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.

Front end of mondeo rebuilt.

Well after geting a set of damaged headlights through the post I went back to the scrappy and picked up a nice set of clear later specification front lights.

With them and thee other parts I spend Saturday morning rebuilding the front end. So now it's back together.

I also got a 6speed intermittent stalk and a power roof. The stalk is on :) .. To sorted the roof yet.

I have a pair of good rear calipers to fit next weekend and with that done and the Exhaust sealed up at the cat BYPASS it will be ready to trundle to the MOT.

BRING IT ON!!!

Well I have spent a little time fixing things...

We got a replacement bonnet grill and bumper for the mono, and started work building that up.... And I got a correct colour lower dash for the scorpio to replace the one damaged in the breakin. I am slowly amassing the parts to get the scorpio through the mot.

Passed :)

I spet saturday morning going to the scrappy and hunting for a decent rack for the GT. Fortunatly a 2.0GLX was in ( only a handful of other sierras though! ) I had to remove the bonnet catch to open the bonnet but the rest was straight forward...

After collecting 2 bottles of ATF, I set about changing the rack, which wouldhave been 15 minuets if it was not for a bolt that did not want to slide back in.

But in the end it went, and the car was taken back to the MOT station and got it's ticket after a quick check over :D YAY!!! total cost £79

I also started stripping down the front end of the mondeo, I worked out how to get the headlights and bumper off, but I could not find them in the right colour at the scrappy. Trying a different place next weekend.

Also sourced a tie rod for the scorpio, not cheap from fordparts but at least it's right!

Rob

Moved, Fixed, MOT fails, new one!!!

Well we got moved with a fair amount of trauma!

The scorpio made it almost to the end of it's MOT without any problems, untill wit 5 days to go it blew out a tyre. It was then laid up till last thursday. I had put in a replacement rad and front disks/pads. Also sorted the horn. And took it for and MOT ( with some nice 17" alloys on it... ) :( she's failed on damaged tyres, corroded brake lines, snapped spring, worn track rod, and chassis corrosion. So she's still off the road being worked on ( Slowley )

The 2.0GT ... I put on a MAP sensor, and appart from nocking out the imobaliser she has run well since august. Covered over 1500 miles now. She has also just failed the mot on a worn steering rack, dangerous rear arch and loose fule lines.. She is getting sorted for the retest.

Erika the sapphire now has a full stainless system fitted up, and that's about all that has happend to her.

The MK1 golf plodds on but needs to come off the road realy.

And the NEWS!

a new Adition..

A mondeo 24V Si. She needs a bit of work. hopefully not too much as I don't have time for fixing 5 cars!!

Another Sierra........

Quote " yes I know I have said twice before that I would never have another twincam!!!"

Ok, so Ahhhemm....

The scorpio is comming off the road in a week or so for mot work so I needed some transport, again Ebay came to the rescue with this 2.0GT

Based 55 Miles away and with QUOTE "Coughs and splutters a bit." I paid £77 which was not bad considering it had 3 months tax/mot and 5 good tyres and alloys.

The drive back was interesting, with the car only realy driveable at full throttle. I was a litlte bit worried on the drive back.

I parked up and had a fiddel the next dary with no improvement, use of a Gunson FCR pointed to the MAP sensor. After getting parts from Freinds at FordFair, and five minuets more work, the car was running sweet! Fan tastic ;)

The Scorpio has been runnign well, no major issues since the break in, but the radiatior is leaking. She made it down to Ford Fair fine, and spent the day on the Fordpower UK stand next to Geoff Kershaws Twinturbo 24V scorpio. As I say, the car is comming off the road shortly as it needs the RAD, Tyres, Horn, Exhaust and a couple of other little things sorted.

We are also moving house, so Erika the sapphire had to move too. We needed to move the car before the hous moving, so she was taken up to marks on a trailer a last week.

She is starting to come together, slowley!

July......

Well, things are a bit up and down at the moment.

The scorpio's MOT is due in a month, but she's developed a water leak from the radiator. So I fully expect it to be off the road for a while whilst I sort that and replace the exhaust and bushes and........ So it could be a while!

The Golf was gr8, even made it to the Carlisle VW meet up. THne some W....k put a big dent in the drivers side rear door.

The sapphire is comming on.. She's got most of the interiro more or less in and has more or less a full coat of paint arround the whole car! She's getting moved in a week in order to facilitate moving house...

Grrrrr.....

Been a very busy three weeks.

Wifes MK1 went for it's MOT, they rang up to say that the front shox were shot and 3 brake lines. Being a tad busy I told them to get on with it. Then they rang the wife and said that one of the springs was snapped, she thought I had a spare pair from the other golf ( I seemed to remember chucking them away!) anyway I rushed home could not find them, so told the garage I would drop of the struts and springs from the other golf in the morning... That was duly done and that car was sorted.......

