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Fiesta - yeah, another one

28K views 93 replies 14 participants last post by  steve 
#1 · (Edited)
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.
 
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#36 ·
Appreciate the professional advice.

For reference- the "factory" tank guards are glued to the tank without much or any spacing that I can see. If you did offset the guard, how would you attach it? Lexel with to standoffers or spacers?

I was also considering doing S-glass inner layers, with Kevlar outer. I'll have to poke my head back up under the car and see how exposed the tank is to stuff.
 
#37 ·
For stand-offs, I would use 1/4" to 3/8" Butyl rubber sheeting, cut into strips. Easy to shape around weird shapes and curves, and easy to attach to tank with contact cement, before final mounting of the guard.
 
#41 ·
Stock everything powertrain to start with. Curious how I'm going to fight through dealing with the ABS / stabliity control system, but want to at least get it roadworthy again and then figure it out.

I know they building the cars with steering stops, some kind of insert for the front subframes, and other strengthening measures. Haven't made any headway there.


down the road, I'm kicking around doing a wavetrac, and a 4.3 final drive or similar from Pumaspeed. The stock 6 speed is silly.
 
#42 ·
same here. i guess we'll be dealing with problems once they arise lol.
now i got this huge question: i took the whole car apart and now putting it back together.
pretty much all the wires are in place
BUT!
spent hours looking where to hook up this connector:
one end plugs into this ring where ignition "lock" is but the other end which looks like round optical connector is nowhere to be plugged!
looks like it has to be connected somewhere in the middle where the stereo wires are but i just don't freaking see anything!
i have two sets of wiring's: one off n/a Fiesta and one off my ST.
they both have the same connectors for ignition (recognition of the right keys i think?)
two ends as i mentioned and two sort of optical sensors embedded into dashboard on driver's and passenger's sides.
I'm sure You have those as well.
would You please help?
 
#43 ·
Was there a photo? I'm a bit confused as to what you are referring to.

I PM'd you an email address you can contact me at to help you through it.

There was an ambient light controller in some of the cars that you don't have to use.

Did your NA Fiesta also use push button start?
 
#44 · (Edited)
i'm building the ST. n/a Fiesta has regular ignition but was bought with front end damage for couple hundred bucks because i needed some body parts, that's all.
though it has the same wiring part and i just mentioned it for referral.
Now
the ST has this sort of ignition lock which is not a real lock, because there's no key hole, no cylinder and such. it's just a housing for it.
but still there's a ring around it for what i think is a receptor with a chip that recognizes a key.
i don't think it's for ambient light because there are no power wires connected to it.
that piece of wire i'm talking about is plugged into it with one end then wires split and two ends go to tiny sensors that are in dashboard itself
(i think they're tiny motion sensors and can"t be removed, they're kinda glued)
and in between them there's a plug with three wires but output is optical and it's a small round one
and for that particular one i can not find corresponding plug =o(
will take pictures later but if You trace the wires coming from the ignition housing i'm sure You'll find where the other end plugs.
 
#46 · (Edited)
You must be right, i just went to Ford to buy an oil filter and took those wires with me.
parts guy run the part number and we looked at pictures so it might be just the ambient light
one end plugs into something under center console and the round side plugs into the light rail on passenger's side.
Edited:
sorted everything out. both plugs fit.
too bad i concentrated on one of them w/o checking fitments of others.
half a day lost!
 
#48 ·
I don't think so, at least right now.

The goal for this build was going as low effort as possible to get ~200hp in a FWD car with parts readily available off the shelf.



I'd like the restraints module to not be in the car, if possible. I don't know if it acts to enable the fuel pump, or if it just disables it after it detects some collision. That will be fairly easy to check once it's back together.

The ABS module creates the vehicle speed signal by reading the wheel pulses. It'd be easier, for me, to take those pulses into an arduino or similar and send out that speed signal on the canbus than it would be to re-tune a standalone ECU.

But first things first, I need to get the mechanical bits all stuffed back into the car, and then lay in some wiring and see what I have.
 
