ok so I thought i'd try and do a rebuild thread ,spent enough time watching and reading everyone else's so here goes . bought this little toy around 2 months ago after owning a number of series 2's over the years. would have liked an rs1600i but there making crazy money ,always liked the mk3 but this is my first one.the car has 55000 miles all genuine with service history and mots'etc to back it up .guy wanted £2200 but I found what I thought was some minor welding needing done on the viewing and haggled him down to £1500

 

so starting stripping the car down to get on top of any rust have lost my series 2 last year to the dreaded tinworm it really got me by surprise so going to buils this from the ground up and im finding quite a few nasty suprises mainly front floor pans drivers door jamb and drivers inner wing ps anyone every changed a door post on one of these any help/tips would be greatly appreciated.

http://i1052.photobucket.com/albums/...ps415a9da6.jpg
http://i1052.photobucket.com/albums/...ps5ee51568.jpg
http://i1052.photobucket.com/albums/...ps640c23c1.jpg

 

engine and loom now out. been doing little bits in between the grinding/cleaning up of the floor what a shit job been at it 3 weeks most night and about 70% finished !!!!!

 

Bloody rust.Keep up the good work.

 

Awesome nice to see another mk3 3i

 

things moving in the right direction, floor pans and inner wing arrived today.burnt out my argos £17.99 challenge grinder on Monday night so went back (didn't have high hopes hence keeping the receipt) last night and changed it for the more expensive 750w one much better lots more power dropped it will under the car f**k me it can move on the ground hence the bite mark in my leg ,floor all cleaned up just started the engine bay hopefully have it all welded up in the next 2 weeks

 

some more progress welding started this weekend . thanks to my mate bapty the professional welder,lol who spent all day here and all I had to do was buy him a pizza for tea. same tomorrow and hopefully another weekend after this one and she'll be ready to go back together engine bay also cleaned up and primed with red oxide today

 

the tinfoil is not some dodgy new age mod ,I wasn't brave enough to remove the headlining so it was to save it from sparks

 

Keep the update coming, try making the pics bigger...

 

will do mate im have to resize them before I uploads them any idea whats the maximum I can leave them

 

Looks good mate, good to see one getting saved and not used to reshell an S1!!

 

aye Davey your right mate, im pretty sure these will now be rarer than the series one for that reason ,broke for parts to save the almighty series one or just not treated with the same respect I could only find 3 for sale in the whole country when looking for one on gumtree,autotrader and ebay !!!!

 

more cutting and welding today had no idea how long this stuff takes. it took nearly 5 hrs to sort out the nearside rear sill area ,but its to a very high standard and stronger than ford ever intended. some pics of the rusty old bits cut out it might not be to factory standard but its strong and good. I cant see myself ever really selling the car anyway

 

more pics

 

and again, stonechiped the arches and finished the engine bay took 2 cans of hammereite white stonechip to do 2 arches pretty poor found the tetrosyl stuff far superior

 

Looks like a good job on the welding. Good to see an xr3 getting some love, will keep an eye on this

 

Good work there, my friend owned that car about 5 years ago and it was mint, looks like the weather has got to it since then! Glad to see it being saved

 

what was his name? it came from up your way (the lovely kingdom of fife) any idea if he had much work done on it or when he sold it someone has been in at the driver door post and inner wing with a welder before but its not been to that great a standard .think i'll probably be the last owner cant see myself selling it once ive got it all solid as at least that way i know it'll last

 

My old girl had her featured in classic ford and won best escort at Crail with it after I modded it a little, I got it completely standard down to the cloverleafs and all and went a bit euro with it.. Was a solid old car when I had it but after I sold it It was lying on grass for a winter I believe as it never seen a welder to my knowlege when I had it... 49k when I got it I done 2-2.5k miles and stripped the fancy bits off and sold it on sadly, glad to see it being saved though, sometimes wish I never sold it :-(

 

nice to hear from you mate thanks,don't suppose you know what issue of classic ford it was in would love to try and get a copy. it'll probably see crail again thinking of build a 2.0 zetec on bike carbs I can drop in for track days 1/4 mile and then keep the cvh for the car shows and ford fair etc

 

rear koni's freshend up with some yellow paint (an idea borrowed from another thread on here) not a great colour match but it'll do . also a picture of my daily hack audi a3 2.0 tfsi quattro 240bhp which some kind corsa driving kid rear ended yesterday morning leaving me with a f%**ed neck just in time for the boxing season starting

 

just found a copy of the classic ford mag from april 2011 on ebay with the car featured. many thanks to previous owner /pf member glensport for that hopefully it'll grace the pages once more when im finished!!!

 

Glad I could help mate it was 1 of my better cars so its good to see it get the treatment it deserves!!

 

looks like a good one keep up the good work

 

some more parts painted today gearbox,engine and sump, not looking for concourse just to tidy it up . underneath painted grey zinc primer,red oxide then white stonechip with white hammerite over the top ,that paint has gone way down in my standings it reacts with fkn everything including its own hammerite primer!! ,konis re-done in a fiat yellow from Halfords was a pretty good match .hopefully more welding on next weekend

 

Microscopic pics! why are you uploading them to the forum like that for?

 

it keeps asking me to resize them any idea what the maximum is I can leave them at

 

You get yer magazine yet?!

 

not yet mate hoping it comes today will post up some pics when it does

 

thanks to previous owner and pf member glensport for the info in helping me trace this feature of the car from april 2011,wish it still had the series one recaros in it when i bought it there fkn expensive now and really want a set,lol

 

Must get that magazine back lol a forgot half the stuff I done to that car! Pm yer email or number il send some of the pics I kept of it with its cloverleafs on...

 

some more welding done today,more rot cut out and binned,some engine parts freshened up with silver hammerite,going to do the rs16i rocker and inlet manifold in black crackle paint.heard it can be tricky though

 

You need to use an uploading web page like photobucket for example, i love the thread but seeing the sizes of the pics ruin the thread, and i like many people can't be bothered to mess around clicking and waiting for the small pics to upscale to 3-4 times the size.

 

ahh right see what you mean ,couldnt get photobucket to work very well. im out in the sticks my broadband is 1.4 meg at the best of times and it was taking forever to load on the pictures .i paid the £10 to become a goldmember and add my photo's this way, it works for me still takes a long time but 3 times faster than photobucket,cheers

 

some bits painted with wrinkle paint turned out really well flash on camera makes it look a bit strange .

 

Fair play to you that's a lot of work. Glad to see another one saved

 

some more parts cleaned up and painted today,inc dizzy,starter,fan and housing,gear linkage ,battery bracket,washer bottle bracket ,welding stalled at the moment till my mate bapty has some more spare time so i'll get all the bits refreshed wrapped and boxed back up ready to be refitted .

 

My broadband is average 1.2mb in a busy town.

 

Brilliant job you are doing l have the classic ford mag with the feature on it as well really mint car then looks like it ll be as mint again never mind the dull coments about the pic size a couple of seconds waiting to enlarge doesnt really take much does it

 

cheers Bernstein,xould have made the pics bigger but it'd take me all night to load them up with my crappy broadband ,some more parts painted today, cleaned and painted my engine and manifolds will post pics when its finished looks sweet,heres some pics of the front hubs ,gearbox plate, alternator and boonet stay,wouldnt have painted the alternator but someone had done it silver before and it was all flaking off