My XR4i. 30yrs old today via Southways Automotive.
Discussion
that was very cheap!, IIRC mine was c7.5k when it was first for sale in the spring of 1984. OK it was a main stealer.I'm pretty sure my Dad paid £5995 for A282KAH back in 1986. Cardinal Red with 43000 miles, it ended up as a fire-ball on its roof about a year later. 
I remember going to see it in the salvage yard and the plastic from the bi-plane spoiler had melted away and dripped downwards, so when the car was turned back over it looked like it had dripped upwards. A very sorry sight.
I remember going to see it in the salvage yard and the plastic from the bi-plane spoiler had melted away and dripped downwards, so when the car was turned back over it looked like it had dripped upwards. A very sorry sight.
TankRizzo said:
Great pics. Haslar sea wall? About 20 seconds walk from my front door.
Yes mate, always take photos of my cars there,not sure for how much longer though?I was based at Dolphin from time to time in the 80`s, live in Stubbington now.
Do you get much time out of the detention centre!
I Normally drive this.
Or this
Give me a wave if you see me out and about
T66ORA said:
Yes mate, always take photos of my cars there,not sure for how much longer though?
I was based at Dolphin from time to time in the 80`s, live in Stubbington now.
Do you get much time out of the detention centre!
I Normally driving this.
Or this
Give me a wave if you see me out and about
Hah, awesome, I actually think I've seen both of your cars before. Small world.I was based at Dolphin from time to time in the 80`s, live in Stubbington now.
Do you get much time out of the detention centre!
I Normally driving this.
Or this
Give me a wave if you see me out and about
I use that wall from time to time as well...
Love the car, well done hanging onto it for so long, reminds me of my XR4x4, a car I liked so much that I bought it twice, nicer to drive than my 4x4 Cosworth and much better in the snow. Always had a soft spot for the XR4i, In the late 80s I worked with a lad who concoursed a Caspian blue one B 555 ... I think. Impressed at how good the interior is after all these years, don't remember seeing one with rear head rests before. Is it the original dash?
I turned 40 this year and as a kid I used to vist the local ford dealer on the kingsbury road, opposite the Tyburn island in Birmingham. The dealership used to be called Hangers, and as well as being a Ford dealership, there used to be a Kawasaki motorbike showroom on site too! It got demolished and its now a retail park with halfords, carpet right, the range ,currys etc. it's opposite Cadtle Vale housing estate and next to the jaguar car plant (Castle Bromich) .
Castle vale used to be an airfield where they used to fly the Spitfires which were made at the jag plant.
Anyways, the Sierra xr4i was my favorite car at the time, the amount of times I used to visit the car showroom just to sit in it I've lost count!
I used to get the ford Cars brochures and cut out the pics of the xr4i, xr3i 2.8 injection capris etc and cover my school books with them!
I used to love drawing them too, especially the rear quarter window with the xr4i writing etched onto it, I loved the patten on the seats and especially the spoiler - it was so space age back then.. In fact I think the Sierra dashboard is one of the best looking ever produced.
Just had to share why I love this car too, in fact I think this was the first car I really lusted after!
Anybody remember that Ford dealership? I have tried searching for photos and arial photos of it too but can't find any.
There is a newish ford dealership on the same road further down, by where they have just knocked down the Showcase cinema to expand the jaguar factory.
Talking about buildings which need to be photographed before they disappear , has anybody seeing Bakers nightclub on broad street Birmingham? They have stared to tear down the bar next door to it so bakers will be no more in a few weeks! Spent many a night in their losing it to the music good times. I digress.....
Castle vale used to be an airfield where they used to fly the Spitfires which were made at the jag plant.
Anyways, the Sierra xr4i was my favorite car at the time, the amount of times I used to visit the car showroom just to sit in it I've lost count!
I used to get the ford Cars brochures and cut out the pics of the xr4i, xr3i 2.8 injection capris etc and cover my school books with them!
I used to love drawing them too, especially the rear quarter window with the xr4i writing etched onto it, I loved the patten on the seats and especially the spoiler - it was so space age back then.. In fact I think the Sierra dashboard is one of the best looking ever produced.
Just had to share why I love this car too, in fact I think this was the first car I really lusted after!
Anybody remember that Ford dealership? I have tried searching for photos and arial photos of it too but can't find any.