On the morning of dropping off the shox, we went out to the Scorpio, got loaded up and then found that the drivers window was in a server state of disrepair. As was the lower dash and steering collumn cowling. I was not a Happy chappy.. It was bank holiday weekend and it took from that friday morning until the following wednesday for the glass company to sort it ( so much for emergency glass cover!! )

I was now a little worried about the vunerability of my car, and decided that the drive space where the Golf project was needed to be reclaimed. So, the Sierra was driven onto the drive , and the Golf pushed into the garage where it was cut into manageable chunks and parts stripped.. A sad end.

The garage was then tidied up and the sierra driven back in!!!

Yes she drives, stops and turns. The exhaust is useless but I am getting there!

May is here!

Wow, it's May.

I think I have done the sum total of nothing on the Scorpio. Since the last entry. The horn seems to have packed up though, and the exhuast scrape is getting very annoying! I am getting a second hand Stainless exhaust soon, and I am also going to get another set of wheels and GOOD tyres as mine are wrong and running out of life!

The wifes MK1 golf is due for MOT on Thursday, so I have given it a brife once over. A new headlamp bulb and exhaust mounting rubber should be all it needs.

My MK1 now has the engine temprarily in place ( that was a task!!! ) and I have got the back brakes and a nice mongose exhaust to go on it. I have ( I think ) almaost everything to finsihe her off now.

Lots of work has been done of work has been done on the Sapphire. The engine is now in permenantly and the engine test run. Welding is complete, wiring is almost complete and I have started the preping of the boddy work. Hopefully next week she will be out of the garage under her own steam!

Rob

Keswick Scorpios & SaphWerx

Well today we had another successful scoprio meet at Keswick, nice food in the Oddfellows arms followed by a trip to the Cars of the Stars.. And the more chatting...

Last week was spent on the Sapphy, cleanign up welds, spraying stoinechip, underseal, primer etc.. And modding the fuel and exhaust systems.. Engine has been trial fitted. And I have most parts ready for putting back together now..

And just recently picked up a full leather recaros to repalce the cloth ones :D

So all gooo!!!

Oh and the Golf now has the Vauxhall 16V brakes, VW 100mm Shafts and 16V servo fitted up. It's starting to come back together!!

COOL!!

More work done.

Things are progressing on all fronts!

The sierra Sapphire has had an engine bay makeover, and the transmission tunnel is now complete. In fact all but a couple of tiny bit's of the welding are sorted. I did find out when i ran out of wire that the welder had been supplied set up for .8mm Wire, but the real was .6mm! explains some of the poor welding in the past... Anyway, it's starting to come together. More details can be found at the sierra owners club fourms.

http://forum.fordsierraclub.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=21185

The scorpio is still going ok, it was still poping indicator fuses again. So I have fitted a circuit breaker in place of a temoprary fuse which enables me to reset it rather than wade through endless 10A fuses.

The wife's ( Susan) MK1 Golf has not had a lot done to it. I did fit the passenger door and bonet of the other MK1 a few weeks ago and have tapped back the dent from the tipper truck and covered bare metal with primer. I am now searching for the leak that makes the car suitable for Olympic 1cm diving contests.

My MK1 has had little done, I am amassing the conversion parts which are prety much all sourced now to slot in the HUGE 1.8L Engine. I have also covered up the rusty spots left by Mark after he cleand off various paint.

All in all I am actualy having a fairly productive month so far.

Rob

January Update.

Ok, so it's the new year. What's happend in the last few weeks.

Well I have FINALY finished the transmission tunnel on the Sierra, it only leaves a few minor easy bits to weld up. So the fitting up is begining, I spent some time on the weekend putting the spigot bearing, clutch, flywheel etc on the 24V v6. And have adapted the sump to take oil returns ( it still needs fitting to the engien. ) So things are progressing in that department.

The MK1 Project golf is in "PARTS ACCUMULATION" mode. I have sourced Vauxhall calipers, 16V master cylinder and servo and fuel pump to aid with the upgrades. I was thinking about a colour change but decided best to keep it the same for now for ease and time. I have also got some front wings for it. I am bolting things back up that Mark removed.. The doors are needed as the car cover keeps blowing off!!!!

The scorpio is ok, managed a 800 mile trip to the folks in devon with out issue, even got nearly 30mpg! The indicators have started blowing again though :(

And the wifes MK1 golf is turning into an indoor swimming pool again, possibly due to the replacement door from the other MK1... I have yet to investigate.

1982 VW MK1 Golf...

My m8 Mark bought this about 11 Months ago in a complete but requirng a bit of work state. Within a month it was in a stripped and requiring a fair bit more work state..

http://1982mk1golf.blogspot.com/


Now he's moving house, has got nowhere and has given me the project to complete....

Should be done i a few weeks :D :D :D ...

3 Monts on, and Work on the Sapphire...

Wow! it's been over three months since I last bought a car... I am quite happy with the Scorpio at the moment. I fixed a realy bad idle problem and the car is a lot nicer to drive. I have replaced the dreadful speakers and fixed the Indicators twice now... My list of faults on the car is growing shorter which is nice. It's got over 3K under its' belt ( with me ).

