Picked up a Mk1 Ka as a runabout for a couple weeks. I kinda liked it. So decided to keep it.

I got the car in exchange for a couple hours labour.

It was thick with dog hair and grot.



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Took everything out to clean it as it was pretty savage.




I drove the car for a while and actually started to like it.

So I did what any normal person would do, and got a 2.0L blacktop

 

Got some sport bumpers

 

Got rid of the 1.3 endura.

 

keep it up, will be a good little car! i bought one for a runaround for £180 two years ago and have fallen in love with it since. really needs a 2.0 though as the 1.3 should have been left behind in the 80s. will probably swap mine out once my sierra project is finished.

 

Been following this on FKOC group. Keep it up!

 

Cool project,always wanted to rwd one with a zetec up front.

 

This looks good

 

Prepped the engine bay and gave it a coat of red oxide primer as there were still bits to be done

 

I've had 3 this year. I raced it against a 1.3 civic before the engine came out and it was no match for the ka. We did it a second time with the ka loaded with 8 wheels and tyres and it still passed the civic. I will point out the civic was carbed vs the kas efi. They're fun little cars.

 

Thanks, I thought I could post a bit more here instead of spamming the Facebook page with the boring bits. But a alot of the time the boring bits are important 😊

 

you know what, I considered doing a rwd rotary as I do alot of work with rx8s. It would need a space frame but I reckon it might be my next project.

 

thanks, I'll be updating almost daily

 

everything from the interior was stripped






I wish I weighed everything that came out... It was alot.

I will be putting in a cage at some point. I dont have a tube bender currently and I'm not happy with my welding yet either to try a diy cage.

Rain kept coming in from where all the climate control/heater matrix stuff was so next job was to weld in some plates.

 

always like threads like these, stuff actually getting built rather than polished, look forward to updates

 

What he Said!

 

Cool project. I like seeing home built projects like this.

 

Thanks for the positive comments 🖒

​​​​​​Right so with the car stripped out the next thing to address was corrosion.. The best bit 😣
As people may be aware, the KA is far from exempt from the rusty Ford list.

I repaired the sills to pass an mot when I bought it. But since taking the bumpers off and having a good poke around and clean up I found some more.








you'll notice that this is not strictly in chronological order, but it kinda is. I would sometimes work on more than one thing in a day.

In the last picture you'll see that I also smoothed out the boot

 

I would like to say that going into this I had little welding experience. I bought a cheap welder from lidl, expecting it to be a gas mig welder, turned out to be a flux cord only welder. Oh well. Im far from Mr money bags so I had to make do with what I could afford. I hadn't known how to set up a welder prior to this, so I decided to start on the floor pan as it seemed the most straight forward...

​​I had used a gas mig a few times before, but using this flux cord was a different experience, especially as I was still (and am) a very novice welder. Anyhoo this was my first go at flux cord




I must admit the spatter threw me on the settings as gas mig doesn't spatter anywhere near that much and you don't get the slag etc.. so I was adjusting here there and everywhere. But it's in and it does the job.

The next things to weld were the holes left from the heater matrix etc




welding starting to improve 🖒

 

I'm welding gasless at the mo Mate and my welding looks like pigeon sh1te

Mine does gas though, so I'm going to try and sort that out soon.

Looking good anyway, keep it up

 

gotta learn somewhere at least your giving it a go and being honest.

So the (i think sportka) kit gives it room for more wider wheels then it looks like

 

Always had this idea for a KA, should go like really well!!


Good luck and will be following with interest

 

looking over the pictures again its surprising just how bad one of these can rust. I've had a couple in the past but didn't have them for long, just bought cheap to sell on and i've heard a few people say about the rust.

Glad to see one's being saved, just get some decent rust protection on once done.

 

Should be a fun car when it's done, keep the updates coming. I don't think there will be many mk1 Ka left in a few years.

If I mot 5 of them I reckon at least half fail on bad corrosion these days.

