Hi guys. Since i found that the 1 owner erst i bought off my nan was so rotten ive been wondering what to do with it......mk2 xr2 turbo.....reshell into mk4......or escort cabriolet turbo. After doing a search on ebay and due to lack of good fiestas or mk4 shells i decided to do a mk4 turbo cabriolet.
I happened to win a xr3i cab d plate (same as my erst) cabriolet on ebay for £350. It was described as having no rust and had 12 months mot and 6 months tax in white (same as by erst too!). It also had a new white roof to fit to it as the one on it was leaking. It was over 100miles away so i got up early on a saturday and took my bro with me to go and pick it up.
When i got there my heart dropped, it had surface rust everywhere.After expressing my disappointment with the car and furthur looking at it i notcied the rust wasnt too bad at all, the worst being one of the rear wheel arches. Using this i knocked the guy down to £300 and drove the car all the way home (i drove a long way to get there in the 1st place!!!). Thankfully the car drove perfect (apart from a rev counter thatdidnt want to go higher than 1k rpm)and so i got it home and had a good look at it.
Here is a pic of what the old seller used to put on ebay:
It looked dated so the first thing i did was remove the bump strips down the side of the doors. By removing these i notcied the bad rust on the drivers door so grinded the bad rust away, treated it the attempted to fill it up and spray it temporarily.I also grinded all the rust away from the wheel arch and any other areas i could spot and treated it all with kurust before painting. I rubbed down the sills and painted these with smooth white hammerite.I then fitted my rs turbo bodykit and used black tape to change the bumper strips from red to black (will fit the rs bumpers on once i get them off my donor rs).The car was looking a lot better and will put some pics on before the next steps.
During this time my bro in law and myself replaced the hood with the newer one which made it look alot better. Even though it dont fit perfect at the mo as it was in storage for a while, im hoping it will stretch now its on the car.
THEN
i pulled my finger out and have sorted someone to do the engine swap. I stripped the rs of all its interior and proceeded to strip the full loom out only cutting in a few places where i needed to (rear lights as different and immobilser in dash as couldnt remove - will solder back on when in cab).The rs is nearly stripped of the loom and this is how far i have got so far. Will keep you updated with more pics.