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So I've decided to take on another project.....this was delivered just before Christmas A car I've always loved and previously tried to buy with no success, but this time was different.
It has been sitting unloved since about 2007 I think since it was broken for parts, shell has changed hands a few times and unfortunately stored outside for most of it judging by the good condition of the car from when it was broken, to shit of present day
Got it on the ramp and had a look at what we were up against, no big surprises over any other sierra I've seen
An example of the common rust issues, also the sills on both sides need replaced
Started to strip the suspension off that it came with as it was largely unknown and rusty, and the back end is from a 3dr.
My mate had this that he was breaking we decided to rob the running gear off of it before he got rid of the shell
Next door is a plant hire company, came in handy
Started stripping the car after we lifted it up
Finished
Shell off to its new home
Beam before stripping
Beam stripped and loaded and off the the powder coaters
That's it for now, car is off to the body shop on Thursday, probably won't have many updates for a while, but i'll try and update this when I can.
Will be keeping an eyes on this thread rog,will be good to see your progress with her,is that Gordon mcwilliam I spy in the 1st couple of pics? I know the others are outside gsm obviously lol. The photos of the saff on trailer look like dyce to me?? Used to work with gogs when he was serving his time at Arnold Clark. Good guy and seems to know his yb's inside out now
Good on you Rog as I am glad you got it off him as at least you will crack on with it, true bit of cosworth history there that needs to be seen in the flesh at shows etc
Glad it's being saved , generally don't like saffs with modded bodywork but this has always looked right , did it come with the lotus Carlton looking front bumper?
Thanks to everyone above for all the positive comments!!! Like it or not, it's certainly different.
Just to answer a few questions above, kit is all steel, no fibreglass anywhere (although the new bumper will be). I don't have the original bumper, no one seems to know where it went...Tony had sourced a copy so I bought that as well, and it will need to be modified again to fit the car.
The car was originally crystal blue, below is a pic of the first feature I have on it.
Chassis legs have been sorted, they weren't bad at all. The sills arches and front wing are pretty messy though! Not sure if i will track it or what to do, toying with the idea of a cage but main priority is to get it solid first and not get carried away. I have a couple of engine choices for it just now but to start off with will just be a mild 2WD 380 hp and go from there, realistically the bodywork its going to sap up in the region of 5-7k, then if I bung another 3k at it you're into 10k territory straight away, so no point getting all misty eyed about hundreds of horsepower just yet....
John, it's off to Impact autobody, their only instructions at the moment are to fix the body and will decide on the rest once that's done. For now I'll just be getting bits powder coated and electroplated to give me something to do.
I am really pleased to see the Desert Rat getting some TLC and going back on the road. It was such a shame when it got broken and disappeared for a while, it was a sad end to a very well known car. I remember it well from seeing it featured in the magazines to looking at it Turbosystems loads times when visiting through the 90's & 00's.
Rog are you going to get the wizard himself Mr Mannock to build you an engine? It would seem only right if your pockets are deep enough.
I have the fast ford where it was magenta with silver and gold tiger stripes!!!
Sounds gash now but it was the early to mid 90"s when they were all the rage.
Are you keeping the tow bar?????
So the latest update is that she was loaded up again today for another trip....
Whilst it looks 'ok' from a distance, nothing short of a full paint will sort it.
Pics do the talking!
As I'm sure you can appreciate from the photos, due to the level of work involved it may take some time to get rectified......lol
Thanks for the photo posted above, nice to see any history on it that I can get. I've amassed 70 or so pics before I took ownership which I may get around to posting one day!
I bought this mag via eBay a few weeks ago.
I had a copy of that mag when was in secondary school. I used the pictures from the mag along with some from peformance ford of a yellow sapphire cosworth that had black rims and separate recaro seats in the back (August/September 1997 issue) Either way both these cars got me a gcse grade b
Cool project, be great to see it all finished. Out of interest how come tony sold it on again? Thought he had plans to rebulid it with some loopy engine conversion?
Being a Cossie owner when tiger stripes were the shizzle, I can't say I liked the look at the time. But now, with the revolution wheels, I think it's a classic look. Not sure I'd want to be driving one around like it, but it's pretty cool to see them like it IMO.
No new updates, hopefully some later this week if all goes to plan I will have some bodywork photos to share. I have managed to get morette headlights for it as well as the LC bumper I mentioned a few posts earlier, so it will largely look the same, but with different wheels and probably graphics of some sort when I get to that stage, a long way off!
From speaking to Tony the headlights were actually proper ford rally items and not morette, but these were the closest I could get, if I do come across a set I will use those instead. I'm still looking for a Tarcal front strut brace if anyone knows of one for sale?!?!
As for buying the shell, I asked Tony a few times about the car since I've always been interested in it, and after some time had passed he kindly gave in and decided to let it go, can't really blame him either as it will take a lot of time and money to put right and having done it millions of times already (as well as building this car once, to see the way it is now) I definitely couldn't be arsed touching it!!!!
The white "snow storm" saph still exists and is complete as far as I know, as for the frst, never seen or heard of it I'm afraid.....
As soon as you google the plate or desert storm it comes up with a lot of results on Google images, hardly surprising given the many makeovers it's had. I didn't know for sure it was the same car until I got the V5, but I did suspect it for a while, was nice to clarify it.
This is the only steel wide arched saph I know of, there are some thundersaloon type wide arch race cars I saw via Google, but I don't know anything else about them, any info on that would be nice to know and discuss in here too.
For now, I'm just keeping going with it and hope it shows some signs of improvement soon! :-/
27-01-2015, 05:21 PM
Desert storm isn't dead...engine & box in
A car I've always loved and previously tried to buy with no success, but this time was different.
Just... 
It was such a shame when it got broken and disappeared for a while, it was a sad end to a very well known car. I remember it well from seeing it featured in the magazines to looking at it Turbosystems loads times when visiting through the 90's & 00's.
