The car has now been almost totally dismantled, only the axels, brakes and steering are in place. It will now get a lot of welding and cleaning and then of course, paint. I didn't find any very bad rust problems I didn't know of, so everything should become out fine. Even the trunk bottom was in fairly good shape, eventhough before cleaning it looked as there wouldn't be any metal left after grind all the s*it out. Seems like someone has sometime put some bitumen sheets or something and that had cracked badly and looked terrible. Just some small holes in both ends of the trunk bottom. Below you can see a photo from it, and the other two places I didn't know about (but those were going to be replaced anyway).

A better exhaust manifold - to replace the Fiesta CVH original - has been test installed, and it seems to fit in much better than I predicted, needs only a few millimeters more space in the front. The lower end of it has to be done completely custom, becaus I've earlier told, the engine/gearbox support is different in Mk1 than in any other Ford and the manifold won't fit just bolt-on. The roof interioir has also been torn out, but I really don't have any idea how I'm ever going to get one back if I find a undamaged one ever :-) The wiring loom will propably be a bit easier re-install :-) Today I also went to Kartano to get some parts from the '81 1.1GX I bought for 20e two years ago. I took the driveshafts from it because they are the newer model (with 23 bores in the inner CV joint) and so it's easier to get spare parts 'if' I ever blow the shafts and/or the gearbox. I took also the reaction bars, so I can try to fix some caster adjustemt system in those and the car can still be 'on it's feet' because I don't have to modify the original ones. Also if I get in trouble with the authorities with my modified things, I can have the original ones installed asap.

From the beginning I've had some problems getting the tires I've had, to fit. Up to now, all the driving has been done with those remanufactured 185/60/13 wheels that are 'standard' Mk1 size and give normally no problems. But those chrome/gold Mangels - which look perfect in this car - have given me a problem because they are meant for RWD cars and the offset is wrong for the Fiesta. With normal suspension - and propably with 'original' 185/60 tires - there wouldn't be a big problem, sure they would touch every now and then in extreme situations, but they would be mostly just fine. But because I'm going to get also new wings (don't know about that word, I'm meaning the sheet metal surrounding the front wheels..) there is no way I'm willing to risk them, so something else had to be found. In the spring a friend of mine got a set of 13x5 Elstar chromes for free and brought them up and omg what the condition was! They are most likely 15-20 years old and the chrome is next to perfect in every one of them. Because I really needed some 'new' rims, I of course took them even if they were'n exactly what I had in mind. I also got a set of Continental 165/65 to go with them so there they are. I have never driven with them but seems like they'd fit just nicely in any driving situations. Although the problem was kinda solved, I still were looking for a better suiting set of rims. Not actively, but if something would've come up, I'd go after them. Main focus was in finding some nice retrolookers, but you know, most of the retros are in RWD offset and so ... Then I found some brand new alloys that would've done the job, but they would've costed around 250e and I wasn't that desperate. At the time when I changed the interior plan from original to pure race look, I also got another idea about the rims. Maybe the rims could also be a bit more race than retro? All those Compomotives and OZ's and so on are out of the question, so I was hoping to find something that would look 'race' after painting them white. And in no time a friend of mine told that he had some 14" inch laying around useles, and no shit! The price, the looks and the condition of the rims lead to the situation where I was today. Taking these RG Design's to the painterboy :-) The ET is 33 which is as perfect as it gets, and the width is 6 inches. 185/50 would be optimal, but I'm ~100% sure that the much more easier to find /55/ will be just as okay. I think they'll look just fabulous when everything is done. That be'ing about a year from now :-P

In the two first photos you can see the damage the wrong rim has caused with the 'right' tire.

Most of the welding was going to be done this wknd (1-3.10) but the welder had to move it a week further and now there ain't very much I can do in the following week. Maybe I'll just clean the garage or something for a while.


10/2004

Towed the car to a welder to get the most critical fixing done properly. Let's see how much he'll get done in a weekend.

