well i bought the fez in the summer. got a months joy out of it before the headgasket went, then had to take it off the road and put it in my parents garage as i didnt have time to fix it before i went back to uni.

this is how it looked when i bought it..



seeing as i had a few months before i could start work on it i thought i would built up a collection of parts..

Group A felpro head gasket and head set
Dump valve plug
Piper cambelt
Impossible to get original green side strips..thanks to Dylan (VX220 on here)
Original petrol cap
Gear knob
Brand new boxed interior cubby hole
Car mats
Original boot decal
Oil filter

so i came back from uni for xmas holidays and have been cracking on with things, this is what i have done so far..

after painstakingly picking all the old double sided tape off the strips i finaly got them taped up and on (ignore the white tape, hadn't done that one yet)



then, seeing as they very rarely pop up on ebay, and when they do they go for about £60, i thought id make up my own green bumper strips using a few different materials. and they look factory..



sticky on the back..


strips are a perfect fit and a perfect colour match, well chuffed
if any one wants a set (front and rear) PM me for a good price



by this time i had taken the head off..



and had found this lovley build up..



so after seeking some advice from SafeChav and a few helpful others in the Q&A room, i went about cleaning the pistons and block face.
seeing as i had the head off and the bottom end was looking pretty manky, i got some metallic grey high temp paint and made my bottom end look pretty..



i also used the paint on my outlet manifold



i then thought id tackle some less hands on tasks. so i put my new gear knob on (£3 from local scrappy), my new interior pocket, and my new car mats (£5! from morrisons!!!! )



put my RS dumpvalve plug in..



i then tackled a large amount of underside angle grinding and laying some fresh waxoil down (no pics of that as theres not enough room under the car to take a pic!).
i then angle grinded down all the bubbled/damaged paint on all the black bits and repainted them in smooth black hammerite. the front underside got a quck lick of mercury grey too



got my cam belt and the rest of my head kit out so thought id take a snap..



i felt like taking it easy last night so just drained the oil (into a bucket that had a hole in it half way up ) and put my new champion oil filter on



il be going bk to the garage later tonight to do some more so will take some progress pics. basically all the last cosmetic things along with the head going back in and getting connected up has to be done by saturday so i can drive it back to uni seeing as this is the first time ive had a head off, wish me luck

 

looking good mate,good luck

 

Lookin good!! Really crackin on there.

 

cheers guys

 

lookin good bud.. ill be off to morrisons in the mornin to get some matts

 

right..just got in from the garage...

painted my pulley in smooth hammerite black..



then the hardest part of tonight.. putting the head on myself, made difficult by the fact there are no head locating dowels on the bottom end of my block. but i got it in position first time and hand tightened my new head bolts in, conected back all the plugs and put all hoses back on



lastly put my manifold on which i think turned out looking pretty cool



tommorow i have to go see my mate to borrow his torque wrench for the head bolts. then go to ford to order a thermostat (previous owner had removed it), a temperature gauge sender, as mine is tempremental, and a new oil breather pot.

i need to respray my rocker cover tommorow before i put it back on, am planning on doing it white again, but if anyone can think of a better colour then let me know as i wouldnt mind a change

 

they do them with red outer too, such a good price compared to halfrauds £25 for the same quality

 

nice ...

 

 

Great job!

 

 

cheers

 

well its about time for an update... so here goes...

this is all stuff i had done earlier this month..



bought some treats when my student loan came in.. diamond white paint, torque wrench, impact driver, antifreeze, new thermostat, new temp sender, and ordered a new oil breather pot



Painted my rocker cover



painted the rocker cover washers in satin black



everything put back together



new oil breather and cleaned filter on. also fitted my new piper cambelt



went down my local scrappy and got this mint header tank off a mk3 ghia for £3

i then filled the car with water and anti freeze. put oil in it, primed the engine up, connected fuel pump, and she started up
i was extremey happy as this is the first time ive had a head off etc.
but sadly my fun was cut short when after just half a minute i realised there was a crack in my water feed pipe to the turbo
i then had to go back to uni that weekend so the car then sat on my driveway for another 2 weeks

i came back to my parents house yesterday and...



took the some bits back off so i could get to this trouble maker ..



my plan is to hacksaw in half where the crack is and replace part of the pipe with a silicone hose. il show pics of how it turns out tommorow



also removed my battery so i can get the impact driver onto the seized bolts on the thermostat housing. was pleased with the lack of rust. but will still give it a lick of paint if i can be bothered.

finally how the car was looking yesterday before i had to start taking bits off again..



gonna spend tommorow on it so should hopefully have another update tommorow eve

 

Looking good...

 

i like that alot matey

 

 

Looks smart mate

Good work


Brian

 

cheers for the coments guys

will do a small update later on what ive done today

 

Looking great....

where did you buy the car from? i think ive seen it before somewhere??...

keep the posts coming

 

cheers mate

i bought the car off a bloke in gloucestershire on the welsh boarder.

