Jenson Velcro

Home. No pez shot as filled from a can. Weather was absolutely filthy so no fannying about. 
Drove really tight and strong given the mileage.
Anyway I have a very clean boot badge. #VAGLife


More later as housework duties to do and keep Mrs SiC sweet.
 
A few quick pictures for what £1400 gets you nowadays. CHEAPEST DRIVING GTI IN THE COUNTRY (Maybe)


 Not as filthy as you might think it could be.


Headlining is dropping

No stereo but...

No warning lights!

It's been fairly quiet this week, coming down with a shitey cold once again is doing wonders for my enthusiasm.
Got the last repair panel welded on (the vertical section) and welded it to the new section of floorpan:

Dressed back the random split in the floorpan - this was later welded up but I forgot to get photos:

And then given a thick coat of etch primer - the underside got a coat of red oxide primer and has also now been seam sealed.

So, whilst that dries, it's onto the other side. Spotted a lot of flaky paint along the inner sills, but no serious corrosion issues.
Ran my hands around the underseal on the floorpan and heard some crispy noises under a bubble of underseal. Cut away the detached underseal and found some rather thin metal, underneath - looked absolutely fine from up top, but the screwdriver doesn't discriminate!

And obviously the rear of the floorpan was due replacement (you can see the thin but under the bubble slightly forward of this):


Luckily, beyond the first 40-ish mm it just appears to be surface grot so it should be fine with a wire brush and a reprotect.
So, angle grinder came out, and the grotty bits chopped out:


I was good to have a good look around in this area, as it highlighted that whilst I had put the R-clip back on the suspension unit rod, I had missed the rod completely, which was flopping around under the mounting point! Resecured that properly this time.
Should be in the garage making the repair patches tonight, with the plan to get them welded in on Friday. We shall see.

Hurrah. Plates are on. Front was ok, rear plate had just been screwed through the rear panel (twats) and the original holes were missing the screw holders. Someone sent me those in the post, and two extra for my B series manta. Rear plate is now stuck on correctly. 
 
 

The rattle can script started badly and petered off rapidly. I did however extend the cable and make the lights work on my lunch break which is a major step forward.
 

Ha gosh. What a palaver. The guy hasn’t started it yet! I dropped it off a year ago. 
I’ve told him I need it for April (it’s May actually but I know he’ll still be late) but hopefully it’ll be back soon enough. 
Once the body work’s done, I just need to throw it at a garage and say “do mechanic things” so it works for spring / summer. It needs a bit of fettling but otherwise we should be good. 

Took this for an MOT on Wed last week.

 
Bastard, especially as I've done the rear brakes - looks like the pivot at the handbrake lever is the issue.
 
Got it to the unit today, and had a quick look
Exhaust "leak"

The pipe out the cat has rusted through - fitting a new cat would resolve, except...

The downpipe to cat joint looks ropey too. This uses flanges, so would need to fit a new one to the downpipe,as there is NO WAY I'm attempting to pull the downpipe off!
Additionally, the cat would need the Lambda removed, so I would expect that to be ruined and need a new one.
The sill doesn't look the worst for welding

No doubt that will develop into a bigger job!
Lastly, some good news:
The caliper retaining bolts and the Flexi all loosened off no bother.
 
I'm away to price up bits..

It was a long time ago and I can't prove it but i once saw an indicated 92 from a  courtesy ac70 when I took my Cobra back to the dealer for a service.

1980’s Vauxhalls:
1200 Nova indicated 120 on the clock down Haldon Hill on the A38 near Exeter
1300 Cavalier, again 120 indicated with 4 on board. No rev counter in the Cav but you knew when to change up as the dashboard started bouncing up and down.
Vauxhall certainly made very willing, free reving engines back then, and company cars were always the fastest.

Oooft, been a while.

Not many photos, so I'll be brief. 
Went for a bike ride and spotted this en route. Noted the location just in case, there was a Xantia too!

Dan came round and gave me a hand, so we removed the centre section of the exhaust, the hydraulic linkage and eventually the fuel tank, in preparation for replacing the nylon lines.

Proved to be the right call, upon disturbing the steel supply and return fuel lines that run the length  of the floorpan, they crumbled and split in half.
Some grot on the rear of the floorpan was observed, so the seats came out, the rear carpet was removed, and my day got ruined.

The bit in the middle was the bit I was expecting to rectify - the gaping hole in the corner was a fun surprise.