The welding seems to take a lot more time than I expected, but I'm not complaining after seeing how good job he is doing. There seems to be a lot of tricks and things to notice while doing that, no way I could've get anything even close to that done :-) I hope I'll get the car back in a week to get things rolling on my own again. Now that the car is in a garage with nice facilities, I took the engine away because it's much easier there than in my own place. And it didn't take long time now, because there was only the clutch cable and 5 bolts to take out, everything else - including driveshafts and gear linkage - was already done. And of course I'm quite skilled with this anyway, I think it was the 11th time I'm removing engine of an Mk1 :-D

Drove ~700 kilometers around today and tested various seats. Most likely the setup will be a quite wide OMP Big for me (me=193cm/120kg) and a narrow OMP Eco for the co-driver. The only 'cheap' seat fitting me was that Big, and because the Fiesta is only a small car, there ain't very much room for the other seat and so it has to be a 'small boy' -model. I hope I can get them next week. Now you might think isnt't it 'a bit' early for the seats, since even the weldings haven't been finished yet. And you're right, it is early, but there are two good reasons for this. One be'ing that the seats are with no doubt the most expensive thing (~750e minus discounts) I have to buy, and at the moment I think I can afford them. Because I'm not a millionaire, I usually don't have that kind of money laying around :-) And the other reason is ofcourse the fact that everything - especially the rollgage - has to be build around the driver/seats, and there really is no other way for doing this than having the seats installed first. And not to mention that then I'll be able to sit in my nice tuningracing seat and and smile while daydreaming about getting everything done some day :-)

Both will be in plain black.

Something going on at last.

The bodyjob is also progressing. On Friday (It's TUE now) I'm gonna get the seats and a steering wheel hub because they are still available. I was also going to get the seatbelts and some other stuff, but the Mk6 needs new front shocks (A long story..) and that kinda takes care of my money :-/ A while ago I found out that Burton Power could deliver a Gaz Suspension kit with coilovers in the front, and now I'm thinking how to get 800 euros for that 8-o.Also found out today a cheap place to get the rollgage done, have to call them tomorrow. The prices I've heard before, were something like 600-800e, and that made me think I'll make them myself. The idea between the huge difference in the price (they'll cost less than 200e) is using a different kind of material. If made of seamless tube, the price will go sky high, but it'll be just fine if done from a 'normal' tube. I'll just have to get seats in to see how they fit. Because I'm quite a tall boy, the seats will be a bit further in the back than standard. And that might make some difference. But I'll get back on that.

11/2004

The seats are now here, and seem to fit almost perfect. There will propably be no need to get any 'special' kind of rollgage. The rollgage should not be just above the driver's head, and seems like my head will be in a right place for once. It might be necessary to move the seats maybe 5cm to the front compared to the photos because of the rollgage, but that won't be a probelm in any way. The seats may look sitting a bit high, but since the bottoms of the seats are so low and thin, asses will be in just the right height. And even if they weren't, the shape of the floor wouldn't even allow them go any lower without major modifications. Also the seatbelts will obviously give no hard time to get them fit. So, I'm very pleased with the choise I made. And I think I can even fit the co-driver seat after a quarter liter of Vodka ..

Ordered a set of GoodYear Eagle F1 GS-D2 185/55/14, delivery in two weeks. The same tyre - different size of course - has been superb under the Mk6, should work fine in this case too. Also found another place to get that GAZ -suspension system, now I'll just have to get some stuff sold to get some more money.

All the businesses are going down the toilet at the last minute, no idea when I can get the new suspension :-/ Reserved www.76s.net domain. Went to get some stuff from the 'donor car' (see 02/2003)

Got the domain and the tires.

Placed an order for that GAZ suspension kit with adjustable height (only in front) and damping.

Tires and rims joined, /me likes big time <3 <3 Pure race look! :-D Dismantled a spare rear axle and now going to get into a washing machine. The original has suffered some bearing damage sometime and because I have another one, no use trying to fix it.

Sold the current suspension (shocks and mk2 xr2 springs) today. They ofcourse were as good as new, driven only 1000-1500km. Also got rid of the Sierra/Escort calipers, so now I have all the euros I need for the GAZ set which should arrive in two weeks now.

12/2004

Got laid