I'm always a little late to post pics on my restorations but I thought I'd jump right in this time and document this one since it's a bit special. According to my last data, there are only 5 Sapphires in my country. Only two of them are LHD and one of those is a race car that won't probably see the street.

So being a LHD 4 door Sierra RS Cosworth that was of continental origin this is not technically a Sapphire. Just an RS Sierra Cosworth. Power front windows, wind up rears, no AC and no Sapphire badging on the rear doors. Amongst a couple other things missing it is the lightest of all the Cosworth engined cars.

Plans? Full resto. It's going to look stock on the outside for most part. I have the lattice wheels and will likely get some aftermarket wheels. all the suspension is coming out for paint and the bushing with get lubed. Powerflex already installed but I'm going to redo everything to that there is NO ROT, not issues when servicing it in the future etc. Apart from a stainless 2WD header, the T34, Samco hoses and the painted cam cover it will appear stock. I have an L6 with a stage III chip and an RS500 cooler. Hopefully will turn around 340bhp once done. Custom pistons for it as well.

I'm going to be very aware of project creep here. It will get no mods, just rot killed, paint applied and the parts it already has cleaned up and sorted. interior will be stock, MAYBE a double din satnav in the message centre (doubt it). Full respray is in order as well.

My 3 door beside it is %95 done and I'll pick away at that as well.
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I've painted the shell in front of the headlamp buckets. Next is engine bay



I took about 10 pounds of silly wiring outta here. Alarm, remote starter, stereo crap. Vacuumed it all up, re-wrapped and sorted the electrics.



Front crossmember is done.



Cam cover and front TCAs are done.



This is next week's job.



Engine bay prep and cleanup will be massive.



Here it is about 3 feet in the air waiting for the underbody action.



updates soon of course. I'm full time on this project.

 

Good luck i'll be following this

Love the cam-cover

 

Top work mate i hope it all goes well.I bet the shell is really clean with not much rust.

 

You know my Merkur sheet metal was treated quite nicely at Karmann. This saff seemed worse than the Merk but after seeing some of the resto stuff from the UK, this car seems damn clean. It's pricey getting a Cossie over here so keep it clean and rust free I say.

Not going too mental underneath, this car will see rain and mountain roads. I'd like to drive this anytime I want.

A big thanks to LHD220turbo, tabetha for advice and especially andypen for getting me a lockset. JohnV in Seattle is rebuiling my motor and I hope to beat him to the punch and have the shell done before the motor. Bolt the engine in and prep for a respray. So glad I used to do bodywork, I just need to hire a spray booth and painter.

 

Looking great, mate!

Gonna follow this project very close, I love seeing another white saff getting treated like they should be. I've been through much of the same work and know how hard it is but trust me, in the end it's worth it. The engine bay looks very nice and clean, good luck with stripping it underneath.

Keep it up, looking forward to the next update

 

Thank you sir. Your resto project REALLY got me motivated.


Anyone know of some continental English speaking breakers? I need an unbroken plastic cover/firewall/cable router for above my heater fan.

 

Contact RS Cosworth Breakers, I guess they can help you out.

Btw, is it you that has taken all the pics on the website in your signature? Amazing stuff!

 

Very jealous.

Going to starting my Focus RS rep down here in Seattle once the ski season is over.

So is this what NACS where building for you?

 

RS-Stian - yep, I tokk all those shots. I'm a photographer by trade.

Gareth - I'm building this car. It was rescued from the NACS bailiffs when they went tits up. If they were the ones that "worked" on this car they were a hack job shop. Lots of silly work on it.

 

best of luck with the build fella, it looks like you have a nice tidy car

 

Did the rack today. Flushed it out and repainted it. Put new grease in it, new boots on it and unseized the nut and rod end. Pressed the bushings into the TCAs. Hung that on the wall for later installation.

Pulled the steering column and re-bushed the bearing that goes in the firewall grommet. It had come out and I found some slop in there. Since it was a nice wide plastic bearing/bushing i just put some electrical tape on it to tighten up the clearance.

Painted the interior side of the headlamp bucket and front slam panel. Got out "Spray Nine" and cleaned as much crap from the engine bay as possible. Fired up the sander and went to work killing off any surface rust in the engine bay.

You just have to MAKE time to get to the garage, spend 4-5 hours after work and just piss the Mrs. off and get it done.

