500+bhp Mk3 Fiesta Project
Discussion
Thank you!
Door handles and seals etc. fitted.
My Dad finished the rest of the Bulkhead with 2mm Butyl vibration damping material.
I applied 10mm noise absorption material over the top of that.
Finally the standard Ford sound deadening mat over the top.
My Dad also put another layer of Butyl in the doors, which has made an incredible difference to resonance in the metal skin.
Door handles and seals etc. fitted.
My Dad finished the rest of the Bulkhead with 2mm Butyl vibration damping material.
I applied 10mm noise absorption material over the top of that.
Finally the standard Ford sound deadening mat over the top.
My Dad also put another layer of Butyl in the doors, which has made an incredible difference to resonance in the metal skin.
Thanks chaps!
Max, I don't consider significant weight loss to be the best approach for my project, in fact I view this weight gain as an advantage. Weight is relative and in car terms the Mk3 Fiesta is a light car to begin with, especially by modern standards, so when power starts to go beyond around 250-270bhp (flywheel) the benefits of weight loss on an already light car can easily turn to disadvantages.
Max, I don't consider significant weight loss to be the best approach for my project, in fact I view this weight gain as an advantage. Weight is relative and in car terms the Mk3 Fiesta is a light car to begin with, especially by modern standards, so when power starts to go beyond around 250-270bhp (flywheel) the benefits of weight loss on an already light car can easily turn to disadvantages.
My WRC inlet manifold arrived. I'm very pleased with it overall but nevertheless there is room for a few improvements 
The feed plenum has been modified at some point in the manifolds life and is quite rough inside, so that's being chopped off and made good. At the same time the intersection area will be made larger. There also isn't a great deal of clearance between the plenum and the radius of the carbon trumpets so the plenum will be sectioned and 'banded' to slightly increase its volume.
I fitted a new set of driving and fog lights. I really should know the answer to the next question but does anyone know if the driving lights are supposed to sit slightly proud of the mounting bezel? The Fog lamps sit flush, I could swear that on the last set I had the driving lights were too.
I built up the heater/evaporator/blower motor box ready for installation tomorrow.
The feed plenum has been modified at some point in the manifolds life and is quite rough inside, so that's being chopped off and made good. At the same time the intersection area will be made larger. There also isn't a great deal of clearance between the plenum and the radius of the carbon trumpets so the plenum will be sectioned and 'banded' to slightly increase its volume.
I fitted a new set of driving and fog lights. I really should know the answer to the next question but does anyone know if the driving lights are supposed to sit slightly proud of the mounting bezel? The Fog lamps sit flush, I could swear that on the last set I had the driving lights were too.
I built up the heater/evaporator/blower motor box ready for installation tomorrow.
Max M4X WW said:
My lights all sat flush when I had the XR/RS bumper on my old car Mark.
Glad you are happy(ish) with the plenum, I did worry slightly when I saw you'd bought it on the ft.com but obviously you know what you are looking at and have the knowledge/means to make any improvements.
Cheers Max. I'll have to see what's wrong with the lights.Glad you are happy(ish) with the plenum, I did worry slightly when I saw you'd bought it on the ft.com but obviously you know what you are looking at and have the knowledge/means to make any improvements.
That light should sit the same as the fog light. In your pic it does not look like it is in place properly
A quick google search brings this up. Post number 4 shows them seated properly
http://www.modifiedperformance.net/index.php?/topi...
A quick google search brings this up. Post number 4 shows them seated properly
http://www.modifiedperformance.net/index.php?/topi...
Thanks!
I now have the rest of the stainless steel fastenings that are required for the rebuild.
Here's the standard Clevis pin on the Evo servo.
...which I had to shorten the as it made the Fiesta linkage sit too close to the bulkhead.
Ford don't paint the pedal box and some other parts behind the dashboard, so they were sanded, etch primed and painted.
The pedal box was rebuilt with new bushes smeared with silicone grease, and a new clutch master cylinder for the hydraulic conversion.
I got this far refurbishing the wiper linkage then decided to strip it all down to get the small parts re plated.
