to wonder if the steering lock, is what Duncan has just made himself?

I think this might be something @Zelandeth you might want to check on TPA, especially as TPA is on 10 inch wheels when she started out life on 12 inch wheels
 
and then some other items where sorted out also  

 

As promised, the old Corgi A60 is painted!
I still couldn’t decide on colours. I very nearly painted it maroon with white stripe, but having tested the paint colour first I wasn’t convinced. 
But, to be honest the colour scheme corgi used was nice. It was just the L plates and roof wheel thingy that bothered me so I decided in the end, if it ain’t broke… or whatever!
So,


Lada Adriatic blue with a gloss white stripe. The blue will tone down a bit once it dries. 
The stripe was a bastard to mask up well. A combination of fairly rough casting edges along what would be bright trims on the real car and this particular car has some pretty heavy chips and dings in the same place so the tape was hard to cut where they were. But, it’s a toy that’s been played with over the past half century plus so what do you expect!
The good thing is though I can disguise the wavy edges between blue & white by painting in the bright trim which Corgi didn’t do. That’ll have to wait a few days though as the blue needs to harden off.
There is a bit of a ding/damage to the boot lid too which I didn’t fix, and a slight - very slight! - bend to the roof… but it’s an old toy!
Not sure if I’ll find a replacement front solid axle for this or just glue the original steering wheels in the straight position. 
Obviously the steering mechanism won’t be getting refitted so the steering wheels will just flop around independently of each other if I don’t glue them.
I still think Corgi missed a trick not releasing this model later, maybe by altering the tooling to remove the L plates and fill the hole in the roof, and punt it out in various colour combo’s but what’s done is done I guess! We’ll never know!

Plan for today was to dismantle the exhaust manifold and downpipe, replace all gaskets and fixings and reassemble the same. 
On this occasion there was no need to lift the car. The hydraulic jack supports the exhaust pipe at the right height. The downpipe to exhaust fixings are easy to reach and came apart easily.

With the air filter housing and a couple of hoses shifted to one side, access to the exhaust manifold couldn't be better.

Last time I removed the exhaust manifold, all eight studs came out with the bolts. On this occasion, one stud didn't fancy coming out, however I managed to persuade it by tightening two nuts together and ongoing the inner one.

The exhaust ports on the cylinder head were a little coked up but there was no evidence of any significant problems.

The new fixings and cylinder head to manifold gaskets came in 7 different plastic bags. Ridiculous. I hate excessive packaging.

I cleaned up the cylinder head and fitted the new studs and gaskets. The new studs screw in with an allen key, nice. 

The mating surfaces on the exhaust manifold looked ok, just a bit of cast iron associated pitting and surface corrosion. 

I clamped the downpipe and exhaust manifold in the vice.

These two nuts didn't look original. 

I thought I'd have a go at undoing them with a couple of 17mm spanners.

No chance! Completely seized solid.
It took me about 45 minutes to carefully grind and file down these two nuts and remove them. 
Unfortunately, the single nut on the other bolt, which looked original, was a nightmare to remove. It took me over an hour to grind and file it along two sides before the bloody thing finally budged. 
Good news is that I manged to get the old nuts off without causing too much damage to the studs.
These are definitely not going into my old spare nuts and bolts container.

First time in 37 years, the exhaust manifold and downpipe are apart.

The gasket was corroded but intact.

I cleaned the mating surfaces of the exhaust manifold and downpipe. There is some pitting but both look ok for re-use.


The replacement gasket was due to arrive today. 
Disappointment promptly followed joy when I saw the postman and found out that he delivered vitamins for my schnauzer and not the new gasket. Bugger. I can do no more until the new gasket arrives.
In other news, I removed the spark plugs to check their condition.

All look good.
Next update soon.
 
 

Funnily enough I treated myself too..
Manta CC is one I've been looking for ever since I had my full size version.
400 was a cheap auction buy over here in Bg,and in Rothmans Racing colours probably the best looking rally car..

Sorry been a bit busy to add a proper move update earlier, so…
Moving day went really smoothly! My dad reluctantly agreed to tow with his Freelander so I hired a trailer for the day (£60 Rothwell Trailers). Both 309’s behaved themselves so it was straightforward to load and unload them. We took our time since there was no rush to return the trailer, but we had it back in only 3hrs which I thought was pretty good going.


Feels good to have cleared the drive at my old place so I can progress that towards sale. It does make my current place look a bit scrapyardey but hopefully the neighbours don’t take too much offence. I chose to hide the knackered gold one up the back facing away so as to be the least of an eyesore possible. I’ll get some car covers too.



I’ll be taking a break from these while I prep and arrange the sale of the old house but once done I should be in a better position to tackle some of my car projects in earnest .
-Steve-

Bloody hell. Progress! 
He says I’ll have it back in a couple of weeks. Fingers crossed. 

