fiestaturbo.com

[Jay]

Looks good James

Am gonna get my bumpers smoothed when I get mine painted

[heeman10]

Thanks boys (and Dave) I screwed the bumpers on this evening and washed the car...the finish mis-match isn't as noticeable now, and once I've polished it it'll be closer still. The bumpers aren't perfect, as I made it clear I just wanted a bit of a blowover to bring the colour up, but they will keep me happy for now. Having seen how amazing they look with fresh Radiant Red, I cannot WAIT to get round to doing the whole car! It'll be an absolute treat to clean SO much easier than 14 year old paint, it's unbelievable!

Pics from this evening after a quick wash:









Was meant to be attending a show tomorrow - turns out it's a classic car show, appears you have to be a member to be on a stand, and it looks like it'll chuck it down ALL day. Hmmm!!

[Ollybee]

You really should take more care of this car!

[heeman10]

I wish I did tbh! Hopefully it'll be quite a different story this time next year, depends how much time I can find to do everything. A couple of years ago I thought I'd finally created the dream car I wanted it to be, but my plans now stretch way beyond what it is today! I'd love to show it next year as I envision it, time will tell

[mike_wall15]

Were they sprayed by somebody's daddy?
The prep work you put in when doing it yourself will surely have helped spraying them this time, good stuff!

[jimmyesh]

Those bumpers look mint James!

[Mikee_RS]

much better

[Mikee_RS]

much better

[Excursion]

Looks great!

[JamieFRST]

Very shiney, looks great

[heeman10]

Were they sprayed by somebody's daddy?
The prep work you put in when doing it yourself will surely have helped spraying them this time, good stuff!

They might've been! Sadly, my meticulous prep work hasn't counted for much this second time round. There was a crack behind the number plate I would normally have addressed, plus some stonechips appear to have hit quite deep, but I asked for no more than paintwork, no repairs/filling or anything.

Thanks for the comments you lot - it felt good to turn up to a show today in the blazing sun (albeit in the car park..which was right next to the show ground, separated by a 3ft fence ) in a gleaming red car that didn't look tooooo home-built! Felt better to humiliate an Audi TT driver trying to impress his girlfriend on the way home

[mike_wall15]

Which TT was it? An old 190 or 225, or a new one? Sounds fun!

[heeman10]

Dunno, I just saw him look sideways at me as we both pulled out of the same junction, heard his engine note pick up so off I went after him and streaked past him off to the roundabout

[mike_wall15]

Dunno, I just saw him look sideways at me as we both pulled out of the same junction, heard his engine note pick up so off I went after him and streaked past him off to the roundabout

Sounds fun! It must be fun seeing off more expensive vehicles when you're out on your travels!
Do you tend to see lots of possible 'fun moments' when in the silver fiesta? I find that when out in my mum's car, yet when out in mine there's nobody to play with

[heeman10]

Yeah, and instantly think "Game on!"...then soon after I glance down and see the 4.500rpm red line and cry a bit Been thinking for two or three days now it's AGES since I spoke to you Mike, how crap!

[mike_wall15]

I blame the weather
If you move I'll pop down

[heeman10]

If

[jimmyesh]

Nice one! Glad you closed the poseur in the TT down!! Well done mate

[heeman10]

Update

On Saturday, I realised my tax and MOT were due to run out on the coming Wednesday. My starter motor had started to get very sluggish when hot, due to the heat soak it's suffered over these last two years. On Monday afternoon I checked Ford prices and a motor factor's prices, and the motor factor was able to get a Bosch starter (1.4kW as opposed to the 0.8kW rating of the old motor) that evening, over £120 cheaper than Ford! So I picked it up and fitted it, sorted. Managed to book an MOT for today at 2pm also, so off I went today, confident as ever

That's where the joy stopped I'm still very angry about what happened now, but hopefully that will die down in due course. Lights etc were fine as usual, then he came to the front wheel/suspension/steering inspection, with me in the car and the car in the air. Wanted to jack the front up, but couldn't because it was too low to slide the jack under when it was up in the air. So he went for his hydraulic transmission jack to raise the car. It didn't have the cradle on, so was just the ram, about a 1" diameter steel rod. He lifted the car on the crossmember, slid the jack under, and wheeled the transmission jack away a couple of feet without lowering the ram down.

He then lowered the ramps...next thing I knew, my driver's seat was being punched upwards I yelled, he stopped lowering it and saw the ram He'd dropped the car straight down onto it and punched it through my lovely floorpan, and the seat mount was clearly badly damaged. I got out and inspected it and could feel the hump through the carpet I took the seat out, removed the sill trim and peeled the carpet back to see the mess. I'm not even going to type much about it, it's p*ssing me off re-living it all now. What I WILL say is that the rear offside seat mount had some corrosion in it, and being forced upwards had ended its life, so it's now plated over with steel. I'm fuming that it was damaged so badly...I look after my car so damn carefully and it's sustained all kinds of damage as a result of other people being in contact with it for no more than minutes. It's infuriating.

