zerotonine

Hi

I have recently acquired a ST24, nice and cheap due to the mileage, which currently stands at 204,950. I am hoping that it is not going to be a full-on restoration, but more of a tidy up.
Here is the car:


It is completely original, to the best of my knowledge it has no mods whatsoever. I am tempted to fit a baffled sump, but otherwise keep it as original as possible.

First of all, I have washed it. I wanted to look under all the dirt to see any superficial damage the body has taken...



Which revealed bubbling of the rear arches. They appear to have been 'fixed' before, I am not sure how long ago, but I think maybe completely cutting out and replacing the arches could be on the cards.

On inspection of the boot, this has been found on the OS...

whereas the NS is completely rust free.
Under the rear seat reveals more bits being eaten by the tin worm.



So, the parts that are obviously wrong with it thus far are as follows:
Hole in boot
Rear arches
Slight fuel leak
Rust at seat belt anchors
Oil leak (Suspect rocker gasket on the nearest bank to the front)
Needs new brake pads
Centre rear belt keeps locking.

I think that the first course of action is to remove the RSAP kit, see what horrors are lurking behind it. I am not going to pour loads of money into it if it is a rotten lemon. The engine runs well and the gearbox and clutch are sound.
I doubt it will re-enter service as a daily runner, the end goal is to be more of a weekend toy.

Thanks for looking, I aim to use this thread as a record of what happens to the ST, which my youngest has now dubbed 'Lucy'.

st220kyle

looks nice in the first pics, good cars these.

Mk4 Rick

Nice motor mate and the engines will run for ever if looked after

zerotonine

Thanks. I think it looks very good for it's age/mileage! Apparently it has had an engine rebuild at some point in it's life. I will be getting the folder full of it's history soon. (the car belonged to my brother, he has just replaced it with a 59 plate mondeo.)

Mk4 Rick

there famous for the moosing noise and the fuel pump sticking.If the fuel pump does stick just tap the bottom of the tank

zerotonine

I ran it for about 40 miles before I took it off the road, it seems to run sweet at the moment, but obviously it hasn't had an extensive test.

Glenn_

iTrader: (1)

Wow thats some miles. These arnt bad engines.

STeve

iTrader: (11)

unusual choice for a resto as there are so many about in great condition that are cheap as no sod can afford to fuel them, good luck with it all

zerotonine

That is true, there are quite a few left but I figure that it is better to start on one which there are many remaining than cock up something rare. This car was offered to me for silly money, I figured that if it goes wrong I can get some money back by fragging it.

Thanks for the positive responses!

zerotonine

Okay guys, a couple of questions.
First of all, how do the side skirts come off? is it a matter of just undoing the screws and it drops off or is it likely to have some tigerseal type product too?

Also, it is quite unlikely that it will be welded in the near future, as I do not want to throw a lot of folding on it before I have checked over the rest of it. What is a good product to put on the rusty bits to slow the fizzing away bits?
As soon as the weather improves slightly I am going to get cracking with the strip-down.

zerotonine

Little update:

I have started stripping the interior out starting from the boot and heading forwards. All the trim is now out of the boot and the rear seat is next, however, I do not have the right torx socket for it.
I took it out for a spin yesterday and the fuel leak is worse than I thought, it is weeping down the tank. I suspect it could be the fuel filler neck.
The RSAP kit is still on, when I started to contemplate it's removal I noticed that it is actually pulling the sill away with it.
However, win of the day is finding out that my neighbour has a mig welder and is happy to take on the welding for beer tokens.

So, I think I shall continue with the strip down of the interior and expose any hidden nasties, sort the fuel leak out and then get the welding sorted.

Does anyone know if Ford sell the panels for the rear seat belt mounts or am I going to need to make some up?

Bungle

Side skirts are tiger sealed on along the top and an utter twat to remove lol for the front bumper jack the car up take the under tray out from the front bumper and look up you'll have perfect access to the bolts under the wings.

