Ford Sportka - renovation / restoration
Discussion
Hi all,
Just a quick update with my new wheels. Almost ended up with a 1.2 Fabia, but bit the bullet and decided to go with for something fun.
The day I picked her up:
Picked her up for not a lot of money. Was a fairly clean looking examples with only a few issues / niggles to sort out. Chief amongst these was the paintwork. Overall it was clean but looked like it had been washed with washing up liquid and scouring pads! Couldn't wait to get to work.
So a wash, a clay, a couple of coats of Autoglym and this was the result:
I was really happy with the results. There are still some radial swirls and the odd chip, but overall well worth the day spent doing it!
Now... the interior seemed fine to me. Originally planned to take the seats out and hoover the carpet. However, I got the rear seats out to hoover underneath and was stunned to find half a garden centre rolling about underneath. So, the carpet came out and all was cleaned.
I even roped the missus into helping (with the promise of a bucket of wine as reward) which, seeing as though we're only 18months into a relationship- bodes well for future shedding! However- note the knackered and lumpy looking steering wheel... this is on the list.
Next on the list was giving the engine a swift once over. I've never attempted anything like this before- but I was chuffed with my progress (the Ka is a great car to learn on!). Apparently the car had been serviced only 200 mile prior to sale...
Dutifully replaced, but serviced recently? Really? Really really?
With alarm bells ringing- the plugs came out, new NGK's went in. Instantly didn't sound like a bag of spanners any longer.
Ramps borrowed from the landlord and I tackled an oil change. I hyped it up to myself and left a whole day to do it. In reality it took about an hour with 30 minutes of wrestling with the oil filter. Replaced the horribly thick old oil with lovely new Castrol Magnatec.
All the work gave a couple more MPG, improved the engines responses and made me a lot more happy with it. As a bonus- I felt really proud that as a novice- I'd successfully tackled the jobs myself without support!
Next job was to replace the water bottle.
What a PITA! The scuttle and entire wiper mech needs to come out to remove and remove the old and remount the new.
Just a quick update with my new wheels. Almost ended up with a 1.2 Fabia, but bit the bullet and decided to go with for something fun.
The day I picked her up:
Picked her up for not a lot of money. Was a fairly clean looking examples with only a few issues / niggles to sort out. Chief amongst these was the paintwork. Overall it was clean but looked like it had been washed with washing up liquid and scouring pads! Couldn't wait to get to work.
So a wash, a clay, a couple of coats of Autoglym and this was the result:
I was really happy with the results. There are still some radial swirls and the odd chip, but overall well worth the day spent doing it!
Now... the interior seemed fine to me. Originally planned to take the seats out and hoover the carpet. However, I got the rear seats out to hoover underneath and was stunned to find half a garden centre rolling about underneath. So, the carpet came out and all was cleaned.
I even roped the missus into helping (with the promise of a bucket of wine as reward) which, seeing as though we're only 18months into a relationship- bodes well for future shedding! However- note the knackered and lumpy looking steering wheel... this is on the list.
Next on the list was giving the engine a swift once over. I've never attempted anything like this before- but I was chuffed with my progress (the Ka is a great car to learn on!). Apparently the car had been serviced only 200 mile prior to sale...
Dutifully replaced, but serviced recently? Really? Really really?
With alarm bells ringing- the plugs came out, new NGK's went in. Instantly didn't sound like a bag of spanners any longer.
Ramps borrowed from the landlord and I tackled an oil change. I hyped it up to myself and left a whole day to do it. In reality it took about an hour with 30 minutes of wrestling with the oil filter. Replaced the horribly thick old oil with lovely new Castrol Magnatec.
All the work gave a couple more MPG, improved the engines responses and made me a lot more happy with it. As a bonus- I felt really proud that as a novice- I'd successfully tackled the jobs myself without support!
Next job was to replace the water bottle.
What a PITA! The scuttle and entire wiper mech needs to come out to remove and remove the old and remount the new.
Mr Adds said:
I had a Panther black SportKa in 2005, was great fun to drive around the Durham Dales. My girlfriend at the time had a Puma, I preferred my Ka to drive to be honest . Sold it as my commute went to 50 miles a day and it was tiresome on the motorway with the short gearing.
Yup... I hear you. The box is very short- needs a 6th gear really. 3500rpm at 75mph gets rather tiresome rather quickly, but the trade off is perfectly spaced gears for A & B roads.XJR500bhp said:
I love honest little projects like this, some real effort going in to this and it's great to see.
Ta muchly! 
More updates:
Leather trimmed KA's suffer from the sticky steering wheel scenario- apparently ford used and adhesive that reacted rather badly with hand moisturiser... and who tends to own ford Ka's? That's right- young ladies, (no sexism intended- sweeping genralism as my girlfriend and all of her friends have one each) which means that most SportKa wheels are horrible to touch as handcream, foundation and a myriad of cosmetics make their way onto the steering wheel.
I tried scrubbing it. I tried makeup remover and wipes. Acetone nail polish remover. White spirit, sandpaper, a Stanley blade... all methods made a bit of progress, but the truth was that it was well past it's best and nothing short of a re-trim would save it.
