Building a Fiesta ST...very approximate plan is mostly stock + suspension + bits modeled after M-Sport R2
Friend sends me an email...and this wasn't the first one, but it's the one that finally cajoled me.
That car went for about $4k - I thought it was too expensive, so I kept looking...
This one hit my price point, but it has significantly more damage. Online, it's a roll of the dice on what exactly is damaged.
Both frame rails are bent from the impact, broken tie rod, and everything in the front end module is smashed.
It's a salvage title, so the first order of business is to get it road worthy and get it re-titled as rebuilt, then we can do the rally prep.
Once the bumper beam is out of there, you can see it took a pretty good wack. 2014 is the first year the Fiesta passed small frontal overlap impact tests. Anecdotal evidence suggest the left side structure is modified from 2013, and based on this, it sure moves a lot.
Andrew and some buddies spent a couple of hours and peeled off the bad, and pulled a bit on the frame with prybars. This is our starting point.
My target is to start with a similar build level as the Jetta. I think the car should make similar power to the Jetta.
The gearbox may be a little longer and less rally-rific stock, but for all practical purposes, it'll be mostly fine.
Going to run the B-spec AC delete pulley. $100 well spent to avoid mucking about with belts or building your own idler.
Andrew is going to try to get the engine out this weekend. I'll order an overpriced bumper cover and hood - brother Marc can get someone local to shoot paint on the new metal.
Seems likely that we'll also enlist the help of a body shop to get the horns replaced. I *could* do it, but it will cause a big delay since the car is several states away from me.
Could get it all knocked out by the end of the month with some effort?
Modifying the body in any significant way isn't part of the plan right now. The main obstacle local club guys face to being competitive is being poorly prepared for events, and vehicles that have bizzaro reliability and development problems.
The primary competitive issues I've heard with the platform have to do with keeping the CVs happy, and on the ST, a cooling deficiency. I suppose the IB6 gearbox is a bit of a question mark on stage, especially if we remap the ECU a bit.
Overall, I'm willing to give up a bit of suspension performance for the convenience of less development work as long as the end result is reliable and fun to drive.
My vision for summer fun is riding dirtbikes in our local enduro series and dabbling back in rally with a low maintenance car.
They got the engine popped out yesterday to let them Focus (ha ha) on the body repair. The unexpected wiring harness damage is going to be a bit of a PITA to deal with. There is someone selling harnesses on Ebay, but I am going to see if I can repair this one first.
Modifying the body in any significant way isn't part of the plan right now. The main obstacle local club guys face to being competitive is being poorly prepared for events, and vehicles that have bizzaro reliability and development problems.
Nobody suggested modifying the body in any significant way..
Adding a 1/3 or 1/2 circle bump in the inner wheelhousing is nowhere considered a significant body modification..especially as it is a do it once and now you are free to select easily and cheaply all kinds of springs...a benefit which allows a local club guy to be competitive for less money.
The main obstacle local club guys face to being competitive is being brainwashed into a consumerist, timid, conventional mindset.
And as consumerists, coventional thinkers being fearful of doing things that there is already established as a common and ordinary thing in the rest of the industrialised world for more than 40 decades...just because a few other conventional consumerist thinking timid guys have said they are afraid of doing something on some cheesy forum.
So we are progressing very slowly and bit the bullet and just delivered the shell to a local guy to get the body pulled.
Not sure what kind of time frame that'll take.
Spent some time at 100AW trying out seats and came to the conclusion that I'm marginally too big for most anything Sparco makes and should have spent a bit more time trying out the OMP seats.
We were focused on seats with head restraints. We tried multiple variations on the Pro-ADV. One was OK, but there weren't any size details on the product that I could see. The Circuit that I tried was wide enough (it was the wider size) but my longish torso was crashing my shoulder into the bottom of the head restraint.
I was hoping someone had the Sparco Ergos in their car, but I didn't see any.
I'm already in a consumerist mindset. I bought a car that's less than 2 years old with less than 15,000 miles on it EXACTLY because I want to be able to buy parts from a dealer, not a junkyard.
