I'm sure you can knock something a bit better up, or at least weld it up properly which I couldn't do - I haven't touched a welder for 16 years

 

Nice shiny fuel tank arrived this week,



Then placed in the car and I hit a snag, The fuel cap/filler that I welded in on the side of the car was not high enough so the filler pipe would of only had a few degrees fall,

so I went from this…



To this…





And I now I have this…



Even the original position would have been tight… Serves me right for getting ahead of myself… didn’t get chance to weld the new one in as I ran out of gas so a trip to BoC in the week.

On a positive note since adding the exhaust tunnel in the tank would have been close to exhaust so now moving the filler I can move the tank back away from the exhaust tunnel and over the diff

 

Shiny

You could always have put the filler in the rear quarter glass

 

Was thinking about doing that, but although I will go Perspex windows it might be something that is done later as it could go on the road with the glass in... If I had put the filler in there it would have forced me down that route now and I would rather spend the cash elsewhere at moment...

 

Had a crazy idea that I could use a diffuser of a focus ST and fit it to my bumper, so after chopping up a bit into 4 parts and grinding the ford stamp of it

I managed to make it fit, would of liked it a little higher but it’s not too bad, still a bit of filling and tidying up to do on it…

The hole in the middle is for a rain light…

 

Pucka job, looks spot-on

 

This thing is going to be epic.

 

Yeh can't wait to get back on to it, day off from work tomorrow so should get chance to do a bit...

Hope so mate... cheers,

 

Me too, I'm hoping to get some painting and wiring done

 

Really starting to take shape mate. I think the filler looks better up there anyway

 

yeh I agree should have put it there in the first place, how's yours going??

 

A good few days with lots of small jobs done out the way...

Made some sill stands budget style!!! Modifying some axle stands, the car is solid on them…





Cage is finally done I’ve added a bar across the back between the rear turrets this will be used for harnesses it’s not an ideal position as quite far from seat, but couldn’t fit them any closer as it would end up to high…

Once this was in place the rear brace looked odd so I chopped it out, I will re-think that maybe come from the side of the turrets to the cage but will look at that next week.

I then spent a couple of hours going around all the welds checking them over and cleaning them up, pictures then taken for CC and a coat of primer on the welds,











A mate came over to help on Saturday for a few hours so I got him building my boot floor did a good job and allowed me to get on with other things… (Come back next week) we added a piece of box across the middle so there is less flex.



Then fitted a 12mm spacer and longer studs on the rear so I can check arch clearance before painting, will need to roll the lip or cut it off as its close… but now fills arch how I want.



Getting close to getting prepping for paint now…

 

Slow lol, i need to shake a leg & get on with it really.

 

Can't wait to see this with a lick of paint on, really coming together

 

Had some good news yesterday from Custom Cages, after sending off photos of the cage and with the welding sample I sent a while ago they have approved my cage so I now get a MSA certificate

 

Good news there mate, you should enter into the rallycross super nationals I went to watch it at mallory park the other week bloody awesome! Really relaxed regs, any engine mounted where ever, it's defiantly something I'm going to do one day!
Awesome work by the way!

James!

 

Yeh rallycorss looks good fun but from what I've seen of it's hard on the car not sure I want to risk the amount of work in something like that...(yet), once I've got to grips with it maybe look at hill climbs...

 

I absolutely love catching up on this, every time I look at it it makes me want to start welding stuff all over my car lol.

Keep at it mate

Mick

 

A small update only had this morning to work on the car this weekend.

Added two turret supports back to the cage



Left room for a spare wheel to go at the side.



Then started to add the mounts for the fuel tank but ran out of time to make the last one



Won a steering wheel of ebay in the week not the best but an OZ and cheap so it will be ok for now, and picked up a quick release a few weeks ago so fitted them to test, wheel is a bit high so will have to make a spacer for the column but will take a seat back down first to get it right,



Ok off now for some beers in the sun…

 

Yeh that's the nice thing about this its only really a toy, so kind of got the freedom to do what I want...

