August 2001
Thursday 30th August 2001
HiSpec have run out of Lucas brake calipers. Delays, delays, yet more delays!
Wednesday 29th August 2001
Finished re-assembling the rear suspension last night. Just waiting for the rear disk conversion kit before I can drop it back on to her wheels again. Jim Hearne has a spare steering shaft with a hexagonal head on it, which he's bringing over on Saturday. As well as a rear-window rubber.
Tuesday 28th August 2001
Now you'd think that when you asked the chap at the Ford dealership for a particular part, that'd be the part he'd order for you? No. I asked for a rear-window rubber for a Mk2 Fiesta, and he ordered a tailgate rubber. Duh!
Ordered the rear disk brake conversion from HiSpec. They're awaiting a batch of Lucas brake calipers, so it may take a while to arrive 8(
Demon Tweeks have done it again. I know I said "never again", but I weakened on Friday and ordered some parts from them. The steering wheel boss for the Momo wheel is for a Mk2. Now they're saying that they dont do one for the Mk1. If they'd said that on Friday I wouldn't have ordered it. %$&"£%"^. Does the top half of the steering column from a Mk2 Fiesta fit on a Mk1? I guess we'll have to find out the hard way. They offered to sell me a Mounteney boss, but that'd look crap sitting underneath the Momo wheel. And the salesman, David, was really pushy! And I mean, really pushy. He just wanted to sell me that other steering wheel boss. It was like his life depended on it. Last time I use Demon Tweeks, for certain. I'll check the Haynes manuals tonight to see what the differences are.
Some great ASCAR racing at Rockingham yesterday. Huge crash in to the wall right under our grandstand, which took out three of the cars. At the end of the 70 laps there were only 10 cars left!, but then again there were only 16 to start with. Still, we had fun spectating.
Sunday 26th August 2001
Swapped the rear axle for the brand-new one I bought at the KitCar show in May for £50. It's identical to the original. Theres another KitCar show next weekend at Donington, so I'm going just to see what else I can get as spares for the Fiesta.
Sprayed the rear wheel arches black with stone guard paint. Re-painted the shock absorbers, as they were looking quite tatty in yellow and rust. They're a pair of Spax gas adjustables, quite old, but only covered 25K. I'll replace them over the winter with some 2.25" coil overs. I'm running std XR2 springs at the rear too, just for the running in period. I've decided to convert the rears to use disk brakes. When the drum assemblies came off, they disintegrated with rust and brake dust. Very tatty. HiSpec sell a rear disk conversion, and I'll order one tomorrow, for delivery this week. Hopefully it'll also space the rear wheels out a bit more. for better stability.
Finished fitting the acrylic windows. Just waiting for the rear window rubber to arrive tomorrow so I can get the back door fitted again.
Saturday 25th August 2001
Ordered a Sabelt 6-point Pro-harness with 3" wide belts, a Momo 'Race 80' steering wheel and adaptor and a 12ft 'pull' cable from Demon Tweeks. Yes I know I don't like using DT, but they said everything was in-stock, so it should all arrive on Tuesday. At this late stage, I can't afford any more delays with completing the car, as the race is on to get it ready for Performance Ford to go in to the November magazine. The pull cable will act as the remote battery isolator handle, and mounts on the front scuttle, next to the windscreen wiper arm.
We've quite a busy weekend ahead, fitting the remaining windows, painting the rear hubs etc. No odd-jobs around the house to get sidetracked with, so I can get some quality time in the garage.
News on the pedal box front is that BPSRallye deny receiving my emails and my fax. So I'll call them today to order the box, which may take a week to arrive.
Ordered a new rear-window rubber from Ford. The Fiesta-Center are saying that all theirs are perished, so I'll get a new one whilst Ford still sell them. £30 for the rubber, and it'll be in on Tuesday.
Tim Sturla was entered on the Rally of Finland, co-driving for Saladin Mazlan in their Ford Puma Super 1600, but they fell off on stage 2, with a broken radiator. I sent a text message to Tim last night, and he replied "
Went out after stage two broken radiator very sad getting drunk". Bad luck Tim and Saladin. Better luck on the next round. Check out Saladin Rallying's website, at www.saladinrallying.com and see some photo's of Tim navigating for me here (the shots of the white XR2)Finally, heres the photos of the new dashboard, made from an aluminium box, featuring the Stack ST-200 stepper motor controlled rev counter. It has three sets of 14.5mm ultra bright warning LED's.
Yellow for Alternator charge, which also tells me if the water pump drive belt has broken;
Red for oil pressure below 6 PSI;
Blue for the gear shift warning, programmed to come in at 6800 RPM, with the rev limiter set to 7200 RPM.
The black button next to the rev counter is used for displaying the maximum revs reached, and for programming/clearing the rev counter.
Thursday 23rd August 2001
Windows arrived yesterday from Airedale Race Components.
I've so far fitted the two side windows in their original rubbers, and tonight I'm tackling the driver and passenger door windows. Looks quite easy, as I've retained the trim from around the edge of the door frames, and if I refit the window rubbers, the new plastic windows fit straight in. Just have to remove the vertical rubber strip from the small triangular window seal, and make a bracket to hold the windows in place. Cool. Much easier to fit than I though. The 4mm acrylic is very flexible, and so the windows bend to fit the curvature of the bodywork automatically. Ordered a rear window rubber from the Fiesta Center. That should be with me tomorrow with a bit of luck. She's looking more and more complete as each day goes by. Just need to get the pedal box sorted, and plumb in the brake pipes, and I can drive her!!! Nearly there, at last.Won a pair of tickets to Rockingham on Monday, so we're off to see some Ascar racing. Don't care what the weather does, as the tickets allow us in to the covered grandstand.
