project Early Mondeo Saloon Saved From The Scrapman.

[Slowsilver]

For as long as I can remember I have been aware of a dead K-prefix Mondeo saloon languishing on the drive of a house about two streets away from here. It had obviously been sat there for many years without moving. I kept meaning to drop a note through the door enquiring about it, but as always I never got round to it.
Until now.
With Bob the Renault 6 currently on hold pending a possible sale after lockdown and the Maxi mothballed due to lack of places to take it to I was getting bored, so last Friday I did just that. Things moved on very rapidly from there.

Timeline: Saturday morning.

I received a phone call  from the owner's daughter, who informed me that her father had owned the car since it was 18 months old and cherished it for years, doing about 2 or 3 thousand miles a year in it until 2013, when it failed the MoT:

Date tested 17 September 2013

Fail

Mileage 70,926 miles

Reason(s) for failure

• Service brake: efficiency below requirements (3.7.B.7)
• Brakes imbalanced across an axle (3.7.B.5b)

He was told by the local garage he used that it would cost about £1000 to fix even if they could get the parts, which they said was doubtful. How can inefficient and unbalanced rear brakes cost that much to fix? And can Mondeo parts be unobtainium already? Maybe I will find out in due course.
Anyway, he decided that was more than the car was worth but, being very attached to it, he simply parked it on the drive and left it there.
Apparently he died about 3 years ago but his wife couldn't bear to see it go, so there it stayed until now.
Coincidentally his wife died a few weeks ago, so I hope my approach didn't seem like grave robbing. Their daughter was planning to have the car taken away for scrap, so I was intending to offer her scrap value for it and see if it could be saved. However, she was so pleased at the prospect of her dad's beloved motor being revived that, without me making an offer, she immediately offered it to me for the princely sum of zero pounds. She also agreed that quicksilver and myself could work on it where it sat until such time as we could move it. She said that she would endeavour to find the V5 and the keys.

Timeline: Saturday afternoon.

Checking the registration online showed it to be a 2.0i Ghia, built in Belgium in May 1993 and registered in the UK on 15th June 1993. K prefix registrations ran from August 1992 to July 1993 but the Mondeo was not launched in the UK until 22nd March 1993, so had been in production less than three months, making this a very early Mark 1. Has been on SORN since September 2013.

Let's go and see what we have.
It's walking distance so that counts as exercise doesn't it ?.

Didn't even know if it was a manual or an automatic. Turns out it's a 5-speed manual.
Apart from flat tyres it doesn't look to bad from a distance.

But what about the blind side next to the fence. Fortunately it had been parked far enough away to see it.

Urgh! It's green instead of blue.

Back of the roof has bloomed badly, but laquer doesn't appear to have peeled.

We took a cordless tyre inflator so the first job was to attempt to pump the tyres up. We weren't very hopeful as it had been sitting here for 7 years. The two nearside tyres had 0psi in them, the offside front had about 7psi in it and the offside rear had about 12psi in it.
They were all pumped up to a nominal 30psi and appeared to stay up.

Timeline: Sunday afternoon.

Let's take a bucket of soapy water round and give it a quick swill.
Three tyres still up. Nearside rear flat again. 75% success rate. Not bad. Pumped the flat one back up again.
Throw bucket of water over car and apply sponge and nylon brush.
While washing it we noticed bubbles issuing from from a tiny pinhole in the bottom of the sidewall of the nearside rear tyre.
That will be why it went flat again then. It looks like there may have been a thorn or a sharp piece of stone on the drive next to the bottom of the tyre and when it went completely flat the weight of the car pushed it through the sidewall. 

That's looking better.
Not much more we can do without the keys as it's all locked up.

Timeline: Monday morning.

Another phone call from the daughter. She is at the house and has found the V5 and one key. Also handbook and service record. Thinks there may be another key somewhere. We wander round there and do the necessary paper work. It is now offically ours!

Timeline: Monday afternoon.

