The real family bus!

After experimenting with estate cars and finding they barely met the needs of the wifes perception of holiday luggage, and the realisation that a 24v mondeo was not ideal general transport I decide to look for a People carrier.

A specific modle MK2 2.3 Ghia ( preferably not in silver ) was the goal, Impending dreadful tax laws made the ideal car a pre march 01 modle. but with them ony being introduced in August 2000 this limited the options.

Eventualy something had to give, and I am having to bite the tax bullet.

The new car is an 02 in Dark blue with under 55k on the clock.

Seems quite good!

faults so far are.

Cruise inoperative
Interior lights inoperative
Parking sensors inoperative
Glovebox hinge broken
Radio code not in.

It had no history but at £2350 it's not a big worry.

I am getting ready to sell the GT, am almost finished breaking the Granada and then the scorpio is getting broken too.

FordFair 2008

Another successful trip to silverstone for ford fair. The fordpower stand had an excelent turnout this year http://fordpower.org.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=5630

The Mondeo Behaved itself. However the handbrake failed again a couple of weeks back, the self adjusting ratchet is faulty.

No News on the 2.0GT other than I have fitted the hatchback gas struts of the granada and it now stays open properly.

The Granada Cosworth is now very very beyond repair, it has no roof, screen, doors, exhaust, etc.... Just need to finish cutting it up.

Lastly, I am considering doing the sensible thing and getting a 2.3 Galaxy to replace the scorpio... Watch this space...

Fix, Fix, Buy....

Wooo hooo...

Ok, I have now fixed the leaking exhaust on the Scorpio and it's now got it's arse in the air waiting for the chassis welding.

And thisevening I have finaly sorted the Mondeo handbrake, a cable had sliped out of the balencer bar.

And finaly... A new one. A 1994 Granada cosworth :) it looks gr8, but the sills are dradful. It was bought for it's 108K engine. But it turns out it's only 81K and as sweat as a nut. Soon to be broken and possibly transplanted to the GT.

Rob

new wheels on GT

Due to previous poor tracking my front tyres were scrubbed badly on the outer edge.

So I got some replacements off Flebay for £51, 3 very good tyres and one fair + rims... Oh and it cost £25 of fun driving through the lakes to collect..





Think they are Mono rims, look ok I guess.

Handbrake Failure.

We have now been subjected to the mondeo's handbrake failing... This was actualy about 4 weeks ago and we are putting up with it. I replaced the leaver, but it did not help... I suspect the calipers arm has shifted past it's stop... Still to sort. Other than that the mono is still doing ok.

The Scorpio is in the new garage, and I am in the process of trying to get the exhaust re-sealed... It's a pain!!

The golf is untouched, although I am looking at a Polo GT engine for it.....

The sierra is untouched.. She's been abused as a building hack as I re-doo the garden

Erika the sapphire has had a few minor bits done. The ignition lock recoded, abs sensors trial fitted and passing the static tests.

Not a lot realy.

Dejapped

Well the mondeo has finaly gone from jap look to normal look. Halford should rename their paints to "MAYBEE" Stardust Silver...

Water water everywhere... Well except in the engine!

So, the week after getting the Mondeo wheel bearing done we went to devon ( 370 miles ) for our holiday. Appart from a little rubbing from the rear tyres she performed very well.. 900 miles covered, but 90 miles fro home the heater went cold and I watched the water temp climb...

I switched off and coasted down the hard shoulder looking for a phone box, fortunatly I spotted an AA van instead and rolled up behind him...

We dragged the car to the nearest service station an put more water in, she started up cleanly but the rivver of water from under the car was a bad sign. we found a hole in the water pump..

A week later, a lot of swearing and the replacement pump was fitted... No aparent damage was done to the engine.

I have now sourced a pair of good front fogs, a bonnet in silver and grill. I took two bonnets of at the scrappy but the first MINT one was blown over as I scavenged other parts :(

Hopefully tomorrow I will get to fitting it up. I also found a perfect set of heater vents ( commonly broken on MK1's )

The sierra GT has had nothing done bar a pair of rear hatch struts ( which has not helped the head clobering hatch!! )

The golf is getting started every week to keep it fresh.

The scorpio is reluctant to have it's exhaust fixed, I tried yesterday to drill the snapped stud but it was no go!!

The sapphire suffed two battle scars in the last week. I caught the door and scraped of some paint last week, and yesterday a spare door was blown over and dinked the wing :( ... I did fit a late cable release boot latch yesterday though. and last week I pulled the fault codes and there was nothing unexpected :)

The only major purchase has been a 2.0 16V Scorpio engine to play with ........

The garage plans are moving forward :)

Late news....

Well the VIC check was done on the mondeo on the 13th of Jan, she passed no problem. Cool. The drive home was rather noisy. Anyway the car was laid up until the end of the month for the TAX.

In the meantime I found a water leak from the cabin air intake, that was duely sorted.

The first proper drive was OK, but the exhaust was blowing badly and banging on the bodywork. The loud noise was still there.. I took off the CAT replacement pipe and reworked it, that solved the exhuast. But the loud noise was still there, and the battry was shafted too!

After about 100 miles driveing ( replaced the battery by now ) it was suspected that the front passenger wheel bearing was shot. So the garage replaced that. ( well they put a second hand hub on as the old one was U/S )

I have also fitted a better leather wheel as the old one was missing the top bit of leather.

Now that everything is sorted it's running well, driving well. Just needs the bonnet and bumper spraying now.


The Golf has been moved of the neigbours drive and has been run up to temperature a couple of times. Water was found under and ontop of the carpets so drying out has started.


Work started on the scorpio too, the front shock was replaced ( snapped spring ) and the drivers side cat is off in order to reseal it. Unfortunatly the studs on the center box are both damaged so its taking longer than planned.

Nothing has happend on the Sapphire.

The Sierra got a new battery as it was causing trouble, it needs a better alternator which I am waiting to arrive!

Almost ready for the road...

Well the Mondeo is almost ready for the road, the poxy 15" alloys have been swapped for 17" TooRA alloys ( painted dark grey ) which look reasonable but were mainly bought for the rubber. She went for MOT last monday and needed a wishbone, handbrake cable, lamp adjusted ( strangly on the drivers side )... They could not do the emissions untill Saturday as the machie was broken..

But I now have a fresh MOT in my hands and the VIC check is beig booked.

Then I need to consider sprayig up the front end.