I managed to pick up a much nicer looking steering wheel for the princely sum of £20. So the nasty old steering wheel was removed, shiney newish leather one went back in it's place. I don't think it's the right vintage (I think it's an early Puma / Fiesta wheel) - but it isn't sticky and isn't so rancid that it makes me feel like I need a shower after driving to the shops- which is a welcome change.
I was getting a bit fed up on the cloth seats- as the diamondbrite coating made cleaning them an arse- they always looked dirty even after a steam clean and a wash. Besides, the cloth covering had come adrift from the seat bases with age and was looking rather saggy. A moment of eBay madness saw me the new owner of a full leather interior. Put a silly bid of £60 on- won, went and collected the next day. Not bad for less than a ton!
The pictures made it seem so much better than it actually looked (and smelt) in reality. The leather was grimy and shiny and the rear seats seemed to be producing some sort of white granular powder underneath the blue perforated leather. The front's were just too nasty to photograph!
So, a quick google and a coffee in front of the Drive Clean YouTube videos (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Bd_IqK5ydU) out came the steamer and some leather cleaner & balm. (Seriously, if you own a leather interior - buy a steamer. Buy a cheap £15 one- you won't be disappointed. Go and do it. Now. It works so so well, doesn't harm the leather and doesn't soak the seat. The heat from the steam works like an iron and smooths out the majority of the creases... which is a nice bonus.)
After an afternoon with the seats I was happy with the result!
However I'm loathed to throw useful / functional things out, and lets be frank- a cloth ford Ka interior would make bobbins on eBay- so a plan was hatched. The old seats and rear bench are waiting to visit the local blacksmith to be made into lounge furniture(also this keeps them around for the sake of OEM purity if I ever get the urge to restore and refit them), photos to follow on that...
Leather trimmed KA's suffer from the sticky steering wheel scenario- apparently ford used and adhesive that reacted rather badly with hand moisturiser... and who tends to own ford Ka's? That's right- young ladies, (no sexism intended- sweeping genralism as my girlfriend and all of her friends have one each) which means that most SportKa wheels are horrible to touch as handcream, foundation and a myriad of cosmetics make their way onto the steering wheel.
I tried scrubbing it. I tried makeup remover and wipes. Acetone nail polish remover. White spirit, sandpaper, a Stanley blade... all methods made a bit of progress, but the truth was that it was well past it's best and nothing short of a re-trim would save it.
I managed to pick up a much nicer looking steering wheel for the princely sum of £20. So the nasty old steering wheel was removed, shiney newish leather one went back in it's place. I don't think it's the right vintage (I think it's an early Puma / Fiesta wheel) - but it isn't sticky and isn't so rancid that it makes me feel like I need a shower after driving to the shops- which is a welcome change.
I was getting a bit fed up on the cloth seats- as the diamondbrite coating made cleaning them an arse- they always looked dirty even after a steam clean and a wash. Besides, the cloth covering had come adrift from the seat bases with age and was looking rather saggy. A moment of eBay madness saw me the new owner of a full leather interior. Put a silly bid of £60 on- won, went and collected the next day. Not bad for less than a ton!
The pictures made it seem so much better than it actually looked (and smelt) in reality. The leather was grimy and shiny and the rear seats seemed to be producing some sort of white granular powder underneath the blue perforated leather. The front's were just too nasty to photograph!
So, a quick google and a coffee in front of the Drive Clean YouTube videos (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Bd_IqK5ydU) out came the steamer and some leather cleaner & balm. (Seriously, if you own a leather interior - buy a steamer. Buy a cheap £15 one- you won't be disappointed. Go and do it. Now. It works so so well, doesn't harm the leather and doesn't soak the seat. The heat from the steam works like an iron and smooths out the majority of the creases... which is a nice bonus.)
After an afternoon with the seats I was happy with the result!
However I'm loathed to throw useful / functional things out, and lets be frank- a cloth ford Ka interior would make bobbins on eBay- so a plan was hatched. The old seats and rear bench are waiting to visit the local blacksmith to be made into lounge furniture(also this keeps them around for the sake of OEM purity if I ever get the urge to restore and refit them), photos to follow on that...
Edited by munk on Thursday 10th April 11:15
Mercury00 said:
Good work, it looks smart. I really like the Streetka too and would've bought one along with a hardtop if I wasn't insecure in my masculinity. You know what would look great on the Sportka? Puma propeller alloys. No idea if they fit.
They do fit but look a bit meh. Good effort OP, nice car and it's great to see someone restoring a Ford rather than letting it rust away.
Podie said:
Good result on the SE spec leather seats. Worth buying some proper Ford mats though, those ones look a bit naff now.
AFAIK all Ka steering wheels were 2 spoke jobs - don't recall those on Fiestas or Pumas.