 

Lots of undercoating and rust paint today. Punched some holes in the body today notably on the front driver's door. Will weld them up and seam seal them and undercoat the door insides. Also cut some major sheet metal out of the rear forward arch. BIG chunks. Again, sealed it up, will weld some new metal in tomorrow and use my shaping anvil to make the metal the right curve.

Did my best today to remove the tank and the locking fuel cap I had no key for. Go the cap off by destroying it and it's not a big deal, new caps from the UK are $20 shipped. Buy it once - forget. The tank and the underside is pretty scabby back there. the impact did not want to take off the tank. Will have to grind off the bolts holding it on. I'll repaint the tank and get it pretty tomorrow between waiting for paint and bondo to dry.

Right now I'm sort of flitting about the car working on one part then jumping to another. Keeping it fresh and not trying to get burned out slogging away on one task. Or like I said, waiting for something to dry in this cold weather I can move on to something else.

I look over at my Merkur during all this and think I sort of half assed her but there was so much fabrication involved on the XR along with custom crap that this is a welcome change to just remove, paint reinstall. Next time I'm at a car show and some guy with a complete resto makes out like he's car god I'll chuckle. I'll move on to the next guy that's done a lot of custom work and appreciate it more.

Don't be fooled, this is hard work but the custom crap is a thing of the past for now. Remove, paint, drop off at the platers, restore, reinstall is more rewarding for this car.

No pics today, dropped my Canon 1Ds Mk.II off the roof of the 3 door today and snapped my 17-40 clean off. Pissed!

 

all the best with it matey

 

Sorry to hear about the camera mate. The tank bolts are a nightmare, it took me about 3 hours to get it down. Waving around with the grinder so close an open tank that just had been drained is no fun at all. Let's hope you can sort out some pics soon, looking forward to see the progress

 

I spent some time pulling the rest of the stereo stuff out and removing some interior bits so I can get to the body cavities. Then I tackled the rear beam. It came off my Merkur easy as pie. Even with a full pressure impact gun this bugger was rusted on tight. After cursing a lot I got the rear beam and diff etc off.

This car lived in a cold climate where there was lots of salt. Whomever bought it did not get it undercoated. From diff forward it's clean. From the diff back, it's going to take my welding skills to save this chassis. As you can see from the pics the rear beam was one hard corner from snapping off. WTF. Some 7000 rpm wire wheel action along with welding, rust converter, and some heat gun scraping and I'll have it paintable and sealable soon.








HOLY CRAP



Not too bad looking forward....

 

This will be some fancy sheet metal and bondo action



Door needs some loving too



Front is fully sealed and ready for a Canadian wet winter

 

better off cutting the old crap out from the beam mount and weld in some new stuff, mine where exactly the same so i got new pieces made and welded in, heres a few pics from my sapph resto, hope they help

 

That is exactly my plan. This car will be around for many years.

 

I broke out the 7000 rpm wire wheel today. I killed rust good. Used up half my bottle of ArCo2 welding some panels in the boot. Next up is cutting out the chassis rail and beam pads.

I bought a decent respirator today after this.....

 

Top progress mate keep up the good work.

 

Thanks Gleeny. I decided to day to do a double 2mm skin of the chassis rails. I'm a fairly decent welder and sure it's twice the bead time but it will be worth it. Nice to see that where the ABS sensors plug in under the seat I can get access to the rails to soak them from the inside out afterwards with some undercoat/sealer.

 

havent you finished this little job yet?!

i have no idea why, but i thought it was a 3 door you were restoring!

Matt

 

My 3 door Merkur is %95 done. Just needs paint (nose/500 wing) and mapping.

And a couple tidy little things.

I welded/ground on the saff for 7 hours today. I had the big holes on the rear where the 4 vent holes for the wheel well cavity are. After welding 16 gauge in i urethaned the rest of it and sprayed underseal in the cavity holes and access areas. That took the bulk of my day.

I welded up a hole that was drilled for an alarm sensor. Stupid owner didn't know he could tap into existing wiring.

Welded up some rot in the doors, one on the driver's side front under the trim line and driver's side rear right at the bottom of the window - 3 big holes. Welding sheet metal rust sucks because as soon and you lay a bead the rot the was encroaching made the metal so thin and even on the lowest setting my mig pokes a big hole in the metal...