#53 ·
nope. just service needed (wrench), ABS, tire pressure and stability control along with airbag.
will see what happens when it's back on the road though.
PS. i don't know what You're going to do about evap system in the back. i was going to get rid of it first and didn't get it inside. but it'd surely set off CEL
so after long consideration i pulled evap pipe through the left rail underneath.
since it's made of steel i cut it near the exit and connected two pieces with flexible pipe.
it exits where the long oval hole is in the very front of the rail right behind the bracket connecting rail to front crossmember.
had to struggle a bit with the front piece of it bending so it'd enter that hole smoothly.
 
#54 ·
Good question. Haven't figured that out, either.

I futzed with trimming the dash more to get it around the cage, but I really need to buckle down and fix up the firewall where I brought the cage through. I'm just not feeling like making myself into a little ball of a human to work inside the car today.

With the Custom Cages kit, I can't reuse the HVAC case. I haven't looked to see if I can modify any of it, but I'm not too hopeful.
 
#55 · (Edited)
OEM HVAC sucks and weights a ton not mentioning it has about a hundred sensors and electric motors and solenoids.
my buddy is building turbo AWD Fiesta with Cosworth drivetrain and for heating he's using WRC style heater with engine oil running through it.
i'd love to do the same but in production it has to be original and i'm too poor to go open.
Now
back to rear brakes: i think i mentioned swapping ST rear axle for n/a one which i parted out but surely don't like drum brakes much
(though when i started rallying we had drums on all four corners and somehow managed to survive lol)
anyway i found this kit, emailed the guys and they said with this i can bolt on calipers and rotors off my ST to n/a beam
i think it can be bought relatively cheap off of autowreckers
http://goldcoastautomotive.com/cgi-bin/p/awtp-product.cgi?d=gold-coast-automotive&item=64912
 
#57 · (Edited)
Price seems a bit steep for what appears to be two flat chunks of metal, though.
i was thinking of making them myself lol
but one day (most likely two) would be lost with all the measurements. manufacturing, fitting (frustration because it won't fit lol) correcting and such.
so either spend $175 and do something useful that day instead or losing time ....and time= money
for now i'm having drums in the back and if i have time and 175 bux i'll buy those
 
#59 ·
not sure if You're going to relocate battery to the back but if You do i just want to share how i pulled my "+" cable through firewall.
where wiring harness from engine compartment goes inside there's a sound symposer flexible pipe in it.
but there's some sort of restrictor right in the middle of it though and i used a long drill bit (fairly big diameter) to get rid of it and drilled through by hand
and pulled positive cable through it alone with those two (extended) wires from negative post.
cheers!
 
#60 ·
I am blessed with having the car completely torn down, so I have a lot of access to everything.

I spent a bit more time fitting up the stock HVAC case. It's a bit heavy, but it will work and I already bought it with the car :D

Turns out that the fact you can take it apart with the screws was pretty useful for figuring out how to snake it around the cage, and work on the parts that needed trimmed and cut to fit.

I need to get the mounting nailed down very soon. It's starting to drag my energy level down messing around with it.


I got approval for my cage certificate yesterday, so once that comes in the mail, I'll work on getting the car logbooked. Minor victory there :)
 
#61 ·
i also stripped my car completely before beginning this build a few months ago.
And same as You I bought it damaged from the auction.
now most of it is assembled and painted. will need another two-three weeks to finish.
for tuning most likely i'll use Cobb. used one for our Fiesta can be found for about $400
that's the cheapest option for now.
...not sure how to post images. it used to be easier =o)))
 
#62 ·
I'm having some GRRRR moments lately with photos now that my camera has been supplanted by a phone - Vbulliten doesn't look at the EXIF data, so everything is always upside down or sideways.

I'll monkey with a few things when I get home and post up photos of the preliminary HVAC case install.


I saw a cool thing at work today - this dash was trimmed around a cage, and instead of just cutting the dash, they cut the substrate, left the top vinyl intact and wrapped it down over the edge. It looks super clean. I hadn't seen anything like it before (because I wasn't looking) and am kicking myself for just hacking up my dash and creating a hard edge.
 
#64 ·
I don't think the top of the Fiesta dash is soft enough to do it - I looked at mine when I got home. Or maybe it is if you can heat the top layer and roll it once it's warmed up.


I'm on a garage cleaning hiatus from actual car work, although I did start hacking on the rear axle to get the hubs bolted up to it. Trying to round up all my VW Jetta parts so I can get a more cohesive sale package and information together.
 
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