So I recently decided that the Citigo, although a great car, is not for me as I don't think Finance was a suitable choice for me. 

 

This lead me to keep my eye out for little bargains which are generally in good shape but needed some work. Then this car Came up on Copart which cost a mere £200 (including fees) plus £85 delivery from Sandwich to Medway.

 

Its a 1995 Mk3 (.5) Ford Fiesta 1.3 LX Finesse! You can tell from its name, it Ooozzes pure class and sophistication. Already shoe horned into the garage.

 

 

 

 

So what does £200 of Ford Fiesta 1.3 LX Finesse actually get you? Well this little gem was blessed with:

 

MoT till Nov 2014

60BHP 1.3 HCS Engine (fitted with the Latest Weber Single Point injection system) and 84000 miles on the clock.

Front Electric Windows

A Thick layer of Dust & Dirt

Rev Counter

Mars Bar (or other confectionery snack) powered Sun Roof and rear windows

Central Locking

An empty Radio Shaped hole in the dashboard

An finally a dent on the Near side wing.

 

After having a good look over the car, I appear to have one of the rarest sights to man, a 19 year old Ford with practically no Rust on it at all! However while the body was good, the Brakes weren't.

 

 

As it does not have ABS, It has 240mm Solid Front discs, which in Fighting shape can go from 70mph to Warped in no time at all and as you can see below the Pads and Discs are in need of replacement. The rear drums were fine, however the Shoes were as bad as the pads. not much life in them at all!

 

 

 

 

The only problems ive had so far regarding rust were the 4 studs holding the drums onto the rear axle. For those who dont know the Drums is bolted to a wheel hub, this nut is done up FT (about 250Nm) so it is advised to leave it alone and to remove the hub & Drum by loosening the 4 M10 bolts which holds it to the rear axle. Its easier said then done when 3 of 4 are sheered despite liberal application of WD40.

 

While waiting for parts I set about having a look at the engine (blurry pic to follow) Its the 1.3 HCS (High Compression Swirl) version of the old Kent Engine, which was used in one way or another from the Mk1 Fiesta all the way though to the Mk1 Ford KA, with changes such as Head design, Removal of Points/ Condenser, later removal of a Distributor with the addition of Fuel injection.

 

 

I found it had the Weber CFI (Centrally Fuelled Injection) a magnificent SPI (Slow Performance Intended) system which has only one interesting feature. When operating the throttle cable you can actually see the Fuel being sprayed into the inlet as the single injector is mounted at the top, apart from that its a ugly looking bit of engineering.

 

 

 

Another "Ford" feature is the shape of the wishbones, whose rubber bushes are even less reliable than the Mk1 Fabia's! :peek: , due to the bushes orientation as they wear and perish it causes an interesting characteristic where the car will drift to one side when acceleration (Torque steer Wooooooo! ) or when braking. One side is worn so ill be replacing that too.

 

 

So thats my newest (yet oldest) project here is my todo list:

 

Front Brake overhaul (Pads n Discs)

Rear Shoes

New Brake Fluid

Engine service, valve clearances, Oil + filter + Plugs + Air filter

Offside Wishbone replacement

Clean

Fit a Radio

Pull the dent out

Tax

Fit Rally Spot Lights (ohh come on its a Ford Fiesta and the "boy racer" in me is screaming for them) 

People pay a lot of money for torque steer.

You should leave that feature in.

People pay a lot of money for torque steer.

You should leave that feature in.

 

While id love to the MoT man wont let me in November :(

My mother used to have one of these with the wonderful 1.3 engine hers was an automatic which was brilliant but just watch rust on the arches, boot, and front valance as they go like mad if neglected!

This is a 5 speed manual and appears to be sat in a garage most of its life because as i said there is no rust on this (except surface rust on the spare wheel plate)

 

very impressed with the condtion.

Nice

Is this to replace the citigo when it sells?

I plan on replacing it before that, possbily next week once im happy its mechanically sorted. Ill get it insured and Taxed then put the Citigo in the garage till it sells.

Great start look forward to the updates

Update!

 

So ive had a mixed day today. I took the Wheel Hub (with the 3 sheered bolts) to work back on tuesday, the onsite machine shop said they could have a look at it for me....

 

They did nothing. So.... As a part of my apprenticeship I spent a year at a training centre, They have Mills, Lathes Pillar drills and 2 Radial drills each weighing about a ton.

 

I Called them up and they said i could take it down and they would help me out, provided i "let some apprentices have a little go first to get real world experiance" I said yes as i was in the same boat 2 years ago

 

Anyway, we set about grinding the bolts flat then drilling them. As they were M10 bolts, the largest drill we could go to was 8.5mm (M10 Coarse Tap drill) ended up going witt 7mm to allow for any inaccuracies in the centre punching of the bolts. After that a lecturer whos bit of an idiot stepped in to "take over" end result he snapped an "EZ Out" with it stuck in the hole. As they are really strong steel (cant remember its exact name) theres no chance of drilling it out, or pulling it. So we had to undo the wheel bearing nut (meant new nut and new bearing) then hammed it out. 

 

Then with the stub axle off we jsut threw it on a mill and milled them out, amazing when the mill bit grabs the left over thread and drives it out so we turned the left over bolt into a spring/helicoil.

 

Ill pop a picutre up of the end result.

 

Then went home and did Both rear drums (PITA as ive never done them before an the garage was cramped) and did the front near side disc. Started to strip the Offside when i realised the time! (9:30pm)

 

More progress to follow tomorrow

So here are some photos from friday:

 

so this was the stub axle fitted to the drum with the 3 sheered bolts

 

 

Here they are drilled out.

