Hey guys, I'm new on here, and so thought I had better post a bit of info on my Fiesta history...
Here goes...
Right, when I was 15, I started working every Saturday in a
local Restaurant. I worked in the Kitchen. After saving up for
just over two years I had managed to save up £1500 and was
ready to buy my first car.
After about a month of looking, I managed to find a Fiesta Si,
that had only done 32,000 genuine miles, with 2 previous
female owners, but the bodywork was a little tatty.
So, after I had saved some more money and passed my test,
the car was booked into a paint sprayer who used to make a
living spraying Rolls Royce panels, and had an excellent r
eputation.
This was the result...
The next thing I recieved, was an Alpine head unit for
Christmas, closely following this I bought a JBL Sub and
500 Watt Crunch Amp. I decided to do a basic boot install
and make it look as professional as possible. So I made
a false floor and everything, routed all the wires neatly
under the carpet and everything, and was quite happy
with the finished product. The false floor took me about
six full days to make
I was loving the car now, until after 6 weeks of driving
the unthinkable happened and the car was written off
in an accident that was quite nasty, and wasn't even my
fault!
Basicly, a car came too fast around a blind corner and
understeered into my side of the road, I swerved to
avoid him, hitting a grassy bank and then barrelling through
six concrete posts. The other t*t drove off. Luckily there
were no serious injuries, but one of my mates in the back
suffered a fractured arm. I couldnt believe it, as the car
was completely written off. All of my hard work and money
had been wasted!
Anyways, after a few days, i got my chin up again after my
mum said she would lend me some money to get another car.
I knew I still wanted another Si, and so started looking,
after a couple of weeks I found and bought this one...
Unfortunately, once I had got it home and managed to have
a proper look at, I realised that there were definately some
areas which needed attention...
Since I had got the new car, i had managed to get another
job at a local race circuit, and worked my ass off to save up
some money to get all the welding done, and get the car
looking nice. Some months later and it was upto a respectable
condition again, and a good standard to start customising...
The modifying could now begin
After saving up more money, I managed to get my hands
on a set of 16" Mondeo Si Alloys, with 205/45/16 Federal
(crap in the wet!) tyres. They desperately needed refurbishing
so I thought I would have a go, how hard could it be?
After ages and ages of sanding, powder coating and spraying
the centre caps, they were finished...
From this...
To This... =D
The only problem was that once they had been powder
coated, I couldn't get an identical colour match to spray
the centre cap lol! Oh well, live and learn...
The next thing I decided I wanted to have a go at fitting
was a Seat ibiza GTI splitter, it took me two days to do
it properly, but got there in the end...
Also, painted the drums and calipers when I changed the
discs, pads, and brake shoes. Just to smarten them up really,
and didnt want bright red calipers or anything like that.
I kept my car that way for a reasonable amount of time
whilst I was saving up again, I also decided to sell my sub/amp
because as i learned more about how my car handled, I realised
that it as just too heavy! lol
Once I had finished uni this summer, I decided that I was going
to give my car a bit of a rebuild, replacing many worn parts
with uprated items, and yet again changing the way the car
looked. Also, there was some more rust starting to come
through in certain places which needed sorting, so...
I ordered two new front wings from Ford, new rear
weld-in arches, as well as a new front valance and my car
went back into the bodyshop for some more work, including
removing rear wiper, door locks, colour coding etc. After two
weeks it came out, and I was ready to start fitting the parts
which I had ordered, some of these are shown in the pictures
below...
After taking my car off the road for about a month, I
managed to fit an Avo coilover kit, with Escort Polybush front
top mounts (courtesy of advice found from Oranoco off here,
top man!). I then fitted the full Polybush kit, apart from the
rear beam bushes, as I have not had the time just yet lol,
I need to save up my strength to take the rear beam off
lol!
I then fitted replacement grooved and drilled front discs
and greenstuff pads (which I havent found to be
particularly brilliant!), also fitted the braided hoses and
obviously changed the brake fluid. Oh yeh, and changed
the rear brake shoes and wheel cylinders. I decided to
paint the calipers and drums matt black, as I wanted to
refurb my alloys in a dark anthracite colour, as you will
see below.
I managed to acquire the XR side skirts and arches pretty
cheaply off ebay, and got the bumpers (with fogs) from a
local scrapyard. I decided to remove the standard blue
coloured mouldings in the white bumpers. And have them
all smoothed.
After some deliberation it was decided that I would have a
go at fitting the VR6 chin spoiler, after reading alot of posts
on this on this forum, I was worried as to how difficult it
would be.
After three days in the my garage i was finally happy
with how it looked, fitted, with no gap in the middle, it
looked spot on. Oh yes, it is quite difficult btw lol!
I started work on the clear lights and tinted them red and
black, until they were finished to a professional standard.
The wheel refurb took me three weeks of on and off work,
I sprayed them in a Ferrari Anthracite colour which i had to
have mixed specially. I also decided to laquer in some Ford
Racing stickers I managed to find on ebay. I thought they
looked pure sex!
The reason that i have now got cossy wheels on, instead
of the dark ones is because I had an unfortunate incident
in my car where I understeered into a kerb from some spilt
diesel at about 20mph in Wigan. After assessing the damage,
the front left wheel was completely buckled, and the FL wishbone
had bent near the ball joint (at the weakest point), luckily though
the coil over damper unit was fine (phew!). As a result, I thought
it was as good a time to get some new wheels, so I got the
wheels and got Toyo T1-R 215/40/16 tyres stretched over them.
I have found that these tyres are absolutely sh*t hot, especially
in the wet .
Well that is more or less everything lol! I missed quite a bit off
stuff to try and keep it brief but you get the idea.
You have probably learned that I can waffle for England!
The next thing I will be doing on ma car is the brakes
(again lol!) I have got some Escort Cosworth 4x4 front
calipers on the way, then will refurb them, and put them
on with EBC discs, and Mintex C-Tech pads. I'm also working
on some original Si bumpers to go on it with the Fibresports
bib and Espace splitter, I took them away to be sprayed this
morning. So, fingers crossed i will be able to visit some
shows next year lol! I haven't been to one yet!
All opinions welcome,
Cheers, Dave!
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