as some of you will know i have started a 3dr project but have had no time to do anything to it as work is hectic at this time of year. i have just bought another 3 door cosworth shell from gary (rs classics) to restore to it's former glory. i had been buying it for a mate but a change of plan on his part means i have now got the shell. the shell will need a lot more work than my first but during the winter months i should have some time to sort them. some pics of the shell should tell you the amount of work required but it is not as bad as the pics look.
the shell before it was delivered from gary


front nearside inner wing is the worse piece of body to sort out


offside floor

small areas around boot

some of the shell is pretty good such as inner wings and floor. far from perfect but shouldnt cause too many problems




also purchased some body parts off the shell before buying it which were delivered with the car and include tailgate, sideskirts and arches aswell as complete front bumper.




only thing which worries me is wiring loom but it can't be that difficult can it!!!!

got a feeling this one will be tracked as i have already got a road going shell to complete aswell as a replica. between the 3 i may have too much work to do but will plod on whenever i can. will get this shell stripped and sand blasted and see what comes back. a decision will be made then as to it's destination, be it road or track although my son wants to build a rally car (as long as i'm footing the bill for it, or at least that's how it seems to me) kids eh! should this end up in the hands of my son, i will be looking for genuine parts cheap. maybe slightly damaged etc. i don't see the point in replica parts as they don't look right. even though if he gets it i can't see the body parts lasting long. so if you know of any let me know.

 

Give it to your son My dad gave me his old rally car, and I'm slowly restoring it. It's worth it! It's taught me lots of skills and good old patience! Best of luck with what ever route you choose Looking forward to updates

 

cheers nathan. love the work you did to the xr4x4. chris, my son, agrees with you on what should be done with the shell. i won't decide the outcome till after sand blasting and have seen what comes back to me but he will probably have it. i won't realisticaly have the time to do another project and in fairness i don't think the shell is too bad so could be the ideal project to break him in gently. he will not be having the cossie 4x4 gear sat in workshop but may give him the xr4x4 2.9 car i have and let him get on with it. 150 bhp will be enough for him to have a bit of fun and should also be more reliable.

 

best of luck with the project tony ,doesnt look a bad shell

 

Thank you Yeah, if you do give it to your son, ask him for a project thread, as I love Sierra rally cars. And the Cologne is a great lump IMO. But in all honesty an rs2000 mk5 lump would be better in that shell IMO. You won't have to modify the tunnel or the front chassis rails, it's lighter, more revvy, and is a strong lump, for the same power. I have one... but don't even need it anymore

 

Just convert the 2.9 to rwd and won't have to mod anything then, that's great your giving your son the car, I'm going to pass my 3dr down to mines if I ever have any

 

been over to workshop at last but only to remove all cars to let electrician rewire the place. all main area lights fitted and half of the lights in spray booth. only another 4 striplights to go tomorrow and about 20 double sockets so there should be enough of them without the need to run extension cables everywhere when working on the car. will install cables and sockets for spray booth heating as he is there and wiring for compressor. will probably repaint walls and floor when complete although that's a job for another weekend. then i can concentrate on cars with nights drawing in. nothing worse than not having enough light. will take a few pics tomorrow when all complete and cars back in there. should look ok.

 

well i managed a few hours today in workshop and got a bit more done. the spray booth is now going to be 2ft wider so have started stripping inner wall and altering the doors. major clean up is now needed and a lot of things to throw out that were left by previous occupants. the decision is made to put a ceiling throughout with insulation to make warmer in the winter months, which is realisticaly the only time i can spend in there. the ducting for extractor is already installed but fan hasn't been installed yet.

the workshop itself will have it's walls and floor repainted when it is empty as when i start work on the cars i know this won't be done. the workshop is big enough for 10 cars and with 1 in pics will give an idea of size. there is also an area 30ft by 10ft for storage of bits and pieces. by next weekend i will hopefully have the majority finished and then can concentrate on resto's


the lighting already installed has made a huge improvement and can't wait to get finished to start working on the cars in relative comfort.

 

thats one massive garage tony ,lucky chap

 

it certainly is james. i have two cars to work on, my son is going to rally prepare this last cossie shell, and a mate of mine wants to restore his mk2 escort so should be plenty of room but will probably still get in each others way. i struggled for a long time to find a decent garage then this one came along. needs a little work but will be worth it. the spray booth being here will be the main difference, no transporting to and from another place so less chance of any damage. all i need now is someone good to spray.

 

been shopping for bits for chris and got a couple of bargains off the bay. brand new bonnet but without the vents for Ł41. it needs picking up 10 miles from where i needed to go anyway.
whale tail in pretty good condition complete with original covers and mounting brackets which look like they have never been on a car. Ł43 and i sent a courier to pick up for Ł17.


does anyone know what covers are worth usually as i have only seen replica ones for sale and also the brackets as i have never seen these sold seperately. just something that makes me think as the whale tail i thought was cheap on it's own

 

Nice to see another ford getting looked after.

 

ar the moment i haven'y got time to look after it

 

When I put my replica RS500 rear spoiler on I sold the brackets for Ł50 and the covers for Ł55 for the set.

 

 

been over to garage today to start sort out. put in steel work bench 6m long and 6m of shelving plus 3m of steel perforated panels to use for tools etc. starting to look a little better and by the end of next weekend 3 cossie shells should be in there. it has been decided to concentrate on moonstone shell which is being rally prepared and deadline is end of jan for 1st event so lots to be done. purchased a cage and seats/harnesses so most parts already there. will post some pics as soon as i can as photobucket is playing up.

 

Looks a great garage to work in but if I were u ad put the extractor fan as low to the ground as possible

 

there is some vented pipework being installed about 250mm height from floor running down both walls and front wall. apparently it will extract the fumes but keep most heat in there when spraying. ducting will be installed from pipe to existing ducting and filter. not sure about any of it realy as i am not into spraying.