 

 

then tapped after the remnants of the bolts had been removed.

 

 

 

Then yesterday i spent all day finishing the brakes, sorted the wishbone (which i made more difficult) then bled the brakes. finished fettling some more bits and did an engine service, needs valve clearances to be adjusted but its fine for now.

 

However the car still doesnt hold on its handbrake on an incline, turned out to be a rusted handbrake cable on one side so an new one has been ordered.

 

here is a shot of the old/new shoes

 

Another Update.

 

So i found the Handbrake cable was seized on the near side and will be repairing that tomorrow. However to remove the drums (without removing the stub axle too) you are supposed to redo the wheel bearings and replace the hub nuts as they are one time use.

 

Also ive decided as i found some rust on the body work (bottom of the door, a patch on the front offside wing) to do some painting. Ive never really done any paint/body work and want to give it a go, n given the price of the car it doesnt matter if i make a mess of it!

 

So jobs for tomorrow:

 

Drums off, New Handbrake cable then refit drums with new wheel bearings and nuts.

Remove rust/start to prep the body areas for paint.

Going well so far, soon be on the road!

Another Update.

So i found the Handbrake cable was seized on the near side and will be repairing that tomorrow. However to remove the drums (without removing the stub axle too) you are supposed to redo the wheel bearings and replace the hub nuts as they are one time use.

Also ive decided as i found some rust on the body work (bottom of the door, a patch on the front offside wing) to do some painting. Ive never really done any paint/body work and want to give it a go, n given the price of the car it doesnt matter if i make a mess of it!

So jobs for tomorrow:

Drums off, New Handbrake cable then refit drums with new wheel bearings and nuts.

Remove rust/start to prep the body areas for paint.

Out of interest what rust convertor are you using?

A wire brush and filler :P 

 

to start ill just brush the paint/rust back to get to the metal and see what state its in. I have some Zinc Primer so if needed ill just grind the metal back, treat the fresh metal with Zinc primer then fill any holes.

 

On a serious note i could be the last owner of this car, and im not overally bothered about the condition of the paintwork/body. as long as it looks "ok" then im happy, afterall its a £200 car

Ahh right if you do need any rust convertor throughout the process I'd recommend FE123 it worked well on my parents old one!

Nice one Taylor, my first car was a MK3 Fiesta, P reg 1.1 and I loved it!! 

 

I hope to see it ending up in as good shape as mine was (although mine was only just 3 years old at the time!)

haha well 19 Years has taken its toll on the car, but ill get it good enough for me

Been bit of a pain today. Euro Car Parts said i had enough bearings for both hubs on the axle when i purchased them, the guy at the counter was wrong as there were only enough for one side. Then again i should have checked, but lack of experiance caught me out

 

Took an hour to get to my local industrial estate pick up another bearing kit and to return home. So i got the bearings fitted, removed the old handbrake cable, no surprise it was snagging.

 

 

 

got that all sorted, got the handbrake cable fitted, a bit of imagination was needed as the clips which hold the cables underneath were old and all the plastic cracked.

 

got it all back together with the handbrake roughly adjusted, hey presto!

 

 

so i then had to put the exhaust heatsheild back on (left it off incase i had to readjust the handbrake cable) 

 

After that i had some dinner, got my stuff tidied up then had a go at the rust patches, just took the angle grinder to it to get down to bare metal. unfortunately the rust along the bottom of the door is from the inside out, the inner lip of the door is really crusty.

 

Nothing i can really do without replacing the panels, so its bit of a bodge for now. Likewise here someone jacked right on the edge of the sill causing this dent, here i grinded the rust back as best i could.

 

did the spray work this morning.... im so disappointed im not even going to bother posting any pictures. Yes it was warm today but was a little gusty which has ruined the finish.

 

 

also cleaned the car out (very disgusting) only to put on the fan which blew loads of new dirt into the car. Also had the battery die (left the interior light on) so i bump started it in reverse on the driveway (the driveway is almost a 1 in 5 incline) all because having the doors open and the interior light was on!

 

 

further testing of parts/features found the nearside window regulator was mangled! :S

 

 

 

So now its propped up with a bit of wood and a screw.

 

In the mean time i washed and cleaned the rest of the car, albeit a crap job. Now its ready for me to drive it on the road, so Insurance monday and tax after that.

Insurance sorted for wednesday, going to get a new MoT Print out (supposedly i can go to any MoT centre, pay them £10 and they can print off a new MoT for me, provided i give them the reg and V5C no.) then get the car taxed.

 

Then ill probably go for a long test drive (with tools just incase)

Quick work!

This is cool!

I like it!

This is a blast from the past........ive worked on loads of these over the years,ive always undone the hub nut & never had a problem,done it on puma's & focus & ka's too. What condition is the sump in......they always rot out on these engines. Hopefully you never have to replace the clutch pedal rachet adjuster mechanism........what a horrible job that is! 

thanks for the comments guys

 

So turned out i didnt need to get the MoT Certificate (so i saved £10) got the car taxed, insurance starts tonight at midnight, ive already dropped my Citigo into the garage at my mums and the fiesta is sitting on the drive ready to go

 

its going to be quite a difference driving a tight, less-than 2 year old, citigo  and a 19 year old fiesta which is just as sophisticated as a mallet.

 

edit: The sump looks ok, engines very tappety atm perhaps more than usual. so ill check the valve clearances.

Good stuff mate enjoy it join the club laughing at all of these people in their greenlines as we go around in our bargain motors costing less per mile