I'm going to tackle the underside Sunday. I'm determined to weld up the chassis rails and grind them down, urethane the seams and hopefully at least get some rust converter and paint brushed on from the gearbox back. I doubt I could get the paintable underseal on Sunday.

I also need to remove the side skirts and look at the sills. I'm a little hesitant to look! There are so many little ugly scabby bits everywhere. This car was JUST saveable. Any more rot and I would have passed on this shell. Ended the day making up some body filler and mudding up my work for future sanding.

My apologies for lack pf pictures. I just get so involved in the work and as a photographer myself I seem to forget to document stuff. Bah. Once it's done expect a serious photo shoot complete with rig.

I'd love to make it into a mag with this ride. I'd submit the pics to Fast Ford and the write up story as well. One can hope. Not too many rides get featured from over here, just in Performance Ford really.

Off to a family event tomorrow then Sunday I'm at it for 10-12 hours I hope. Back to work on Monday after some time off and I want to hit a milestone if possible.

 

man alive looks like you have your work cut out with all that rust!!!!!!!

 

Yeah, I'll admit if I knew how rotten it was I would have passed on it. The car was in parts (%90 complete ), engine dully disassembled, gearbox out.

I paid about £2000 for it. That's about the price just to ship and import a car from across the pond. So I keep telling myself I got it for free to keep me sane.

 

well buy the sounds of it you have got a Bargin, it may need some tlc but as your doing all the work yourself, it aint exactly ading to the cost

 

Bingo, I'm spending money on welding wire, solvents, paints and sandpaper. I'm not sure what the cost will be to spray it but the body work is what costs the big money.

 

I've mastered the mig settings for welding upside down on 12 gauge steel with rust permeating. Never thought I'd say this but I quite prefer welding on car bodies with flux core wire instead of gas.

Welded up the chassis rails and popped out the plugs under the seat. Poured some rust converter in there and then some rust paint. Found where some was weeping and spot welded those.

I will redrill the vent hole and then use the brush on seal sealer Wednesday night - I need to take a break from the stink and cold.

I also got a lot of filler spread on the arches where I need to flatten or curve the body shape from welding. My goal is to kill all rot of course but to use the least amount of filler and to get in the the cavities where the rot starts from the inside and seal it up with rust converter and rust paint. The spot near the fuel flap on the arches was particularly troublesome.

I don't want to do this again in 5-7 years!

 

Need pics man, get them up

 

I'll have some pics of the welded up chassis rails tomorrow night, so that makes Thursday morning for you guys.

The wife calls my phone, says enough and I get cleaned up. Pulling out the camera at 10pm when I'm dirty and tired is the last thing I wanna do. Pics are something I gotta be more on top of!

 

NACS were definitely not HACKS, i mean that would be giving them way too much credit.

Cheers and nice work.

 

666COS, when it is done I'll take you for a rip. Seeing as it is your old car! I'll give you a shout this week and we can have a chat. I'd like to know some history on it etc.

Not too many users on here from Vancouver and I wondered if you were the previous owner.

 

This should be a NACS reunion... You should see the mess I was left with! The Escort is no way the shape as your car but no where near what I was promised. I can't believe it's already a year since I hauled this heap cross-country (3200 freaking miles to be exact).

 

Yeah the carnage will take some time to heal.

 

Ok. Big milestone hit on the weekend. I welded up the rot, ground it down and then liberally applied some brush on seam sealer. I didn't go for pretty, I went for rust prevention. This won't be a show car but it won't see gravel or snow either. Wet days are still an option but we'll see - I might just drive it like it should be driven.

That's in he future.

For now, the brush on seam sealer is in all the right places, the rot has been converted to a phosphate, the ingress areas have been painted with rust paint now as well. I've really tried to stop the rot, but you always miss one little spot and I'm trying desperately to minimise this. It literally is like trying to cure cancer - hence the comparisons.

So, once the paint has cured for a week in the 1C-6C cold with the occasional blast of heat when I'm in the garage, I'll spray the undercoat on with the shutz gun, then paint it again...

As you can see, it's been gooped on and the undercoat will hide some of the brush marks etc. It should look like most restos in a week!

 

oh and to recap - it started like this:

 

 

Hi Jason,I live in Surrey and recently imported and restored my Saph here:
https://passionford.com/forum/restor...-cosworth.html
Wondering if you would want to meet up since we are so near by and compare note/cars etc....Steven

 

send him a private message mate; not how often he comes on here anymore