I have now had time to work on my Sapphire project again, modifying the transmission tunnel in order to take the 4x4 Gearbox. It's not prety but it will do the job...

Other than that is been a quiet couple of weeks, I did spin over the 1.8GTI engine that's eventualy destined for my wifes MK1 golf... And have played arround with bits for the 24V engine that's going in the sapphire.

I am hoping to have all the welding on the Sapphire finished by the new year.


I am thinking of taking on my mates stalled MK1 golf project though......... With a 1300GT engine running Bike carbs ;)

Scorpio Meeting.....

Sunday 30th October 2006..... Scorpio forum Borders Meetup.

I had initiated this meet up of fellow owners, but somehow had to travel the furthest to get there!! Anyway it was at the scotish meuseum of flight at East Fortune Air Base, Near Edinburgh.

5 cars made the trip. (3 x 24V) (1 x 12v ) ( 1 2.3 DOHC )

We had a good chat, and a look round the air meauseum and generaly had a good day.

We did a bit of fiddeling with cars, My indicators packed up so we spent some time sorting them. And Tintin's 24V had been put back together very wrongly in terms of it's vacume hoses.. So we started to sort that out..

My car is 4th from left in the photo, and you can see how low it sits on the wrong tyres...

A Grand day out... next time.. KESWICK...

Rob

Fix one, create a load more.... PROBLEMS....

ARG...

I decided to find out why my rear speakers would not work, and to replace a blow front speaker..

After taking half the dash appart I found the speaker outputs from the amp and they were fine, so I checked at the rear speakers themsefls and found that the speakers were DUD....

Anyway, I replaced 2 faulty dash bulbs so that was that fixed...

Next I looked at the speaker, I had to Muller it to get it out, and none of my spare speakers was a direct fit... So that is wedged in at the moment.

I then discovered my CD and Stalk was nwo dead.... BUMMA... Dash will have to come appart again...

And then next day my indicators have packed up!! Marvelous as I was on a Scorpio meet 120 miles from home...

Dam thing...

Fixing problems...

The scorpio continues to keep me busy in my spare time...

I replaced the tailgate release motor last weekdn and happily that has cured that problem and I can open the car from the remote :D, I also strapped up a loose exhaust shield that was dragging.. And replaced a dodgy lambda sensor. ( that code has now cleared... )

This weekend I sold the horrid 15" wheels to another guy from the scorpio forum.. He got about £200 of tyres with them!!

www.fordscorpio.co.uk

so spent half the day dropping them off,

I then fitted a replacement wiper stalk so I now have
wash on front and back!

I also continue to investigate the cause of my rough idle, I did find a melted vacume hose which I have replaced. But there is still a problem and I still suspec a vacume leack on the EGR and EVAP systems...

Otherwise I am still relaly enjoying the car. with over 2K covered in 7 weeks.

Getting down to the volov dregs now.. I have sold over £2K worth of parts and recon I can squeeeeze anotehr £500 if I am lucky. Lots of auctions runnign now...

Rob

A busy week!

It's been a busy week.

I sold one of my 24V Granada engines on saturday in exchange for some new alloys for the Scorpio, it looks much better but the tyres make it sit 2cm lower and the exhuast is scraping...

I also finished taking the volvo to bits and today ( Wednesday ) it's off to the scrapper..

Lot's of parts now on auction and stuff is selling well.. On course for a reasonable return on investment.. Leather interior was collected :) and hopefully someone is up for the gearbox on sunday...

Went to Gateshead in the Scorpio and it was very well behaved. Going back across on saturday to pick up a spare 24V Scorpio engine!!

So the drive is now free :)

Rob

LPG Cheep Motoring.

Being the kind of person that likes to have power on tap, I try and go for the most powerful car in the range.

The volvo T5, Scorpio 24V, etc..

Needles to say power requires fule...

And the 24V uses this in abundance.

Hence I am looking at LPG conversions, modern systems use closed loop multipoint injection and work very well. A modes drop in MPG is usualy expected but with fule being half the price I would be looking at an effective 40MPG urban as a cost comparison.... COOL!

It would take me about 2 years to break even, but one would be more inclined to use the car knowing the costs were lower and every mile is a mile twords saving money.

Expected conversion cost is likly to be £1200.

I just need to get the car running corectly on petrol before even thinking seriously about letting the garage mess with it.

This is my local supplier.

http://www.autogascumbria.co.uk/

OBD-2

I have been playing with OBD2 ( on board Diagnostics 2 ) which is a standard that has been adopted by the majority of motor manafactureres for diagnosing faults in automotive engine/abs and asociated management systems.

I Purchased a lead and software from http://www.obd-2.com/ ( I got the three way lead )

First code read showed 4 DTC ( diagnostic Trouble codes ) which I cleared without paying much attention to them.

Next day I read the codes again and found the code for Bank1 Lambda 2 had a heater problem... Well I have yet to investigate this, or pull any further codes.. But at the very least I have saved £25-£50 already!!

COOL!!