Project Pink, the rescued Sierra

[gazz81]

So after abit of misguided ebaying, I now seem to own a 1990 Ford Sierra!

I've known of the car for a while as it was sat on a garage forecourt thats deals with my mot's (amongst quite a few other old classics!) after seeing it on ebay I popped over an had a look and apart from the bottom of the drivers side front wing rotting out, the cill ends at the rear arches looking very crusty and the awful paint, it looked pretty good.
Interior is immaculate, engine is as sweet as a nut and I'm pretty sure the paint will buff up perfectly.

So the plans are..

Deal with the issues required to get it mot'd
Give the paint a damned good polishing, I'm thinking that because all the repair work is below the bump strips I may paint the car black / dark grey, below that line. I had a glsi years ago and the had a black lower half and I quite like it. On the subject of which, what paint / colour would be suited? I remember it not being black, but a very dark grey. Is there a specific colour?

Then the fun begins! I hate to leave things untouched, and it's of no significant historical importance to keep it standard, so I'll be looking at a good suspension drop, motorsport style wheels (maybe wellers)



Unsure of what else yet, the engine albeit very good is only a 1.6 Pinto and I would eventually like some more power. Either a 2 litre lightly breathed on Pinto, or a mate is trying to convince me to zetec on twin 45's (a setup he used to run on a stockcar)

Anyway here is the old girl in all her glory and I'll be updating at the weekend when it brought home.

[grifterkid]

That has got a shed-ton of potential so please do keep us posted...! I do love a Sierra...

[gazz81]

Yeah, it genuinely looks worse than it is I hope!

[steveg]

Looking at the seats they look rather like XR2 ones of a similar age, might be the same fabric. I won't look half bad if you can get it to polish up. I've got a pink Astra I keep trying to polish it up but it just goes flat again . I would be really nice if I could get it painted.
I will watch and see if you come up with some magic method of making it stay red again, hope you can.

[gazz81]

I'm no stranger to the joys of red cars!
This was mu GTO when I bought it



It takes alot of work to keep it looking like this!



But going back to the Sierra, if it becomes too difficult to keep red I have a mate with a lot of Nato green!

[SmokeEm]

Hurricane Grey is an ideal colour for the lower half. It's a Rover/BL colour that was used on all the two tone cars of the 80/90's as it closely matches the grey plastic bumpers.

Search Rover 216 on Google and you will see what I mean.

[joeyman96]

can't wait to see the progress on this car! looks a great canvas for many possible styles!

[SmokeEm]

Here you go..



Hurricane Grey lower half.

[gazz81]

Yeah that doesnt look too bad, possibly abit too light but I'll try it against the bumpers once they are restored.

[robsfords]

Looks nice and solid! I thought that interior was only on GLSi models? It is the same cloth as an XR2 fiesta too.

[gazz81]

May 5, 2015 16:17:59 GMT robsfords said:

Looks nice and solid! I thought that interior was only on GLSi models? It is the same cloth as an XR2 fiesta too.

I have no idea, I've been led to believe it's all original?

[gazz81]

Just remembered I had a set of speedline comp 2's in the garage, but at et 16 will they fit?

[qwerty]

16's are a good size for Sierra's

[gazz81]

Sorry, they are 14's the offset is 16.

[gazz81]

Minor Update, with some good news and some not so good news!

Lets start with the good news.

Car is now back home, towed it the 12 miles home and it felt very good on the road, no knocks or bumps and felt very smooth.

Had to have a little rub with the t-cut, just to see how the old paint is and I'm pleased to say I think it's going to come up a treat.





and I'm pleased to find that the inner wings, boot floor and door shots are all perfect.



























And the not so good bit's!

Looks like I underestimated how rotten the sills are, its not the end of the world as I would have put complete sills on anyway, but it looks like it's starting to creep into the inner sills too, so looks like I have a bit more welding than planned!





looks like something may have been living there!

[envoycdx]

Looks like it has potential as someone else pointed out.
Damn good wash and some compound will have that red in no time.

One thing I've always been impressed with on FORD's is the availability of panels.
What are your long term plans for this, or is it just get it through the MOT then see?

[gazz81]

A good wash is in order, can anyone suggest a good detergent that will help shift the green crud?

As for long term, I see little point in doing it twice, so I'll do a full rebuild of it now to get the body in A1 condition, but I'm not too interested in standard, so some choice subtle mods will be in order, nothing too lairy. Simple wheels, slight suspension drop and a better engine will probably do. A mate has offered me an 1.8 zetec with modified loom to run on carbs from his banger days, so I'm thinking a nice 38dgas weber and 1.8 zetec should be ok.

[gazz81]

May 9, 2015 16:12:03 GMT envoycdx said:

One thing I've always been impressed with on FORD's is the availability of panels.
What are your long term plans for this, or is it just get it through the MOT then see?

I shall be using these guys for the panels, but I must admit I'm struggling to find anyone that offers anything more than what they have. Would be nice to have the options of more panels if required.

magnumclassicfordpanels.co.uk/catalogsearch/advanced/result/?model=6

[generallee]

May 9, 2015 16:41:15 GMT gazz81 said:

A good wash is in order, can anyone suggest a good detergent that will help shift the green crud?

I recently used "Fenwicks" caravan cleaner from Halfords on our van, it came up pretty well. Although mild bleach might have worked just as well.

Before n after L-R

[gazz81]

Thanks, I'll take a look at that. I just want something that will loosen the dirt so I'm not scrubbing it into the paint!