Forgot to post this, I also pulled the ply lining out of the bed whilst it was off - it was so wet some of it could be done by hand! Not as horrendous underneath as it could have been, but definitely shows that the truck has a quick re spray fairly recently and there are a couple patches that are going to require rust treatment before they become a major headache. Glad I did this sooner rather than later.
So i built a new rear subloom from scratch on sunday as the original was just too far gone to bother with. Using MGF light cluster connectors as they looked like a prettty close match, turns out that the locating tags were slightly too long but that was easily sorted. Plugged it all in and I now have brake lights and indicators on the LED auxilary lights but nothing on the original clusters and no rear lights on either. The rear lights i suspect are part of my original problem when i bought it - i had to do a roadside swap of the side light and dip beam supplies. The original clusters I think are the bulb holders - these are known to rot out and not make contact with the metal tracks on the clusters themselves - the ones I've looked at are intact but so oxidised that there is no electrical continuity - I will dismantle them and clean them up and hopefully that will bring on a few more lights. It was a bit of a rush job as I needed the truck to go and pick up another moptorcycle, so brake lights, indicators and a daylight run were enough for now - I have to secure the loom properly so i'll pull it off and take a photo then.
So Monday i picked the truck up in the daylight and tuesday i went and picked up the bike. On the way home i noticed this:
I've heard that the P100 fuel gauge was notoriously inaccurate, but previously mine wasn't too bad, I get a feeling I'm going to end up rewiring the whole thing!
Once again nothing major to report, as I've been on holiday and I'm also trying to get 3 bikes restored and modified ready for a track day in 4weeks time.
But I managed a few things.
The most important I squeezed her through the MOT to give me another year on the road - still not 100% on the lights but I'm making progress.
Next I finally fitted the NOS lock set I bought so went from this:
To this: Bliss - one key fits all, and I actually have a key to the passenger door, plus a spare key and a spare key blank. Took less than 2 hours, I love this old truck - one screwdriver and some pliers 😂
Next I got some headlight brows - just rested to see if I liked them, I do,
I'm just undecided on colour? Black, body colour or carbon?
I cant say I am a big fan of the headlight/eyelid thingys, I think they look a bit odd! :-P not that there is anything wrong with odd of course :-) hey its your truck, and looks good project/workhorse!:-)
Well the spare head and inlet manifold has gone off with my cousin for a bit of porting and polishing. Once that's back I'll have to dig deep to find the cash for a new cam to go with the reworked head, four branch manifold, sports exhaust system, bike carbs and performance filter. I want to try and get her dyno'd before the work is carried out just to see how little power she's got to start with.
Also went to replace the original speakers today as the cones are torn on them - they are 26 years old! Not impressed with the new ones though, quite tinny - maybe be improved when properly installed instead of walking along the door, but another family member has informed me he has a set I can have which are much better - should've asked first I guess, but how was I supposed to know.
Didn't install this one fully as the window seals apparently aren't too good - only found out when it started raining and the door card was off - will look and see if the ones on either of my donor cars are better - in the meantime I'm gonna need some plastic covers to prevent the new speakers getting killed.
Nice ride sir! I like the brows myself - I vote body colour.
I built/recommisioned a V6 P100 last year. I did the entire build thread on here too so you should be able to find it if you search my username?
Whatever seats you decide on, remember you need the use the P100 runner on the drivers side - mine failed MOT 1st time as the Cossie runner didn't allow enough movement.
96 E320 W210 Wafter - on 18" split Mono's - Sold :-( 10 Kia Ceed Sportwagon - Our new daily 03 Import Forester STi - Sold 98 W140 CL500 AMG - Brutal weekend bruiser! Sold :-( 99 E240 S210 Barge - Now sold 02 Accord 2.0SE - wife's old daily - gone in PX 88 P100 2.9efi Custom - Sold
Nice ride sir! I like the brows myself - I vote body colour.
I built/recommisioned a V6 P100 last year. I did the entire build thread on here too so you should be able to find it if you search my username?