 

finally had a bit of time to go over to workshop and do a little more. still a lot to do but getting there slowly.
shelving starting to go in.





been a hard day for chris. he would prefer to be getting on with sorting his cossie shell out. can you tell he is bored?

and still plenty of shelves left if i need them. had these from a local hire shop that closed down and were pretty reasonably priced.

will update when complete. can't be much longer i hope.

 

been over to workshop at last but only to remove all cars to let electrician rewire the place.

 

finally the workshop is ready, or i should say ready enough, to start work on both white and moonstone shells. 2 weeks off should help move them along.
sliding doors have been installed to give an area suitable for stripping cars and rebuilding them after with enough shelving to store all the bits.



just another two doors for spray booth and that will be ready to go apart from a bit of painting of walls etc, extractor fan and piping for compressor.

few little bits of wiring on some extra sockets i decided to fit (can't have enough of these) and some more fluorescent lights. moonstone shell should have been taken over saturday but trailer booked with hire centre wasn't returned by previous hirer. hopefully monday but funeral in morning so hoping i have time after. anybody spot the most important item in a workshop (according to a certain new cossie owner) yes it is a stereo that is rather loud. had to be put in as work can't go on without one.

 

What a cracking workshop that is.

 

cheers glenn. it isn't finished yet but certainly getting there. probably about two days work left and then painting it all. i was lucky to get it tbh and it will be a nice place to work on the cars and store them when finished.

 

i would love a space like that. my car is out in the rain so i cant get no work done in this weather and my shed is 6x6ft. lol

 

it is a nice spacious garage. probably be wasted when (and if) i finish the projects currently planned. taking some sorting out compared to when i took it over. try looking around locally, i'm sure there will be something usefull close to you. price is usually a big factor though.

 

Looks ace! Wish I had that much space for my projects

 

realy annoyed with myself after today. noticed there was a major problem with pass side of white shell. stripping parts off it for rally car decided to take off bonnet and out of curiosity decided to put another on, 2 were tried with same result. the wing has been pushed back at some point and bonnet bent to suit. pic to show problem with the centre of wing aound 6/7mm out.


nothing showed at all and join between wing and door is perfect. the drivers side is good.

at the moment i feel like scrapping car as don't want the hassle of replacing the wing, inner wing, slam panel and lower panel. who said rebuilds were easy. i have pics somewhere of when i bought the shell and these show everything as it should be. need to leave this for a while rather than make any hasty decisions.

 

What ever you do don't scrap it! just beat it back out and buy a new wing! Or does the problem go further than that?

 

as said, i never noticed when buying it. i do have new wings, slam and lower panel which were for another car but happy to use as they can be replaced. will be going over this afternoon and i will take off wing and panels and see what is there. can't be too bad as wing and door line perfectly. i also have an xr4 shell so will strip that to see what inner wing is like. as this shell is 1.6 standard they should be the same. it isn't the cost but the time involved. i don't have a lot of time and just see the project getting further away from finishing every time i do something to it.
i have calmed down a little since yesterday so scrapping will be last option.

 

been over today and stripped off old wing. temp fitted new one and it looks like it all lines up correctly.

thought i would try fitting everything round it and seems good.

fitted bumper but no go there. measuring the bulkhead to lower panel seems to be 5mm nearer on ns compared to os. the slam panel is about the same and also down by 2/3mm on ns. the side bumper bracket is also around 3mm back on that side. the cross member itself seems ok as measuring correctly on both sides. i think that means new inner wing will be needed. i could put on the 2 front panels and weld to suit. then the headlight brackets don't fit so where do i draw the line. at the end it has to be right so will be done right.

 

Is there anyway you could get picks of what you mean by the measurements the shell is out by? You could always try and get it jigged? And don't give up because of time, I get 24 hours a month on my car, but I just keep plodding on.

 

i did take pics but somehow deleted them off camera. basicly the front passenger side corner has been knocked back about 5 or 6 mm. nothing too bad but if i am going to restore this car it has to be done right. the chassis seems ok for some reason but there is a crease in inner wing. it is noticable from outside when i took wing off but was filled and sprayed inside engine bay. if this shell was being used as the rally car i would get round it by rewelding or could even modify the bumper brackets to suit.

 

Yeah, I know what you mean now. I would've thought cutting out decent panels from a car, or getting new motomobil parts would be the best options

 

Here might have your panels? http://www.oldcars.de/kataloge/sierr...a_englisch.htm

 

i've already got the two front ones new. it is the inner wing causing the problem. we have a 10ton hydraulic body repair jack at work that has never been used. i don't know how to use one but is this likely to be able to sort the crease out. anyone know???

 

thanks mate. there are some good parts available there at decent prices. headlight surrounds for Ł11.00 each, inner wing repair panel for Ł38.00. can't go wrong with that. maybe i should cut all these out and reweld new parts in. got to be easier and quicker than cutting out inner wing if it can't be repaired.

 

That is what I thought, just makes it a bit easier, and apparently the panels are very good. They do everything for the car bar a few bits i think!

 

seems a very good source. just had another look at your resto thread. how is it going atmo. looking at what you have done, and still have to do, i've got nothing much to worry about. it all comes with the job i suppose.

 

Haha, I'm doing the back of the sill tomorrow, where my father bodged it up ten years ago, then I'm welding the outher on, as I finished welding the inner up today. Then I'm putting it in the garage, so I can cut off the rear quarter. That's gonna be a major job. But I have the new outer panel, and it's genuine, so all should fit fine. I need a genuine rear panel though And they're like rocking horse shit.

 

bloody hell, how much of the shell will be left original. i'll say one thing, you've got a lot more patience than me.