 

got a few things done today..



managed to get the seized and rounded off screws out the thermo housing and got my new thermostat in



new temp sender



£3 leather gear gator from scrappy



my finished bodge job turbo water feed. should do the job, and you wont be able to see it anyway

rubbed down and painted my battery tray in merc grey, and stuck the new original fiesta rs turbo boot decal.. but was too dark to take pics by the time i had finished. il take pics 2mor.

another update tomor eve once ive done some more work

 

Looks good, just a question though, a) how the hell do u know how to do all this? Takin heads off etc b) how do u afford the insurance, im 20 2yrs ncb n cheapest i get an rst is £1489 n thats tpft!

 

Head is quite easy really - just get a Haynes manual for any CVH engined Ford and it will tell you what to do. My only word of advice for the heads is be careful when putting the torx/hex head socket into the top of the head bolts as the oil that will be in the top of them makes it hard to see if they're in straight, so rounding them off is quite easy (I know this from experience recently!).

Good work on the project ram, makes me wish I still had my old grey FRST!

Andy

 

to be honest its all common sense. as long as you remeber how you took something off, you will be able to put it back on. and obviously a haynes manual comes in use! whenever i get stuck on anything i usually go to the Q&A's room on here, always good advice given there

as for insurance.. im 21 with 1 yrs no claims and once i get my car bk on the road i can insure it through adrian flux for £670 tpft. you just gotta shop around mate. i insured my old escort rs turbo when i was 20 with a yrs no claims and that was £860 (also with flux), so im sure you can find cheaper than the quote you got

 

andyhardy
didnt see your comment before i left mine. i just repeated what you said lol.
cheers for the compliment
yeh you gotta love merc grey frst's (when they work!).

 

todays update..



got my water feed pipe on, making sure the samco hose part wasnt touching any metal



gave the batt tray a quick rub down and lick of primer, merc grey, and laquer. (raised bits arent rust bubbles just old paint i couldnt be bothered to sand down)



got my decal on. and remembered i had an M25 ring sticker sat in my draw, so that went on too

now for the worst part of the day..
got everything back on and started her up, she ticked over fine with no leaks and no over heating. but as soon as i raised the revs the water started to rise in the header tank so much that it would come out the top! but as soon as i let the revs settle it goes back down again.

also when i take the oil filler cap off and put my hand over the hole, it feels like my hand is over an exhaust, a lot of pressure.
all the symptoms of a fucked head

just cant believe after checking the head and the block for cracks, metal rulering the head to make sure it wasnt warped, and replacing a load of other things. the symptom is still there!
im probably clutching onto straws here but im hoping it may just be a blocked pipe? as the engines not over heating and the water isnt contaminated with oil?

either way im thoroughly pisseed off with it. you put fuck loads of money and man hours into a car, only to find it gets you no where. suppose thats how owning D.I.Y performance cars goes sometimes. off to see my missus tommorow for the weekend so not gonna bother worrying about it till i get back!

 

cheers for the info regarding adrian flux, im gona give them a ring later

yeh i bet that hurts, anyway im sure the missus will cheer u up!

 

Another quickie, whats peoples advice on fiestas, i was thinkin of gettin an xr2i, building up decent rs tubo engine then droppn that in, is that hard to do and would it be cheaper/easier to just buy frst?

 

Just tried flux, they sad £1168!! wankers.lol.if i wait til june wen ill be 21 n hopefully have 2yrs ncb,it'll be £685!

 

 

stick at it mate

it will all come good, ready to drive it down to castle combe

 

cheers guys

gonna get back to it tommorow, wish me luck

 

Any updates ram?? Looking forward to seein how it turns out. Good work so far

 

nothing new to report mate
well im almost dead cert its a blocked pipe. as i can leave it ticking over for 40 minutes and it wont over heat, doesnt smoke, and the water isnt contaminated with oil. but ive tried bleeding the system hoping it may have just been trapped air, but its still doing the same thing.
so at the moment im currently putting off draining my anti freeze for the 2nd time to check every pipe on the cold driveway.

picking up a cheap rs 1800 tommorow or friday off dave green on here.
so that will take the pressure off having to rush this to get it back on the road.
i may wait till next week so can put the rst back in my parents garage then crack on with things.

might even do an underside spruce up if i can be bothered ready for the summer

 

How cum ur gettn an rs1800? yeh do the underside spruce, can show me how its all done then!

 

cuz im fed up of having to cycle/train/bus everywhere i go!
been looking for a cheap runaround for a while so that i can take my time on the rst and do a few other things ready for the summer. was looking for something diesel but this rs1800 came up for a very good price, good engine, long mot, taxed etc.
just needs the exterior tidying. which means come selling time if i tidy it up i may be alble to make a little profit

as for the underside, dont get too excited, it'll prob just involve a large wire brissled angle grinder and a fuck load of hammerite lol

 

could be the crank breahter pipe mate.

looking good though bud.

more details on the bumper strip please

 

jay i do em £25 for a pair
and for you my friend you get a free old blocked breather pot too..

BARGAIN

 

when i got some free cash mate ill be in touch me thinks.

so you gunna spill the beans how ya done it, or is it a roll of grren bumper strip that was on ebay a while ago

 

no probs mate.

no otherwise you'll just make em yourself cheeky fcuk!

and no. those green strips on ebay a while back wernt looking too convincing lol. although there was one point i did contemplate buying a set of them in order to fill my empty bumper recess needs