Week 54 - The Build

 Getting to the end now! First job of the week is to disable the front and rear windscreen heater circuits. I have the cables for the front ones but the ones for the back seem to have disappeared somewhere. I've solved the problem by removing the fuses. No9 for the front and 33 for the back.Here is a diagram of the fuse box...

and here it is in real life with the fuses removed...

Next job is to check all the suspension and engine mount nuts and bolts are all tight. This went well until I came to the offside front strut which appeared to have some slack in the top mount. Oh dear. The top mount is in front of the dashboard and under the windscreen wiper motor. It's now completely hidden so it's eithrt remove the dashboard or ...

lay into it with a wireless angle grinder to reveal the bolts!

All tight now!

Last job of the week was to get the brakes and emisions tested. All good and here is a video of the end of the brake test.

And finally, and by popular demand, is a quick video recap of the engine room with the cover removed.

Week 53 - The Build

 A bit more test driving this week and I seem to have eliminated some of the worse rattles!

It attracts a lot of attention wherever it goes!

Not a huge amount of other progress so a recap on what's under the bonnet ...

... and of the jet drive ...

Week 52 - The Build

The end is in sight now!

In line with my 'Two Steps Forward and One Step Back' policy, I know see the fuel guage doesnt work anymore. I'll come back to that another time!

Steps forward this time include changing the stbd. aft suspension strut. The 'new' one came from a post 2003 car and now matches the one on the port side. The suspension at the back is now level.

The mirror caps and door handles are now painted in Aston Martin Tungsten Grey. Nice!

So, time for a step back. To get the handles back on access is required to the inside of the doors that I've already covered in can liner. So off it comes. Grrr!

Not as traumatic as I imagined and now the handles are on and the inside of the door covered again.

Next job is back to the brake bleeding. To do this you need to pressurise the brake fuid reservoir. This has proved difficult due to the limited space above te filler cap. I bought a pump up system and had to modify it to get it to fit which it eventually and reluctantly did. With the aid of the ODB reader I was able to bleed the ABS unit.

Time for another test drive. Up to Caerphilly Mountain and back to give the brakes a bit of a go.The whole thing is quite rattley but went OK apart from the tracking is obviously miles out and the front wheels seemed loose on the hubs! A lot of stuff still works though so not all bad!

Week 51 - The Build

 A mixture of snagging and interior work this week! 

During the test drive my homemade glove box hinge pin fell out and dissapeared under the cockpit sole. I'm sure it will reappear one day. It was just a length of steel rod. The correct resolution would be to get a Ford Fiesta glove box hinge pin. They sell them om eBay - £16 !! Seems a bit excessive. A review from a previous purchaser also thought it was a lot for a Rawlplug! 

Like this ...

and here it is installed ...

Next job is to make and fit a panel to cover the brake servo vacuum pipe going through the inner driver side footwell. This was made from cardboard reinforced plastic covered in van liner.

Here it is fitted ...

Doesnt look too bad and the photo shows a hint of whats next! The covering of the cockpit sides.I used van liner for this. Much nicer than the supplied carpet. Also did the doors. 

Here it is finished.. Nice speaker grills fitted as well! I have trim to cover the tops of the doors and the aluminium strip under the door but will fit these pretty much as the last thing to prevent damage.

Making a start on the snagging. First job is thet the engine room bilge pump seems to not work. Afer exhaustive investigation of the switches and wiring I discovered that actually it does work - it just very quiet!

Next is the problem of the non working fuel gauge. I checked the wiring at the tank and tried but failed to remove the sender from the tank. Thought I'd take a look at the instrument cluster and it almost imediately started working again. I wiggled a few wires and couldn't get it to not work again so put everything back together.

I also tested the water drive clutch after putting on the new boot. It works lovely.

I'm not entirely sure about the brakes as I now see the front stbd. brake is binding. If it ever stops raining I'll go for another test drive.

Week 50 - The Build

 So, last time I'd been for a quick test drive and identified a number of issues to be addressed. 

First off was a binding rear stbd. brake. I don't really kmow how that happens on disk brakes but that probably just shows what I know! Anyway, I retracted the caliper pistons and it now seems OK.

Next thing was the front wheels ever so slightly founled the brake calipers. Maybe having the front brakes on front hubs from something else isn't supposed to fit. Solved this by fitting 5mm wheel spacers all round. They were 'universal fit' which means they dont fit anything properly. I made some annular spacers to fit correctly.

at least they centre on the hub now!

Next issue was that when driving the abs pump was doing its nut and the brakes werent that great. Had a go at bleeding the abs unit so we'll see how that went on the next test drive. Think I'm going to need to pressurise the system from the reservoir rather than applying a vacuum pump to each corner.

I also noticed the gaiter around the water pump drive shaft had a hole in it  resulting in the engine room being covered in grease!

Here it is off the shaft with my finger through the hole. And here is the shaft with the tripod removed

 

Next week its finishing off the interior!

Week 49 - The Build

Last week saw the last of the mechanical work completed. So the next job is road testing to see whats needs doing again!

Its been sat on a dolly since I first started so it was interesting to see how it sat on its wheels. All four touch the fround at the same time, so a good start. Next its road test time!!

Here are a couple of photos of it overlooking Caerphilly on a rather dull morning ...

and a couple of videos of it being driven...

This little drive revealed a number of issues that need further attention! Binding brakes for a starter.

Week 48 - The Build

 Its been a long week - again! I didn't do anything much leading up to Christmas until a few days into the New Year. 

Previously I'd managed to pull the port side drive shaft out of its socket and so had to dismantle loads of bits to get it back in. Well, thats all done and all seems in order in that regard at least.

The problem was caused by the suspension strut fouling the plate that covers the hole by the drive belt from the gearbox. The solution is to use a strut from a Mk7 Fiesta later than 2013. My donor is a 2009 model.The new model has a different spring and orientation and, with a bit of angle grinding to reshape the lower shroud, its all fits lovely.

Here are the two struts. The original strut on the right and the modified strut on the left. The area of interest is at the bottom of the spring. You can see the extra clearance.

Here it is with all the suspension and brakes back on. I've also bolted on a strap to restrain the brake pipe and cables.