awesome

 

Made some more progress again today starting with this







I then mounted up the alternator and the starter motor folowed by by the rad



I then made a start on plugging it all in and plumbing in all the water hoses









thats it for todays graft but not a bad update if i do say so myself
mark

 

nice work work keep it up

 

Not updated for a while ive been scratching my head over the horn wireing and i didnt want to put the dash in till this was sorted which it is now so ive put the dash in now





Heater vents in



And speedo clocks and steering wheel back on



ive very nearly go a complete interior again now just the other recaro to put in and the bottom half of the rear bench once the fuel pump wireings in
cheers mark.

 

looks good fella, keep up the good work

 

Looking good

 

Ive been up today doing abit more starting with clearing abit of a room in front of the car so i could push it forwards to jack the rear end up and strip it down i didnt get asfar as i wanted to but i got all the old stuff off bar the tank which is what i really wanted to do but its looking pretty promiseing under there just abit of surface rust












im hopeing to get the tank off tomorrow and make a start on the grand job of cleaning again ow the joy
Cheers for having a look and let me know what you think so far
mark.

 

for got to add this one aswell

 

looks good mate,good to see another estate being donei got a combi van with a 2.0 zetec

 

tidy same colour as my estate ,i have done similiar work to you with welding etc ,hard to find parts for now huh

 

I got all my panels off ebay bar the battery tray which i got from a local motor factors

Ive been up today to get the tank off what a job that is and i only managed to spill a little bit down my arm lol it looks pretty darn good under there to be fair theres two patches that will need welding but the rests just surface rust as ive had a good poke around with the scrapper
The offending patch


and this looked abit suspect but after having a poke round it'll come off with the wire wheel and abit of elbow grease


And finally under where the tank was




Dusty as hell under there i were pulling chunks of mud off the lip of the tank that were about a quater inch thick so id say it was the original tank still as an added bonus i tipped all the fuel out into a jerry can and got about a tenners worth out of it.
so now im on to cleaning yay i might strip all the bottom arms down aswell and get that shot blasted to clean them up but i dont want to get to carried away as it was only suppost to be a quick swop but it seams rude not to freshen them up is it the bufty coming out in me lol ?
cheers for looking mark.

 

Well been up again today and spent the day on my back with a wire brush, a scrapper, a rag and a tub of degreaser what a ball ache firstly i sorted myself out some lighting



then the fun began went over first with the wire brush to get the built up mud off then went round with the degreaser theres afew bits that need another going over again but id had enough at this point lol so i moved on to scrapping some of the scabby bits off and it looks like this now









it turns out the bits that i thought look abit suspect the same knob head thats done all the other welding on the car before i got it has been at them and had attempted to weld a plate on there i say attempted as they fell off at the first whack of the hammer

my stepdad made a start on prepareing the rear sills which said knob head had previously welded without cutting the rotten bits out so you guessed it rotten as f##k
My stepdad getting down and dirty with it as you can see its just a big hole



and what was left of my sill a pile of rust



hopeing to make more progress again tomorrow
Cheers for looking mark

 

Its been all quiet on the estate front recantly i was going to order up my fuel lines but the geezer decided to near enough double how much he wanted for them in the space of a couple of days so i was abit down hearted but ive managed to find some more not quiet as close to home but he only wants a fiver if i take them off so im onto a winner so ive had my kick up the arse and started making my repair panels for the rear sills





just got to get some more gas for the welder now

cheers mark.

 

Right after putting the geezer off for another week with the fuel lines due to the weather being awful i thought id do a couple of bits inside firstly welding my new sill panels in and re-building the arches
My steddad getting busy with the grinder


All cleaned up


inner



obviously it needs tidying up with the grinder but thats a job for another day i bought another escort zetec just for parts so i started taking some hoses and what not off found a perfect bend for what i needed just the right length aswell so i got this off to join said hose to mine



cut it in half and chamfered the corners round to make it look abit neater



and stuck him in the bay



with that all my plumbings done and ill have heaters that'll work

that was it for the weekend but ive been up today undersealing the floor and my god i hate that shit i managed to get it all over me and let me tell you scrubbing your fore head with a nail brush aint the best lol













Thats it for the time being but im hopeing the weathers going to be better this weekend so i can get my fuel lines but in the mean time im going to paint my tank up ready so im prepared for the fuel lines then she can go back down on the floor

Cheers for having a butchers Mark.

 

Ive not updated this for ages but ive made a fair amount of progress i gave the rear floor another coat of underseal and made a start on getting my tank painted up ready to go back on



I was going to get all the suspension arms blasted and powder coated but i decided against it for now. At a later date im going to swop to rs turbo bottom arms and rear anti-roll bar so i didnt see the point in doing my ones ill just wait and get the rs ones done instead.

