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Restoration Project


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Hi All

18 months ago my mk5 Fiesta was close to being written off by an uninsured plumber towing a caravan, to make matters worse it's my first car and i had only had it two weeks to the day.

However at 31 years old with a shrewd old head I got every penny of my money back on the car that i had paid for it from the uninsured driver and my plan was just to save up, move on and get a different car but i have fallen in love with the little motor and cant bare to part with it...

The previous owner looked after the little fella, serviced regularly, kept it smart and added a hell of a lot of sporty mods on the way, i think it's high time that i restored the car and get rid of all the dents, cracks, scratches and scars from the infamous caravan incident.

For this restoration i am going to need a little help and a point in the right direction for a few things.

I hope you guys can help :)

(Keep your eyes out for the numbered topics for problems that i need to fix / get fixed)

Cheers

Dan

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Hi Dan, sorry to hear about your incident. I don't understand those without insurance! I hope all is well.. What have you got planned on your list to tackle first? Or are you still on the planning stage of the project? I'd like to keep up to date with your thread and try and help you as best as I can with things!

Cheers

Nathan

Sent from my iPhone using Ford OC

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Hiya

I am currently going through the planning phase, working out what order to get the bits done and trying to get some prices together so that i know what money i am playing with...

Will post the problems, scenarios and rough plan outline this weekend :)

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I hope everything goes well for you, they're a super little car I sold my mk5 flight in feb and bought a mk6.5 good luck, post photos as you go!

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Hi Dan, don't know if you have these already from DMB graphics, gel overlays £13 a set for your car, they are fab, however DMB will no longer be doing the ford logo ones after June. So get in there quick if you haven't already, its a small but well worth it mod! They have some chrome and silver ones or white and chrome would look great too, or whatever you fancy while they still have them!

http://www.dmb.uk.com/prod/69/ford-badges-gel-overlays-fiesta45#colours

Hope this link works :-)

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Hi Sam, thanks for the link for the gel overlays, you're right they do look good :)

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Hey Dan, how's it going so far?

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So far i have done nothing but clean the thing haha....

I have been going to see my friends to try and get some work done on it but we have all been busy modding their cars for last nights event, hopefully now i can try and find the source of the dashboard problems so that i can start work on the cosmetic damage.

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Hey Dan, nothing wrong with cleaning the thing! When I got my Mk5 it was parked up safely until I sold my mk 4, all I did was clean it for a month!! Promise me you'll seriously look at DMB gel badges! I'm a huge fan of these and they'll never be available after June! Ask the rest of the club! :-) I'm just sad I have no other places to put them ha ha, thought about replacing tax disk with one when no more tax disks are needed.

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Haha i am considering it, my car is debadged at the front but thinking of putting a black badge on the back to blend in with the black lock and handle trim for the boot, put a little black one on the steering wheel so that it blends in and then put a silver one on each of the front wings in a similiar position to where the ghia badges used to be on the ford orions.

Need to get my door and front wing sorted first though, i have a new front wing at work but needs spraying and fitting and i am still looking for a new door...

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Picked up a new door, front wing, and rear bumper for the car but need to find a new lock for the door, any ideas people?

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Is it just the barrel? if so you can buy them off eBay and then set them up for your key

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Getting the dents removed on Saturday :) :) :)

I was trawling the internet as one does and someone local breaking their Zetec S had the parts i need.

As mentioned above i managed to get a new door, front wing and rear bumper for £50, unfortunately the key to the drivers door was sold with the ignition barrell, i followed Resident Loons advice and trawled through eBay and picked myself up the new car door locks for £12.99 inc P&P and next day delivery... :)

Hopefully the spire clips and acme screws will be arriving Wed or Thursday so i should be able to drill my wing off Saturday morning and get the new one straight on, i have a knowledgeable friend who is going to fit the parts for free, well i will pick him up some beer but it's as good as free :)

However whilst he is in the mood for repairing my car i'm gonna get him to help me flush my system out in case there is an air lock because my temp gauge keeps shooting up to the red and then hitting zero sporadically, as a process of elimination i'm going to flush the system through, check the thermostat at the same time, if it doesn't cure it then i will get a new cap for my coolant tank, failing that i will have to look at the head gasket, but thats a job i don't need to worry about yet...

