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Ford Sierra XR4x4

61K views 118 replies 70 participants last post by  bidderman1969 
#1 · (Edited)
I got my new XR4x4 in April 06 after my old one died due to rust. My main criteria after the previous one was a no rust and this one fitted the bill. There were somethings I wanted to change but it was a good base to start from.

It was pretty much standard but with recaro interior. And some small issues.



I picked it up from Bedford and drove back the 200 ish miles home. Pleased to report that apart from a small electrical issue (rev counter bounced when indicating and also jumped when breaking by about 5rpm - electrical as engine revs are constant) everything went fine and the it did not miss a beat all the way :D

Once home I set about removing the head unit, amp and speakers that the previous owner had installed as I had the Sony kit I removed from my old XR4x4. As I was leaning in the passenger footwell resting on my elbow I noticed it was getting wet :wall:

So earlier than planned the interior was set to be removed. After a very nervous few mins removing everything I was pleased to report only very minor issues and no big holes like my one one :D











The sound proofing took AGES :mad: to dry. After investigation I found that the heater matrix had been changed recently so found the source :D







So while the sound proofing dried I set about investigating the floor closely and found a little surface rust appearing under some small sections of the sound deadening, seat mounts and two small slits in the transmission tunnel. The plastic gromet at the front passenger side had got distrubed and cracked the sound deadening. I treated the rust, had the 2 small slits welded, refitted the gromet and replaced the sound deadening and painted the floor.











This looks worst than it was as the we only 2 small sections of rust. The rest is the remains of the sound proofing.















While working inside I set about some other jobs. Fitted new header tank, old one was manky, changed plugs and leads. Just done the servicing here. Engine bay in need of a major detail!



During this time I had my 4x4 cosworth alloys sent away for refurb and got some new centre caps from ford




And got them fitted :D



Once the underlay was dry I set about cleaning years of dirt off the carpet. I used our small steam cleaner with its stiff brush and AG interior shampoo and lots of clean water. I am pretty pleased with the results.









The car is a late model with the dark dash and red and blue interior. The previous owner had used early cosworth light grey seats but I had a late model cosworth dark interior stashed in the loft. I have got the rears fitted the fronts are next on my list.





I set about stripping the front end to see what condition some hidden areas were in. Started by removing the bumper as was reasonably please as there was minimal rust. I know the best thing to do you be to cut it out and replace but that is not in my budget at the time so containment was as far as I could go with rust kill and POR 15





Looking at the drivers side it has had a new wing not too long ago so things we not bad at all.



Cleaned up



Treated and painted



Looking a little sad for its self



I then set about stripping the engine to fix the broken exhaust stud (passenger side back at the very bottom) :roll:











The heads went off to Bogg Brothers to have the exhaust studs replaced and the broken one removed

While away I got on with the rust proofing.

Waxoiling the front end..







These were my new engine mounts that I fitted while the heads were off.



I got the engine back together again and once the dstributor was in the correct position fired up straight away :D

I only got 1 rebuild picture as I was under a strict time deadline to get the car off the drive, as the "it'll only be there a week" was wearing thin with my girlfriend getting on for four weeks later.



Once it was back and up and running it flew through its MOT with no problems not even an advisory :D

I had been buying a few things while I was working on the engine.

Door weather seals



New Escort Cosworth gear knob



One of my other purchases was another recaro interior. I was not happy with the condition of the one I had so I bought another but with a cunning plan. It was an identical late model dark recaro interior but from a left hand drive. The logic being that what was worn on my current interior the opposite would be on the left hand drive and therefore I could put the 2 together to make a near perfect interior. The other bonus was that it came with all the door cards. I was impressed with was the rear seat which is a massive improvement over my existing one. Then came the amalgamation of 4 recaros.

Orignal passenger seat good back, good left hand lower bolster



but has small burns



and the outer bolster was streched and was marked



Original Drivers, poor upper and lower bolsters



"New" right hand passenger seat with replaced upper bolster (can just see they are shinier)



It had a *** burn and the outer bolster was worn



The strip down began



Good outer bolster foam



Foam being replaced



Replacement in place



Covered



I was not happy with the centre of the rear so it came out



There was a mark a the bottom



There were some marks on the head rest so swapped this while the back was apart



Back - back together again



This was the original drivers bolster



and this was why



And the replacement



And covered



Replaced base



Back together



And the other



After lots of cleaning with AG interior cleaner and swapping I had a near perfect set of seats :D

The main electrical problem was the bulb failure unit. In a nut shell no front door indication and glowing rear light indicators. The cables to the rear lights had been butchered to connect the tow bar loom with blue crimps.



So soldered them and covered with heat insulation.



Much better :D

This seams to have cured the glowing tail lights.

Then the Bulb Failure Unit decided it was then not going to work at all. So while looking into this removed some eleci tape covering various sections of the loom on the stearing column and surrounding area and unleached the horrors underneath.







Wires that were meant to be CAT1 installed, soldered and heat shrunk, were crimped and not crimped well at that. Some joints turned out to be held in the crimp with the eleci tape :doublesho

Other horrors - the fuel relay supply was joined over 2 inches with 3 pieces of thinner guage wire in parallel in an poor attempt by a so called professional installer to bridge the gap :doublesho :eek:

I got the wires tidy and around the steering column to make it safe. I did not solder all the joints as I had the alarm refitted by a professional with an excellent reputation.