I'm not worried about springs - especially since suspension is readily available off the shelf for the car.
FINALLY more progress. Andrew and Marc ran the car out to a body repair place a few weeks ago. Guy is putting some old world handy craftsmanship into the metal work. Still need to section some metal in.
Mr Mettle. On some forums, Google photos don't last and are taken down. I found this out the hard way and was pointed to Postimage.org. Uploads much quicker and no bullshit.
For the Google photos, you have to click the image you want to bring it up solo on it's own. then right click for the link. It won't work with the tiled images, must be the large one that you want only.....
I'm pretty sure I hated it when other people did it, but since the internet has broken all photo sharing except for via F***book, have a lookie look via the blogsplat
I'm building 2015 ST as well and wondering if You used original ST rear axle beam or swapped to n/a one?
for some reason couldn't find it on Your site.
thanks
The ST rear beam, like the ST fronts, are at a different height than the base model, so with a given damper length, the car will ride closer to the ground. This is how Ford lowered the car. You can see it when you have the parts side by side.
I bought a base model front set of uprights, and a base model beam.
I haven't yet confirmed that the front brakes will bolt onto it yet, but hope they will, and should have time to do this soon.
For the rear,
The hubs differ between the disc and drum. Although they're basically the same bolt pattern, one is a through bolt, and the other is threaded. I thought "OH, EASY" and rushed into drilling the threads on the base axle only to have my drill bit run into the beam. There is no access for a through bolt because of where the mounting plate is located relative to beam body.
My plan at this point is to make a hole in the beam material, but it's on the backburner while I finish the safety cage.
ONeil mentioned something about using the Focus SVT rear disc brake assembly, but I don't know anything about that.
We enjoy the event, but haven't been down with a car for several years since we had problems with the VW we were running.
My brother and I volunteered there in 2016, but are talking about using the weekend to work on the car together. It's about the same time commitment for him to drive to help me out vs. drive to the rally.
we're in the same boat: my garage is not heated either lol.
And also used Bilstein gravel kit from M-Sport in UK. had to modify front struts by cutting and re-welding mounting tabs
because right ST drive-axle was rubbing lower portion of right strut.
I don't understand why M-sport wouldn't relocate them like 5 mm lower? Jeez! what a PITA!
anyway:
for fuel line i went to this place that sells braided flexible lines and AN fittings. that was fairly easy DIY
i just drilled two holes in front of fuel tank (it was removed back then) one for brake line and bigger one for fuel line because An fitting is somewhat big.
and cut fuel line from tank forward long enough to enter cabin. same with the front part of fuel line from the engine: long enough to enter inside and work with.
i don't remember video i watched but here's the first one i Googled. i'll give You an idea anyway https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIpq4XV2wJ4
for brake lines i bypassed ABS and did separate front and rear. i just happen to have miles of brake lines from previous builds.
drilled a hole in firewall and routed brake and fuel lines through it.
from one chamber of brake master cylinder one line goes to T fitting and to front brakes, the other line goes through the firewall to brake bias.
the second piece from bias to hydraulic brake cylinder and third piece connects e-brake to rear T fitting which is inside and splits to rear brakes.
will try to take and post pictures later though everything is masked and covered up now for cage work.
I build boats for a living, and run a manufacturing facility. I have had over twenty years experience with fiberglass and approximately 5 with carbon and kevlar. For what you are looking at using it for, I would use at least 4-5 layers of 5 oz. cloth.You can specifically order resins that are for our applications that are more resistant to fire and heat. Read this before ordering: http://www.aoc-resins.com/pdf/tech-fr-formulations.pdf
If you are going to put a guard around a fuel tank, youd be better to make yourself a spacer out of thick cardboard, before laying the peelply down, so your final product is not in contact with the tank itself. This allows for a little bit of deflection and movement when you hit or run over stuff. The worst possible thing is to damage the tank, and not be able to see the damage, because of the guard. If the guard shows enough damage itself, you wil know to remove it and inspect the tank.
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