The pipelines seen through the floor are the high pressure hydraulic suspension supply lines. Understandably, I was reluctant to break into this system and risk inducing leaks from disturbed pipeline unions.
I decided to mark their positions on the pipeline clips prior to unclipping them.

With a roll of tape cable tied to the pipelines to gently weigh/pull them down, I gained enough clearance to safely cut out the affected rusty areas.
 
There is very clear evidence to suggest that someone before us had been driving this around on the lowest setting and hit something on the underside at speed - both rear floorpans are distorted at the very rear bottom - the drivers side rear also has some grot, but nowhere near as far-reaching and brittle as this end. There's also a weird dent and slight split in the middle of the floorpan that should be easy enough to weld back together.
So, time to tin-bash. Three patches needed this time.
 
Aaaaaand once again, I caught my bastarding stomach in the tin-snips. Ouch.

Once all three patches were offered up to check for fit:

The welder was fired up.
 
Only done 2 of 3 so far, I'll get back on the tools tomorrow, had a couple of days off for my lads birthday. Hoping to get the other side done and primed/painted by Saturday evening, so the tank can go back in.

On Thursday this week, I took this along to an LPG specialist. He was picked because I saw he did a lot of El-Grand work, and those tubs are a difficult thing to do well.
En route, I stopped for a high powered exec luncheon

The chap was extremely pleasant, all the tools on a tool board, unit tidy and a MK2 Mondeo 2.0 petrol in the corner as a tinkering project. So far so good!
 
I brought the car in, and he set up to read it.
The car has a top spec AC Stag sequential injection system. As such, he was able to attach a Bluetooth Dongle to the LPG ecu. All a fair bit fancier than the old single point systems I have had before.
The LPG ecu is piggy backed onto the main ECU and uses it's signals for airflow, pedal demand/throttle body positioning and spark timing.
Looking at the logs for when the system was last checked/serviced, it was last Accessed on the day after it was fitted in July 2019.
The car has done about 70+k miles since then..
The first thing we noticed was that the short term and long term fuel trims were all over the shop.
His suspicion was that the AFM was not generating a valid signal.
He suggested that at idle, something at 4L should be registering between 4-5grams of air per second.

As we can see, It's only registering 1/10th of that. 
At this point, he said he was not prepared to try tuning the LPG until the car was running correctly on Petrol. I said I totally understood his position, and that it seemed a most sensible course of action.
 
He asked what symptoms I was experiencing - I explained the issues with it stuttering/ delayed response.
He decided to try and run a diagnostic program to check the LPG injectors. The ECU has the ability to add additional flow to each injector to balance the fuelling ( to account for wear/contamination from the oil/lubricant fraction used in the LPG)
The ECU can add up to a maximum of 25% additional flow. So the lower the number in the table the better.
The results?

So injectors 2/4/5 are gubbed, with 3/6 showing some wear. This was not entirely unexpected given the lack of servicing or maintenance since it was fitted.
Injectors are not too expensive and his costs for fitting/mapping the LPG seems very reasonable. 
He took a look at the fuelling curves and found another issue.

The blue line is the petrol curve, and the green is LPG. The way this was mapped when installed has made the LPG much richer - add in the failed AFM and then it's easy to see why the LPG setup was not smooth.
He pulled the LPG fuelling back a touch, and the car is significantly more driveable.
Now to find a replacement AFM...

Fit the engine and running gear from an MG6 and you'll have a winning combination.

Brrr
 
Helper
 

I have a pair of in-ear bluetooth earphones, Melomania Cambridge. They're fine, not going to blow you away, but they were reasonably priced and are more than adequate for what I need them for. A couple of years after I bought them, well out of warranty, one of the metal rings around the right earphone came loose. This meant it wouldn't fit in the case properly and wouldn't charge.
So I looked online for a guide how to take them apart and there wasn't one. I started looking at doing it myself, but when I went to remove the ring it felt like there was a wire or something. Not wanting to wreck it I emailed them asking how the ring was attached and how I could re-attach it. They sent me out a new pair and said to keep/recycle the old ones. Free of charge. Arrived two days after I contacted them.
They're an old product, so maybe they just had loads of stock left, but I thought it was great service. Anyway, knowing I had a spare pair I took the ring off and it was a tiny bit of glue juuuust holding on. Once it was off it was clear I could just re-fit the ring and turn it about 30 degrees to lock it in place, so dabbed a bit of glue on it, re-fitted it and they're good as new.
If I need another pair, or anything similar I'll check what they've got on offer first. It pays to look after your customers.

