Post by casesensitive on May 29, 2013 13:26:21 GMT
And so begins the long road to my Rocket!
My journey is going to be quite a bit longer than most; I have set myself a 2 year timeframe for getting this done. The main reason is to get peace at home, 1 day a week foostering in the garage is fine, any more and Her Normally Pleasant Visage goes a bit sour.
The second reason is that I’m starting with next to no knowledge at all; I can change oil and wheels, the rest I’m going to have to learn.
The plan is to have a very detailed, probably very tedious build guide, in the Instructables.com mould, hopefully remember to take loads of photos as I go.
In the 3 months I’ve been considering this project, stalking the boards learning from everyone else, I’ve been working up my facilities; getting the garage set up and equipment bought. I’ll be keeping tabs on money spent on equipment, and a vague notion of how much I’ve spent on the garage, more for me than to put anyone else off.
The Donor
I picked up my donor on Ebay, on a bit of a wing and a prayer; it’s very difficult to get over and look at cars; I did see 2 the day I went to visit RTR in Nottingham, but they were far more expensive than I’d hoped to pay.
So ultimately I took a chance; I pestered the guy loads, and the answers were all good, and I ended up getting it for a fair bit less than my maximum bid, result!
As I couldn’t easily get over, I arranged for NVD to collect it, bring it over on the ferry and deliver it directly to my mechanic to make sure it wouldn’t kill me if I drove it.
Total cost including shipping was €1450
The health report for my ST170 has come back; the rear left shock needs rehab, the underbody is a bit scaldy, oil needs changing, and the paintwork is scratched, BUT crucially; the engine, clutch, gearbox, and electrics are all tip-top. And while the wheels are too big (17”), I think I like them, just get some Ford centre caps.
The 280mm discs under hi-specs are dwarfed behind 17s on other builds, I’d like the brakes to fill the space in the wheels. Down the line I’ll see about swapping the 17s for some 15s or 16s, someone’s bound to be going up.
Some pics, taken today after I finally collected it from Get-it-fixed in Greenmount Ind Est., top guys; quick, reliable and cheap. They ended up doing the inspection for the price of a spin in the car, both lads came back beaming, I think they mostly get taxis and grannymobiles in there :-) Ireland generally gets lower spec cars and they're pricey (there are exactly 3 ST170s for sale atm, starting from €4200.
The initial plan was dismantle an existing Puma donor for practice; learn what’s goes where and to operate the Focus as a track-slag for a few months. Hopefully get it all bedded in and learn any quirks the drivetrain might have.
I spent so long getting the garage together that I had little time to really get into the Puma teardown, so I just started pulling bits off last weekend. Both cars will have to co-exist for a few weeks until I get rid of the valuable bits of the old donor.
Puma/Fiesta bits, on the extreme off-chance anyone is interested are being flogged off.
The reality of VRTing (€680), taxing (€710 p.a.) and insuring (€700 p.a.) the car just to use it for 2 mornings was just daft. Geoff’s Exocet build has already exposed this forum to the wonderful world of car ownership in Ireland, but suffice to say, it’s an expensive business.
But I did find a fella who’ll tow a car inter-county for €50, so I’ll have him take me down to Mondello and back for 5% of the annual cost of putting it on the road!
The kit
What I’ve ordered to get started; the starter kit with double hoop roll bar and grille bars welded in. I’ll get the whole lot powder coated locally; like Geoff, I’m using Tallaght powdercoaters, which they can turn around in 3-5 days. The plan is to do a rough dry run at the build, but things temporarily fixed in place with bolts etc, rather than rivets, so that I don’t wreck the finish.
So I’ll drill the holes for the floor, put in the seat brackets etc but riveting will come after powdercoating.
edit:
I modified my order significantly, so I'll be getting the full kit and a few bits;
Complete kit
Double roll hoop
Modified grille bars
extended alloy sheet to include front compartment
powerflex bushes
No powdercoating
Colour scheme
I’ve always loved gunmetal grey on cars, Elenor the GT500 being an obvious inspiration. Also, the donor is Magnum Grey, so I’m thinking all the GRP and possibly the alloys will be a similar colour by way of tribute. I love the idea of a stripe, or double stripe running the length of the car, ideally, an almost imperceptibly lighter shade of grey than the rest, like this 'Stang:
The chassis is the whole selling point for the car, so I want it to stand out, and I want to continue to pay tribute to the greats, so Ford Imperial Blue
is the leading contender at the moment. I tried to mock it up in Photoshop to see what it’d look like, but I’m hopeless, so I’ll call over to my mate who’s a Designer and have her do it for me, post it up here .
