[bentmettle]

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.

 

[Dante]

Awesome!!!

 

[321Go]

So you'll have it ready for 100AW, right?

 

[bentmettle]

So you'll have it ready for 100AW, right?

Maybe possible?

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?

 

[William Marenich]

Can't wait to see how it turns out.

 

[321Go]

I was only kidding, but you sound motivated. Hope to see it soon.

 

[John Vanlandingham]

Maybe possible?

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?

That'd be a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong extention cord fo the welder...
Given any thought to grafting in some Golf rear towers?
Those buggers like so many modern cars have a really short rear sprang and like half a Golf rear turret would make rear coilovers a snap...
But stock position seems like a nightmare to get any ajustability and spring travel out of...

 

[bentmettle]

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.

 

[Dante]

Can't wait to chase you! Good luck on the build!

 

[bentmettle]

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.

 

[321Go]

Too big as in width? Sparco makes 3 widths in some and OMP make a real wide one (wide enough for me, even).

 

[bentmettle]

correct- width.

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.

 

[John Vanlandingham]

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.

 

[bentmettle]

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.

 

[bentmettle]

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.

Maybe we'll have a car before May?

 

[johnhuebbe]

Cool. Looks good so far.

 

[bentmettle]

So dead thread from hell I guess.

Turns out the shop we had "fix" the car didn't measure a few things, so I had to re-do a bit over the winter.

Got a skid plate from O'Neils , broke my leg a little bit racing in an Enduro and finally am able to start fiting up a Custom Cages kit for the thing.



Hrm. That photo is Tiny.

Maybe I'll post up more when I figure out some other way to do photos and actually get some of the tubes tacked together.

 

[steve]

Yea, get on that thing before it becomes historic! By the way, i am not allowed to view that photo for some reason, apparently I am not authorized.


But I DO authorize you to get that cage in the car so you can rally the thing. The world is waiting!

 

[bentmettle]

Is there some way to make google photos place nice with this forum software? I have photos but I'll be dipped if I can make them work.

 

[steve]

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.....