mallard green S2 resto (24/7/11, fuel filler relocation complete)

[RSandy]

update time! made a start bolting up the suspension ended up buying yet more nuts, bolts and washers from ford, another 20odd quids worth, but has to be done made a few classic mistakes in the process, like bolting it all up then noticing the rear springs arent in, fitting the rear tie bars wrong way round etc, but in the end, its pretty much there rear is 90% done, just need to sort out machining the bolt heads for the rear disc conversion brackets to clear the hub assembly piece, have the wheel studs pressed in, throw the brakes on, then the rear wheels can go on front isnt as complete, was missing a few bolts (inner TCA bolts and ARB to crossmember bolts), so have just test fitted it with random bolts on the TCA's, and havent bothered poppin the ARB on yet to save it floppin around n damagin the powdercoat bodywork wise, theres been some progress mainly the doors. finished up flatting and polishing them then moved them back to my garage to fit them on as close to perfect as poss (although obviously as the car is lowered on to its wheels, the body will more than likely flex slightly so gaps will need to b reset, but 99% sorted already) drivers side, all nice n shiny n straight passenger side looks ok from a wide shot, but in reality we hit issues. when we did the filler work on the rear quarter, we mocked up using the original door, so the quarter was fillered to meet it. after this, we found the original door to be too rotten, so found a replacement and never bothered to fit it. big mistake the lower rear corner made contact with the quarter, and as such forced the door forwards, which then made contact with the front wing. we tried adjusting, but it just wnt sit right so... gone 11pm last night..... out came some sandpaper and a block... and the result... now clears, and has gained us enough clearance to shift the door backwards. got to bend the bottom edge of the door out slightly as it appears too far in, but all minor rubber mallet adjustment lol paintwise it might seem a bit of a slag to have to do this, but the section of the quarter next to this newly sanded piece has a bit of shit in the base coat thats been pissin me off, so it just means that gets gone and this gets done all in 1 go, bonus

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[Twins]

Great work there

[UBster]

Hey Andy, just had to post to say what a great job your doing!! Car looks MINT

I remember talking to you about 4/5 years ago when you had the 1.3 running. I popped into Halfords for a few bits for my Mallard Green S2 4 pot calipers, rear disc conversion, FMIC?

Just wondered if you remembered and if it swayed you in anyway to get yours sprayed the same colour?

Would be good to hear from you

Matt

[RSandy]

yeah dude, i remember, all them years ago!! lol

the colour thing was a spontaneous move half way thru the build, if anything u came along at the time i was thinkin i wanted to turbo convert mine, and i just took note of a few things n took that step, so u kind of fed my stupid desire to build a really unreliable turbo ford hahaha

it was destined to stay red, then for a while it was going white, then my bodywork dude john commented on why i always raved about only ever wantin an esc cos in mallard green, and yet hadnt considered mallard for my RST, so we just went with it. spent ages picking out the specific pearl variation i wanted, loads of hassle. if i remember rightly yours was the slightly darker shade.

im just glad people dont hate it, and i assure you it looks a million times better in person, especially in direct sunlight, the pictures just dnt do justice. johnie riceboy bradbury has done an amazing job on the bodywork, its his doing, im just the helper monkey with the funds lol

[phil69a]

What a shed! And who is that strange looking lad in all the pics?

[RSandy]

thats your bum buddy u rampaging yam yam poof!!! lol

[16vzetec]

you need a life but nice car lol

[RSandy]

lol need a life? hows that then?

hardly the biggest and maddest rebuild on here, and it has taken me 3 years, so iv had plenty of drinking time in n around this dont worry lol

[muz]

Never came across this thread before. The colour suits it really well, and alot of effort has gone in. Strange how I bought a Lancia Evo bonnet and was going to cut the vent out and put it in my MK3 Fiesta for the throttle bodies, and wondered what it would look like in my S2 bonnet when up working on the car Sunday. Looks awsome!

