Rod S

Well, actually twenty five I suppose, It's a 91 plate ("H") and I bought it at two years old and have owned it ever since.

Sapphire 4X4 in black (well, sort of as most of the laquer has peeled of so it's mostly basecoat or primer...) and just stage 1 so only about 270BHP

Used as my daily until about ten years ago then abandoned in the garden due to everything rusting away (well, it is a Ford)
But after getting fed up of being on the back of a recovery truck with my Mondeo TDCi (worst piece of **** Ford ever put on the market before they knew how common rail electronic diesel should work), three months ago I bought myself a two year old Focus Mk3FL ST3 250.
It's great, but reliance on the electronics to deal with the front wheel drive, which, to be fair, it does reasonably well, just gave me renewed enthusiasm to get the Cossie back on the road, and experience four wheel drive again.

So here I am.

After removing and re-building the starter motor I've now got it started and running on the standard Webber/Marelli ECU and while it's up on axle stands (to get at the starter motor) the structural rust doesn't look too bad.
Main issue is suspension (just so I can get it mobile) as when I went to move it one of the front springs (I haven't got to the second yet because of where it's "parked") was broken in three places.
So I decided first thing is to replace springs/dampers, and with slightly uprated but still standard ride height (I live in rural Suffolk where there are more potholes than road so lowered is not an option) .
Not a good experience......
And yet to be fully resolved but I won't name names because, to be fair, they have tried to sort it.
But it does make me wonder, despite all my searches on the web, how many of the "Ford" specialists actually stock "proper" parts for these 30 year old classics and how many just try to sell crap ???

Forward plan, once I've got suitable bits for the suspension, is get it off the axle stands, move it to a more suitable area behind my garage to assess welding requirements, I'll swap the ECU from the original Weber/Marelli to something easily programmable and get rid of the dizzy and leads for COP. I've already sourced the right size Nippon COPs (just need a few mm machining off the top of the cam cover around the holes) and have a suitable ECU. Don't laugh, I use MegaSquirt for all my other projects, but I'm struggling to find anyone with a dead Weber/Marelli ECU just so I can use the case to put the MS inside (simplifies wiring). I have a perfectly good spare Weber/Marelli ECU but it seems a shame to destroy it just for the case as they seem to go for high money on eBay. So if anyone has a dead one (just for the case), let me know.

Anyway, that's it for the moment, I'll post some pictures once I get properly started.