Whatever seats you decide on, remember you need the use the P100 runner on the drivers side - mine failed MOT 1st time as the Cossie runner didn't allow enough movement.
I shall have to take a look at youyr thread - any major 'Gotchas' spring to mind?
Not sure what runners are attached to the cosworth recaros, i know there are none on the escort ones and currently the seats are something like peugoet and the floor rails have been notched to fit them.
Having said that, i love my MOT man - the rear half of the exhaust is MIA and he just noted it was a little noisy.
That and he was quite leniant on my headlights. 😉
I'm leaning towards the body colour myself on the brows - they can always be sprayed again a later date or taken off if I change my mind - they were less than a fiver😂
Just skimmed through your thread and it looked very familiar and it suddenly clicked where from: www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/222179683317 Its sitting in my watch list!
Yeah thats the one. Not sure why he is selling so soon but he is being lazy using my pictures!
96 E320 W210 Wafter - on 18" split Mono's - Sold :-( 10 Kia Ceed Sportwagon - Our new daily 03 Import Forester STi - Sold 98 W140 CL500 AMG - Brutal weekend bruiser! Sold :-( 99 E240 S210 Barge - Now sold 02 Accord 2.0SE - wife's old daily - gone in PX 88 P100 2.9efi Custom - Sold
Ever since I bought the truck she's been reluctant to start from cold - i put this down to fords auto choke mechanism being rubbish from day 1, let alone 26 years later.
My friend borrowed the truck over the weekend and slept in it at a motorway service station - don't ask - next morning it refused to start. The RAC came out and diagnosed that that the carb was at fault and also that it wasn't the right carb for the car, they then said he would need a recovery truck. From the time he first called them to when he got collected was 9 hours !!!! The most shocking thing about that for me i that the mechanic knew anything about the truck and didn't ask where to plug in the diagnostic computer.
Eventually it got dropped off at my mechanics at 10pm last night - lucky for me he's also my uncle and his son lives on site as security - it starts and runs but is curse word petrol out from one of the mating surfaces.
So this morning they start to find out what went wrong. First call i get is to ask if i know what the carb is off of as its weber not ford - my best guess was that its of a sierra 2.0 pinto car, a quick check of the Haynes manual confirms it, I have a 32/36 DGAV as fitted to the cars instead of the ford VV that should be fitted. That may also explain why the air filter housing intake is on the wrong side? The leak is coming from the carb to inlet mounting face - the gasket is brittle as hell and there are bits missing, I checked with my friend and apparently the RAC man had taken the carb off so that explains that one. A quick cereal box gasket later they were able to continue diagnosing the issue from where it was before the RAC man got his hands on it. Still leaking petrol and would only run for a couple of minutes at most, so off comes the carb for a closer look.
The culprit.......
One torn accelerator pump diaphragm, could explain why she's been getting harder and harder to start. In the long run I'll be converting to bike carbs, but as a quick and cheap solution the parts on order for an overhaul
So the rebuild kit arrived yesterday and my 18 year old cousin did the honours of stripping and rebuilding the carb - a first for him, he's always doing my bike ones for me, but has never worked on a car with a carb!
Full strip down and it was evident that this may have been overdue - several years of gunk!
Especially the filter!
To get the carb off the coolant hoses had to be disconnected from the auto choke - whilst it was apart the heater matrix was flushed through as although the coolant gets hot the cab doesn't. Or didn't! It now works a treat, just in time for summer?! At the same time a few tweaks to the idle set up and the fuel/air mixture resulted in it starting better than it ever has and a lovely smooth idle and strong revs through the range.
Oil and filter in the morning as I've done a few miles, also there is still a small oil leak, we suspect from the output shaft seal - I have a new one and its on the list, rather than just keep throwing new in with the old, for the sake of a few quid it can't hurt to do it properly.
It's amazing what a bit of TLC has done for the old girl.