[RSandy]

does look awesome, but takes a fookin while to get looking right, and had to cut a lot of strengthening bar out of the underside of the bonnet to sit it where i wanted, right above the turbo, have to wait and see wot effect that has, but worth the risk

cheers man

[foxy06]

Top work mate, will be worth all the effort when done, looks mint as it stands, look forward to seeing it done!

[RSandy]

sorry for the lack of updates, redundacy came along about a month ago, and even tho i now have all the time in the world, i dont have all the money in the world, so cant buy the annoying few bits n bobs id like to help me move along. but anyways....

finally managed to get hands on a payen standard spec ford headgasket today

i had previously bought a felpro item off PJ motorsport, but seeing as a lot of time has passed since then, n iv heard the horror stories of felpro gaskets, i spoke to PJ's, and he sorted it for me to do a straight swap, even tho it is like 2 or more years since purchased, cant say fairer than that. plus my local ford dealership tried to flog me what looked like a shitty motorfactors spec item, so cudnt rely on them!!



also, finally found the time to make myself a gauge pod for the centre vents

iv never liked the 3 gauge item, and much preferred the 2 gauge set up, but even that kinda bores me, being all flat n boring looking

so, take 1 shitty 9quid triple gauge holder and remove the crap until left with 3 gauge cups...



take 1 stripped down centre vent...



remove plenty of excess plastic with the angle grinder, plus a bit of heat gun action to bend the plastic the grinder cant remove...



trial fit the gauge cups in the vent holes....



when happy with the fit and marked out where to finally sit them all level and lined up, bit of 'no more nails' to secure the cups in place....



mask up the back of the surrounding areas to create a solid rear, and then mix up and apply some P40 fibreglass filler, and create the rough shape...



sanded down with the help of the detail sander...



then, applied a skim of filler and rubbed down to get the final shape and remove most imperfections. then a quick coat of primer and a black guide coat, ready for a final rub down and possibly a bit of filler work on any remaingin imperfections. this is how it stands right now...



plans are to get it nice and smooth, and send it off, with a few other bits, to have it flocked black to match the surrounding section of dash

hope you like. hopefully finish it off later 2nite whilst my mate john does some more on the bodywork of the car, the door fitment etc

[mark bizley]

Fu9k me son took me ages to read this thread.
well done on the work.
love you pics, get to see someone take on such a big job.
looking forward to refitting the headliner? heard they're a bit(h to do?

[RSandy]

not refitting the headliner dude, partly cos headliners are for wimps lol, and mostly cos base spec non sunroof headliners are cream perforated vinyl, not really the look im after haha. it got ripped to shreds on removal anyways

finished off my gauge pod, bit more filler work and a final quick go over with gloss black ready for flocking..





got my passenger door slightly bent closer to fitting correctly with some rubber mallet action last night

also finally got round to spraying my rear strut brace graphite grey to match my cage..





and then refitted my rear quarter windows, complete with the mint set of rubbers i managed to pick up

[Tonyt1t]

love it all mate gauge holder looks much better than the ones u can buy off the shelf and at least it will fit right!

[Brian]

Looking good mate


Brian

[woolford]

looking good there fella. starting to take shape

[RSandy]

started work on my front bumper, was a bit of a tatty 90 spec anyways, so figured i might aswel cut it about a bit, improve the airflow etc





started cutting away the lower bar, the top grille section, and then smoothed off the numberplate base area

john reckons it looked like a letterbox, so..



bloody spastic lol





had to do a spot of plastic welding where i cracked the lower corner of the bumper when moving house





bit of fibreglass work...



and a bit of a rub down...



ready for filler another day

[Twins]

[Benni]

This S2 Is the business. Seriously. Has to be my favorite S2 and it's not even finished.

Benni.