My journey is going to be quite a bit longer than most; I have set myself a 2 year timeframe for getting this done. The main reason is to get peace at home, 1 day a week foostering in the garage is fine, any more and Her Normally Pleasant Visage goes a bit sour.
The second reason is that I’m starting with next to no knowledge at all; I can change oil and wheels, the rest I’m going to have to learn.
The plan is to have a very detailed, probably very tedious build guide, in the Instructables.com mould, hopefully remember to take loads of photos as I go.
In the 3 months I’ve been considering this project, stalking the boards learning from everyone else, I’ve been working up my facilities; getting the garage set up and equipment bought. I’ll be keeping tabs on money spent on equipment, and a vague notion of how much I’ve spent on the garage, more for me than to put anyone else off.
The Donor
I picked up my donor on Ebay, on a bit of a wing and a prayer; it’s very difficult to get over and look at cars; I did see 2 the day I went to visit RTR in Nottingham, but they were far more expensive than I’d hoped to pay.
So ultimately I took a chance; I pestered the guy loads, and the answers were all good, and I ended up getting it for a fair bit less than my maximum bid, result!
As I couldn’t easily get over, I arranged for NVD to collect it, bring it over on the ferry and deliver it directly to my mechanic to make sure it wouldn’t kill me if I drove it.
Total cost including shipping was €1450
The health report for my ST170 has come back; the rear left shock needs rehab, the underbody is a bit scaldy, oil needs changing, and the paintwork is scratched, BUT crucially; the engine, clutch, gearbox, and electrics are all tip-top. And while the wheels are too big (17”), I think I like them, just get some Ford centre caps.
The 280mm discs under hi-specs are dwarfed behind 17s on other builds, I’d like the brakes to fill the space in the wheels. Down the line I’ll see about swapping the 17s for some 15s or 16s, someone’s bound to be going up.
Some pics, taken today after I finally collected it from Get-it-fixed in Greenmount Ind Est., top guys; quick, reliable and cheap. They ended up doing the inspection for the price of a spin in the car, both lads came back beaming, I think they mostly get taxis and grannymobiles in there :-) Ireland generally gets lower spec cars and they're pricey (there are exactly 3 ST170s for sale atm, starting from €4200.
The initial plan was dismantle an existing Puma donor for practice; learn what’s goes where and to operate the Focus as a track-slag for a few months. Hopefully get it all bedded in and learn any quirks the drivetrain might have.
I spent so long getting the garage together that I had little time to really get into the Puma teardown, so I just started pulling bits off last weekend. Both cars will have to co-exist for a few weeks until I get rid of the valuable bits of the old donor.
Puma/Fiesta bits, on the extreme off-chance anyone is interested are being flogged off.
The reality of VRTing (€680), taxing (€710 p.a.) and insuring (€700 p.a.) the car just to use it for 2 mornings was just daft. Geoff’s Exocet build has already exposed this forum to the wonderful world of car ownership in Ireland, but suffice to say, it’s an expensive business.
But I did find a fella who’ll tow a car inter-county for €50, so I’ll have him take me down to Mondello and back for 5% of the annual cost of putting it on the road!
The kit
What I’ve ordered to get started; the starter kit with double hoop roll bar and grille bars welded in. I’ll get the whole lot powder coated locally; like Geoff, I’m using Tallaght powdercoaters, which they can turn around in 3-5 days. The plan is to do a rough dry run at the build, but things temporarily fixed in place with bolts etc, rather than rivets, so that I don’t wreck the finish.
So I’ll drill the holes for the floor, put in the seat brackets etc but riveting will come after powdercoating.
edit:
I modified my order significantly, so I'll be getting the full kit and a few bits;
Complete kit
Double roll hoop
Modified grille bars
extended alloy sheet to include front compartment
powerflex bushes
No powdercoating
Colour scheme
I’ve always loved gunmetal grey on cars, Elenor the GT500 being an obvious inspiration. Also, the donor is Magnum Grey, so I’m thinking all the GRP and possibly the alloys will be a similar colour by way of tribute. I love the idea of a stripe, or double stripe running the length of the car, ideally, an almost imperceptibly lighter shade of grey than the rest, like this 'Stang:
The chassis is the whole selling point for the car, so I want it to stand out, and I want to continue to pay tribute to the greats, so Ford Imperial Blue
is the leading contender at the moment. I tried to mock it up in Photoshop to see what it’d look like, but I’m hopeless, so I’ll call over to my mate who’s a Designer and have her do it for me, post it up here .