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Hi Dan,

Good result picking those parts up for £50! as for the keys and barrels, fingers crossed you find its an easy process to complete. and if you can get the car pretty much repaired for under £100 then that is an excellent result!

And beers are definately as good as free!

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Yeah got a right result with the parts, once they're on then its alloy refurb, rust removal, paint job.....

Endless list............... :S

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The spray job is a job you could opt to do yourself? if you get a tin of spray paint (or multiples) you could just sand and prime the car and do it yourself, it can look just as good although not the day it left the factory, but it gives you more room for manouver when it comes to touch ups :p

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james, was u aiming at graffiti style? lol

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haha, not quite!

Just generally speaking it seems popular around some parts of medway. I have seen what appears to be a respray from a spray can and then seen them touching up the car as well, barely noticeable.

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RE: your tempetature problem, are you sure the car is ACTUALLY overheating?

I say this because as you already have a problem with your dash lights, it could be your instrument cluster at fault, or even the coolant temperature sensor. Needs more investigation. Good luck with the project.

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As it happens i saw a video on the haynes website where they were removing rust and repainting with spray cans and it looked pretty damned good but i don't fancy it myself, the whole car could do with a once over properly i reckon, there's only so much you can do with a bottle of T-Cut haha...

It could well be the instrument cluster, but feeling the hoses as the car warms up and the noise the water pump makes i reckon there is an airlock and the waterpump is shagged out, i'm going to back flush the system Saturday just to wash the radiator out etc and leave the water running through whilst i fit the rear bumper just to clean it out and remove any crap and air bubbles that could be blocking it up, i have got a thermostat, water pump and fan belt change planned for the end of the month (pay day to be precise) and also at some point some point between now and pay day a wheel bearing change too.

I am gonna put the head gasket change off until next month because i want to get the cam / timing belts, tensioners and pulleys changed at the same time :)

After that i think a full service and an FSE billet power boost valve in place of the fuel pressure regulator is on the cards

Once that's all done i will have the ECU looked at and possibly remapped, the previous owner had it remapped but i think due to its age and the additional boost valve it will need looking at again, but thats sort of August / September time i imagine.

Still gotta solve that dashboard conundrum .....???

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And sorry, to answer your question, yeah it has over-heated, i was slowing down at a junction / roundabout on Thursday last week and i noticed steam out the side of the bonnet, that was an impromtu cigarette break on the hard shoulder with the bonnet open whilst the car chilled out for ten minutes :(

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  • 2 weeks later...

Slowly getting there with the restoration, i have found that i have less tolerance for motor repairs than i initially thought!!!!

I fitted the new rear bumper myself last weekend and was so proud that i managed to unscrew two bolts and two screws that i thought i was a national hero haha, this weekend myself and a few friends had a bash at putting on the new door and wing, we got as far as changing the lock over on the new door before giving up due to the ridiculous amount of faffing about with the fixing plate...

As i get ever closer to making the car look good again i am having more and more technical problems with the car....

The overheating problem has magically vanished without the system being tampered with or flushed etc, but i have a new waterpump, thermostat, thermostat gasket and fan belt at work ready to go on the car, just need someone who knows how to fit them, and now my brakes have started making a horrible noise on the passenger side and not just under braking and i have what sounds like wheel bearings shagged out on the driver side....

Just need to come in to some money to solve it all, same boat as everyone else :(

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Its good progress none the less, its difficult and pushes patience lol. The amount of times I have started a job and regretted it I cannot count :p

Definately worth fitting the new bits you have anyway, but I would say take the front caliper off and as long as the pads are good, just apply a bit of copper grease to the back of it and see if that stops the noise.

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The lock changing proved to be rather difficult as the door panel doesn't allow decent access to tighten the fixing plate to hold the barrel in place, after extensive tapping with a hammer and punch at obscure angles i got the lock fitted to find that the coil had fallen off during the process, so i imagine Tuesday i will have to remove the lock again, replace the coil, and attempt a refit....

Would have done it tomorrow but unfortunately the brake pad on the passenger side fell off last night so now there is a metal plate grinding against the brake disc so tomorrow the car will be in a garage whilst my bank account gets raped for labour charges :(

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