A set of lovely new Rockblade tyres are now fitted to the Sierra.
I can't imagine that they are any better or worse than any other budget tyre.

Bit of a milestone here.
Bodyshop has cracked on. I don't have many in progress photos yet. A pal took these of them colour sanding the car.


Then, I got the message to say it's ready to pick up. That happened today.

I'm really happy with the car. Such a boost to see this now in a single colour!
Can't be having everything one way though!

I love the misery! 😆

The weather was looking ok, it was time to take the Sierra out for a test drive.
Even with the battery disconnected, the fuel gauge was showing that the tank was nearly full. Bearing in mind that I only put about 5 litres in when I first bought the Sierra, the gauge reading looked very wrong.

With the battery reconnected, the Pinto fired up first time and the exhaust spat out a mouthful of moisture. More on this later. 
Whilst walking out of the workshop, to move the E46 out of the way, I noticed that the brake lights were permanently on.

I quickly got changed, removed the bottom of the dashboard again to gain access to the brake pedal switch.

I removed the switch to check and clean it. It looked ok.

I refitted the switch and adjusted it to the correct position. Evidently, I must have disturbed the switch whilst fiddling with the pedal box yesterday.
All pre-flight checks done, it was time to set off. I got as far as my local Esso fuel station.

I managed to squeeze 5 litres of petrol into the tank before the filler neck was full. It looks like the gauge was showing an almost full tank because the tank was almost full. On the basis that the tank holds 60 litres and I've added about 10 litres since buying the Sierra, there must have been about 50 litres of fuel in the tank. At approx £1.50 per litre, that's a £75 gift. Thank you previous owner.
Before leaving the fuel station, I was approached by three people, who commented on how immaculate the Sierra is and who asked how old it is and how many miles it has done. How nice that the posh folk of Beaconsfield appreciate old Fords.
Approx 5 miles into my trip, I stopped off at a garden centre to check vital fluids and to give everything a once over. No problems to report. The pretty setting provided an opportunity for a couple of photos.



Back on the road, I headed for the A404. If you've ever watched Wheeler Dealers (the GB episodes), you will have seen Mike B towing or driving something along this famous* dual carriageway. 
Without any struggling, the Sierra got up to 60MPH.

I came off the A404 at the A4 junction and drove through Maidenhead, Cookham, Wooburn Green and towards home. I stopped off at Glory Park for a couple more photos.


I arrived back home almost exactly 20 miles later, as confirmed by the trip meter. This is good news, it means the trip meter and odometer are both reading just fine.

Ok, I've only driven the Sierra for 20 miles along local traffic free roads but my first thoughts are very positive.
Engine - I adjusted the idle speed at the garden centre, once the engine reached full operating temperature. Throughout the trip, the engine ran fine, quickly reached operating temperature and the needle didn't budge from the mid point. It pulled well from low revs, with no missing or spluttering. Nothing has leaked out, however there is still a whiff of paraffin / old engine oil / mucky residue from where I've been tinkering, which will need time to burn off. 
Gearbox - All gears go in and out just fine, synchros are strong. The gearbox is silent and I love the mechanical feel of the gear change.
Clutch - Biting point spot on. No dragging, no slipping, no juddering. Perfect.
Prop & Diff - Silent, no vibrations.
Steering - Noticeably heavy at parking speeds, otherwise works well and feels adequately light at speed. Steering wheel is on straight, no pulling, no issues.
Suspension - Smooth! No knocks, no bangs. Ride comfort is superb, on par with my W123. Handling is roly-poly, as expected. 
Brakes - Needed a bit of time to bed in, however once the pedal firmed up, they worked just fine. I tried a couple of emergency stops, no pulling, no issues.
Exhaust - Drill holes failed to allow any moisture to escape overnight and I could hear a significant blow from both silencers. Bollocks. Evidently, drilling holes in silencers is not a good idea. I will plug both holes with chemical metal and self-tapping screws this afternoon.
Radio - Played Greatest Hits Radio (105.8FM), including Popmaster at 10:30am. All six speakers work ok and the FM reception is better than expected, bearing in mind I live and drove the Sierra through The Chilterns.
Summary - I love it!
@N19 I am sure that I will find something to write about soon. There are a few more bodywork related issues that I want to attend to and I expect the forthcoming MoT test will reveal something wrong with the old Ford. 
 

I started today by fitting the new clutch cable. It fitted perfectly, however it made no difference to the clutch pedal height or the biting point.
I opted to change the upper position of the clutch pedal by fitting a metal plate to the existing, non-adjustable, stop.
I carefully bent the stop a little so that the extended plate that will be fixed to its side will line up with the white part of the adjustment mechanism. I then drilled two small holes, the bottom one not too close to the edge of the metal.