Send off new keeper slip and SORN declaration.
This time we have to take the Zafira full of tools in an attempt to get it moving.
It has been left with the handbrake on and the front discs look well rusty, so I  bet the brakes have seized on.
Takes 2 hands to lift the handbrake lever, then 2 hands to press the button and release the ratchet.
Rock the car gently and, wonder of wonders, all four wheels appear to rotate. First hurdle overcome.
Don't want to bore you guys but some of you might like to know our technique for attempting to revive a long-dead engine, honed at various Field of Dreams chod-tinkerings.
Check oil and water levels. Oil  looks pretty clean so probably serviced not long before it was laid up.
Remove spark plugs. These all look in good condition.
Pour a spoonful of engine oil into each cylinder just to give some extra bore lubrication on initial turn over.
Engine compartment is so cramped that can't see an easy way to try and turn the engine with a spanner, so drop a long screwdriver into one of the spark plug holes so that it rests on top the piston, engage fourth gear and attempt to push the car down the drive, which fortunately has a reasonable downward slope. Watch the screwdriver and, sure enough, we see it rising. The engine isn't seized, thank goodness we don't have another Bob on our hands.
Because the owner's other car was parked alongside we could not get the Zafira in to jump the battery so we connected up one of the two knackered old batteries we had brought round. Didn't want to risk connecting across a totally dead battery and shorting out the other one, so left the positive terminal connected to the original battery but disconnected the earth wires from the original battery and connected the negative jump lead to the isolated leads, thus removing the original battery from the system. Doing it this way ensures that the positive connections are still kept clear of any metalwork that could cause a short and the negative connection is earthed anyway, so doesn't matter if that touches any other metal. Turned on the ignition and, lo and behold, we have assorted dashboard warning lights.
Hit the starter. Click. We were right, this battery is knackered.
Try the other one. Whirr, whirr, the engine spins over. Let it spin until the oil pressure light goes out.
Clean the plugs with a wire brush (not that they appeared to need it) and replace them. Reconnect the HT leads, making sure they are in the right order. Chug, chug, chug. Engine reluctantly turns over but not fast enough to fire.
Remember we have a the tiny but powerful Chinese jump pack in the glove box of the Zafira, so this is deployed. Chug, chug, cough, splutter, BLOODY HELL IT'S ONLY RUNNING!
Remove jump pack and it is still running on the alternator output.

Leave it running while we check the condition of the spare wheel. Full size alloy, not one of these horrible space-saver things. Appears to have some air in it. Pump it up and fit it to the nearside rear. Try driving it up and down the drive to test the brakes. As we expected they were not great, but worked well enough to stop it eventually. Unfortunately the handbrake would also stop the car but the ratchet would not re-engage so having freed off the brakes it now insisted on rolling down the drive. So we took a deep breath and, leaving everything behind, we set off for home.
No collection thread as the distance involved was about 500 yards, but target achieved with no problems, except for the power-assisted steering, which apparently now isn't. Have a cup of tea then walk back round to pile all the detritus back into the Zafira and drive it home.

Gone. Mossy piece of tarmac blinking in the sunlight for the first time in 7 years.

In its new home. Bob is not impressed by this non-French interloper and turns his back on it.

Let's see what we have.

Nicely mouldy steering wheel. Oh look, footwell lights. I say, how posh, did I mention it's a Ghia.

Illuminated vanity mirrors. Can this get any posher?

Optional giffer pack included.

Lots of damp and mouldy boot trim now basking in the sunshine.

So, what is the overall assessment.
On cursory inspection it appears to have zero rot on the bodywork or the underside.
Haven't tried everything yet. A few of the lights don't work (hopefully just bulbs or mouldy connections). Nor do the screenwashers.
The two main problems seem to be the non-working power steering and the ABS warning light being on. But haven't had time for in-depth investigations yet, so here's hoping an MoT can be passed eventually. No rush, it is a lockdown project after all.

By now I am sure you are all bored to death so I will stop rambling.
Bloody hell these threads take a long time to compile.
Stay tuned for more developments. Or not.
 

[egg]

Huzzah! Huzzah! Brilliant. Welcome to K plate club.

PAS fluid at correct level? How does the pressure switch look?

[bramz7]

I think the saloons look far better than the hatchbacks. 

Top save etc. 

Amazing how well it's coped with a few years off of the road. 

[phil_lihp]

Lovely, I do enjoy a good rescue thread, best of luck with the revival.

[junkyarddog]

Nice save.

Hard to believe that these things are near 30 years old!!!

 

[320touring]

Woaft, well in!

[fatharris]

This is a fantastic project, looking forward to seeing the progress on this

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[The Moog]

That looks aces ... hard to believe it is almost 30 years old! 

[Split_Pin]

What a lovely uplifting story, a great save. It looks in great condition too.

[Christine]

Top save

[beko1987]

That's brilliant! If you ever want it polishing... 