After doing the tank i made a start on tidying up the rear sills so i ground the welds back went over it with seam sealer left it to dry than went over the top with the underseal again



then made a start on the filling the outer panel



once i was happy with that side a did the other then just put some primer on for the time being as by this point we wanted to get it back on its wheels so we could clear up round it so on went all the rear suspension and outside for a clean up.

Once back inside we went tp fit the tank up but the plugs on the loom were completely differant to the fuel pump connectors at the tank so after a week of trying to track said plugs down a guy up in scotland came up trumps and they were winging there way to me for a mere tenner.
With that sorted the tank went back on and so did the exhaust as it got it out the way









once the exhaust was on the car my stepdad knocked up the down pipe to go round the sump



I didnt want a big tail pipe so as to give the game away i think the standard one will do just fine



With that done i modified my throttle linkage to accept my standard throttle cable





We then made a start on checking over all the electrical stuff to make sure it worked which they didnt all the wipers and lights were fine but the fuel and temperature gauges didnt, after a quick bit of butchering on an old set of clocks i had id taken the senders out and swoped them for my duff ones



I swopped my centre console for an rs turbo one aswell at this stage with the extra hand-brake surround



Once all that was sorted the clocks went back in and the dash built up again the recaros went in at this stage.
A quick once over with a rattle can sorted out the rear sills





and she went outside to try starting the engine up

ill leave it at that for now as my other pictures havnt finished uploading yet so ill finish off my update tomorrow cheers for reading my ramblings

mark.

 

nice project u got m8,am i rite in thinking u had a firextiguisher huckd up to ur welder?

 

Yeah you did see right its the best co2 you can get and we get it for free its just a case of bolting a regulator on it and away you go we dont all the welding on this car my stepdads vectra and his beetle which has had a whole new floor and its used about half the extinguisher.
On another note ive had the car on the road for 3 months now with no problems but i really fancy a turbo'd car so ive been building myself a 1.8 zvh turbo engine to go in ive got a couple more bits to buy then its coming off the road again to have the turbo lump fitted so keep your eyes peeled

Mark.

 

nice 1 think i give that a try as i pay 15quid a month rental on my gas bottle

 

Good read.
I read it with vested interest as I want to 'zetec' my estate too.
Credit too for all that underside work. Another job I need to do but frankly cant be arsed.

One thing I did notice, your 1.3 engine (HCS I presume?) has a single choke carb. Mine has a twin choke and a different throttle linkage.
I pulled mine out of a 1989 Eclipse so I guess it must be an age thing?

Shame you're not local - I'd be begging for your advice and shop space to get mine done!
What did you do with fuel lines? Just use the standard feed and return?

 

chop chop hurry up n finish tubin the estate so i can buy it off you

 

I know what your saying about the underside it really was a shitty job but i decided if i did it when i did it would hopefully stop me having to do any more welding at a later date.

The fuel lines i used came off an efi xr3i the actuall lines that run under the car are all the same its just the end bits you will need from the steel pipe to the filter then from the filter to the fuel rail.

If you need a hand with anything just pm me and if i know the answer ill sort you out

Mark.

 

Im just waiting for the turbo and manifold to turn up which should be tuesday then i can bolt them on to measure up and braze up a new pipe for the crank case breather then the lump can all go together then i just need a fuel tank and pump and im pretty much there

Mark

 

Thanks I'll keep you in mind.
Agreed on the undersealing, getting waxoyl out of your hair is cheaper than a trip to the bodyshop.

 

hey m8 you got ne picz how u got regalator set up on fire extinguisher bottle for welding????? cheers

 

Ill take some for you over the weekend when i go up the unit

 

cheers pal just got fire exh,thinking i mite need different regulator tho but hope sum pics of u will help

 

The next evolution of the estate is well on its way now ive got a couple more bits left to buy but the main parts are here 1 being this



I'll do a proper update when the final few parts arrive thats just a little teaser for now

cheers mark.

 

sore one these to day was mint no root on it when i droped old boiler off not great pic as i left phone in van

 

thats a bloody cool estate

 

If its done next time your up at brunters jimbo ill take you for a blast im hopeing to get every thing together then swop it all over in the space of a couple of weeks famous last words lol

you should of put a bid in for it dingla ive only seen another 1 on the road the same as mine theyve got to be getting rare

mark.