I secured the metal plate with two nuts and bolts. The nuts and bolts do not interfere with any part of the clutch mechanism.

Here comes the science bit.
If I made the extended plate too short, the pedal height would not be lowered by the desired amount. 
If I made the extended plate too long, the pedal would be located too low, the adjustment mechanism may not have enough range to take up the clutch cable slack and, as lowering the height of the clutch pedal reduces the pedal travel, there could be the possibility that the clutch would not disengage fully with the pedal depressed, causing clutch drag. 
The new plate extends from the stop by approx 12mm. I did no measuring, it was just a guesstimate. If the extended plate was to be too long, I could remove and shorten it. If it was too short, I had more spare metal brackets to make up a new one.

With the pedal box in a vice, I could already see that the clutch pedal stopped below the stop height of the brake pedal. Looking good.

I refitted the pedal box and hooked up the clutch cable. Still looking good, the clutch pedal was situated a good three inches lower than before.

I slowly depressed the clutch pedal a few times, the quadrant clicked itself into place and it ended up here.

There is no slack in the cable and the quadrant still has a fair bit more range (I pressed on the upper part of the quadrant to find out). The latter is important as it means that the quadrant mechanism has not been forced to its maximum working position and there is room for further adjustment, if required.
I fired up the Pinto and checked the position of the clutch biting point. Perfect. The clutch bites nicely at just below half pedal travel and all gears engage smoothly with no crunching, which means the clutch is fully disengaged with the clutch pedal down. 
Win!
@sierraman was right, that the clutch biting point was normal, after all there was no method of adjusting the height of the clutch pedal and the quadrant was found to be working ok. I guess I improved on Ford's design. To celebrate, I refitted the bottom of the dashboard etc and cleaned the mud stained pedals.

Next issue.
Even with the Sierra parked in a dry garage, whenever I switched the engine on, condensation would blow out of the exhaust pipe.

When I posted on here a few months back regarding how to prevent mild steel exhaust systems from rotting out, I recall being advised that I should drill small holes in the lowest point of each silencer, which would allow moisture to escape (drip out) from the silencer.
I did just that, drilled a small hole in the bottom of each silencer.

The original wheel brace is missing and I wanted to pack a few essentials for my maiden voyage, just in case something went wrong.
I prepared this selection, which includes 5 litres of water, engine oil, brake fluid, tyre pump, 19mm socket on extension bar, basic tool kit, gaffer tape and gloves.

Apart from the large water bottle, all the bits fitted snuggly in my handy and very fashionable Borg & Beck plastic bag.

So, I've done all I had on my to-do list (and more!) and the Sierra is ready for its maiden voyage.

Whether I go anywhere tomorrow, the 1st April, depends entirely on the weather. At the moment it is looking a bit 50/50 according to my iPhone app and guaranteed rain all day if the BBC weather app is to be believed, followed by more rain each day next week. Great. 
I am very apprehensive about the first drive in the Sierra. The very first short drive from the main road to my house was too stressful, with the Sierra looking like a shed and barely making it home with the exhaust blowing out of both silencers, my mind was focused on a refund rather than on having fun. Ditto last weekend's drive to the end of my road and back, wasn't enough to get to know how the Sierra behaves.
Fact is, whenever I will get to drive it, I will end up feeling disappointed. Chances are, it is suffering from a fault that I am yet to discover, such as pulling brakes, vibrations via the drivetrain, clonks, rattles, etc. Even if it doesn't suffer any major issues, I doubt the carb fed Pinto will provide the levels of performance that I am accustomed to, bearing in mind I drive a brand new Nissan Qashqai daily and one of my toys is a perky E46. The unassisted steering will be too heavy, even compared with my W123, which has power steering but which is nowhere near as light as what I am used to. I suspect the Sierra will feel heavy to drive and difficult to stop, with no ABS.... Ok, ok, I'm not being fair, I can't expect a 37 year old base model Ford to perform like a modern car.
Let's hope the nostalgia kicks in and I forget about the rest.
 
 

El taller de carrocería ha estado ocupado.

Waiting on a date to get it back. 

Not much of an update.
However I've still work ahead to complete.
Door cards. The front card backings aren't great. Drivers is in the worst state. I'll get creative with some glues, meshes and fibreglass. 
Repairing them might not make sense. But I can't get replacements easily and I want to keep as much of the stock LS trim as possible. As it'll fit in with my choice of front seats. 
The LS fabric came up nice with a spell in the washing machine. Hand washed first to remove the buggered foam.

Bumpers are rashed and in need of a revamp. Waiting on the products for that, I've bought the texture paint like what PeterC used on his Sierra. With cans of Buzzweld PIO to redye all the rest of the plastics.

None of the above work will restore these parts back to as new. I just want presentable for this car. Repair is going to save me time and hassle in the long run.