Rear bumper has 2 bolts either side the inner rear quarters 2 at the centre where the boot opens then one either side inner wheel arch and a strap from the middle of the bumper to the spare wheel well.

Good to see a mk2 on here usually nobody gives a shot about them on here lol I've had loads of st's so I'll help you as much as I can but I don't come on here much these days.

I've got a mk2 zetec-s now that I've spent a fortune on lol it's only a 2 litre I got sick of fuelling the st but it comes from factory with the rsap kit although it's mostly made up of st200 parts now.

Good luck with the project

zerotonine

Hi guys

Long time no post, I have made some progress with the car, I will let the photos do the talking:

Found a obc from a scrap ST200 and fitted it:


Changed the head unit:


Stripped the boot out, took the seat belt anchors out and attacked with a wite brush. This happened:



Which I will get welded once the damn side skirts are off.

The welder has told me that the more I get stripped down, the less he will charge me in labour. So, bye rear seats!


Also, when i was fed up of not having the right tools before taking out the rear seats, I took out the headlights, see what condition the slam panel is in. It is nearly immaculate.



I have also cleaned the mould off the sound deadening from under the bonnet.

That is as far as I have got so far.

steve st220

looks good mate, never seen an ST24 with wood effect dash, Ghia X usually have that fitted.

zerotonine

God knows why it has a wood effect dash, not sure if it is original with the car or been fitted afterwards.

Glenn_

iTrader: (1)

So hows the car looking now.

Mk4 Rick

Bin the wood dash

zerotonine

Sorry, update time. The car hasn't changed very much, I have now got the skirts off and it is ready to go to the welders for the sills to have some attention, and while it is in I am going to get them to sort the sump gasket and fuel leak too. In regards to the skirts, one side had been on since new so it was a stubborn sod to get off, the other came off easier as it appears it has been welded before. Once the welding is done, I am going to put the interior back together and present it for MOT.
I also have a replacement centre belt on order, I took the seat apart and a chunk of the mechanism fell out. I guess that is knackered then!



I may bin the wood dash. Not sure yet. I think once it is back on the road I will start doing little bits such as that.

fordrwd4ever

Strange that it`s so rusty in the back.
I had an 97 Mondeo sedan that was using the spare wheel well as a fish tank.
Once i found out the boot rubber was the culprit , i`ve renewed that and problem fixed.

But, there wasn`t any rust @ all on the car, even the rear arches were just fine.
Maybe i was lucky, but for a car that`s 16 years old i found it quite amazing.
(especially after how my Granada looked at that age, needed full sills, inside and out)

I`d keep the woodlook dash, it`s much nicer as the standard black ones

mondeoman81

Its the rear seals in the lights they go hard and fail... buy the poly ones off ebay best 20 quid you will spend and they never break

mondeoman81

And no st24 has wooden dash early ones have black and later ones have silver

zerotonine

This one randomly has the wood trim... Meh. It doesn't overly bother me to be honest.
Replaced the centre belt today, that was quite frankly a bastid to do, but it is done. When it stops raining I am going to change the indicator bulbs as they flash white instead of orange, then getting it collected and off to the garage hopefully tuesday for the welding and assorted gubbins.

As long as it passes it's MOT it will be going into daily service as my daily needs attention now.

Glenn_

iTrader: (1)

Cars matey they can be a pain in the ass at times.

zerotonine

Well time for an update, the ST is back and is now in daily service. It needs the bodykit reattaching but the Power Steering cooler has decided to throw it's toys out of the pram. It is going to be replaced today hopefully.

zerotonine

I have made enquiries, the wood effect has come from a different car. A previous owner changed it out from standard. I may change it back at some point.

Changed the Power Steering cooler today with the assistance of my brother. That was a bugger to do! However hopefully that will stop the leakage for a while now. All that is left to do is reattach the sideskirts.

zerotonine

The ST is going. I have decided that fixing this one up is beyond my patience levels. However, it has given me a taste for Fords so next up is a Focus. I will start a new thread in due course!