I have always wanted a small, long lasting project and was looking more on the fiesta side of cars. but i found this one not too far and cheap IMO. Wanted to know what you all think of it.

Its here in France so here is the link to it:

http://www.leboncoin.fr/voitures/489371664.htm?ca=10_s

I have contacted the seller and waiting for an answer. He says he is selling it with all the stuff needed to repair it, there is a broken gear box and holes in the side skirts. From whats written in the add. I asked him if he has a second gear box since he does say he gives all thats needed to repair it.

For 400€ i don't think its too bad. But i havent seen it yet. (If he answers i might arrange to see it, a must before buying anyways)

So on to the "me" side of things;

I'm 23 and don't know alot about cars, nor have i ever tried to restore one before. I'm thinking this would be a cool project to take on and not too pricey to start of with (by this i mean getting it clean and running). I have never changed a gearbox, nor welded or fild in any rust holes and such but i'm willing to learn and i think this could be fun.

This is a dumb question but would the engin work fine without the gear box working? I guess i just couldnt select a gear but the engin oculd still turn on and off like normal.

This i guess could be good information for any other restoration project =)

So now what i would like to know is what are the things i have too look out for if i go see this car? So that i don't run into major problems?

Biggest headache will be corrosion, only way to truly assess the extent if it is to strip out the interior completely...

Forget about filling, only true way of getting rid is cutting back to clean metal and weld plates in...otherwise it will just return quicker than you'd think, not to mention drop its value

Mechanics side of Xr3 were fairly simple, biggest issue will probably be parts...

If you haven't welded before, then might pay to get a bit of instruction, or buy yourself a little mig welder and lots of practice...its fairly simple to use and perfectly adequate fir your needs, will pay fir itself 10 times over...secret is in preparation, then the weld is simple

thanks for the heads up on the welding lol. My neighbor knows how too weld so shouldnt be too much troubl to learn a little =)

Well the guy answered and the engin runs, and is registered. He has a working gear box thats given with it and apparently half a garage full of spare parts... Going to check it out tomorrow. I think i'm going to have to take a friend over with me that acutally knows something about cars. lol.

I live in a appartment so i need to find a garage to work on it in XD.

could always strip it to nothing and rebuid in your front room :)

dont laugh, but i know someone that more or less did this....the rebuild was probably very comfortable, just getting it out in one piece was a bit pricey :D

lol that would be cool but i'm on the first floor. i've seen a appartement where it was once a garage. The guy was parking his car behind his couch and kitchen lol. was pretty cool

So the guy told me to bring over some spray to turn the motor on. Is this a good sign? he says cause the gas in it is old... could there be another problem?

not really, petrol has a use by date, so needs flushing out and replaced with fresh stuff

ok so the fact that he is saying that its cause the gas is old is plausable

very...no different with lawn mowers for eg....recommended you either remove the fuel after last use of season, or add a fuel stabiliser so all is well come the spring...and thats just a few months...can imagine what can happen after a few years of fuel sitting in system.

obviously, would recommend draining the tank and use a strong concentration of cleaner with fresh fuel and new filter to help clean out rest of system as part of the project

by the way, same could be said of all fluids on the car not just fuel

but its okay to start it up to see if the engin runs right? not like have it running for 1 hour but just a minute to see if it runs...

should be fine, but ideally, as it has an external pump, could always run it from can of fresh fuel

thanks, ill get back to you tomorrow with pictures after i've seen the car. there is no picture of the interior.

and i have read that there are two different engins that were in this car...