Sunday 19th August 2001
Wired in the dashboard. We now have warning lights and a working rev counter. I've got everything crossed that the Airedale windows arrive this week, so I can make some more progress, I'll call them tomorrow to chase them up. Tracked down more details on the pedal box (tnx 4 the emails everyone), I've some phone calls to make this week to order one. Jobs to do this week include painting the rear drums, reversing the front disks so the grooves face the other direction (seems all the photo's I've seen show them fitted the opposite way to mine), and fitting the brake lines within the car. The radiator is still leaking, so Plan B on the water return hose looks a dead cert now.
Friday 17th August 2001
Remember that Hosedirect charged me twice for the one hose in June, and I complained to them and they said they'd refund me. Just had the credit card bill through and theres no refund! I've called them to complain again and they said they 'forgot'. What about the interest I've now been charged on the £50 they over charged me. Not happy!
Wednesday 15th August 2001
Nothing much to report. Airedale can't supply the plastic windows until middle of next week, so I'm definitely not going to the XROC day at Hatton Park on Sunday. I may go to the RSOC day at Donington instead, it depends on what I can find to do to keep myself occupied over the weekend.
Trying to track down the manufacturer or a local supplier of the device shown top right in this picture. Pedal Box picture Its a device that replaces the brake servo, and is sold by a company in France. They're not replying to my emails, so if anyone else can shed any light, please let me know. We believe that its made by a US company called Exact, but I can find no trace of them on the WWW.
Sunday 12th August 2001
Finished fitting the dash. Photo's to follow. Just need to wire up the tacho and the warning lights.
OK, so who keeps sending me copies of the SIRCAM virus? I've just downloaded 7 copies of it, from somebody called
Tejerina. The message body says "Hi, how are you?
I send you this file in order to have your advice
See you later. Thanks".
No thank you, for wasting my time having to download all the viruses sent from your machine. Each message has an attachment. The attachments vary from 160KB to 397KB, so they take quite a while to download. 8(
Friday 10th August 2001
HiSpec brakes finally arrived this morning. On opening the box, the initial reaction is that they're far to big to fit inside the 15" rims! I found an immediate problem when trying to fit the disks. Theres an aluminium ring-insert at the centre of the brake disk, machined to fit on to the Mk1 hub. The diameter of the hub is 63.5mm and the inside diameter of the ally ring was 63.3mm. I called HiSpec and they advised that I file the ally ring to get it to fit! So I sat with some 400grit wet and dry for about 25 minutes on each disk, sanding the inside diameter until eventually they would both fit. Next job was to fit the aluminium mounting bracket. No instructions supplied so I'm guessing which nuts, bolts and washers to use. Q) Why do so few companies supply fitting instructions? Anyway, the caliper then bolts to the bracket, and thats it. The calipers are made from billet aluminium, anodised in black and look very sexy. The wheels still fit on OK, and theres tonnes of room between the caliper and the inside of the wheel rim. I've installed EBC Greenstuff pads for the time being, and I'll use the Hawke Hillclimb pads when she's been run in and I've finished testing at the local circuit.
Wednesday 8th August 2001
HiSpec brakes have let me down. They said the new disks and calipers were to have been dispatched last Friday. I rang them today and they're now saying that I "should have them tomorrow". Thats really not good enough.
Theres a photo of the car in this months Performance Ford magazine, on page 111, the advert for what will be appearing "Next month". Unfortunately, it wont be in next months magazine, as I'm still waiting for brakes, and windows. Hopefully, she'll be in the October magazine, if the final few parts arrive in time. I'm sorry to let everyone down, but I dont want the Fiesta featured until it's finished.
Sunday 5th August 2001
Refitted the radiator, and wired in the Kenlowe fan. I'm using the "AUX2" output from the ECU to control the fan via a fused power relay in the control box. The DTA control software on the Laptop allows you to select the ON and OFF temperature for the fan. Set the "OFF" temperature to 200°, and the "ON" temperature to approx 90°. I ran the engine and kept my fingers crossed. When the water temperature reached 91°, the fan switched on, and when the temperature dropped to 87° it switches off again. And so on. Brilliant. Its not obvious from the settings in the control software as to how the fan switches off again, but it appears that when the temperature is 3° below the "ON" temperature, the fan will stop automatically (which was a relief). I just need to set the temperature right now. I believe that the thermostat opens at 88° so I'm not far off the mark.
Saturday 4th August 2001
Removed the radiator and fitted the cooling fan to it. Very easy to fit, and such a small fan, hope it has the flow to cool the radiator.
Wrapped the exhaust manifold (header) with Thermotec "Cool-it" heat shield. What a painful job. You're supposed to dampen the wrap, and then tightly wrap it on to the manifold, and secure it with stainless steel bands. The wraps easy to put on, maintaining a ¼" overlap, but the stainless bands are a pain. My hands were cut to shreds after wrapping all four pipes, as you can't help catching the ends of the straps! Ouch. The idea behind the wrap is that it reduces underbonnet temperatures, and also keeps the exhaust gasses hot, so the velocity of the gas isn't reduced as the gas flows through the manifold. These both apparently contribute to an increase in horsepower.
Friday 3rd August 2001
Collected the Kenlowe cooling fan from A.B.Butts in town. Its a 9" fan, and fits between the engine and the rad, so it sucks air through the radiator.
Thursday 2nd August 2001
Breather hose for the fuel tank has arrived from Earls (Thanks Liam). I'll fit that tonight, along with the rear-anti roll bar. And I'll make a start on the brake lines that run inside the car and around the engine bay.
Theres some pictures of Jim Hearne's ZVH Turbo converted Quantum on the Zetec Register page. Managed to locate a Steel Sunroof, living in the United States
. I'm now negotiating shipping costs, and should probably get it in September some time. No hurry, I've got until the season starts next year before I have to fit it.