After having my xr4x4 for over 10 years and racing it for the last 5 ive finally bought the race car I always wanted a saph cosworth 4x4.
Road car Cosworth 4x4 shells came with a sunroof and only motorsport shells didn't, these are getting very thin on the ground now especially ones that haven't been ragged through a forest!
The only other shells that didn't have a sunroof were police cars again these are rare.
after a flippant comment on a thread I was pm'd on here by cossie09 keith explained that he had an ex police car saph cosworth shell and it was for sale, only problem was it was in Northern Ireland!! Undeterred I struck a deal and this week myself and my dad did a 25 hour round trip to collect the shell.


The plan is to repair this shell, remove all corrosion etc then fit a new cage and then repaint the car radiant red like my xr, then transfer all the running gear from my xr into it.
when that's done I will rebuild the xr into a lower spec yb powered race car for my son to use, he's 15 now so I have a few years to sort it.
I will update this thread as I go but its going to take a while!


My present race car fitted with a 455 bhp cosworth motor and Quaife dogbox





My new shell














First thing I did when I got it home was fit a boot and bonnet to seal it up and stop any more water ingress, oh and my dad kindly washed it!





steve

 

Cant have been many cosworth police cars in Ireland, I wouldn't have thought...maybe a pic or two floating around the interweb?

Look forward to seeing it progress!

 

cheers mate, its a uk car on a K reg, Keith the previous owner took it over there many years ago
done a search and haven't found a pic of it in its police days yet


steve

 

It might be worth contacting the police federation reps as you can bet that the police drivers took pics back in the day. If you can find roughly where it was based then you could go from there, I know a few in the met.

 

Interesting thread here incase you missed it

https://passionford.com/forum/ford-s...-sort-off.html

 

cheers not seen that particular thread before


steve

 

Cool matey. I will keep an eye on this thread.

 

Hi Steve.looking well.after a wash.lol.think she was a Essex police car.
Can't wait to see it finished in red.thanks for the easy sale mate.Cheers Keith

 

Right up till 2002 you could still get the police sapphire s .they were armoured plated with bulletproof glass etc and were nearly 2 ton they had no sunroof s in them.and we had some unmarked cosworth s as well.just in northern Ireland not in southern Ireland....but very hard to get them now.

 

i reckon if you race it you should do it in police livery, that'd be funny a fook.........
full battenburg all over, sponsored by a speed awareness scheme etc...lol

 

they weren't all non sunroof kieth, unless my car was the only one

 

Hi Dan.was you car not a traffic car not armoured as all the armoured ones had no sunroof,I used to buy them from the police authority and the only ones with sunroof s were cid or unmarked traffic cars.

 

yeah your right enough,
I take it was just the n ire car that were armoured?

 

Keith is a good lad,sorted me out a few times now.
By chance is that an early saph bonnet??
If so would you sell it??
Needing a mint early non vented bonnet for my saph.
Good luck with the car,any idea what the reg no is??

 

Thanks Lee.pleasure to help you out mate.reg is k174heg

 

Yes Dan only ni cars were armoured.cheers

 

There was 1 local to me for years,guy never used it,just sat on his drive.
Reg was k34 rsw,heard it went to Ireland years ago when he sold up.

 

it is an early saph bonnet, its one of my spares for my race car as you can see lol, its sett up for bonnet pins, so no good for a road car really, it came off a mint 2wd saph years ago!


steve

 

look forward to seeing this one progress

 

Thanks Lee.

 

Would the reg no give a clue to where it started life?

Good luck with it mate, hope the build goes well!!

 

Finally able to update this thread, its been a busy summer racing my present car and away with my son racing his kart, so I've not been able to do as much on the new car as I would have liked but now its moving forward.


Earlier this year I was able to make a good start on the under bonnet welding, there was a poor patch welded to near side inner wing so I removed that and welded in much better version.



I was then able to get the car on the spit ready to start underneath starting with the offside sill





Taking the outer sill off revealed a mess!





Soon had it all cut out and new metal welded in along with the sill to floor join which needed new metal for the full length of the floor.





Then I welded on a complete out sill





This week I've started on the rest of the offside floor.





That's where it stands at the moment


Steve

 

double post

 

Bloody photobucket is down so i cant see the pics. Steve you dont know anyone selling a straight rear saff bumper??

 

Ok Time for a recap and update, due to photobucket destroying themselves I'll re upload some of the original pics of the project and show the updates now that the project is moving again.











As Purchased in January 2016





work started on the underside, it needed 2 new inner and outer sills and sills to floor joins














the usual rear beam mounts also needed attention














I purchased a spares car to cut panels from and to provide a good source of clips screw etc I would need, the car was then cutup and scrapped





I cut the spare wheel well out as I'm lowering the boot floor to create a lower flat floor to mount the petrol tank inside








I then fabricated strut brace mounts ( I already had a brace) and cut out and fabricated a removable front cross member





This week ive tackled the rear arches I've not done these before on a saph but its gone well enough, I've removed the double skin on the lip so that the arches can be rolled easier to fit the RL 5 wheels on I use














The front wings have been removed and bolt on version fitted but I've no pics for some reason that brings us up to present day


Also over the past few months I've rebuilt my original race car at a lower spec for my son who's 17 to race this year, the head, turbo gearbox front suspension, 6 degree rear beam have all been removed and more standard stuff refitted still on a T34 greens, coilovers tho !

Steve

 

Nice work, I always admire people that get stuck in and do this in the cold outside, my Dad used to do it.

 

Cheers mate, ironically that wall you can see is my double garage, but with the rotisserie on it won’t fit in! Hence being outside!
Steve

 

Nothing wrong with your welding there Steve. You haven't got a spare rear saff bumper do you? That one in the chopped up blue saff looks nice ha ha.