Mk4 Fiesta refurbishment

Tzardine

Ok, so not officially classic yet, but getting close, and I put it on my classic policy, so I am going to post here anyway.

Was looking for a winter project and keeping my eyes out for a Mk4 the past few months.

Picked up this tidy Mk4 Fiesta during the week for just €500. 1.25 Zetec with just 36k, and not a single bit of rust to be found on the sils or arches, which is usually rotten on these.

These have a bit of nostalgia for me, so the plan is to bring it back to as new condition. First I will do a few jobs to get it mechanically sorted and through the NCT( some wishbones etc ) and then I will work on getting the bodywork and interior as good as new.

Starting a new thread to keep tabs on progress.

JabbaTheHut

Fair play to you. They are a car that most people wouldn't rate as a classic. If it's a Ford it usually is a MK1 or 2 that gets interest. I was at a Ford meeting last year and more than half were Mk1's and 2's. Too common. The phrase goes there's more RS2000 on the road now than Ford ever sold.

A car like this is much better, imo. Different, yet very reliable and you could do 100 miles in it without getting being wrecked. Best of luck in your rebuild.

Tzardine

JabbaTheHut wrote: »

Fair play to you. They are a car that most people wouldn't rate as a classic. If it's a Ford it usually is a MK1 or 2 that gets interest. I was at a Ford meeting last year and more than half were Mk1's and 2's. Too common. The phrase goes there's more RS2000 on the road now than Ford ever sold.

A car like this is much better, imo. Different, yet very reliable and you could do 100 miles in it without getting being wrecked. Best of luck in your rebuild.

Well this is awkward, I have a Mk2 also :pac:



This is the same standard that I am going to get the Mk4 to.

You are right though, the Mk4 is not considered a classic by anybody really, but this shape is pushing 25 years old now.They are becoming very thin on the ground now though, particularity the 3 door, and I think that in another 5 years or so they may be considered a bona-fide classic.

They are a really fun car to drive too, especially in Zetec form.

Tzardine

First little job done this evening.

The passenger window was off the runners, and only held up with a peg and piece of paper.



The door card was also damaged at the side and top, looks like whoever last took it off just ripped it from the door and then badly glued it back.





Got the door card off and discovered that the regulator cable had snapped. The glass was also completely loose in the frame, it had been unscrewed from the reg.




Drilled out the rivets for the old reg, and then put in a new regulator (used) which I had bought from ebay. It got dark by now so pictures are not great.



I also re-glued the vinyl on the door panel, it looks perfect again, but forgot to take a pic unfortunately.

Just need a few new plastic clips for the door trim to replace the broken ones that the previous owner smashed.

Window now works as it should.

Next job this week will be to do the heater control valve as the heater is not blowing hot.

JabbaTheHut

Lol. I read back what I wrote, and left out that it was Escorts I was talking about. Nought wrong with a Mk1 or 2 or 3 Fiestas.

Tzardine

Another small job done this morning, the heater control valve. Very common failure on these.

The valve is behind this little panel at the rear of the engine bay, you can see the two pipes going into it.



With the panel removed you can get much easier access to the valve.



Old valve and new valve side by side. You will notice that both of the plastic ends snapped on the engine side. They were easy to get out of the water pipes thankfully.



New valve dropped in and plumbed. Nice and handy.



Nice easy job this. And its nice to get the heat sorted. Jobs like these are really satisfying.



Next job is to fit two new mirrors that I have ordered, and the door trim clips. Then its off for an NCT.

RobAMerc

love these - we had a mk1, mk2, mk3 and mk 4 - and some later ones too. Super little cars. The MK2 has a very distinctive sounding engine and the mk4 we had was a Ghia with 1.25 ztec engine ( if I remember correctly ) felt proper upmarket and handled superbly ( certainly much better than the mk1 or 2 )

looking forward to keeping up with this ! good luck with it

Beltby

There's a racing series for them in mondello. I'm sure some of the racers would have interior parts knocking about.

Good luck with it. The zetec engine turned those into a nice peppy little yoke.

Isambard

those heater valves can cause the engine to overheat when they fail, very easy fix. A couple of times I bought Fiestas being sold because of this fault, bargains they were,

circadian

Is that a wee Mivec Colt in the background?

Tzardine

circadian wrote: »

Is that a wee Mivec Colt in the background?

It is, and its a proper survivor.

Absolutely original with just 40k. Not bastardised like every other one out there.

circadian

Tzardine wrote: »

It is, and its a proper survivor.

Absolutely original with just 40k. Not bastardised like every other one out there.

Lovely. Very rare little things and tons of fun to drive. Good luck with the MK4 work!

listermint

Tzardine wrote: »

Ok, so not officially classic yet, but getting close, and I put it on my classic policy, so I am going to post here anyway.

Was looking for a winter project and keeping my eyes out for a Mk4 the past few months.

