fiestaturbo.com

[willowandmikey]

Well the car went for its MOT and even with the hole it passed. Apparently it's not structural so I'm getting it welded and it's all going to be happy again.

[willowandmikey]

Well I have been busy lately preparing for the winter. I discovered the previous owner had sprayed a bit of waxoyl on the car in the arches this has so far kept the dreaded tin worm at bay however I wanted this car to last a while. So I scraped everything clean wire brushing the lot and then went at it all with dinitrol 4195 un derbody wax so far I have used about eight cans as I have literally been putting thick coats everywhere.

Before pics.

photo_zpse97ded5c by sapajoh, on Flickr

Untitled by sapajoh, on Flickr

Untitled by sapajoh, on Flickr

Untitled by sapajoh, on Flickr

Untitled by sapajoh, on Flickr

Untitled by sapajoh, on Flickr

Untitled by sapajoh, on Flickr

Untitled by sapajoh, on Flickr
So after all that I braced myself for the annual MOT test. Even though everything had been overhauled on this car I still expected the worse. After a hour I was handed a pass certificate with no advisories’ happy days !!!
So next on the list was a cambelt and water pump change it looked ok but I didn’t know when it was last done. With all the cleaning of the cooling system I thought my days of woe were over with regards to the build up of crud. Well I was wrong the crud was all that was holding the rad together it seems all the years of sitting there with plain water in the had rusted the rad out from the inside.
The pink coolant never lies !!!! I thought after four or five flushes and loads of time there would just been clean coolant. Turns out doesn’t matter how much you flush it , fill it up run it and empty it its never clean.

Untitled by sapajoh, on Flickr

To get the radiator out I had to remove the battery due to my gorilla hands never having enough room. Which led me to find this.

Untitled by sapajoh, on Flickr
So after some relentless wire brushing and some hammerite I turned it into this

Untitled by sapajoh, on Flickr
I then turned my attention to the radiator shroud which was dirty and rusted out.

Untitled by sapajoh, on Flickr

Out came the wire brush and I went at it again. Taking off all the rust so I could spray it up.

Untitled by sapajoh, on Flickr


Untitled by sapajoh, on Flickr
Gave the battery clamp a quick blast as well.

Untitled by sapajoh, on Flickr

Once the radiator was out I decided to clean up this mess and do another session of waxing. I am determined this car will never rust.


Untitled by sapajoh, on Flickr

Untitled by sapajoh, on Flickr

[Excursion]

Lots of work going in to this. Dinitrol is excellent.

[willowandmikey]

Thanks mate. I must say even though dinitrol is a tad pricey compared to wax oil it is really worth it when it comes to ease of use and quality. Only time will tell but it's easy to get good coverage and it isn't too messy.

[Excursion]

Thanks mate. I must say even though dinitrol is a tad pricey compared to wax oil it is really worth it when it comes to ease of use and quality. Only time will tell but it's easy to get good coverage and it isn't too messy.

Have you tried the cavity wax? It's awesome stuff. I put it in a bucket of hot water a few mins before using, and then apply with Dinitrol's cavity hose (it comes free if you buy four cans, if I remember correctly) - it gets into everywhere.

Filling the box sections is probably more important than covering the underbody, so well worth doing.

[willowandmikey]

Thanks mate. I must say even though dinitrol is a tad pricey compared to wax oil it is really worth it when it comes to ease of use and quality. Only time will tell but it's easy to get good coverage and it isn't too messy.

Have you tried the cavity wax? It's awesome stuff. I put it in a bucket of hot water a few mins before using, and then apply with Dinitrol's cavity hose (it comes free if you buy four cans, if I remember correctly) - it gets into everywhere.

Filling the box sections is probably more important than covering the underbody, so well worth doing.

Oh believe me it's drenched in the stuff I've been doing it over a period of months. I did box sections and internal cavities during the summer so just left the cans in the sun. I got the wand as well and tried it out in the open air. Oops it literally goes in all directions can't recommend the stuff highly enough.

[willowandmikey]

Not much has been going on lately. I found a guy selling a bundle of random ford parts close to me so I gave him £20 and walked away with this little bundle.

Untitled by sapajoh, on Flickr

Most of the parts are of no use to me however I spied three light blue NOS badges in amongst it all. I used two on the XR2i which really made a difference.

Untitled by sapajoh, on Flickr

I sold the remaining badge for over £100 which paid for the other parts and then some which made me a happy boy. Only problem is I have about seven used badges where I was trying to find a suitable replacement.
With the weather the way it has been I have not felt the inclination to get out on the drive to work on the car recently. Well until I noticed the windows fogging up on the inside. So off I went on the search for water ingress and found a puddle in the driver foot well. Seems like the sunroof drain was filling up the sill which in turn was filling the foot well. Initially I decided to just cleat the drain holes but once I had looked into it I noticed that Ford had left quite a bit of length on the sunroof drain pipe. So I drilled through a non structural part of the sill and pulled the hose outside so it empties straight onto the road rather than into the sill and then out.
The sound deadening after 20 odd years and a good soaking was not faring well.


Untitled by sapajoh, on Flickr

It was ditched and replaced with new underlay obtained from carpet right at a fraction of the price charged by online retailers.


Untitled by sapajoh, on Flickr

The offending hose that is situated within the car which now exits out onto the road.


Untitled by sapajoh, on Flickr


Untitled by sapajoh, on Flickr

[willowandmikey]

Not a huge update but after changing the oil repeatedly and going for fully synthetic oil the XR2i decided she would puff some smoke on start up a common fault on these engines where the valve stem seals go hard especially after a lack of use. So I decided on a set of uprated seals.

[willowandmikey]