Engine bay sound deadening is NLA but came up with some elbow grease and black paint. It was cut to suit the new hydraulic clutch outlets.
Next I moved on to the brake linkage. Like most production cars the brake pedal in the Fiesta sits slightly proud of the others, which is absolutely useless for heel and toe, so using a 'long nut' and a few other things I've made the brake pedal to brake bar link adjustable.
Et voilà. This will allow me to fine tune the level of the brake pedal.
I reinforced the bracket which holds the drivers side of the brake link bar in an effort to further improve pedal response. This will compliment the other strengthening work I've done.
Here's the latest batch of parts ready to be Zinc plated:
I am going to add Bi-Xenon's to the car because I find it hard to go back to Halogen, however given the Mk3 Fiesta doesn't have headlamp washers let alone automatic range adjustment, and not wishing to be tarred with the same brush as those running 8000k Chinese kits in a reflector headlamp, things are immediately against me! To make any system legal I need to ensure it has both a headlamp wash function and automatic range control, and to this end my first purchase has been a pair of new genuine Ford German market (LHD) headlamps which have electronic range control, albeit manual. I'm going to convert these units to RHD by removing the glass and replacing it with that from my RHD headlamps. This will give me the basis for electronic range control.
To address the legal requirement for automatic levelling I have purchased the levelling system from a Mk1 Focus, which I selected for two reasons: 1) It doesn't use CAN, which is a necessity because I'm not employing it anywhere else, and 2) it will bolt up to my new rear suspension which is of course now Focus based. I was going to buy these parts from Ford but it all came to £750 + vat. One has to draw the line somewhere so I will recondition everything.
I will cover the headlamp wash in a future update, but that's really all there is for now as I'm waiting for parts to be plated and blasted/powder coated.
I now have the rest of the stainless steel fastenings that are required for the rebuild.
Here's the standard Clevis pin on the Evo servo.
...which I had to shorten the as it made the Fiesta linkage sit too close to the bulkhead.
Ford don't paint the pedal box and some other parts behind the dashboard, so they were sanded, etch primed and painted.
The pedal box was rebuilt with new bushes smeared with silicone grease, and a new clutch master cylinder for the hydraulic conversion.
I got this far refurbishing the wiper linkage then decided to strip it all down to get the small parts re plated.
Engine bay sound deadening is NLA but came up with some elbow grease and black paint. It was cut to suit the new hydraulic clutch outlets.
Next I moved on to the brake linkage. Like most production cars the brake pedal in the Fiesta sits slightly proud of the others, which is absolutely useless for heel and toe, so using a 'long nut' and a few other things I've made the brake pedal to brake bar link adjustable.
Et voilà. This will allow me to fine tune the level of the brake pedal.
I reinforced the bracket which holds the drivers side of the brake link bar in an effort to further improve pedal response. This will compliment the other strengthening work I've done.
Here's the latest batch of parts ready to be Zinc plated:
I am going to add Bi-Xenon's to the car because I find it hard to go back to Halogen, however given the Mk3 Fiesta doesn't have headlamp washers let alone automatic range adjustment, and not wishing to be tarred with the same brush as those running 8000k Chinese kits in a reflector headlamp, things are immediately against me! To make any system legal I need to ensure it has both a headlamp wash function and automatic range control, and to this end my first purchase has been a pair of new genuine Ford German market (LHD) headlamps which have electronic range control, albeit manual. I'm going to convert these units to RHD by removing the glass and replacing it with that from my RHD headlamps. This will give me the basis for electronic range control.
To address the legal requirement for automatic levelling I have purchased the levelling system from a Mk1 Focus, which I selected for two reasons: 1) It doesn't use CAN, which is a necessity because I'm not employing it anywhere else, and 2) it will bolt up to my new rear suspension which is of course now Focus based. I was going to buy these parts from Ford but it all came to £750 + vat. One has to draw the line somewhere so I will recondition everything.
I will cover the headlamp wash in a future update, but that's really all there is for now as I'm waiting for parts to be plated and blasted/powder coated.
Thanks chaps!
