Engine and gearbox painted

Front suspension complete

For the build of the Jester, the front springs need to be shortened by two coils. This involved buying a pair of spring compressors, (they do as they sound,) compress the springs, remove the top cap that holds the spring in, remove it then loosen the spring compressors until the spring is not under tension any more. (If this wasn't done, the spring would "ping" off at a great speed as its under tension when on the strut.) My local car bodyshop shortened the springs by the two coils required, then everything was cleaned, painted and put back into place. (As per the lower photo above.) The top photo shows the cut down coils along with the silver spring compressors. I also managed to put the under slung main engine beam and flywheel cover on tonight.

The day of the Hammerite!

For those of you who don't know, Hammerite is a product designed to be used on (older) car parts that (may) have surface rust on them. It treats the rust and prevents it coming back, and also leaves a VERY thick shiny black covering which makes everything look brand new. Amongst the items to get a double covering today were the rear axle, both rear trailing arms, rear springs, front top suspension caps, front suspension connection bars (all 4 of) and the steering rack. As the fiesta was 23 years old, this was a job well done. The process involved using a wire brush and removing the surface rust, then sanding each item down, removing any grease with white spirit, then painting two seperate coats of Hammerite on. Not the nicest of jobs but in years to come when everything still looks new with no rust on any components it will be a day well spent.

New parts arriving every day

Today I collected 4 brand new shock absorbers for the Jester, 2 front and 2 rear, all boxed for a total of £25! Not bad at £6.25 each for a difficult to find item nowadays. Over the last week a new starter motor, new track rod ends, new clutch and throttle cable have all arrived.

Preparation of donor parts

Tonight, my mate Conrad and I started preparing some of the donor parts before the chassis arrives. In english, this meant the extremely glamorous job of brushing surface rust off suspension components and items like the rear axle with a couple of hard wire brushes. We also cleaned the gearbox up, it was actually very shiny once we removed 23 years of oil and gunk!

Donor car finished with!

In one day, the fiesta has been stripped of everything, yes, EVERYTHING else that I need for the Jester! The steering rack, brake servo and master cylinder, rear axle and complete engine and gearbox were amongst the items removed today with the aid of a hired engine winch. The local scrapyard is collecting the bodyshell on Monday. Next week I will start reconditioning all the parts removed over the last 8 days

Engine winch ordered

I have ordered an engine winch to be delivered this Saturday morning (3rd Sept) and it will be collected Sunday afternoon. In that time I hope to have stripped almost every part from the fiesta, but certainly have removed the engine and rear axle. This evening was spent doing all the preparation work for taking the engine and gearbox out, loosening bolts and applying wd40 to everything ect... The windscreen wiper motor, mechanism and wipers were removed tonight along with the handbrake and cable.