So oil and filter got changed but I decided to continue with some more general TLC seeing as she starts and runs better than I've ever known I though I'd better make sure it stayed that way, also i've done 2200 miles since i got her in January - thats what she's done in the previous 4 years!!
So.............. she's just had fan belt, spark plugs (air filter was only done a month back) new wiper blades and carbon fibre effect arms
and finally a new exhaust - I've modified a sportex Capri system to fit from mid section backwards (forwards of that will be done when the ported head is fitted later in the year with the four into 1 manifold) - there is a slight blow from the reducer to the original pipe but that will have to wait especially as I'm sure it will need adjusting once everything has settled and it took all day to get that far,
Plus I think I'd struggle to make the exhaust sound much worse.
So oil and filter got changed but I decided to continue with some more general TLC seeing as she starts and runs better than I've ever known I though I'd better make sure it stayed that way, also i've done 2200 miles since i got her in January - thats what she's done in the previous 4 years!!
So.............. she's just had fan belt, spark plugs (air filter was only done a month back) new wiper blades and carbon fibre effect arms
and finally a new exhaust - I've modified a sportex Capri system to fit from mid section backwards (forwards of that will be done when the ported head is fitted later in the year with the four into 1 manifold) - there is a slight blow from the reducer to the original pipe but that will have to wait especially as I'm sure it will need adjusting once everything has settled and it took all day to get that far,
Plus I think I'd struggle to make the exhaust sound much worse.
So oil and filter got changed but I decided to continue with some more general TLC seeing as she starts and runs better than I've ever known I though I'd better make sure it stayed that way, also i've done 2200 miles since i got her in January - thats what she's done in the previous 4 years!!
So.............. she's just had fan belt, spark plugs (air filter was only done a month back) new wiper blades and carbon fibre effect arms
and finally a new exhaust - I've modified a sportex Capri system to fit from mid section backwards (forwards of that will be done when the ported head is fitted later in the year with the four into 1 manifold) - there is a slight blow from the reducer to the original pipe but that will have to wait especially as I'm sure it will need adjusting once everything has settled and it took all day to get that far,
Plus I think I'd struggle to make the exhaust sound much worse.
I tried to run it the same way as it was on the Capri, over the leaf spring and behind the tyre but it's all just a bit too tight and is now rubbing on the spring when going round corners, and that's without any load in it. Hopefully I'll find some time in the week to reroute it the other side - although I suspect this will cause the tailpipe to come out at an angle rather than straight - won't know for sure until I try.
In the meantime I'm still working on replacing the speakers - I've been looking for new door window seals as mine are worn and letting water in, so I'm not too keen on putting new speakers in just for them to get ruined in the first shower. Although I may just waterproof the speakers as so far I'm not having any luck.
Anyone had a good experience with aftermarket rubbers? If so where from?
I found a reasonable set of XR4x4 door cards that should match my Recaros (when I finally fit them) at a bargain price - unfortunately the seller didn't want to post the and it was a 190mile 3.5hour round trip, so would cost near four times as much again in petrol to get them, no longer the bargain that the seemed so I thought I'd have to leave them.
Except........ my cousins boy is 19 and drives around in a BMW 320d, it costs £2.5k to insure and he's stuck with a black box tracker following his every move, next year they wasn't £5k on a £1200 car! He's been hassling me to sell him my 2.9 Sierra as a resto project but as its my donor for the truck I've refused, so he started looking for his own project.
With a bit of searching on a popular auction site I managed to solve all the problems in one go, albeit I was only joking at the time. His own classic ford project No longer wants my 2.9 His insurance is under £2k and doesn't require a black box The car is in Manchester and my door cards are on the way!
So yesterday we set off to Manchester, minor detour to collect door cards. Gave the car a good looking over and a test drive.
Then I got to drive 204 miles in his new purchase as I could get temporary insurance for just £28
1983 1.1LE MK1 Fiesta, so much fun, sat at 75 on the motorway with no issues, and then I got off a junction early and took in a some of the back roads I used to drive my MK2 round when I was too many years younger - I'm in love with a 1.1!