Since dropping off the interior back in December I've made a couple of changes: 1) I've replaced the wire element based heated seat kit with one that uses Carbon Fibre elements as they are far more flexible and withstand small cracks in the elements, and 2) I've changed to some dark grey sun visors with integrated illuminated vanity mirrors. Aldridge are trimming these in Alcantara to match the head lining and will have everything back with me for the beginning of March.
I'm making preparations on the car to ensure I can fit the interior when it arrives, and as I have an interest in HiFi I'm going to install an audiophile greade sound quality ('SQ') based system in the car. I've been very fortunate to find a set of what is arguably some of the best speakers produced for a car: the Seas Lotus Reference series:
The kit comes with cotton gloves to use when handling the drivers. The tweeters are beautifully machined:
These are hard to get hold of second hand let alone brand new, and these are the Silk dome tweeter version which is much smoother than the earlier metal dome kit. I managed to save a bit off of the £800 RRP too so I'm very pleased!
Since dropping off the interior back in December I've made a couple of changes: 1) I've replaced the wire element based heated seat kit with one that uses Carbon Fibre elements as they are far more flexible and withstand small cracks in the elements, and 2) I've changed to some dark grey sun visors with integrated illuminated vanity mirrors. Aldridge are trimming these in Alcantara to match the head lining and will have everything back with me for the beginning of March.
I'm making preparations on the car to ensure I can fit the interior when it arrives, and as I have an interest in HiFi I'm going to install an audiophile greade sound quality ('SQ') based system in the car. I've been very fortunate to find a set of what is arguably some of the best speakers produced for a car: the Seas Lotus Reference series:
The kit comes with cotton gloves to use when handling the drivers. The tweeters are beautifully machined:
These are hard to get hold of second hand let alone brand new, and these are the Silk dome tweeter version which is much smoother than the earlier metal dome kit. I managed to save a bit off of the £800 RRP too so I'm very pleased!
mwstewart said:
Thanks chaps!
Since dropping off the interior back in December I've made a couple of changes: 1) I've replaced the wire element based heated seat kit with one that uses Carbon Fibre elements as they are far more flexible and withstand small cracks in the elements, and 2) I've changed to some dark grey sun visors with integrated illuminated vanity mirrors. Aldridge are trimming these in Alcantara to match the head lining and will have everything back with me for the beginning of March.
I'm making preparations on the car to ensure I can fit the interior when it arrives, and as I have an interest in HiFi I'm going to install an audiophile greade sound quality ('SQ') based system in the car. I've been very fortunate to find a set of what is arguably some of the best speakers produced for a car: the Seas Lotus Reference series:
The kit comes with cotton gloves to use when handling the drivers. The tweeters are beautifully machined:
These are hard to get hold of second hand let alone brand new, and these are the Silk dome tweeter version which is much smoother than the earlier metal dome kit. I managed to save a bit off of the £800 RRP too so I'm very pleased!
Since dropping off the interior back in December I've made a couple of changes: 1) I've replaced the wire element based heated seat kit with one that uses Carbon Fibre elements as they are far more flexible and withstand small cracks in the elements, and 2) I've changed to some dark grey sun visors with integrated illuminated vanity mirrors. Aldridge are trimming these in Alcantara to match the head lining and will have everything back with me for the beginning of March.
I'm making preparations on the car to ensure I can fit the interior when it arrives, and as I have an interest in HiFi I'm going to install an audiophile greade sound quality ('SQ') based system in the car. I've been very fortunate to find a set of what is arguably some of the best speakers produced for a car: the Seas Lotus Reference series:
The kit comes with cotton gloves to use when handling the drivers. The tweeters are beautifully machined:
These are hard to get hold of second hand let alone brand new, and these are the Silk dome tweeter version which is much smoother than the earlier metal dome kit. I managed to save a bit off of the £800 RRP too so I'm very pleased!
Awesome, this Fiesta's going to be more like a Rolls Royce! Good work
k me those are nice speakers. I thought the JL Audio ones I used were nice but those must be in a different league! I just had a quick look at the specs on them and they are fantastic. Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff