jimmyesh on Mon Mar 07, 2011 4:54 pm
79-85 wrote:
Esh took me for a spin in this today, it's ballistic. 8)
Cheers Si, glad you like it mate! 😀
Well, it's been a hectic and exciting few days 🙂 The biggest development is that the car has now driven over 200 miles on public roads in the last 2 days 😀 Thankfully they have so far been trouble-free 8)
Here's some pics I took on the weekend after I'd driven it from my home in Colchester to my folks house in Kent (85 miles). The sponges you can see through the windows are taped to my mountain bike to stop it smashing them when I drive over bumps! :oooh:
I originally intended on just doing a few local journeys to test it but I've been sent on a course near Reading for 3 months so it made sense to commute in this! 😆 :devil:
It is absolutely FANTASTIC on the motorway - somehow I randomly made a proper laid-back mile-muncher when that was never really my goal! 😳 It has such a tall 5th gear but also so much readily-available and wide-ranging torque that it is almost like driving a powerful diesel at sensible motorway speeds. Staying in 5th, you only need to dab the throttle at 70 and you just get an instantaneous whoosh from the GT28 and obviously a big shove in the back and three figures come round almost instantly!:D The STACK capillary temp gauge rarely even gets up to 85 degrees on a run, and in traffic it's behaved ok so far - I do wish I had a milder clutch though (one with central damper springs!) as mine's a bit "on-off".
Also, another pleasant surprise is the fuel consumption - obviously I am taking things gently at the moment as I'm still running it in etc but even so, it doesn't seem to sup as much as some of my previous fiestas! :oooh: The Lambda Gauge shows everything's good in the fuelling department though.
I did have some late nights last week sorting some power steering issues which were seriously annoying me! 😡 Firstly, I got Hosequip in Colchester to make me this pipe out of a Mondeo MK3 & Fiesta MK3.5 hose - cost me £30 and doesn't leak! 🙂
The fluid leak carried on elswhere though 🙁 The PAS rack that I originally bought from the scrappy had a nasty pinion-seal leak (serves me right for being tight). I fitted another one on Saturday morning and now all is well with no leaks 🙂
My brass oil sender T-Piece had a crack in it which was kindly dumping Castrol's finest all over the deck :rolleyes: The blue alloy one from SpeedFlow has now been fitted and again, no more leaks 🙂
As predicted, the speedo does over-read massively (reads 12.7% over) so 30 MPH is shown as 34, 70 is shown as 79 and 100 is obviously just shy of 113! :rolleyes: I tried to use the little speedo healer unit I bought but it made my dials do all manner of mad things - Instead it can be adjusted through the OBD II port using a Ford dealer service tool to change the axle ratio for the speedo cal. Allinking said he'd do that for me one weekend soon 🙂 .
I did have a bit of an issue with the idle "hanging" when you press the clutch down or stop the car. It was also idling a bit fast at 1100 RPM. Allinking said he might be able to help change the map for the idle solenoid. To see me through until then though, I've made a solid 13mm hose joiner with a 5mm hole through the middle and it's in my idle bypass hose. It does the job well and keeps the idle at about 900 RPM.
All in all, things are good - just want to get a few miles under its belt, then when I have the time & money, it'll be getting properly mapped & set up for a reliable 300BHP :aviator: It's been getting quite a few glances on the roads - you just don't see many around any more.
jimmyesh on Sat Mar 19, 2011 4:47 pm
Had a nerve-wracking journey home yesterday - got caught in heavy traffic for the first time since the car's been on the road - I suppose it had to happen sooner or later :rolleyes: It took me 5 hours to get from near Reading to Colchester - most of which was spent queueing for the thieving Dartford Tolls 😡
After waiting for the fans to kick in the first few times and satisfied that there was nothing going wrong anywhere, I just relaxed and crawled along on my merry way 🙂 Checked all fluids this morning and nothing has changed so all is good :aviator:
Done over 500 miles in her now :Q
Gave the car a bit of a clean & polish today - here it is on my drive 🙂
I went over to Allinking's last weekend but unfortuantely he couldn't recalibrate my speedometer with the OBDII unit he has - I took him for a spin round the block for his troubles! 😛 Hopefully Motorsport Developments may be able to do it when I take it up there...
Bye for now 🙂
jimmyesh on Thu Apr 07, 2011 7:05 am
Have a peek at the new Performance Ford that is on sale today - anything look familiar? :bonkers: :Q
jimmyesh on Tue Jun 07, 2011 5:03 pm
Sorry everyone, I know you've heard it all before! :rolleyes: This time is a bit different in that I'm selling the car finished and road-legal - doesn't make it any easier for me though! 😥
The ebay listing starts at 7:35pm today and the item number is; 190542540299
I have no option really, money's got really tight lately since my wife gave up full time work and went to a 3-day a week job that only brings home about £9k a year. I pretty much pay everything from my wage alone and we're finding things a bit of a struggle right now 🙁
I have some jobs on the house that I need to finish, a holiday to pay for this summer and I'm not prepared to let my family suffer whilst I hve my "toy" on the drive. I don't do debt and am not about to start now, borrowing never helps in the long run. I just can't justify keeping the car and it's heart-breaking to let it go after all my hard work 🙁 .
I'd prefer it to go to an enthusiast, and I'm sure anyone who's not an enthusiast would fork out for a nearly-20 yearold Fezzer anyway! 😳
Thanks again all those of you who kept me going to see this project through and finish it, especially Capri (Al) for featuring it and immortalising it in print :aviator:
I really don't like Ebay as there's so many people all to willing to mess you around but I feel it's the best option as I really haven't a clue what to ask for the car! :oooh:
Obviously from my perspective there's a skewed view on its value due to the amount of effort/time/money etc that I personally put into it but I realise to many others it's just a clean FRST replica with a nice engine transplant.
Let's see how it goes anyway....
jimmyesh on Tue Jun 14, 2011 8:06 pm
Gutted 🙁 Went for less than I would have liked (understatement).
I suppose there's only a certan amount people are willing to pay for a MK3 Fez, no matter what it's had done to it :rolleyes:
Wish I didn't have to let it go for that amount (£3300) but I respect the auction rules.
jimmyesh on Wed Jun 15, 2011 7:11 am
Had this message in my ebay account this morning:
"Hi again I'm sorry to say this and don't no how as I've never done this before I've just had a big domestic over this car as I basically done what no man should do I've bided without telling my missis and she's done one I'm very sorry and gutted I can't completed this transaction send me a cancel transaction and I will send it back so u don't pay fees I can only apologise regards Peter"
Looks like the car is still mine. Blessing I suppose, it's worth far more than that amount - we all know that! :aviator:
jimmyesh on Sun Jun 26, 2011 10:32 am
That's it, it's gone! 😥
The upside is that the new owner is exactly the kind of guy that I wanted to be the next owner, he's called Jamie and is on this forum, called "siesta" I think. He's a really nice guy who's a proper enthusiast, owns an RS1800 too so his garage is pretty enviable now! :oooh:
I sold it for £4100 which I think is a fair price in today's economic climate.
The car sounded and looked amazing as it left my drive, I hope it's good for him and he enjoys owning it for years to come.
Thanks to everyone who commented on this thread and helped me get this car finished,
Bye for now,
Jim 🙂
DanFraser on Sun Jan 01, 2012 9:28 pm
After bouncing round a few eBay owners, this is now at fiesta-si.com!