After selling my Zetec Turbo Fiesta last year the desire for a new Ford project got too much and a new Quarter mile beast was needed! So after looking at a few FRST's/Fiesta Shells/Series 2's I couldn't find a base project for either the right money or right condition. After travelling quite a few miles looking for a car I recently bought this Series 1 for a bargain price a few miles from my house! It had been sat for 6months with no tax,MOT and not running, it had a light OSF crunch and required the headlight/indicater/end cap and a wing.
This is the day I got it:-
This S1 has a 1.8ZVH engine with cossie management, it came stripped out with no interior and a previous owner had a thing for big sound systems and thought it would be a good idea to dynamat half the car
After scraping all the dynamat off with a heat gun, screw driver and about four days worth of cursing and blagging the missus to help we now have a dynamat free car and I even took the original Ford sound deadening off as I want this car as light as possible.
Before:-Serious mission!
After
As this is to be a sprint/track car it was important to me to remove as much excess weight as possible and basically remove anything that it not needed and leave the basics so its road legal. Unfortunately this car is a Custom and has the heavy sunroof. I would like to have this removed but as Ford and pattern part companies can't supply me a roof skin (unless anyone knows different) I think it will be uneconomical to get a body shop to do a roof chop change or plate the hole... opinons on this??
Dash out
A saving grace for the car was that one of the previous owners was a relative of Gadget and his influences are clear.. from the Cossie management.. to the FRST RS crossover pipe. Gary gave me a lot of useful info on the mods and history on the car.
Cheers mate!
From my point of view it was obvious the engine had to go, only a 16v Zetec Turbo will do. So with the interior the way it is and the engine being removed its a great oppotunity to strip the car down completly and have it sprayed inside out for a great finish as I won't have an interior trim. Plus I regret selling my Fiesta and I intend this car to be a keeper so everything has to be done once, and properly!
Problem is like most RST owners once you strip the kit off and take the carpet out you see the full extent of the work needed:-
Rusty holes galore!
Its had some works carried out like new battery tray and a few plates but in my opinion they all need doing again properly!... probably mot station jobs
I've got to be honest at this stage I thought this car is fucked!.. I need a new shell. So started looking for one and after looking at a few unless I buy a £3-5000 series 1 a solid/perfect shell isn't going to be found! Plus I don't want to reshell to a Q-reg and if the shell is a different colour it will need a full respray anyway. So I've decided to give this poor old Series 1 another chance! I've got a bodywork quote lined up, lets hope it can be done! A few people from PF have offered there services (Thanks!) but are miles away! so unless I can get a decent quote from someone local that I can trust to give a shit about a 20 year old Ford I will have to take some of these kind people up on there offers and simply do the miles to get it sorted!
This is the shell as of today:-
Engine half way there with Cossie loom out, turbo and ex mani removed, inlet,rad,charge cooler out etc
To me the series one is one of the best looking RS's so it has to stay faithful to the original. So I have been sourcing new parts galore, so far have gen ford front panel, gen ford front wings, new front and rear bumpers new headlights, new standard rear lights (clear gay ones have gone!) new amber indicaters and I still need a load more parts!
Including passenger door as mine is pretty bad. NSF wheel arch again as this one is pretty bad. New Bonnet would be nice and obviously I need a load of repair panels, most people have recomended Hadrian (carpanels.com) as being the best. Will be making a large order with them soon!
I will continue to update this page as I get more done! any comments advise and help is very welcome!