[NorthernMonkey]

You’ve got to call it Ben ??

[HMC]

Brilliant work, and a great spec and body style. 
 

@egghow early is this k plater in the pantheon of the k plate mondeo?

[sierraman]

Lovely stuff. Check the ends of the sills out and the inner arch tubs as they rot like fuck.

The handbrake is shit by design, frequently they make a racket due to the rear cylinders leaking. I’d be tempted to strip the rear brakes down and make sure the shoes are adjusted correctly.

[Tenmil Socket]

Excellent, I hope you get it back on the road!

 

[egg]

43 minutes ago, HMC said:

@egghow early is this k plater in the pantheon of the k plate mondeo?

Pretty early, a May build. Mine is March build (but June registered like this one). There are some Feb builds known for sure. The press cars were built in March 93. Numbers are still falling rapidly - we should get the next HML update soon. I know there's loads of problems with that data but last 3 years show following total MK1's left.

2016 - 6,261
2017 - 5,411
2018 - 4,743 (of which 670 are K reg, of those 670, only 182 were taxed)

EDIT: 670 are 1993 - so that will of course include Aug-Dec L reg.

In 1996 - there were 394,000...

[outlaw118]

Essex registered!

Top work Sir!

[Alan Prost]

Great story and nice to see it saved!

Funny that when these saloons were about I thought them as hideous but years later I’m looking thinking that’s better than the hatch!

[sierraman]

You did well to get it, a 2.0 Saloon is prime banger racing material! 

[Angrydicky]

Great stuff, watching with interest!

I viewed a P reg Ghia late last year, supposedly immaculate with a fsh. Bloke wanted £1495 which is top, top money but probably not far out if it was as good as he said it was, and it had been for sale for a while. Fortunately it wasn’t far away.

Got there to find a car that didn’t look much better than this one, filthy dirty, moss growing in all the seams and round the windows, damp mouldy interior, and ancient perished tyres. He fired it up and it sounded good but the coolant was disgusting. I asked to see the fsh and it turned out to be a handful of old mots, handbook and V5. I asked when the cambelt was last done and he didn’t know, but “it’s easy on these engines mate”.

I couldn’t stand the bloke but because I could see a decent car hiding under all the dirt, I offered him £300 for it. He wouldn’t budge from £1200, convinced it was some really valuable OSF! Fortunately it was local, so I hadn’t wasted loads of time going hundreds of miles fortunately.

With the exception of the paint decay on the roof, this one looks quite comparable and for £nothing you’ve done very well there indeed!

 

[Hertz]

Thanks for the write up and well done. Nice little project to get stuck into whilst in lockdown. Looking forward to the progress on this one.

[sierraman]

It is an easy job the belt on those, you’ll need the plate and the crank pin. The belt rarely fails but the tensioner seizes and fucks the belt off quick time. 

[MorrisItalSLX]

Excellent save! Hopefully it is grateful of the care and attention you are throwing at it.

I see it came with some bonus cassettes too, anything good?

[5speedracer]

Always preferred the saloon to the hatch on these. Lovely car, well saved.

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[LightBulbFun]

as others say top save!

I look forward to seeing how you get on with reviving this one  

(reminds me I still need to ask my neighbour about his SD1... someday ill work up the courage to go knock and ask!)

bonus essex reg too

[RayMK]

A lovely story albeit with some sadness.  Looking forward to updates.  

[Shite Ron]

An excellent acquisition I had a K reg 1.8LX saloon from 1996 to 1997, sold with 135,000 miles on and still like new. The best Mondeo in my opinion, my brother had a mk2 Ghia, I had a mk3 Ghia and mk4 Zetec and the mk1 was best by far to drive. In my opinion these are the best driving front wheel drive cars, certainly the best I have driven. A Ghia or Si would be a nice car to own, well done on saving this. As already said the saloon is far better looking than the hatch.

[Shite Ron]

5 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

as others say top save!

I look forward to seeing how you get on with reviving this one  

(reminds me I still need to ask my neighbour about his SD1... someday ill work up the courage to go knock and ask!)

bonus essex reg too

An SD1? what are you waiting for.? Get a note through their door.

I noticed the Essex reg. could it be an ex. Ford management car? It is a nice spec.

[dave j]

Great save! 

[hairnet]

nice one

free (lucky git)

steve 1 trigger 0 (soz trig)