kieranfarr

got my first ka on Sunday and im loving it, its a 52 plate ka collection in silver the car is in pretty bad cosmetic shape and the head gasket has blown but im well prepared to save the old girl!

plan is to strip the car down to the bare bones and start again i aim to let you guys see every stage of the restoration and take as many pictures as i can along the way starting with the removal of the interior tomorrow

comments appreciated as always guys pictures will commence tomorrow

Glenn_

iTrader: (1)

Coool. Looking forward to the pics.

kieranfarr

quick update of day one of the ka, got the interior out today and had a look for any rust in the car found a little but much im pleased overall for a days work as promised here are the photos

started with this (please dont ask what happened to them doing the heater controls in blue also)

then work commenced after a quick cuppa

didn't take long and i had got to this point

another ten minuets had the rear seats out made abit of a discovery into the cars past as well

whilst removing the door seal to get the carpet out i made this discovery this was the only rust i could find in the car so far apart from the obvious fuel cap and a spot on the boot lid

after around an hour of cleaning and scraping off the horrible nastiness of the left over sound deadening from tearing out the carpet the car looked really quite good IMO

and after the bench went back in it looked like this

i consider myself rich after finding all this under the carpets in the car

thats as far as i got i did manage to re fit the front seats as the carpet is staying out to get properly cleaned by a friend of the family that does it for a living they are going to do the full interior once i decide if im keeping it i got a shot of the car for you guys so you can see it

comments appreciated as normal guys next update will be the removal of the engine at the weekend or maybe before depending what i get done through the week

rog

iTrader: (2)

Love Kas, glad there are some other people out there who share the same enthusiasm!
We owned a silimar one in black which we were really sorry to see go, it was a luxury job with tons of extras and in really good nick, sold it privately to a local young lad but I suspect he wrote it off as I never saw it again and it isn't on any dvla records now, thats life I suppose!

Wife has had a couple of nice better spec cars since the Ka and she still misses it a lot!

I think these will be sought after in a good few years, and if i had the space I'd buy one to keep as they're so cheap now it's not like youre going to lose money on it. Good luck with the project!

kieranfarr

always had a soft spot for them myself so when the opportunity came up for low money i had to have it, the dash is out! took me a few hours trying to figure out were on earth the bolts for the top of the dash were then having to take them out as well but low and behold its out and now i can begin looking for rust further up

kieranfarr

today work on freeing the engine commenced, the idea is to completely remove everything as i will be changing the colour to black at some point so this will be a long project, we started at the rear of the bay and decided to work forward the pictures don't show how it lays now it basically sits ready to be dropped tomorrow so we can go ahead and start taking out the wiring for it hopefully by Wednesday ish we should have something resembling a shell on wheels here are some pictures but they don't show how it sits at the moment but give you an idea of what went on

and
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kieranfarr

engines out!
got finished yesterday at about 8 ish putting everything away, here are the pics. got the car up to an angle were we was happy to be able to pull the engine out from beneath it first we opted for the down and out rather than the up and over tactic

here is another to show the perspective of how high we had it

ITS FREE!

and finally how she is as of yesterday evening, took today off to watch the football and relax abit back to it tomorrow though

RS Grant

iTrader: (1)

Look forward to watching this progress.

I'd really like a Ka Van; running 2.0 zetec power, cleaned up/colour coded and lowered on some nice wheels... it'd be a perfect wee daily!!


Cheers,
Grant

kieranfarr

small update but a small update is better than no update i guess , managed to get the wiring, pedal box and just about anything else that was inside the car out, preparing the car for a full respray in black, the interior will be coming out next as a mate of mine has now offered me some space to use: his loft then i have to clear out all the wheel arches of what looks like 12 years of dirt and general crap, don't think this car was looked after much before i got it how things change , i would look into zetec power but i cant at my age :/ here is the picture of today's work then for you

kieranfarr

stripped the engine of all parts today and removed the box, need to order the head gasket this week and get that job done, then ill begin de greasing and painting the engine prepare for picture updates in the next week

mk22door

Gotta love the enthusiasm mate, it's good your staying realistic regarding your age/insurance point of view.

I replaced all shocks and springs, brakes, steering rack, bottom arms, bushes, loads of stuff on our lasses KA a few years ago - it does drive really nice Just looks a bloody mess!

I recommend (if you can afford to do it) when you build it all back up that you replace the heater control valve, don't get a pattern one either get one from Ford.

Good luck fella

kieranfarr

haven't had chance to drive this one yet, didn't want to run it with a blown head gasket, will defiantly keep that in mind when im putting it all back together

today's update is quite a large one, the wheels, shocks, springs, bottom arms, steering rack, rear beam and rear shocks have been removed along with all of the brake and fuel lines this gives me access to the underside for stone chipping and painting. as always comments are much appreciated and here are the pictures

stared with the inside of the car


and then did the front

and then the rear

just a selection of the parts ive acquired now in my shed

how it sits as of today


so much different from day one of ownership

ill be updating in the week but the next major one will be when the welding commences, don't forget to leave your comments guys!

liam-rst

iTrader: (1)

need more pics of 3i in backround lol

kieranfarr

haha, that's my dads baby there's a full project tread over on the xr owners club of it was done last summer

Glenn_

iTrader: (1)

Wow its nearly a bear shell lol. Keep up the good work.

kieranfarr

aha i did say that i will be taking pictures at every given opportunity, will be much better progress when it all starts going back on after the inevitable welding

SMILER258

Nice work. I've got myself a sport ka I bought for 120. Might stick a project thread up if I can be bothered. Gonna give it to my brother as a cheap run around

stuboy

thats keen for a ka !!

Lee Grout

Good job so far. I wouldnt fancy putting a whole car back together though...... Im crap at bagging and tagging stuff......as in I rarely do it! After it being apart for ages I forget what goes where!!!! Look forward to your updates in the future and hope you dont have any silly problems like this lol

RS-Mitch

cool will look nice in black looks a very tidy shell tbh good starting point would be cool to see 2l in there tho theres a local lad to me with a black one its got a 1.8 ztec turbo in it its mental lol keep up the good work

kieranfarr

thanks guys, its your comments that give me the reason to go out to the shed in the rain to get something to towards putting it back together, ive become a little indecisive on the colour i should go for its either going to be black or white, what do you guys think? i like black but you don't see many white ones other than van ones about so im drawn to it. Been out this week and began the long old process of painting each and every underside part that can be painted, im going with blue for the underside as i think it will look well up against the black under seal, going to do the exhaust and petrol tank silver to break it up a little but i like the colour of blue ive got, i got it off ebay from an agricultural supply company, the colour is leyland dark blue if you are wondering, also been out and took my engine to bits, the new head gasket is in the post here are some photos for you's
front wishbones:

rear beam:

bottom end of the engine:

and the top end, picture is crap, sun was out for once

kieranfarr

under sealing has been done today! what a horrible job when the car isnt in the air, now have to address the rust issues and onward with the paint, should keep the underside rust free for a fair amount of time to come here are the pictures to tell the 1000s of words i cant think of at this time
back:

middle:

front:

and one of the rear arch:

don't mind the rust it will be repaired in time

kieranfarr

finally got round to rebuilding the engine from the car today went with a red black and silver color scheme for the engine all i am waiting for now is a thermostat, sump seal and water pump gasket and the engine can be put aside until its time comes, then the focus switches to the gearbox here are some pictures for you
Started out with this at the beginning:

then at around the half way mark i had this:

+

and this is how it sits now:



as above just waiting on two gaskets and a thermostat to finish it all off happy days