fiestaturbo.com

[1edzeppe1in]

Right, I thought I would post up my restoration project as I have had some help off here and will probably need more as I go along lol. Just over a year ago I was given my uncles FRST that had been stood on my nans drive since 2000. I used to look at it when I walked past when I was a kid never once thinking that I would own it one day.









The car had been in my garage for a couple of months with nothing happening to it. The trouble was I had so much stuff on and around the car I just couldn't do anything with it so I bought a shed and the work began. As of now the car is completely stripped apart from a couple of things like the door handles but I will remove them later on. I did have the engine running but it was running crap so I took it out as it was going to come out anyway and got it looked at. I will explain what they said later on. Not good news. The car is more or less ready to go to the body shop.

























The place I took the engine to said the block needs to be rebored and it needs new pistons. New main bearings and new big end bearings but the crankshaft is fine. The head needs a couple of things done to it as well. The price was around £900. I will post up the full list when I get it out my van. I can't understand why it needs all this work when there is only 46000 miles on the clock proven with all the MOTs and it was working fine when my uncle stopped driving it. He let it warm up before driving it and let it tick over for a couple of minutes before turning it off. He took care of it when he was using it.

[fiestasiphil]

awesome project mate, got some seroius rot tho my mate has a mk4 thats on 37k and has more rust on it than my white mk3 which is on 137k!, his car was garaged but im guessing it was left in the garage while wet and dirt from gritted roads with little use and rusted it, but yours is really bad for 46k but at least your getting it fixed cant wait for the updates

[1edzeppe1in]

I will probably get it in the bodyshop in the new year. Get christmas out the way first. When I first had it I was thinking get it running, clean it up a bit and its good to go but when I started looking properly i new it was a bigger job. It least now when its done I no the condition of the car as I have got it down to the shell and I can say I built it. The car was free so I saved money there.

[1edzeppe1in]

The engine needs

Re-bore cylinder block and hone
4 new pistons with rings
polish crankshaft
1 main bearing set
1 b/end bearing set
1 conversion gasket set
assemble short motor

strip cylinder head
decoke and clean
re-cut valve seats
re-face valves
lap in valves and vacuum test
skim head face
assemble with new oil seals

8 new camshaft followers
1 head gasket set
1 head bolt set

[fiestasiphil]

its going to be such a nice rst once done, still cant believe the amount of rot tho, did it have wheel arch liners in the front? The only thing i can think that could cause that amount of rot with very low mileage, is without when all the crap from the road would have got around there and stones etc would chip the paint and start it all off, either or it wasnt protected as well when it left the factory, when do you reacon it will be back on the road?

[1edzeppe1in]

It did have arch liners. I will have to ask my unle but it may have been parked on grass for years before the drive was done. That may have caused water to get up there. I'm not sure when it will be back on the road as I have just found out the engine needs a lot of work and like everything else it all comes down to money. That doesn't mean it won't be done just may take longer.

[pauldolman]

looks a great project pal

[1edzeppe1in]

Cheers. I will hopefully carry on with it in the new year. I will post up more pictures as I go along.

[1edzeppe1in]

Would anyone recommend once I had the rebore done on the engine block I rebuild it myself or should I just pay someone to do it? Is it easy to mess up and one of them things you only find out theres something wrong once you've fitted it?

[jayrs]

are you sure it needs it and its not the company taking you for a ride?


if you can rebuild a engine, do it your self, however if someone else does it you may have a warranty on it...

i would recommend a crank grind if your having the rest done though, just as well if all bearings etc are being replaced

[1edzeppe1in]

The cylinders have scorch marks so they said it needs a rebore but they said the crankshaft is fine. Another company I took it to said it needs a complete rebuild including the crankshaft. I think they were saying that to get more money to be honest The first place I took it to showed me their workshop and spoke to me for ages what they would do and showed me other engine parts one being an ERST crankshaft that needed grinding and they seemed genuine. I was just thinking though it doesn't look that hard to do so why pay someone when I could do it myself. I can't rebore it I don't have the equipment but putting it back together doesn't seem that hard. Why should I get the crankshaft done? They said they would polish it. Is that just to make sure theres nothing there which will damage it before they refit it?

[jayrs]

polishing it would be fine if the crank is undamaged, which it must be other sie they would of said so, but if your going for a "full rebuild" then a crank grind is norm done.
its just me mate, if i was spending that sort of money (well i did ) i would get the crank done for peace of mind more than anything else

[1edzeppe1in]

It has been a long time since I last posted about my FRST. To be honest I havn't done anything with it but hopefully if all goes to plan it will be in the bodyshop the weekend. I will post pictures of the progress.

[Fraggle]

woooosaaaaaaa cant wait to get ripping my white s**t too pieces.. Alot of effort to Get her saved fella,,totally Worth it though as she in the best colour..

[DAGET]

Some areas look really smart, bit of work (and it seems you know what to be cracking on with) and this could well be a real minter. Make your family proud

[Dave G fsi]

Brilliant project mate

[1edzeppe1in]

Nothing went to plan when I last posted lol but the car is now at the body shop. I will post some pictures of the progress when I get them.

[1edzeppe1in]

Finally got some pictures of the car. The bodywork shouldn't take much longer. I just need to get a few more bits and I should be putting it all back together.

[pauldolman]

very impressive work pal, looks like it'll be a lovley motor

[Michael!]

well done on saving this one! that rot was one of the worst ive seen

engine looks good, lets see some good progress dude

[DanFraser]

It's so good to see another one being saved by every stretch needed. That's some really good work to solve the rot, keep it going!

[Turboboy67]

Good work so far,

I would of replaced the whole of the rear passenger quater panel though, even though it seems more work, it is infact alot easier and cheaper.

[Smo]

Coming on nice!

What decision did you make with the engine in the end?

[1edzeppe1in]

Thanks for the replies. I just had the engine rebuilt. Rebore, new pistons and anything else that was needed. Its got a warranty which is why I paid someone to do it. I will be repainting it though as the paint they used just rubs off but they didn't charge me to do it so its not the end of the world. The engine is standard spec i'm not tuning it to get as much power as I can I just want it standard. With that in mind though would it be worth getting a lsd gearbox or should I just put the standard one in? Fitting a full rear quarter would probably have been better but I would of needed to find one.

[Smo]

If you're sticking with standard power I'd leave the standard box in there! If you need to replace it for any reason, then may be the LSD box would be an option, but if it's all good, stick with it

[1edzeppe1in]

I don't think theres anything wrong with it I might just get it checked before I use it to make sure.