 

Lol, what it does to me is make me wonder when I will ever have the time to do mine, it's a **** load of work.

 

This weekend I concentrated on getting the inside jobs finished and ready for paint… Fuel tank mounts ect now all done… then welded in some harness eye plates on the floor and side of seats,

I went over the floor with the wire brush and a pad on the grinder to get bits of sound proof that was left (hard work in this heat ), and as there was a fair bit of bare metal I gave it a coat of paint,





Then I dropped off the rear diff and cradle so I could get to the underneath of the boot floor, cleaned that and gave it a coat of primer but will need to tidy and weld a few bits up, also can now see how much I have burnt through other than that the underneath still looks good.





Also been filling the driver’s rear quarter where I have put the fuel cap in a few times!!!

 

Yeah your rite they take a good bashing especially on the gravel section I think after all the work we have done it would be silly. Top work by the way! It's really coming on now will be good to see it painted! What fuel pump you going for? Im not sure what route to take with mine, I had a tank made to suite the subaru intank fuel pump on my escort as it was a cheaper option than an external set up.

James

 

yeh can't wait to get at least the inside and under bonnet painted taking much longer than I thought (hopefully in 2 weeks time)

On fuel pumps I'm on the look out for a good 2nd hand external one for now.. got to honest I priced up the fuel system how I have designed it in my head and was shocked, just the price of hose and fittings is a killer as i'm going to use a swirl pot, so needed something in the region of 12 fittings... so when its ready to run I will probably just run an external pump and filter direct from the main tank just while its still being worked on and then add the swirl pot in later when ready for action.


maybe time for a catch up to share ideas??

 

Definitely mate, if you could pm me your number as I've lost it and I'll pop over yours this time if that's ok?

James

 

Weekend started ok, did a bit of seam welding in the engine bay and ground off the white smoothrite that had been used on it as it would probably react when sprayed



Also tidied up under front wheel arches



Then I cleaned the areas underneath and used some tigerseal on the welds in case of pin holes ect and around the boot floor, then gave a coat of white stone chip, we will put some 2k on when I paint the inside.



Also sealed around my exhaust tunnel then cleaned and primed that






Then things went very backwards as I uncovered a nightmare…. there were a couple of small blisters in the paint on the N/S rear quarter so I picked at them and the paint just peeled of layer after layer it looks like the rear quarter has been painted 7 or 8 times two of the layers were very soft,

my guess is that it has been painted with water based paint then later with solvent based and been baked making the waterbased paint soft, but I’m no expert on paint so go to wait for my mate to look at it in the week, main thing is the soft layers needed to come off… most of it peeled or scrapped of but some I had to use the DA on it… looks like the door has the same paint on it !!!







On a positive note the drivers side is coming along ok



So hopefully next weekend i’m going to have the inside, engine bay and the sides up to the roof rails painted, and the underneath touched up… Roof will be done later as its going to be black, the rest of the panels and a final coat on the sides when it’s back on its wheels and I can roll it over to my mates unit.

 

Good progress this weekend got most of what I wanted sprayed and it turned out well… didn’t have time to get the outside rear quarters ready so left those for now and concentrated on the inside and engine bay.

Stated off with some scotchbrite on the cage and inside of car seemed to take ages but after seeing it in colour well worth the hard work





Then with some primer on it, just used 1k primer so we had less waiting time and with the nice weather dried really fast





And finally some white on it…













found a few areas I could have prepped a little better (not my strongest point) but they are protected ok and will be hidden when dash in and other bits are back in,

Next I need to tidy up under the wheel arches so I can start and get the suspension bolted back on, you never know might not have to come off again.

well pleased with the outcome

 

Nice work mate

 

Just spotted this thread! I've long had a hankering for a 4WD Mk.6 or Mk.7 Fiesta, so always interested in seeing anything get the 4WD conversion treatment.

Good job so far and please keep the updates coming!

 

Tidy job