The Autoshite holy grail is now one of us!

[Noel Tidybeard]

It has so little, you wonder how much it cost them to tool up for front seats without headrests, blanking plates and the like just for the base!

 

 

blanking plates would've been the norm in some eu countries as they didnt do the factory fitted radio thing that was/is so important over here

[Angrydicky]

Day Two.

 

I really wanted to make a start on the welding today. So got the car jacked up, battery disconnected and the welder was dragged out of hibernation.

 

 

 

I started with the drivers side sill. There are three main areas of concern here, a hole at the back which will be taken care of with the new wheelarch panel, a corroded bit at the front which isn't great but survived a prod with the screwdriver so I'll only tackle this before the MoT if I have the time.

 

 

 

The other bit was an 18" section of sill under the drivers door, which was very crunchy.

 

 

I whipped this out with the angle grinder. The inner sill looked pretty good with only light corrosion, so I cleaned that up and coated it in rust converter then finished with primer.

 

 

Noticed some filler coming through from the top of the sill. Oh dear.

Without a full sill or the time to fit one, all I could really do was get plenty of rust converter and primer up there. 

 

 

Making the repair section.

 

 

 

Trial fit:

 

 

Welded.

 

 

Ground down with a combination of traditional grinding disc and Zirconium flap disc.

 

 

 

I gave it a few coats of red oxide, which ironically is close to the shade of some of the oxidised paint on the car!

 

 

 

The only other small job I did today was superglue a broken bracket on the fabled grey grill.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[RoadworkUK]

This must be the most love a grey grille Sierra has ever been given. I shall buy a hat and doff it.

 

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

[BorniteIdentity]

That paint match tho.

 

= Amazing.

[danthecapriman]

Great job. The red oxide does look exactly the same as the cars paint! I'd still put a proper red topcoat over it though, primer isn't water proof or very hard wearing.

[Angrydicky]

Great job. The red oxide does look exactly the same as the cars paint! I'd still put a proper red topcoat over it though, primer isn't water proof or very hard wearing.

 

Agreed. I was intending to - does anyone know what the colour is called?

[danthecapriman]

Agreed. I was intending to - does anyone know what the colour is called?

Cardinal red?

[BorniteIdentity]

Cardinal red?

 

That's it.

 

Original name for the car was going to be "The Cardinal" as it gentrifies it nicely.  Then y'all went soppy on me.

[Skizzer]

Agreed. I was intending to - does anyone have half a rattle can of some random shade of red left over?

Fixed that for you.

 

[bub2006]

I have a friend who is a radio enthusiast so in sure I can find a use for it! Is the car coming to shitefest?

[danthecapriman]

Fixed that for you.

Leave it in red oxide primer and just put a few coats of clear lacquer over it! Preserves the rough appearance of the car and keeps it water proof!

[r.welfare]

Definitely Cardinal Red and not Rosso?

[Pillock]

Rosso is more orange I think. Obviously hard to tell on a monitor.

 

Edit: Also, Rosso wasn't on the cards in '82, you had Cardinal or Sunburst.

[greengartside]

Looking really really good so far! Keep up the good work!

[Parky]

It is currently languishing about 15 miles away from me. I have an urge to visit it and take it some sort of gift

[Angrydicky]

It is currently languishing about 15 miles away from me. I have an urge to visit it and take it some sort of gift

You're more than welcome to come down! Especially if you have the urge to do a bit of spannering or electrical fault diagnosis

[Parky]

I can light a fag, stare at it before shaking my head and saying "it's fotally tucked mate"

 

Seriously though what does it need doing?

[Angrydicky]

Various random electrical faults, mostly bad earths I think. Hazard switch needs replacing (will try to pick up a replacement). Rocker cover gasket needs changing as it's got a huge oil leak. And the engine needs tuning as it's started running badly again, it's difficult to start and is idling roughly and holding back under light throttle, ok when you put your foot down though.

 

It also needs a clutch and cambelt, but I'm going to probably put those off until after Shitefest as there's more than enough to be getting on with.