Anyway, it passed easily on all aspects, and for once, the emissions were welllll within limitations, and the brakes fared excellently once again. It's hard to get mad at the guy - he likes the car, and used to build all KINDS of rally cars back in the day, including several home-made RWD Pinto Mk4 Escorts from bare shells. Cars are just bodies that carry engines to him...not things of beauty and care as they are to me. Ho hum...guess that's one more bit that'll need beautifying when the resto comes round.

[purple_fiesta]

bloody hell man,

[mike_wall15]

You what?! So instead of taking the now 'free' ram out from underneath the car, he left it underneath and lowered the car onto it
What a looser! You don't have much luck with other people and your car! You'd think the guy would have known such things having jacked a car up a million times in his life. It's like me trying to polish a car with a brillo pad, I know I shouldn't do it

Poo

[Raymondo]

Oh dear, not good Did they pay for the repairs?

It looks like someones jacked mine up in the past on the floor of the drivers side footwell as theres a large lump. It can just be seen in the photo's of it stripped, but doesnt seem to have done any damage, still gay though.

[Sphinx]

s**t mate!
Are you going to get it repaired propperly for free or what?

[mrorange2]

Thats s**t mate i would have lamped him one thats outta order.

[heeman10]

Mike - That's correct. He said he's never done it before in all the time he's worked on cars. When we came to do the emissions test, he wheeled the machine over, snagged the computer monitor cable and pulled it off its shelf, about 6ft off the floor. A farmer turned up just as we started MOTing my car, he'd just got a puncture in the big ass tractor wheel/tyre he'd brought in his pick-up. So we changed that for him, and just as we were putting all our weight into getting the tyre back on the rim, it snapped into place and the farmer hurtled towards me and squashed my little finger on the wheel with his 18st or so frame. The day was just destined to go wrong!!

Raymondo - Yeah I didn't pay for any of the repair work, but when I get round to the restoration I'm not having that repair left there, the floor was spot on before that, and you just can't revert back to original, whatever you do, which is why I'm so gutted.

sphinx - As above really...I want a good bodyshop to see to it, not him, or another garage. I want the whole shell to be as new, which requires fine crafts, not an MOT repair-type approach.

[heeman10]

:o Thats poo mate i would have lamped him one thats outta order.

Like I say, he's a good guy, and he's got a great past. He has an enormous mural filling one wall of his unit, of a 6R4, 205 T16, RS200 and something else I can't remember...doing battle on a rally track. He loves fast cars, and asked me to take him out in mine last year, which he thoroughly enjoyed. He didn't do it on purpose, and just doesn't feel the same love for cars I do, so probably doesn't realise just how much it's upset me, which I can understand.

[Ollybee]

Ouch!

[muz]

That sucks Even though its "only" the floor pan it doesnt make it any better. I was gutted about the slam panel on my escort.

[Brammer]

Jesus, i always dread taking my car to someone to tinker with as i once remember seeing someone change a clutch in one of my old erst's

How bad is the damage on the car???

[heeman10]

muz - Granted, at least it's out of sight and all, but it's my baby....I'm so bloody careful with it. The only time it's touched by someone other than me is MOT time, because I'm not registered. May have to change that if I want to keep a car nice!!

Chris - There's one guy I wouldn't mind leaving my car with - the guy I would like to carry out the restoration. Other than him....it never leaves my sight. I carry out a large chunk of the MOT testing, and do any mechanical work if ever it's necessary, bar the welding. I beat the floor back down into shape, and have applied several coats of underseal to the repair, but I want it all doing properly and neatly during the restoration, it can't stay as it is. He didn't weld a nut on underneath, so each time I want to remove the seat, it's a socket and spanner job The original bolt has been replaced by a large 13mm-headed stainless bolt

[MarkRS2K]

unlucky mate

glad it got through the MOT tho

[niracka]

Nice one getting her MOT'd man. Tis a real shame about that little misshap but these things happen from time to time.

Whats next then??????

ollie

[purple_fiesta]

To be fair, when people are standing over me at work it does make me abit nervous and stuffs more likely to go wrong, but if I did do anything wrong my company would pay for stuff to be put right

[heeman10]

Whats next then??????

Possibly enormous amounts, possibly very little and the arrival of something else with the ZT on the backburner. I'm still having to be quiet about my up-and-coming business, but it's safe to say I'll be using the ZT as a development tool for a while, then will either go all-out on it (in the direction of 350+bhp and RWD/4WD with many many toys) or get another car, RWD or 4WD, to enjoy/modify. Watch this space I guess! It's served me well these last six and a bit years, the last two years in particular, so the Mk3 won't be going anywhere. The engine may be up for grabs though

[mk3modda]

gutted about the accident

i know what ya mean about as soon as someone else touches your car they brake something

i have my mot this month and im well worried about where to take it