Picked up this tidy Mk4 Fiesta during the week for just €500. 1.25 Zetec with just 36k, and not a single bit of rust to be found on the sils or arches, which is usually rotten on these.

These have a bit of nostalgia for me, so the plan is to bring it back to as new condition. First I will do a few jobs to get it mechanically sorted and through the NCT( some wishbones etc ) and then I will work on getting the bodywork and interior as good as new.

Starting a new thread to keep tabs on progress.

Are you aware theres a ghost and a window in your house? And then in the next photo the window and ghost disappears !

noelf

RobAMerc wrote: »

love these - we had a mk1, mk2, mk3 and mk 4 - and some later ones too. Super little cars. The MK2 has a very distinctive sounding engine and the mk4 we had was a Ghia with 1.25 ztec engine ( if I remember correctly ) felt proper upmarket and handled superbly ( certainly much better than the mk1 or 2 )

looking forward to keeping up with this ! good luck with it

Yamaha designed the engine ..

Tzardine

listermint wrote: »

Are you aware theres a ghost and a window in your house? And then in the next photo the window and ghost disappears !

Yes thats our Halloween decorations. Thats all I need to put up to scare the kids away. :pac:

noelf wrote: »

Yamaha designed the engine ..

That's right. It was in a different league to the 1.3 pushrod engine that you could also have. Much more refined and nice to drive. Quite nippy too. Was probably the best engine you could get in a small hatch of that era, as most other cars were still using some old 8 valve lump.

JabbaTheHut

Was a great little engine. Much smoother and quicker than the 1.3. Mind you, there was a couple of decades of devolopement in between the two.

RobAMerc

Tzardine wrote: »

Was probably the best engine you could get in a small hatch of that era, as most other cars were still using some old 8 valve lump.

When you compare that engine and chassis combo to what the likes of GM were knocking out in the Corsa - I'll just never get how some people could pick a Corsa over the Fiesta.
I guess the same could be said of a lot of GM stuff. Fiesta was over engineered, the Corsa was over styled - you know which people care most about!

Tzardine

Nice day today to do a job on the car.

I plan to use the car when finished to do some long distance spins, maybe even taking it down to Spain to visit family next year. So to make the car more comfortable to drive I am going to sound proof the body as much as possible.

I bought a load of Noico 80mil sound deadening - enough to do the whole car. Decided to do the doors today to test it out. Very happy with the quality of the material. It is surprisingly heavy. The pictures dont show it, but the weight of the material added to each door is approx 1 Kilo. Its a very easy material to work with though. Used a heat gun and a roller to get good adhesion to the door.

First I took off the old membrane and cleaned the door up.



An a picture of the finished passenger door



Fitted new clips to the door cards (they are from a BMW apparently) and the cards went on no problem with the extra material.

I got an NCT date in 2 weeks, so after that I will strip out the interior and do the full job on the sound proofing. I am keeping my eye out for a new interior. There was a "Black" version of the fiesta that came with a nice leather interior - but might take a while to find one. The existing interior has cleaned up well however.

I also fitted two brand new wing mirrors which cost the grand total of €27. Thats the great thing about Fiestas, parts are so readily available and cheap as chips.

Lets see what the NCT throws up.

kaizersoze

****Follows Thread****
Well done and well wear. Lovely project.
I love the Fiestas. This is my MK3.5.....

JabbaTheHut

kaizersoze wrote: »

****Follows Thread****
Well done and well wear. Lovely project.
I love the Fiestas. This is my MK3.5.....

Lovely car. That RS kit is rare these days, considering how many Fiesta Flairs were sold.

kaizersoze

JabbaTheHut wrote: »

Lovely car. That RS kit is rare these days, considering how many Fiesta Flairs were sold.

Aye. Not many alright. Most if not all were vans though which probably didn't aid their survival.

Tzardine

She passed this morning. Only one advisory on the age of one tyre. The tester could not believe that it was rust free.

Next jobs on the list.

Brakes all round - fluid needs changing, so might as well do discs/pads/shoes at the same time since total cost is only about 75 quid.
Timing belt & water pump - probably ok, belt was apparently done 5k ago, but no idea how many years, so doing it for piece of mind
Clutch release is a little noisy, so will do the clutch kit - again might as well since they are so cheap.
Finish the soundproofing and then off to the body shop for some tlc.

All told, it should stand me about 1,500 including the paintwork when done.

I need a new air compressor, so keeping the eyes peeled for some black friday deals.

kadman

Thats a brilliant NCT for any car.

Nice tight vehicle, well done:)

passatman86

Weird place the nct centre
Like waiting at the principals office
Well done on the pass

Tzardine

passatman86 wrote: »

Weird place the nct centre
Like waiting at the principals office
Well done on the pass

Its even weirder these days, you have to stand outside in the cold and wait. It was before 9am on a Sunday so nowhere was open even to get a coffee and hide.

At least it wasn't raining I guess :pac: