Autoshite GT

[garethj]

The 1958 Peerless has been sold and now the bulge under the Jones mattress looks a lot plumper, if redundancy comes knocking I know we can weather the storm for long enough. This leaves me with just the 1987 Polo which is an admirable car in terms of running costs and reliability, it’s just a bit dull. It’s needed less maintenance since August than our normal car, a 1999 Volvo S80 and the cost of that maintenance is pitifully low, I think it’s cheaper to run than my bicycle. Over the last week I’ve done 800+ miles and it’s just got on and done it, even with its (below average mileage for year) 135,000 miles it just soldiers on.

 

But still, if I can only have one car I don’t want it to be a Polo. The criteria for its replacement is quite strict – Mrs GarethJ doesn’t want lots of money squandering on my old snotter, when I mentioned a grand for a theoretical Peugeot 504, that was judged to be a bit pricey. It needs to have room for 5 because I occasionally have to take the whole family. With some members of this parish speaking highly of old Beemers I wondered if a 3 or 5 series was a good idea, but I’ve never really got on with the image and I live in Luton where it’s da homies car of choice, innit.

 

After Futuramic spoke highly of his Ginetta, (http://autoshite.commlm/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5277& ) I did the decent thing and found one of the very unloved G26 saloons. Most Ginettas are thousands of pounds, racing pedigree etc, but the cars that they sold in high numbers during the ‘80s that kept the company afloat are below bargain-basement prices nowadays. Bear in mind that it’s got a galvanised chassis and grp body so rust issues have gone, underneath is mostly Cortina so when it fails it should be cheap to fix and it’s got pop-up headlamps which are so cool they’ve been banned for pedestrian safety these days, what’s not to like?

 

I did the deal for £350, to include delivery to my house. There’s no MoT but I spent most of yesterday fiddling with electrics to get it ready for its test, although I’m sure it’ll need an exhaust bracket and perhaps a suspension bush or two. The interior is mostly missing - there’s seats and a dashboard but not much else, I’ll trawl through the owners club ads or fabricate my own. The paint might come back with a polish, otherwise I’ll paint it with rustoleum like I painted the Peerless. It gets delivered in a couple of weeks, anyone want to buy a Polo?

 

Autoshite car in its natural habitat – bonnet up, tools spread everywhere.

 

New battery fitted, round posts to give me more choice so I swapped over the battery terminals. I also put on a better ground strap so most of the 12V are getting to the chassis, if not elsewhere on the body….

 

It’s not really attractive from the rear, but it’s alright in an ‘80s kind of way. Rear (heated) window is Fiesta as are side windows and doors. Front screen is Cortina.

 

Only a few minutes with the fibreglass pencil (my favourite tool) got the rear lights working.

 

The popup headlights should be worked manually with a massive cable, Ginetta designed this to be more reliable than the TR7 / Lotus / X19 lights of the time which kept going expensively wrong. A previous owner thought electric ones would be neater. They jammed. A short while and a pint of releasing fluid got it working a bit better but it’s still not smooth, we’ll see if it works long enough for the MoT.

 

 

There are other issues, the dash is from a Cortina without a revcounter so I’d like to find a better one, the heater blower is noisy and there’s no warm air through the vents – I suspect a clean up of the heater would help a lot. It’s all nicely accessible which is nice. One of the door locks doesn’t work, do any Fiesta owners know if the doors are Mk1 or Mk2 when I hit ebay for a new set of locks?

[trigger]

Oh a Ginetta, Very classy!, looks a bit rough with just black steel wheels though, No idea on the door, Looks Mk 2 to me but I'm not sure what the difference is between the two.What engine do these use?, 1.6 CVH or something more manly like a 2.0 pinto Transit lump?

[michiel]

Sounds like a pretty practical car, and it doesn't even look that bad. Nice buy!

[Minimad5]

I think the only difference with the mk1 and mk2 doors is the mk1 doors have a huge hole for the door handles to operate, and the mk2's use a smaller one. (I will find the article on the Fiesta Mk1 Forum and edit appropriately)Most ford locks are interchangeable iirc.

[Father Ted]

If the door lock is chrome, its probably a Mk1 - if its black, its probably a Mk2 - but I dont think there is a lot of difference between the two.

Blurry Mk 2 Door...

Mk 1 Door

[Minimad5]

My Fiesta that i'm picking up today has black locks and thats a MK1 It depends on the Spec' some fiesta's didn't even come with reverse lights !

[Father Ted]

True, but Im fairly sure none of the Mk2's came with chrome locks - they were ditched when the Mk 1 was retired. Im sure someone will be along to correct me now!

[trigger]

It has a Mk 2 door handle.