 

if it was a 3door bonus or sumthing ida got him drop at me house lol as i no the bloke quit well, do like the estates tho ,thanks for them pics just gota find a fitting to suit now

 

Right ive made abit more progress now so i thought a proper update was in order firstly after my injector line turned up ive been waiting for i finished putting the head back together after after re-building it with a new set of valves, new stem seals and new gaskets through out
It started out like this



a few hours later it'd gave it a good clean and it looked like this



a quick pic just after i'd finished lapping the valves in



putting the inlet on for the first time



after realising you couldnt get the injectors in with the inlet on off it came again lol injectors in, manifold on and stat on



Whilst waiting for my injector line to turn up i made a start on getting the block ready after abit of research i found a company that made this conversion plate



which was spot on for what i wanted it uses two of the original water pump bolt holes to locate the plate and gives you all the hole positions for the new water pump holes and tensioner holes





now all the holes were drilled and tapped i picked up a new water pump



and 1.3 cvh cam belt tensionor courtesy of matt lewis



this is what it looked like when i mocked it all up with an old water pump and tensionor just to see what it looked like



Now for my turbo oil return to the block after doing some research i found you can use this bolt hole and open it up to a bigger size



after taking out the bolt you can see it goes straight through into the crank case



so to stop me filling the engine up with swarf i wipped the sump off



took the windage tray off and spun the crank round abit so i had plenty of room and no chance of catching the crank whilst i drill it out and tap it



to fit one of these



this was when i realised i didnt have the correct sized drill for the tapping size so ive ordered one through work so ive got to wait for that to turn up now so ive ground to abit of a holt again on the bottom end.
Now for afew pic's of bits ive been picking up for the conversion firstly this little lot which set the ball rolling for the grand old sum of £62



theres a full rs turbo wireing loom in the grey sack and the ecu has a super chip fitted aswell
my new head bolts all still wrapped up


a couple of gauges so i can see whats going on



a crank pulley



Ive got a set of water hoses so i bought a set of boost hoses



and although you cant really see it theres a de-comp plate packaged in here



I know they get alot of stick on here from people saying there crap but it's ideal for what i need ferriday say it will cope with upto 16psi of boost all day long and im not after a super duper massive boosting 300 brake engine i just want a nice fun car to drive and suprise afew people with.
Im not planning on running more boost than standard so this should be more than adequate if i decide later on i want loads of boost i'll just build another engine with all the right bits in it but for now this will do me just fine.

Thats it for the time being but hopefully my drill will turn up then i can pop my oil return in, drop the sump back on, bolt the head in place, bolt the turbo on and mock up for my new crank case breather.
now ive just got to find an exhaust system and a fuel tank and ive got pretty much everything i need.

Cheers for having a read and let me know what you think of my project so far

Mark.

 

great read mate

 

Cheers mate it means alot after reading through your thread

 

Time for abit of an update ive managed to buy myself another fuel tank and pump from a guy local to me for £40 theres abit of surface rust but its in pretty good nick nothing abit of scotchbrite and a lick of paint wont sort out.
Ive also bought myself an exhaust system aswell a full magnex with a 3 inch inwardly rolled tip



hopefully it wont give the game away too much im tempted to key it up and give it a coat of matt black so it doesnt stand out too much but im undecieded as yet.

Whilst picking the exhaust up i had another couple of bits off him aswell ive been after a radiator fan, an rs turbo front anti-roll bar and a set of xr3i drums for the back as my ones on at the minue are abit small an pathetic bigger is alway better in my eyes.

After my drill turned up at work i went and drilled the block on my way back home being a numpty i forgot i didnt have the tap up the unit though so i had to leave it till the next day



all tapped and trial fitted



now after putting the sump back on i thought the block looked abit scabby



so half hour with the wire brush and a quick trip to the local motor factors for some paint i gave it the once over





i know it said blue on the can but i wasnt expecting it to be as blue as it was if that makes sense lol but i really like the colour and after giving the block 2 good coats there was hardly any gone out the tin so abit more colour codeing maybe going on

now the paints dried abit of ptfe tape on the stubb and in she goes





after turning some bungs down on the lathe in the garage for a nice tight fit i whacked them in to block the oil galleries i dont need for the cvh head



now this is the bit where i was going to write about bolting the head on and timing it up but after breaking a piece off the crank pulley taking it off i cant so now ive got to find and buy another one but not till pay day as ive skinted myself ahh well only a week to wait
Cheers for looking and let me know what you think

Mark.

 

looks like a really good project
gona be a good sleeper

 

Looking good m8

 

come on this sohould have been done months ago, especially as i made a massive donation of a dv plug,

 

You cant say nothing about taking my time after how long your took lol
I should hopefully be making a start this weekend on swoping the rear drums and the fuel tank then i want to mock the engine up properly before i start ripping all the old stuff out the bay so im pretty sure ive got everything i need.
I may be calling on you to give me a hand when i take the lump out but ill give you plenty of notice

Cheers mark.

 

no problem fella!!!!!

just let me know,

i o u a few favours lol