Yup- mats are on the list now. looking at the pictures - I agree they do let it down somewhat.AFAIK all Ka steering wheels were 2 spoke jobs - don't recall those on Fiestas or Pumas.
vx220 said:
Not sure of your age for insurance, but there have been some inspirational 2.0 Zetec and RST conversions
Keep it standard looking (maybe just slightly lower, and some wheels to fill the arches) and off you go!
Really want to do this one day
I'm 30, so insurance is buttons. I'm looking to keep it bog standard and sell on in a few years time with some a bit of profit hopefully. Until then I'm just going to enjoy it as my daily driver.Keep it standard looking (maybe just slightly lower, and some wheels to fill the arches) and off you go!
Really want to do this one day
A quick update on this weeks happenings, not much happened over the weekend as I had a family gathering to attend. By brother came to pick me up in his t(C)rusty Fiat Stilo shed and proceeded to lecture me on how he'd cleaned his interior and headliner. Notwithstanding that I taught him how to do it, he then had the cheek to berate my grubby headliner for the entire 150 mile journey. However, Karma is a b
h so he was struck down with CV joint noises from Fleet Services onwards... I secretly had a moment of schadenfreude after we'd identified the issue in the truck park.
So, after getting a grilling from my brother over my dirty headliner, I finally psyched myself up to tackling the job. Problem is that when you go removing interior panels, you can rest assured in one of the few certainties in life - you ALWAYS break a clip in the process. Fearing that I might have to remove the A pillar trims, I gingerly got stuck in. Thankfully getting it out was easy as pie as it turned out. Undo a few screws, unpop some sturdy looking pop fasteners and remove the door seals - and out it slid. I then got to work with the cleaning products.
However whilst now cleaner than a whistle; the SportShed was making more creaking, rattling and groaning sounds than the local BUPA care home. Furthermore, there was something amiss with the stoppers too. Under breaking it would pull to the right and on emergency stops was awfully tail happy. The Victoria Sponge pedal didn't inspire much confidence either. So a trip to Wayne Owens Motor Services in East Grinstead was booked for an investigation.
The results were quick and conclusive. Both lower wishbones had knackered bushes, most had perished through 9 years of "careful lady ownership", but one had clearly fallen out with it's friends and was making a bid for freedom. (I was expecting them to be bad, I wasn't expecting dangerous.) The front discs, pads (and brake fluid) were replaced at the same time as were heavily glazed which was traced back to some badly adjusted rear drum shoes.
h so he was struck down with CV joint noises from Fleet Services onwards... I secretly had a moment of schadenfreude after we'd identified the issue in the truck park.So, after getting a grilling from my brother over my dirty headliner, I finally psyched myself up to tackling the job. Problem is that when you go removing interior panels, you can rest assured in one of the few certainties in life - you ALWAYS break a clip in the process. Fearing that I might have to remove the A pillar trims, I gingerly got stuck in. Thankfully getting it out was easy as pie as it turned out. Undo a few screws, unpop some sturdy looking pop fasteners and remove the door seals - and out it slid. I then got to work with the cleaning products.
However whilst now cleaner than a whistle; the SportShed was making more creaking, rattling and groaning sounds than the local BUPA care home. Furthermore, there was something amiss with the stoppers too. Under breaking it would pull to the right and on emergency stops was awfully tail happy. The Victoria Sponge pedal didn't inspire much confidence either. So a trip to Wayne Owens Motor Services in East Grinstead was booked for an investigation.
The results were quick and conclusive. Both lower wishbones had knackered bushes, most had perished through 9 years of "careful lady ownership", but one had clearly fallen out with it's friends and was making a bid for freedom. (I was expecting them to be bad, I wasn't expecting dangerous.) The front discs, pads (and brake fluid) were replaced at the same time as were heavily glazed which was traced back to some badly adjusted rear drum shoes.
Edited by munk on Wednesday 16th April 01:02
I hope you fitted the genuine ford arms to your Sport KA as they are longer than the normal KA's due to the tracking being 22mm wider.
I had a nightmare with the wifes Sport KA after the arms were swapped for non genuine pattern parts which turned out to be the incorrect even though they were listed as being correct. (Turns out you can't get the arms for the sport/street ka in pattern parts as they are unique to the car.) Due to the wheel camber being incorrect, the handling went to pot and the car became very twitchy in fast corners. Also, the arms would only last about 8k miles before they would start knocking again. Finally bit the bullet last week and got some genuine ford arms fitted and the can't believe the difference just a few mm can make.
Just need to get the aircon looked at on it now as it isn't holding the gas in. Any pointers on the usual suspect part would be a help??
I had a nightmare with the wifes Sport KA after the arms were swapped for non genuine pattern parts which turned out to be the incorrect even though they were listed as being correct. (Turns out you can't get the arms for the sport/street ka in pattern parts as they are unique to the car.) Due to the wheel camber being incorrect, the handling went to pot and the car became very twitchy in fast corners. Also, the arms would only last about 8k miles before they would start knocking again. Finally bit the bullet last week and got some genuine ford arms fitted and the can't believe the difference just a few mm can make.
Just need to get the aircon looked at on it now as it isn't holding the gas in. Any pointers on the usual suspect part would be a help??
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