Have a pez shot. It will be a while before this bitch makes it to a petrol station under her own steam.

I added a splash of this stuff, I'm sure it won't hurt.

I kept the fuel receipt for the service history. The number of documents has doubled.

Precisely what I didn't want, the E46 outside and the Sierra hogging the workshop.

Whilst looking in the boot, I noticed this arrangement of cables, which extends to the boot lock. Looks like we have central locking. Whether it works is another matter.

Up she goes.

I removed all four wheel arch liners. They came out ok, just need cleaning and removal of blue overspray paint.

This is where the story gets a lot better.
Yes, there is surface corrosion and flaking paint just about everywhere but there is no sign of any significant corrosion anywhere in the arches. The new front brake discs are a nice touch.




The fronts of the A-posts and the inside of the front wings are just fine.


The fuel tank has light surface corrosion, nothing that can't be easily sorted.

The underside is totally solid. No sign of any significant corrosion, most of the paint / sealer is still intact. Only the sill to floorpan seams need a tidy up, but they are all solid.





Daisy told me that she likes the shiny brake discs.

I created a warm, dry and comfortable working environment.

Whilst access is great, the three bolts that secure the downpipe to the manifold are fucking tight. 

It was easier to remove the downpipe with the manifold attached.

And here we are, the reason why the joint is blowing.

The securing nut is on very tight. I have left the downpipe in an upright position and will spray WD40 on the nut and bolt for a couple of days. Can't do any harm.

I removed the exhaust system. Looks nice and shiny, doesn't it?

Until you look at the underside of the middle box.

And the back box.

Depending on whether I can sort out the manifold to downpipe joint without fucking up the downpipe, I will be ordering at least a new middle and back box from the eBay supplier in Poland. I've used the same or similar company in the past, they provided a replacement exhaust for my W124. The parts were good quality and fitted perfectly.
Finally, I removed the cam belt cover to reveal the cam belt.

It's not cracked but it's not box fresh either. I will replace it. I will also replace the fan belt, which is worn and squealed like a pig when I fired up the Sierra whilst negotiating it into the garage. 
I wasn't looking for a project of this scale. Based on my (possibly too high) expectations, I was planning to take delivery of the Sierra, tax it and take it for a maiden voyage to Windsor for a work appointment. Instead, it is now in bits in my workshop and will cost me £££ before it can safely turn a wheel. Never mind, things could have been worse. I could have had cort16's C6 in my garage by now.
 

£3,600 for this car, by Sierra prices of 2023 certainly, is very fair. Plenty of Sapphire guys would be asking £4-5 for this and would probably get it. 
Yes, £3,600 buys you a much better Mercedes 124 and a perfect Camry/Corolla etc. 
But, sell this next month and I genuinely think you’d get every penny back. 
So the purchase price on the P&L is £0 really. The interior, which is almost irreplaceable, is lovely. 
You will have a queue of buyers by the time you’ve finished titivating. Honestly. 

Every time I use any of my cars, but especially the Astro van, it makes me smile. 
They are all very different in function and form but the Astro continues to be my favourite to look back at as I walk away from it. 
 
It also changes depending on where you look from. 
Fetching some fuel for my mower and a jerry can for the Peugeot 206 CC which had a reserve light on the van once again showed a different angle. 
 

 
Having a breakfast meeting booked with KBM this weekend, meant a quick vacuum cleaner run through and wash outside. 
 
I also fitted some new rubber floor mats over the carpets. 
The floor of the cab area is quite small and complex due to the engine being partially in the cab and under the floor. 
So custom shape is needed. 
 
I am really impressed with these.  
 

 

 
 
Sunday morning the drive to breakfast was great, including two different beeps and thumbs ups from other road users. 
 
Copperfield 
 

 
Food was great. 
 
Coffee absolutely sucked imho. 
 
 

 

 
After breakfast which ended at 13.00 and a lot of chatting in the carpark I drove down to my local Morrisons to get some food for the house as I had suggested that I would cook for Sally and Aaron my one lodger. 
 

 

 
 
Dinner was meatballs on spaghetti with a nice sauce and some cheese. 
 
Very very good. 
 

 
 
Two meals in one report……
 
Spoiling you guys. 
 
Driving all three of my cars over the weekend was great. 
 
The Rezin Rockit has just become due for a new MOT test. 
 
Amazed that its 11 months since I completed this awesome build. 
 
 
 

It's update time again. I've been picking away at things since last weekend. Not all of these have gone as planned.
Car Tetris
The Lada needed to be in the courtyard. This space was 3 cars deep in shite with flat batteries, which is actually a better situation than normal. Everything moved out the way ok, although I realised that I left the window open on the Trans Sport last time I was in it 😢
 
The marks on the headliner were already there, as the roof gets really damp from condensation when not used - incredibly, the interior below the window was fairly dry. I think the fence saved me a bit there.
I've also found out exactly where the gauge reads before the Pontiac cuts out:

Luckily that happened just as I got it to where I was parking it.
Bonus content for @Zelandeth 

Lucky I've got the socks...


Bastard. The Landy had to pull it out in the end.
Car Tetris complete, it was time to actually do something. But first, storm preparation:


The Lada
As you can see form the last photo, it was now suspended up in the air ready for some TLC.

Then it was time to procrastinate by replacing the fuel filter


I ran it for a bit, and it would appear that there's loads of shite in the tank.

That's a job for another day though.
Knob out off.

Gearbag oil removed


Not much shite on the plug

And after a good clean I feel it looks worse, not helped by my appalling focus.

Golden retriever attack



Downpipe loosened off (I was worried it would just fall out if undone fully. I was wrong to worry). Free escargot.

Exhaust clamps removed. The first one came off with the spanner from the toolkit without fuss. The rear had* to be snapped off with a breaker bar.

Eastern European beer can repair discovered

And a ghost from the past was discovered by rolling onto it, I must have been having a bad day when I made this

Clutch slave removed

Starter motor removed

It's an enormous bastard of a thing.

I'm going to sort this spaghetti out as it makes my teeth itch. For good measure, earth coloured wire is used on both the +ive and -ive leads which could absolutely definitely not end in disaster.

Exhaust out. What a bastard. I couldn't split it underneath the car, and it's an absolute wanker to get out whole.

Split up, to make refitting easier. Possibly.

Forbidden Donut bolts removed.

More propshaft shittery. I had to spend ages cleaning up the threads of the studs as they were coated in underseal. They came off ok though.


It nearly twatted me in the head despite me being careful as I absolutely knew it would twat me in the head. It came out though.

The UJ's are all in good condition, as it the centre bearing. All the grease points will get a good pumping.
Getting there...

Now for a brief interlude. The bonnet stay was missing on this car from when I got it. The meant that the bonnet was instead stayed by the grille and headlights, which always made me feel incredibly uneasy.

A replacement was as much as £10, but comes from abroad which means waiting.
Whilst wandering around the garage looking for a bucket handle, I found something easier to work with...

Are you thinking what I'm thinking?!


Glorious.
I will get a proper one. At some point. Probably.
Back to work then.
Every 1/2" extension in a 5 mile radius was used to get the top two gearbox bolts.

The bottom two are easily accessed.
For a while I've quite fancied getting one of these gearbox trolley jack stand things.

However, I've continued to procrastinate and for now we have a piece of gravel board and two 'danger orange' ratchet straps on a pressed pallet block of dubious vintage.

You'll notice the rusty outriggers. More on that later, sadly.
Rear mount undone, and the box slowly comes away

Obviously I checked the manual and made sure that I'd removed everything, and I definitely meant to leave the speedo cable connected like an umbilical.

Error rectified, and she's out.

I'll be back for this tomorrow:

Back round to the rust then.
Whilst underneath the car I couldn't help poking at the scabby bits, as I wanted to weld up anything that wasn't right whilst I'm here - I don't want the car going back out with any serious rot on it. Sadly, the scabby bits spread further and further as I poke. I've gone through the driver's footwell, both outriggers, and the floor pan in the driver's side is a state. The underseal means that the underneath looks alright bar the odd blister, but the rubbery coating on the interior of the floor has trapped moisture and the rot appears to be coming from the inside rather than the outside.

I'll be cutting that out then. To save time I will probably buy premade outriggers, and to save money I will probably make up the floor from the sheet steel I have here.
There's also some other bits that need sorting before she sees the road again. The indicators are in a bit of a shite state, it needs new mirrors, there's a hole in the rear floor pan to patch, the spare wheel well is knackered, the rear valence is also shot. I want to carpet the interior as I think the rubber it had in there is worse for trapping moisture/condensation than if there was carpet fitted properly. I want to look at the weather seals to try and seal any routes for water ingress as I think this has been the biggest contributor to the car rotting - most of the rust is in places that water has pooled on the interior. The front alignment needs adjusting. There's general scabbiness and surface rust on most panels, I want to sand all that back and get paint over it before that in turn becomes worse. I don't like the underseal / stone chip tide line so I will be sanding that where flakey  and painting with more stone chip to seal the bits that have blistered off and then painting it all white. There's probably other stuff I've forgotten.
I think the car is very much at a turning point in its life - it needs a lot of work now to ensure it remains safe and usable going forwards. It would be irresponsible to turn a blind eye to the issues and put it back on the road, I'm also certain that doing so would also probably seal its fate in terms of rot.
So, that's going to be a long term project then... that will mean a reshuffle of cars here to make space for it whilst leaving room to work on other cars, it will also mean I need to fix something else to use to get to work.
Cue:
The Mercedes
If you recall, this thing was making awful noises from underneath when coasting, and lots of vibration and clunking at other times. I may or may not have mentioned that after my initial panic, I decided that it was possibly the driveshaft hitting a heatshield. Best have a look then.
I bloody hate lowered suspension. I had to jack it from the sides on to spare steelies in order to then jack it from the subframe onto stands.

I would much prefer this ride height:

I finally found a use for the stack of about 10 trailer wheels that I have laying around

The photo may or may not show it clearly, but turning the back wheel revealed that the weight thingies on the prop shaft are just rubbing the heatshield.

A bit of adjustment with the heatshield calibration tool did the job.

This is of course a temporary measure - the centre bearing appears to be gubbed, so needs replacing. That's next weekend's job then!
For now the car no longer makes awful noises, and will be able to make the short journey to work and back for the next few days.
Once the prop shaft is behaving itself, I'll be going after the thermostat (again), t suspension clonk and the rather violent unlocking of the torque convertor. Then it's service time, and afterwards I want to tidy up the shabby bodywork. This will probably be the car I use for business travel going forwards, as I can't see the Insight getting sorted anytime soon and I need some MPG's.
Bonus content:
The Land Rover
Incredibly, it's still working*.
However, one of the side repeater bulbs blew.
Apparently the units have a small spring clip on, push them against the spring and they release out the hole.
Mine eventually pushed in and came out, and just as I could see the spring clip it went 'sprong!' and fucked off into the void in the door.

Wanker.
Best put a sticky pad on that for now then, and order some new side repeaters. It currently has clear ones, so I'll probably go back to orange for full tango effect.
Phew! I think that brings us up to date.

When I had the DeLorean transmission rebuilt last year, one of the many bodges done by the Automatic Transmission Company (Derbyshire) was cutting the transmission cooler lines in half and then joining them back up with what looks like a garden hose connector. 

It doesn't drip on the ground, but the line is clearly wet with ATF below the join. The other one is the same but in a less accessible location between the top part of the transmission casing and the rear Y section of chassis. You can get your fingers on it, but not much else. This is why I've put off fixing it, but I'm nervous it will let go one day, leave me stranded, and possibly destroy the transmission. 
The ends are steel tubes which run through the middle of a fastening nuts. The nut is supposed to turn independently of the tube, but as you might guess, they're frozen solid. I started with the most difficult connection, and after two weekends of applying penetrating fluid, heat, and cutting up various spanners to fit the working space, I got it off. The line ended up wrapping around itself several times before snapping.

In fairness to the Automatic Transmission Company, that was one of the most unreasonably stuck nuts I've ever encountered. It's clear to me now the lines were never coming out in one piece. Thing is, they had the transmission out after cutting the lines and could have replaced them easily. Instead, they bodged them back together, so I had to spend hours working with limited options in a confined space.  
Anyway, things were comparatively easy after the first one. The second line that goes into the transmission had just enough clearance to get an angle grinder in there, cut the line off, and use a socket on the nut. I decided to drop the coolant and remove the pipe that the other two ends were connected to. 

Bench vice + blowtorch + impact gun = easy removal. 

I've already got the replacement lines, but there are washers I wasn't ware of, so can't install just yet. I'm also going to start replacing rubber sections of the cooling system. No original hoses that come out are going back in.

Yet again Bfg proves the old saying"If you want a job doing right.........."