There is a newish ford dealership on the same road further down, by where they have just knocked down the Showcase cinema to expand the jaguar factory.
Talking about buildings which need to be photographed before they disappear , has anybody seeing Bakers nightclub on broad street Birmingham? They have stared to tear down the bar next door to it so bakers will be no more in a few weeks! Spent many a night in their losing it to the music good times. I digress.....
Edited by craste on Thursday 3rd October 21:36
craste said:
Anyways, the Sierra xr4i was my favorite car at the time,
Just had to share why I love this car too, in fact I think this was the first car I really lusted after!
Go and buy one, while you still get them for reasonable money.Just had to share why I love this car too, in fact I think this was the first car I really lusted after!
Run it to get it out of your system and then sell it on, probably for a profit
LanceRS said:
Impressed at how good the interior is after all these years, don't remember seeing one with rear head rests before. Is it the original dash?
Pretty rare with rear head restraints, a dealer fitted option, not factory fit i believe.No we fitted the dash as part of the rebuild, easier than i thought to be honest.
I have just modified the grille for the speaker to fit the MK2 dash.
Anyone who knows about the Sierra will tell you that a uncracked dash is one of the "Holy Grails" when talking about the MK1, this dash features the centre speaker grille, that all models had, whether there was speaker in there or not.
Its hard to believe today that base Sierras had one speaker and a radio only in 82/83.If you have a immaculate MK1 dash you can pretty much ask what you want for it.
The MK2 dash is a lot harder wearing, and fits the MK1 with little modification, the biggest problem for the purist (like me) is the lack of centre speaker grille, now we toyed with cutting up a decent MK2 dash and fitting a grille, but time, and the thought of wasting £50 the decent 2nd hand dash cost, went against the idea, so the alternative was to trim the lugs off a grille and stick it on the MK2.
I fitted this yesterday.
Well its not ideal, but from the outside it looks OK, although it a slightly different colour.
What do you think?
Its hard to believe today that base Sierras had one speaker and a radio only in 82/83.If you have a immaculate MK1 dash you can pretty much ask what you want for it.
The MK2 dash is a lot harder wearing, and fits the MK1 with little modification, the biggest problem for the purist (like me) is the lack of centre speaker grille, now we toyed with cutting up a decent MK2 dash and fitting a grille, but time, and the thought of wasting £50 the decent 2nd hand dash cost, went against the idea, so the alternative was to trim the lugs off a grille and stick it on the MK2.
I fitted this yesterday.
Well its not ideal, but from the outside it looks OK, although it a slightly different colour.
What do you think?
When I changed mine, as you say, it was easier than I thought too. I did have to change the a pillar trim for mk 2 parts as well, the mk 2 dash sat slightly higher or lower than the original, can't remember which now. It was a shame to lose the grill but for the £20 the parts cost at the time...
Much easier than pulling the dash from the Cosworth which seems to have ten times the wiring behind it, when I changed the heater matrix it took 40 minutes in total rather than the 2 days for the Sapphire!
How's the grill stuck down?
Much easier than pulling the dash from the Cosworth which seems to have ten times the wiring behind it, when I changed the heater matrix it took 40 minutes in total rather than the 2 days for the Sapphire!
How's the grill stuck down?
LanceRS said:
How's the grill stuck down?
Sorry mate only just seen this.As its just a "see what it looks like " exercise at the moment it just double sided taped it in the 4 corners were the original clips were.
Still trying to find some more Ghia rear lights for it as those fitted have a couple of bits broken off them.
Bring back the good old days and proper scrap yards, when you could pick up just about anything for peanuts! I can remember replacing both headlights for £10 not to mention the spare switches etc!
Ideally I think the grill needs to sit flush in the dash but I can't think of a way of doing it without a lot of effort and cutting the nice new, unmarked panel. I just got used to it without, generally it was only a few other anoraks who noticed. Didn't stop me enjoying it.
Ideally I think the grill needs to sit flush in the dash but I can't think of a way of doing it without a lot of effort and cutting the nice new, unmarked panel. I just got used to it without, generally it was only a few other anoraks who noticed. Didn't stop me enjoying it.
Just a little update.