 

Nice project, we used to have a sportka and i always said it could of done with a 2.0 zetec from factory.
keep up the good work

 

 

They were given a minimal amount of paint from what I've seen, they also don' have rear arch liners. So the mud and road grime sticks up there holding moisture.
The sills rot like they're made out of apples 😂 I did get another one and the sills on that were like a patchwork quilt.. Then I decided to race it on some private land and ended up rolling it which was fun.

The one on the left got rolled.. the one on the right just had the engine taken out and had an engine bay full of grime

Someone mentioned about the sport bumpers allowing for wider wheels. This is true. I bought some staggered 13" banded steels, and I intend to use some 25mm spacers with them on the rear, as in the future I will be getting a decent set of wheels.

Plan atm is to get it on the road as I still pay tax and insurance on it.

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I got them back into shape, gave them a couple coats of high build primer and some engine enamel as they're only a temporary measure. They still look good.
They came with stretched tyres and would just fit the arch with the full width tyres ill be using, however they wont fit the lightweight wheels ill be getting in the future which will be 25mm wider. (Hence buying the spacers). So i decided to extend the rear by 50mm in total.

I cut where the bumper clips to the body, in order to retain the fixing points.




I'll come back to these a bit later once the spacers arrive.

 

Yeah that was me about the bumpers/spacers.

I've seen a few different conversions over the years, they are a fun car to mess around with. My last one on the outside all looked good (I must have got lucky and it drove well) but underneath it had failed its mot on rust but I don't know how bad.

I used to know a girl who got rear ended in one of these by a semi and survived which was a surprise, another mate turned right at a junction when a car was coming and the girl in the passenger seat was lucky to survive. They are reasonable in accidents.

I still remember trying to mess around in a insurance/hire car a girl I knew had years ago, thing was brand new and we tried the trays under the back wheels approach. The poxy little engine kept stalling when trying to pull away it was so under powered. Definitely needed a bigger engine to get it moving

 

Aren't you going to need that heater box hole when you get it on the road? Does a car not require a form of de-misting the windscreen wot be road legal or have I dreamt that up?

Nice job on the boot, and keep up the progress on the rust!

250hp in one of these surprises a lot of people!

 

Its not part of an mot test. But ill get a quickclear heated screen fitted, that was used in some of the "fancier" editions.

It's not really the right time of year to be doing painting and bodwork outside, but it has to be done.

I bought a new bonnet, and fixed up the sport bumpers.










Plastic primer/adhesion promoter

High build primer

 

Cut out the sportka reversing light and straightend it up a bit. Fiberglass and then will cover with some body filler.

I really like the colour of the dark grey plastic primer, so i might get it colour matched and do the whole car that colour
Brand new bonnet.

 

Quick jump to the to the present day (or yesterday) and a sneak peek of the rear getting widened by 40mm

 

The KA is notorious for the fuel filler cap are rusting, this happens as the rear arches have no plastic liners, the wet mud sticks in the arches and holds moisture. It eventually creeps through to the outer surface, by which time it's a mess underneath






There is an internal "extension" panel available, but the rot had got further that that so I just chopped the whole lot out and did without the mud catching cup shape.

 

 

Well done Mario. I'm really enjoying your thread. Makes a change from professional restos in heated work shops. Keep up the good work.

 

Respect is due, I will never moan about having to do my car in a single car garage.

 

Where I started 20 years ago age 15 repairing cars in the street with mates...
Good days them... everybody was doing it years ago
Keep up the good work
I’ve got 3 garages now... and can’t even be bothered this time of year

 

Top work mate ..keep it up .

 

Thank you, I'm glad people are enjoying it. I'd love to he in a heated workshop, my feet were going numb lst night.

 

To be honest im looking at renting one for a month just to paint in. Wet it all down and get a space heater in there. They'e about £80-100 a month around here. Would just have to get it there somehow

 

Thanks for the comment, I was in training for a fight these last couple months, so forcing myself to get out and work on the car in between that was a struggle. Now theres no daylight, it's cold and/or wet I just have to take any opportunity the weather gives me.