Having made some progress with the BFU and the rear lights I decided to look into the front doors. First off the display was not working properly as the self test was not showing the front doors at power on. Once my spare display was fitted we now had a full display at start up. At this stage we now had front doors open all the time - little improvement. Now attention was turned to the swithces in the doors and it soon became clear what was going on. Yale locks are fitted in all the doors and the positioning of these in the front doors does not give room to have the switches connected onto the locks - damn it!!!! :censored:



So taped the switched closed so they do not show as open. Best of a bad situation.

After wiring in the front speakers and a small tweater above the mirror control and in the same position on the passenger side I finally got the front door cards on. Those were reasonable at the time but will be changed for better ones as the vinyl has shrunk and lifted in placed. It looked ok from a distance but close up is not so good. The drivers side needed real repair to get it looking acceptable.

After attacking it with the heat gun, spray glue and the stapler I managed to bring it back to look some thing like.















I fitted the front and rear seats and also sorted the rear door cards.




The light was a little poor so pics are not too good.

The dash was refitted with the minimum parts required to make it driveable while the alarm installer got to finish the wiring.

With the interior taking shape, I decided it needed a clean. I washed using 2BM and then with meguairs clay and lube.



I was surprised as the clay did not pick up as much dirt as I thought it would -- but there enough still there after washing.



My camera is not that good (it's only my phone)



After the reinstallation of the alarm (and removal of 10 ton of un needed wiring) a lot of my strange glowing lights and junping rev counter when indicating were cured.

I bought these for my old XR4x4 and they were only on the car for a few hundred miles and about 11 months before it died due to chassis rot. While the wheels were off I gave the arches a clean with APC and also did the wheels as the drive shaft gater had poped off and covered my newly refurbed wheels with grease which everything then stuck to.

I used Megs APC on the arches. For the wheels APC then AG Tar Remover and then some old Megs Clay. I gave it a going over with AG SRP.







The arches were not detailed just a first stage clean.









I then bought a few parts.

New Ford Mats



New Indicator and lights sticks



Cosworth Fans



Nearly new Ford radiator with hole for temp sensor and seperate loom





New boot release lever



For months I had been driving around with only 3/4 of a dash so I thought I better get my butt in gear and finish the interior and give it a good clean. Megs APC, AG Interior Cleaner and then finished with Poor Boys Natural Look Dressing.

I also picked up a Cosworth leather stearing wheel. This was given a clean with AG Leather Cleaner and finished with AG Leather Care Cream.

Some random interior shots. (The gear stick surround is still off as I was waiting on a new rubber cover that goes under the leather gater and I was also getting my spare gear box reconditioned so it would have to come out anyway.

















I made up some brackets and mounted my cosworth fans on to my new V6 radiator and fixed it in with the custom loom. I also added the top hose with the blead screw in it that I got ages ago.



During last years MOT I got an advisory on my brake pipes so decided as this years MOT was a few months off that I should take a look. After venturing beneth the car it became apparent that the underside was needed a good clean up. My fuel pump had been making strange noises for a while and the tank has taken a knock at some point so new tank and pump were on the cards. This was proven when the tank was removed.



After removing the tank the crustyness was even more clear.





The plan was

New fuel tank and pump and piping
Rear beam shot blasted and powered coated
Clean, paint and treat underside
New brake pipes all round
New clutch and better gear box
New discs and pads all round

The challenge to all this was that my driveway that I am working on slopes in two directions which makes things interesting when jacking and working underneath in a safe manor.

All set to begin


Beam off with no snapped nuts or problems at all - phew!


Once the beam was off it was stripped and sent off for blasting and coating.

Attention was turned to cleaning the floor and cleaning up surface rust for treating. It turned out quite well.

The good bit


The not so bad bit - just surface


I stripped and cleaned the underside. Once cleaned I treated any light surface rust with this stuff.



All I can say is it is amazing - it is the best rust treatment solution I have ever used! Once treated with the hydrate 80 it was then sprayed with the etchweld.



Once dry they whole area was painted with Red Oxide primer



I collected my powered coating and can say I am very pleased with it. If anyone is in or around East Yorks - I can recomemend these guys. http://www.carnaby-powder-coatings.co.uk/ I had the beam, trailing arms, disc splash guards, beam steadying plates, gearbox mount, rear anti roll bar, rear springs,and tow bar all shot blasted and powder coated. I had the gearbox cradle shot blasted but not powder coated as I did not want the collar melting into a blob. Here are the steadying plates everything else stayed wrapped up until needed.



I have made up some new brake pipes and started to rebuild the rear
arms.

I got the unions from Ford £30 odd pound :shock: for 10 male and 10 female unions




The rubber hoses were used for making sure the solid pipe was correct. I am getting braided hoses for the rebuild.

I will be painting the brake pipes to match the original ford ones using this paint



Heres my new gear box mount


The bulk of my new nuts and bolts arrived



A few bits and bobs for the brakes.



New Polly Bushes


The underside is now sealed and has got its top coat on.




And I've got my new fuel pump - just need a new tank to put it in!



I have a little more to post when I get the pics up loaded.

Daz
 
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#11 ·
Nice work mate:thumb:
Great job on the seats. Just goes to show you don't have to chuck lots of money at something if you can replace it with a bit of ingenuity and hard work.
Whats the plans for the old girl? Keep as a DD or get to show standard? Nice work either way.
Looking forward to seeing the rest. Always like the XR4/4x4's.

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