2 doors 1200 2door sedan / Nearly cert ready

[2 doors]

Another day another couple of things ticked off , sorted out some brackets to hold the ends of the bumpers to the guards , also sorted the horn wiring and mounted the horn which is now working ,beep beep.
I have been chasing a tedious little weep on the injection manifold, it was so small it would just leave a tiny damp patch the size of a 10 cent piece , I should have put some need it putty on it , but decided I'd better sort it properly for cert and re sill floss it , which turned it into a flood , so second time around I nearly got it but it was still worse than original , so I media blasted the area and managed to get another stick of sill floss from bunnings of all places , and re welded it today , pretty confident it's sorted this time , and if it is then manifold can be reassembled for the last time on the engine. Once I've removed the windshield AGAIN and re bonded it in, (glass etch was out of date when purchased and led to window bond delaminating )I'll be ready for cert.

[2 doors]

woohoo car is now running again , and in the spirit of this build with many steps forward comes a couple of steps back lol , the water pump is now leaking which is no biggy and easy to fix, and it appears the tyres may be up for replacement as they have started to show cracks in the side walls, they are 10 years old and have spent some time in the sun , I'm not to concerned I'll take it to my warrant guy and see what he thinks.
On a more troubling note when I started it up this time around it fumed like a steam train from the side of the block breather , it did get better as the motor warmed up but then I discovered the leaking pump and the temp started to climb so I shut it down , it's never done that before and was fine when I drove it into the shed before I took the manifold apart so something else to keep an eye on I guess. Still feels like I'm making progress though.

[2 doors]

Wow I see its been a while since I last posted, so to re-cap, I figured out the fuming situation, turns out it wasnt fuming at all, I had a leaky exhaust flange at the head and it was exhaust fumes exiting above the breather, so I pulled the manifold off AGAIN and resealed it and re-installed it.
(this used to take quite some time , but im getting really fast at it now lol) only to find on start up that I had created another exhaust leak between the exhaust and turbo manifold, so off IT came for the sealer treatment, which seems to have worked

Now for the bad news ,as most who follow this build thread will understand I cant seem to make forward progress without some backward progress, and this time it came in the form of my lovely wife who I do love dearly, backing our family wagon into the front drivers guard of the car, which has left me with 2 vehicles to panelbeat, this happened back in Jan just after the last post, its caused a little damage to the guard on the 2 door but the mondeo actually came off much worse, and im thankfull it wasnt the middle of the door or the rear quater that got hit, I also have shifted the business into a new building in town and have access to a paint booth, so it wont be a major job to repair.

So the above takes us up to date to about a week ago, and then last weekend I set about tidying up a couple of things I havnt been happy with, one of which was the hose clips that tighten all the hoses on the turbo pipes were always a little small, so I never felt comfortable trying to tighten them all the way up incase they stripped, as they were really only using the end threads to hold, so I went through and replaced those and also spent some time on the exhaust at the back which was hitting the body, After these jobs were performed and because it was a lovely day and I had a job to quote in Downs road at the oxford end of south eyre , I took the car out for a test drive, and am plesed to announce im really happy with where things are at, the exhaust no longer rubs, Im getting a steady 10 pounds of boost showing on the boost guage , boost comes on pretty early when excelerating and the exhaust leak has gone, its actually pretty fun to drive, Im not happy with the feedback through the steering wheel, and think this is the tyres, it tracks straight and true and doesnt bump steer but feels really really light, but then its been years since ive driven one of these daily so this may take time to get used to.
I think once I have spent a little time getting some proper tuning into the setup it should be quite the fun wee car.

[gingofthesouth]

Sweet updates. I always feel like my build takes two steps forward. One step backward. So frustrating. The reward is when the boost comes on though

[Bartman]

How about that windscreen mate?

[2 doors]

windscreen and rear window are currently removed and awaiting re sealing, yet another job that is one step forward 2 back, the etch I used to paint on the glass so the urethane can adhere was part of a faulty batch from manufacturing, so of course it failed which entailed removal of both screens to remedy.

[gman]

So if you take one step back maybe that will turn into two steps forwards just a thought ?

[2 doors]

screens are back in, and brake lights are working again, couple of small wiring tidy ups to do then it will be ready for cert.

[Otodat]

It occurred to me the other day that there is a possibility to get to see this irl at datnats, much excitement!