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New owner's modifications


Blake's Den

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On 3/1/2021 at 9:26 PM, sutty2006 said:

The more you look the worse it gets! 
 

id be tempted to buy it back, and start ripping as many tatty stickers and glue on items off and leave them on his driveway. 

I'd break it for parts. A few years ago an N/A wasn't worth the bother, really (I got a G-Ltd from here for a few bits) but parts prices are on the up.

The more N/A's that die, due to this kinda shit, the more a decent turbo is worth. That's my logic lol.

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The only one I've sold that really pissed me off was an Astra SRi Turbo. Great car, I drove it for three years without many problems. Quick, fun, reliable. Just a good car. I bought it to be an engine donor but it was too good so I just used it. Really liked it. The clutch started to slip around 140k miles and I thought about harvesting the engine or replacing the clutch. In the end I got chatting to a guy who worked for me and he said he really wanted it. He said he would fix it up and it would be his pride and joy. He was good with mechanical stuff and I liked him so as a favour, I sold it to him for £70. It was worth a lot more.

 

He replaced the clutch, replaced the front bumper (there was a chunk taken out of the bodykit from when I ran over a badger on the M54) and did a lot of cosmetic work. He kept me updated and showed me pictures as it went. Then, when it was ready, he got an insurance quote and it was enormous, so he broke it for parts and scrapped the shell. I really wanted that engine for my Omega - I only let it go to him as he said he would give it a new life. The engine was an absolute belter. Very, very healthy

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I get too attached to my cars that this is the exact reason why I don't want to sell them at times. For example I know that the LS400 would end up as A- Slammed on its arse as a STANCED VIP LOOK, B- A Skidz car or C- Used as a donor car for the V8.

 It's that exact reason why I end up not selling stuff and they end up sitting on my drive with me going "I'll get round to it..." and it gets into a state of disrepair. Then in the end I end up selling it cheap and it still ends up going to the sort of people I never wanted it to. 🙃 

Then the cycle continues 

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18 hours ago, Out Run said:

Shame to see, mate.

The fate of many an SW20! If it's a small comfort, mine will never look anything like that. :-D

I'm happy that it has survived but I'd be happier seeing it in a scrappy!

Its actually a SW23. These were the 120hp versions of the SW20 which uses the 3SFE (?) engine from a camry. No rear spolier and no front fog lights. Quite rare because people didn't buy them! Only sold from 1990 to 1992. 

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30 minutes ago, Blake's Den said:

I'm happy that it has survived but I'd be happier seeing it in a scrappy!

Its actually a SW23. These were the 120hp versions of the SW20 which uses the 3SFE (?) engine from a camry. No rear spolier and no front fog lights. Quite rare because people didn't buy them! Only sold from 1990 to 1992. 

The whole SW21/22/23 thing never seemed to be used anywhere but the USA? I've not seen it on the chassis numbers of the turbo ones I/my mate has had, anyway.

I remember the 3SFE, yeah. I bet most of the ones that were sold, had the bumpers cut out and spoilers fitted. Like the one on Flipping Bangers lol.

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15 hours ago, Rod/b said:

And still all I see is a stretched mk1 / 2 Fiesta 

That Ginetta looks like what the Lotus looks to me after 5 pints of Old Rosie. 

The modifications, not to my taste but hey ho. One I can’t understand is when the paint is removed and the body covered in surface rust and it being made positively dangerous by fucking about with the camber to the point only 30% of the tyre tread is in contact with the road. 

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Good thread!  Here's one of mine, relatively rare 1.3L with the CVH engine and 5-speed box.  I bought this completely sight unseen through a Fiesta-related e-group back in the day, on the strength of a single sentence description and £300 asking price.  Must have been about 2003.  Overnight coach from Edinburgh down to Exeter, met at the station by the late owner's son (if I remember correctly in a BX) and driven to the house where it had always been garaged.  Not a spot of rust on it and just 30k on the clock, though half of those miles were covered by the first owner in three years.

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By 2005 I was getting ready to leave Edinburgh, initially temporarily but still needed to downsize the fleet which was up to five or six cars at the time.  Sold to someone I knew on the XRTwo forum who specifically wanted a silver one, so back down south with it and got my £300 back.  I knew it was likely to be getting modified - though other than minor cosmetics I think this was more or less limited to rimz'n'springz.  Oh and a bigger engine, according to the online car checks:

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Doesn't appear to have changed hands again - but hasn't been on the road for about ten years.

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The other one I had during that era, which also lived on after its stint with me, is this early-ish Ghia with the more common 1.1 OHV/4-speed combo.  The XR2 replica that I had been using as a winter beater in Scotland needed major fettling and I decided to bin it off in favour of something requiring less* work while these things were still cheap and reasonably plentiful.  While on my summer holiday in 2002 I found this hiding at the back of a Jersey garage becoming swallowed by the vegetation and missing various bits:

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Price = £0.00. 

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Got it going with a battery and throttle cable raided from another fiesta that had been dumped in a car park, then found out that the clutch was shagged so the quick* and easy* solution was to lob in a mk1 XR2 engine that a mate was giving away.  Upgraded the suspension, exhaust and wheels while I was at it.

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This never worked properly as the engine mount wasn't right, so once back in Scotland, I took it all out again and inserted the more logical mk2 XR2 mechanicals instead.

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Much nicer to drive!  Another change of wheels and we were ready for MoT.

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Once successfully back on UK plates, built up quite a few miles on it over the next year or so, then decided I was going to strip it down and restore.

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Dumped it in my council lock-up for the next six years, at which point I conceded it was never going to get dealt with in my ownership so I offered it up (price - £0.00)

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A lad from the western half of Central Scotland sent a truck to collect it and set about putting the jigsaw back together:

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Last I heard it was running some crazy power Zetec engine and happily embarassing much more modern machinery during track days.  So this one came back from the brink twice!!

I've got no regrets at all about what happened to these after I moved them on, modified or not at least they're still around.  It hurts me more that the very tidy Sierra I sold in 2013 (which remained in original condition) was sent for scrap after a very minor bump and I wish even now that I'd bought it back when I had the chance.

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9 hours ago, mk2_craig said:

Sold to someone I knew on the XRTwo forum who specifically wanted a silver one, so back down south with it and got my £300 back.  I knew it was likely to be getting modified - though other than minor cosmetics I think this was more or less limited to rimz'n'springz.  Oh and a bigger engine, according to the online car checks:

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To be fair, that's a nice looking Fiesta and could be returned to stock pretty easily

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