[SOO]

fukin rspect to you man.gonna be an absolute minter

keep the pics coming

[wozza32]

lovely car mate credit to you 4 your skills and patience

[RSandy]

cheers for the positive comments dudes

did a bit more filler work on the bumper, on the areas we attacked with the grinder anyways..







and as it stands now..



just up to me to go over with the DA with some 320 to remove all the scartches and marks from years gone by, and maybe some filler in the deeper marks. but all in all, looking good, and not far off a nice coat of high build, along with the back bumper which is already pretty damn mint anyways

unwrapped my rollcage that had been stored outdoors in bubblewrap, suffice to say the elements had trashed the paintjob on it, so i re-resprayed it in graphite grey again, in the garden.

dropped it in the car (not bolted in) as i dont want the paint ruined again! lol







will try and get the front section attached, get the car on the floor, then bolt the cage in place

also, some may have noticed, i smoothed my fuel filler cap, and havent really made plans for how im gonna store fuel or where lol

plan was alloy fuel cell in the spare wheel well, but due to my bosch 910 pump being gravity fed, id have to put that and a bullet filter underneath in the well, meaning id either hav a 40-50litre tank that stuck out a mile, or a 10litre tank that sat flush but needed filling every few miles lol

so, thought id found a suitable place in the rear corner of the boot, and knocked up a template, then made a bodge up mock up spec plywood box to check...



basically a rectangular cube, with a notched corner to clear the arch. would easily hold in excess of 50litres calculated.

only issue...

if i ever wanted to change a rear bulb, it would be a fuel tank out job!! lol not ideal, so back to the drawing board. spose im lucky i mocked it up before having it fabricated!!

so, plan B involves possibly an alloy cell where the rear seats used to sit, on a powdercoated frame, with the pump and filter located in the area underneath, plus plenty of room for the tank to be sumped etc, and then either polycarb rear quarter windows with a filler cap mounted into 1, or a feed pipe and cap extended towards the boot more with a catch tray, Mk2 escort spec

[markc]

bloody good job youve done mate nice one

[Twins]

[webby80]

loving this project mate great colour choice keep up the good work

[marky_g]

love that coulour i was gonna do it

[Gregor]

looking good mate,

Great project

[RSandy]

Originally Posted by marky_g

love that coulour i was gonna do it

iv had loads of people show me cars as an example of mallard green, but again thats not mallard lol. looks closer to bmw boston green than anything, cos it isnt pearlescent at all in that pic. still nice tho

[marky_g]

that is my car in photoshop

[RSandy]

ooooooooooooooh, thats why it dnt look like mallard then lol

looks like the front end of the car in a pic that loads of people have sent me before, cos that was on evo r's aswel

[marky_g]

that was done ages ago lol so might be it was the colour option i was lookin at malard, ash black or moonstone

[garrett]

this looks stunning
perfect job

[RSandy]

cheers dude, and the rest of u with positive comments

think iv decided to bin off the alloy fuel cell idea, and run the standard tank, and modify the standard fuel filler neck pipe to allow a feed from inside the car, probably using an alloy catch tray and cap like fitted to the mk1/2 escorts when they run a fuel cell

leaves me with funds to buy a complete car set of stainless braided fuel lines, seeing as 1st time round my conversion ran bits n bobs bodge spec lol

[marky_g]

oh oh put it in the door shut or behind the number plate

[RSandy]

Originally Posted by marky_g

oh oh put it in the door shut or behind the number plate

door shut was thought about, but due to the saft grille sections, its kinda difficult. behind number plate i did really want, but leaves no real clear run to the tank without losing the spare wheel well use. even thought about hinging a rear light, then realised it was all getting a bit chavvy max power spec

test fitted my bumper on the car to see how she was looking. im liking it a lot...



also finalyl managed to bag myself a reasonably priced pair of rear discs. had a nightmare gettin them as my conversion uses 4x4 vented discs, and for sum reason none of the motorfactors listed rear discs vented for a 4x4 saph, took me an age to remember esc cos ran the same, put that thru, and came up with these for 50quid...



only needed them for mock up so i can have a rolling shell agen, took the old discs to the tip without thinking, so cudnt even fit wheels without new discs lol

[Brian]

Looking good


Brian

[RSandy]

oh yeh, and i tidied the garage straight after that pic, so it looks much less like foreign insurgents suicide bomb'd the shit outta the place!

[neil73]

excellent job there matey

[cossiegreg1]

i'm liking this. first time i seen it tonight. cant wait to see it when done