This morning's bit of fun* AutoShite discovery - pull door panel off to investigate 'loom problem' (no windey, windey and central locking). Discover all the components (minus window regulator) have been carefully* stored in there after repair by Fred Flintstone Mechanicals Ltd
Of course am missing a few nuts, bolts, clips etc etc

Just received these photos, the Sierra is ready for it’s trip to the UK.

Arrived safely on wednesday, after being stuck in the sea for a while because the ferry couldn't dock
Good news is the handbrake still works, which is quite lucky considering everywhere around me is hills

Went to pay the man, got barraged with questions from the fraud squad for about 25mins:
- where did you meet the seller?
- how comes you have the car if you haven't paid for it? - the lady asked me this question 3 times in an increasingly more confused tone.
- why did it take 6 months for the car to be delivered?
"sorry the parts for it had to be taken off 40 other cars and shoved in the boot first, which took a while"
- how did you receive the payment details?
- who's your internet service provider?
- have you had a test drive in the car?
"err... yes?" (does rolling it off the trailer count?)
- where's the log book?
"in the post..."
- where did you buy the car from?
Decided it was best I didn't tell them it was being imported from ROI and squeaked through customs, otherwise the interrogation would've probably lasted a lot longer.

Despite all this, not once was I asked why the account I was paying into was in the guy's sister's name and not his....

Anyway tilt and slide is coming today to somehow get it up the drive and into the garage which it's very likely too long for. Wish me luck I guess...

Further to these two threads:
It looks like I will soon be the owner of a very tidy 1987 Ford Sierra Sapphire 1.8L.
I was looking for a poverty spec Sierra in the south east of England but thanks to @cort16 my next toy currently resides with a collector based in Northern Ireland. A deal has been done and Sierra will be put on a low loader on Monday and arrive here in Buckinghamshire the follow day. I have spoken with the seller, checked out his comprehensive Facebook presence and he seems totally genuine. WCPGW? Nothing. There was talk about me picking up the car in person, however for logistical reasons and my imminent big birthday that will keep me busy for a couple of forthcoming weekends, I wouldn't be able to fly to Belfast for at least the next 3-4 weeks. 
I hope to receive more photos from the seller later today but these are images taken from his Marketplace listing.



The Sierra has a genuine 33k miles on the clock, apparently with adequate paperwork to back this up. Online MoT records go back to 2005 and it is clear that the car has seen very little use over the past 18 years and passed most MoT tests outright. 37 year old Sierras don't look this good unless they've been looked after and have clocked up low mileages. 
More about this gem once progress is made with the seller.
The reason why I wanted a poverty spec Sierra is because when I was a student, I bought a D reg Sierra 1.6L from my then girlfriend's dad. I paid £800 for the car, which was about 10ish years old at the time and was owned by girlfriend's dad from new. It was mint. I sold it and bought a Guards Red Porsche 924 but that's another story.

Sometime later I bought a Sierra 2.0GL estate. I bought it cheap and it came with Ford Escort S2 Turbo 15" alloy wheels, which I sold for a decent price and fitted a set of Sierra steel wheels and Mondeo trims, which I got from a mate for free. I sold the car a few months later for a lot more than I paid for it. Win.

Fast forward (not Fast Ford) a good few years and when I bought my first house, I needed a cheap estate for tip runs and trips to DIY centres. I bought another red estate, this time a 1.8L, fitted with a lovely CVH engine that snapped its cambelt on the second journey. I had it fixed by a local garage for £250. It needed three valves and a new belt. Later, this became my wife's first car, however as it didn't have power steering and was too heavy to drive, it was quickly replaced with a Vauxhall Vectra 2.0 GLS. That was a good car.

Fast forward even further, my wife and I moved to a rural spot in Buckinghamshire and I treated myself to a lovely Sierra Chasseur estate, again fitted with a 1.8 CVH motor. That was a one owner car, an ex Ford employee who was given the Sierra as a retirement present from Ford management. I kept it for a few months, sold it to a friend who was later diagnosed with a terminal disease and I ended up selling it for him to a complete stranger who looked very pleased with himself as he was driving away. He should have been, it was a lovely car.

Whilst I had the Chasseur, I bought a Sierra 2.0i Ghia hatchback for £150, a runner, with MoT but it was shabby and I flipped it as soon as the V5 arrived, in the process doubling my money.

So, ladies and gentlemen, this is why I want another low spec Sierra. I want to relive the good old times and have a car to play with that won't be flashing an EML at me, won't need an EGR delete and will put a lasting smile on my face.
More soon.