[Parky]

Rocker cover gasket - simples. Cleaning connections up is a doddle and that throttle behaviour sounds like a timing issue. Pm me your mobile and I will speak to Mrs P about a half day pass!

[beko1987]

Could we not work on it at sf? I'll have my socket set in the boot as I always do just in case...

[bub2006]

I'll have numerous tools,impact gun,ramps an jack

[Angrydicky]

Day Three.

 

I decided to tackle the drivers side rear wheelarch today. There were three holes there which failed the MoT, and the arch was mostly filler, so I ordered a new one from eBay. This turned up quickly, I can recommend seller "jollygoodcarspares" in Newport who supplied both this and the new clutch, well packed, quick and a good price.

 

This was the sight upon opening the back door.

 

 

Here's the lovely new arch, label says "Ford Sierra 1982-86".

 

 

I stripped out some of the interior for welding and spent quite a bit of time covering up the rest.

 

 

 

 

I then removed the bumper. This is off a MK2 Sierra, and was held on with three self-tappers at the sides and nothing at the rear of the car, so it was just resting on the exhaust and had predictably melted. Once the bumper was off, I uncovered some more rot. Annoyingly, the side we have the quarter panel for is perfect in this area.

 

 

 

I just got the rust cut out of this area before the rain started

 

 

 

After an hour or so, the rain stopped so I made up a section and welded it in.

 

 

And offered up the new wheelarch. Hmm, more trimming needed.

 

 

Of course, after 10 minutes it started drizzling again. Drastic measures were called for:

 

 

After a lot of trimming, the final arch position.

 

 

For some reason I forgot to take a picture of the inner arch repairs I did, nor the inner sill repair. Fortunately the rot wasn't that extensive in the inner sill, just the corner as shown:

 

 

And then I bit the bullet and welded in the new arch. This was done by tacking every 1/2" and then going back to fill in the gaps with more tacks, rinse and repeat until the whole thing is welded. This method helps minimise distortion when welding stuff like this. I got a small amount of distortion but overall I was pretty chuffed with it. I spent bloody ages trimming bits here and adjusting there, and it paid off. Pleasingly the door still opens and shuts and the shutline isn't bad considering most of that bottom corner of the door is filler, so the shape has been lost anyway. It's perfectly good enough for this car.

 

 

Back of sill repair. I drilled a hole and put a grommet in there to allow access for painting and rustproofing.

 

 

At 8:00 this evening I called it a night. I don't like grinding in the evenings out of consideration for the neighbours, so I did as much welding as I could without using the angle grinder. Tomorrow, I've got these holes to make patches for, the wheelarch needs welding to the rest of the outer sill, the arch needs spot welding to the inner sill and inner arch, and seam welded to the inner arch along the front end. But it's definitely getting there. Fortunately the other side is in much better condition, with only two sections needed at the back of the sill for the MoT.

 

 

 

 

Sierra Base meets Maestro Base!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Parky]

Wow!

[oldcars]

Great work, cracking on quickly.Are there plans to get the correct rear bumper or would this be wrong for this car?

[Guest Hooli]

Blimey, someone who's welding looks as shit as mine! perfect quality for this car though.

[BorniteIdentity]

Re The Bumper.

 

There are pictures of the car modelling both MK1 and MK2 bumpers on FLICKR... so I'm off the opinion that it doesn't really matter.

 

The ethos has always been "What would Leroy have done"? He put the new one on I guess because that's all he could get hold of. Given the choice he'd have probably gone for an earlier one if the price was right.

 

Can't go wrong really.

 

Great work Richard.

[danthecapriman]

Cracking job!

Are you going to repaint the whole quarter panel or just the bit that been replaced? Don't suppose it really matters given the 'weathered' look this car needs to keep!

[fordperv]

Looking good, as for the hazard/indicator stalks and back bumper pm stixy he's a sierra guru and has lots of parts around him

[Felly Magic]

Great update on Flappy. The road to resurrection is well under way, just watch out for those killer bunnies

[Felly Magic]

I remember seeing a Sierra graveyard on the outskirts of Halifax, wonder if it's still there?