Well car was sat over winter and brought back out over Easter.The car refused to run properly resulting in a couple of days of fettling, the metering unit was always thought to have a sticky plunger, so when a reconditioned unit came up on E-Bay a few months ago i bid and "won". The unit was fitted over Easter to hopefully eradicate the rough running. Unfortunately after fitting it the car refused to start, and when it did you had to give the car 3/4 throttle to keep it alive! The mixture setting on the "reconned" head needed setting up, a couple of tweaks had the car running, but still rough!!! The Metering unit was not the fault this time.The fuel pump was original Bosch, i bought a couple of second hands ones as they came up, but the decision was made to treat the car to a new one, this improved things, but it wasn`t until the warm up regulator was stripped and cleaned that we finally had a decent running XR4i again. The constant starting took its toll on the starter motor, it packed in at the local Shell station on its way back to Southways for a mixture setup and rolling road tune.
A new old stock Lucas starter was bought and fitted a few days later and we were up and running again.
The new Metering unit was set up, and we decided to weld up a blowing down pipe to front section on the exhaust, as this was giving us a headache,XR4i centre sections are no longer available, and we have had to modify a MK3 Granada 4x4 item when completing the resto, this included some cutting and shutting.
So there we have it car running well,there is still some paint work to be carried out notability the rear spoiler which has been rubbed down in preparation.
The Turbo Technics conversion remains in the pipe line, but won`t be done this year.
Exhaust.
Back on the rollers
Too many toys!!!
Well car was sat over winter and brought back out over Easter.The car refused to run properly resulting in a couple of days of fettling, the metering unit was always thought to have a sticky plunger, so when a reconditioned unit came up on E-Bay a few months ago i bid and "won". The unit was fitted over Easter to hopefully eradicate the rough running. Unfortunately after fitting it the car refused to start, and when it did you had to give the car 3/4 throttle to keep it alive! The mixture setting on the "reconned" head needed setting up, a couple of tweaks had the car running, but still rough!!! The Metering unit was not the fault this time.The fuel pump was original Bosch, i bought a couple of second hands ones as they came up, but the decision was made to treat the car to a new one, this improved things, but it wasn`t until the warm up regulator was stripped and cleaned that we finally had a decent running XR4i again. The constant starting took its toll on the starter motor, it packed in at the local Shell station on its way back to Southways for a mixture setup and rolling road tune.
A new old stock Lucas starter was bought and fitted a few days later and we were up and running again.
The new Metering unit was set up, and we decided to weld up a blowing down pipe to front section on the exhaust, as this was giving us a headache,XR4i centre sections are no longer available, and we have had to modify a MK3 Granada 4x4 item when completing the resto, this included some cutting and shutting.
So there we have it car running well,there is still some paint work to be carried out notability the rear spoiler which has been rubbed down in preparation.
The Turbo Technics conversion remains in the pipe line, but won`t be done this year.
Exhaust.
Back on the rollers
Too many toys!!!
Rear Spoiler removed for painting, a PIA to remove, all fixings rusted in after 30 odd years, no surprise there, but the lower screws all snapped as well, so we went through a couple of drill bits, and some of the rivnuts on the upper tailgate refused to play ball, and had to be chiselled out because they just span 
The cars profile looks completely different with out the, iconic? am i aloud to say iconic? rear spoiler.
30 years of grime,upper fixings that needed the work,and some surface rust,were spoiler rubs paint.
Then off home to clean up the tailgate, and rub down the rust, and examine the slight damaged caused by beating the tailgate, the spoiler will cover all this, so as long as we can fix the new, right size, Rivnuts no one will ever know, apart from you lot
After clean up, this will be treated and hand painted to protect it for another 30 yrs hopefully.
There we go, i will post some more photos after the Spoiler,Grille and Door mirror covers are painted and the door and rear quarter panel black strips are fitted.
The cars profile looks completely different with out the, iconic? am i aloud to say iconic? rear spoiler.
30 years of grime,upper fixings that needed the work,and some surface rust,were spoiler rubs paint.
Then off home to clean up the tailgate, and rub down the rust, and examine the slight damaged caused by beating the tailgate, the spoiler will cover all this, so as long as we can fix the new, right size, Rivnuts no one will ever know, apart from you lot
After clean up, this will be treated and hand painted to protect it for another 30 yrs hopefully.
There we go, i will post some more photos after the Spoiler,Grille and Door mirror covers are painted and the door and rear quarter panel black strips are fitted.
Edited by T66ORA on Saturday 9th May 15:22
Edited by T66ORA on Friday 13th November 22:20
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