[Alexg]

Excellent buy. Cant get much cooler than that

[Minimad5]

Trigger is right !Mk2 door it is.But just to clarify, i found this on the Mk1 Forum :

"only diff are the holes for the mirrors an the handles work differently one pulls up other pulls down" (from the inside)

Hope that helps.

[Talbotman]

Could never understand why ginetta never specified putting rover sd1 rear lamps on the back of these rather than the wipac trailer lamps they actually supplied -would have made the back end look so much cleaner. Always liked the g26 - with some tlc this should turn out to be a really nice example!

[garethj]

Trigger is right !

Mk2 door it is.

 

But just to clarify, i found this on the Mk1 Forum :

 

"only diff are the holes for the mirrors an the handles work differently one pulls up other pulls down" (from the inside)

Hope that helps.

It's helped to get all the Fiesta anoraks into the open

 

Could never understand why ginetta never specified putting rover sd1 rear lamps on the back of these rather than the wipac trailer lamps they actually supplied -would have made the back end look so much cleaner. Always liked the g26 - with some tlc this should turn out to be a really nice example!

I wondered if some Fiat X1/9 lights would look good, here they are on an Esprit S1

 

S2 / Rover lights might be a bit wide

 

What engine do these use?, 1.6 CVH or something more manly like a 2.0 pinto Transit lump?

It's a 2 litre Pinto with a two barrel Weber carb and what might be a fabricated exhaust manifold, it's certainly not cast, but I'm not sure what's standard?

[pogweasel]

Is it supposed to have such comedic under-wheeling??

[garethj]

Is it supposed to have such comedic under-wheeling??

Narrowed axles are all the rage wid da VW possee I think it's got Mondeo wheels and they're a bit narrow. A softer set of rear springs would help too, the back of the Ginetta is a lot lighter than the back of the Cortina - it looks like an advert for Mr_Bollox's hydrogas pump at the moment

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Excellent work GAJ. I would love one of these old things. I suggest fitting some Sapphire Cosworth wheels as i like em. If I had one of these I would bin the Pinto in favour of a RS2000 16v engine, and probably crash it within a fortnight due to bein a rubbish driver in a light rwd car. OMG RWD!! IS IT RWD M8? RWD RWD RWD!!! !!! 11 FTW!! What is it again?

[155V6]

Excellent work GAJ. I would love one of these old things. I suggest fitting some Sapphire Cosworth wheels as i like em.

Good idea,not just because I've got a set for sale

[Rusty Pelican]

My mate John had a white one for a while , again bought as a non MOTed car with all the glass out , his had a 2ltr pinto fitted and a MK4 Tina dash , headlights on his were jammed up , went well for what it was especially as it cost £300 to buy and sort out , great car for living by the sea which is were it went

[Talbotman]

Yep a nice set of cossie alloys and some bernie and leupu rear spacers for the back end!

[garethj]

Excellent work GAJ. I would love one of these old things. I suggest fitting some Sapphire Cosworth wheels as i like em. If I had one of these I would bin the Pinto in favour of a RS2000 16v engine, and probably crash it within a fortnight due to bein a rubbish driver in a light rwd car.

An engine swap involves time and money, they’re both in great demand ATM so as long as the boat anchor Pinto goes, it stays. If I had time and money, I bet an Isuzu Piazza turbo driveline would go well.

 

Good thought on Sapphire wheels, I wonder if they’re close to the correct offset? The current wheels are 14†which are a bit small, the original 13†wheels must have been weeny, although they’re top ‘80s style

 

Good idea,not just because I've got a set for sale

So you might know what the diameter and offset is Got a pic of them?

 

My mate John had a white one for a while , again bought as a non MOTed car with all the glass out , his had a 2ltr pinto fitted and a MK4 Tina dash , headlights on his were jammed up , went well for what it was especially as it cost £300 to buy and sort out , great car for living by the sea which is were it went

Unfortunately if the headlights are jammed up you can’t open the bonnet…. I *think* I sorted them out on mine, but we’ll see. A 12V linear actuator from ebay might be a good idea. It’s cheap motoring, considering it won’t rust, I can’t believe they’re not more popular. It’s not beautiful, but have you seen how many people drive Pug 307s?

[Rusty Pelican]

Your correct on the headlights , by jammed up i mean two carefully placed bits of wood fitted for night use only

[KruJoe]

Nice write-up, Gareth.

I wonder how you got on with the Rustoleum on the Peerless...

Did you ever do a thread on the process, or is there a thread you followed?

I once spent a few days reading that famous eleventy gazillion page Moparts thread that began with Tremclad, then Rustoleum, until someone discovered an even better procedure using a marine paint by International.

Of course that Mopar crowd are experimenting in Canada and the US.. it would be interesting to see about doing it with UK sourced products.

[155V6]

 

Good idea,not just because I've got a set for sale

So you might know what the diameter and offset is Got a pic of them?

 

 

 

Here's the wheels

I couldn't measure anything as they're not at my house,but I can find out more if you want.They've got good Dunlops on them,but 2 or 3 need re-sealing as they've been stored for a couple of years.

[garethj]

Nice write-up, Gareth.I wonder how you got on with the Rustoleum on the Peerless...Did you ever do a thread on the process, or is there a thread you followed?

There's a bit of a write-up here: http://autoshite.commlm/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5228&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=30I'm very impressed with it, the days of spray cans have gone for me, this stuff is a doddle to apply and doesn't make lots of mess.Ta for the pics of the Sapphire wheels, I'll do some funny photoshop things and see how they'd look

[garethj]

The Ginetta was delivered yesterday, hoorah!

 

I'd booked it for an MoT at 3pm and the bloke selling it said he'd leave the workshop at 9am, leaving me plenty of time to put the shiny new numberplates on, glue the interior mirror, fix the battery down and anything else I could think of. What could possibly go wrong?

 

Unfortunately he couldn't get away until almost 11am so I was pacing around like an expectant father for most of the day.

 

Luckily he got here in one piece, towed by a white van means it's probably the fastest the Ginetta has been for years

 

 

Number plate on, mirror glued and off we go for the MoT, where it failed on a few things...

 

Rear brake pipe was stretched

One rear brake wasn't at full efficiency

One rear brake binding (probably a siezed wheel cylinder as it's the same wheel)

No indicator repeaters fitted

Number plate light not working (I suggested he give it a thump and it should come on)

Exhaust leaking

Emissions too high

Fuel pipe not clipped properly

 

I'd call that a result

 

The emissions were high because of a misfire so I put some new plugs on it and tightened up the HT leads, not sure yet if the emissions are better but it goes like a rocket* now

 

The exhaust was leaking from the join at the front pipe and the front silencer, it was also banging against the rear chassis. It looked like a real pain to fix so I took it to the local exhaust place where they made up a few new bends, fitted a new front silencer and charged me £45 for the trouble, at that price it's not worth faffing around and doing it myself.

 

Next stage is to clip the fuel pipe down, change the rear wheel cylinders and sort out the brake pipe. I'll get some side repeaters on order and I reckon we're in business. I've promised the car a new set of plug leads, distributor cap, points and condenser if it passes for me.

 

And I had an OMG RWD moment driving back from getting the exhaust fixed

 

 

 

*Not a very fast rocket, but it's sprightly enough, especially compared to how it drove on 3 cylinders

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

I hope there's a shiny new numberplate for that trailer too! :lol:The car's lovely - the Fiesta bit in the middle makes it look a bit oddly proportioned at first though. Big love for the popup headlamps (which I'm pretty sure are still legal on new cars, just no-one uses them anymore).I think the bumpers would look better if they were black.

[Guest]

Are these any good? I ask as I once found one dumped in a hedge

Different wheels and black bumpers look ok

[whitevanman]

what year of manufacture is it? as I very much doubt it needs side repeaters.....

[Albert Ross]

My thought exactly. The rules changed April 1986 IIRC, whether registration or date of first use I'm not sure, I can check for you though.

[Pete-M]

If the RS2000 lump is too hard to get, why not slot the 2.3 from a Frogeye Scorpio in? It's nicely torquey, basically the same engine as the RS2000 16v job but bigger and with balancer shafts.Oh, and a Frogeye Scorpio can be picked up for about 7p, and there'll be tons of scrappaged ones about to raid for bits.

[garethj]

Are these any good? I ask as I once found one dumped in a hedge Different wheels and black bumpers look ok

The bumpers are moulded in, but I've seen a few with the bumpers painted black.As to whether they're any good, if the price is right then anything is good

My thought exactly. The rules changed April 1986 IIRC, whether registration or date of first use I'm not sure, I can check for you though.

This was built in 1987 so it needs side repeaters. It's not a huge job I'm sure. Will I need to change the indicator relay?

If the RS2000 lump is too hard to get, why not slot the 2.3 from a Frogeye Scorpio in? It's nicely torquey, basically the same engine as the RS2000 16v job but bigger and with balancer shafts.Oh, and a Frogeye Scorpio can be picked up for about 7p, and there'll be tons of scrappaged ones about to raid for bits.

I've never heard of the 2.3 4 cylinder. Is it taller than the Pinto, because there's not much space under the bonnet!