1991 FORD FIESTA XR2I 8 VALVE CVH WITH ONLY 22,000 MILES

1991 FORD FIESTA XR2I 8 VALVE CVH WITH ONLY 22,000 MILES

Hi I am new to car forums and have been encouraged to share my recent purchase. I did put a post on previously but it wasn’t very well written so I thought I would start again and try to put together a better post.

I recently sold a 98 plate fiesta and my much loved Saab 900 convertible. I did this in a fit of being sensible and wanting to buy a family car. I had thought of doing this when my little girl was born but managed to put it off for three years. So I went and bought a Ford Fusion 1.6 Automatic. My wife was happy however I was a more than a little distraught and took to cycling everywhere. I argued with myself thinking I have done the adult thing and at 35 its time to grow up and be an adult.

I’ve owned all kinds of cars both cooking model cars and performance cars but Fiestas have always held a special place in my greasy heart. I have owned two Mk2’s and an Mk3 and Mk4 Fiesta and of course the Fusion which is a Fiesta on steroids. My first car was a mk2 Fiesta 1.4 Ghia. Everyone thinks I am mad squeezing my 6”3 inch frame into a Fiesta but they just have a certain allure.

After several months of sensible car ownership I decided to start looking for a replacement retro car for myself. I was willing to go for anything but kept gravitating back towards Fiestas particularly Mk2 XR2’s. I had a grand in my pocket but after months of searching I could not find one that was not rotten or generally ragged.

I finally came upon my current car an XR2i in Grey with only 22,000 miles on the clock all genuine. At first I couldn’t believe it 22,000 miles the seller was backing it up with all the old MOT’s. I enquired and the car had changed hands between friends several times as they couldn’t afford to insure the car. The last owner had been given a work van and had had left it standing. The car was doing 100 miles a year by now which was to drive it up and down the road occasionally and an annual pilgrimage to the MOT Centre.

Being a cynical so and so I carried out HPI checks and MOT checks all of which backed up the mileage.

I spoke to the owner who explained all of this and went to Slough to pick it up. When I got there I couldn’t believe it the condition of the car backed up the mileage it even had then new ford car smell which took me back a decade or two. Not a spot of rust so original thoughts were drive it back give it a quick clean and away I go. Whilst driving her back the 80 miles or so home I started making lists of things to do. Anyway here are some photos.



The exhaust has a slight blow and I need to source and replace the boot stickers. I found the ford logo badge in the boot where the car had been debadged. Also needed a replacement rear cluster which had gone crusty this was sourced and posted to me by Hamps another forum member and is spot on.



Again no rust around the petrol cap. Whilst cleaning I got all the mud and gunk out. The reason they rust in this area is that mud literally sits up on top of the petrol filler pipe holding water against the wing and the inner arch causing the horrific rust. This car hasn’t been affected due to the low miles she has covered.



The roof again in immaculate condition apart from the rain covers which have been butchered to fit a roof rack. I simply went down to a scrap yard and replaced them. The only other fault was the sunroof was leaking. I replaced the sunroof and tightened the ariel mount with no success. I traced it to the sunroof hinge where the bolts had rusted through and were letting water in. I drilled these outs and replaced the bolts using mastic to ensure they were properly sealed.







I took the opportunity to clean out all the drain holes and made sure they flowed properly.



Got all of the above from a local scrappy for £20



From the driver side just as clean dent free and scratch free.

The interior was a bit grungy but almost no wear just in need of a clean-up. The revcounter and fuel gauge was also knackered but managed to find some clocks of another Xr2i and replace the relevant dials.









Even the original stereo was in place so I got it recoded and works a dream I did have to turn the bass down as the last owner had it cranked up to the max 



From the front it still has the original amber indicators these always seemed to get swapped for clear ones. The bonnet was aligned incorrectly and sitting low on one side so a quick tweak and it was sorted and raised to the correct height. The wiper arms are going to be removed rubbed down and re-sprayed in satin black.



And for me in some ways the money shot all perfectly standard and un molested. Well apart from the suspicious brown wire going to the thermostat. Someone had bodged the wiring. This had to be traced back and un bodged by my local mechanic. She was running a little rough so there was more work than I thought needed but more on that later.

I started by giving her a good wash and polish and turned my attention to the interior.

Lifted the boot carpet and found this.



So gave her a good clean and polished the boot floor resulting in this



Took the boot carpet out and gave it three cycles in the washing machine.



It was the originality of the car that impressed me. Even the under tray was still on the car.



The underside of the car was just as good as the rest with no welding or rust.









I washed all the arches and found pristine factory paint.









On with the cleaning the parcel shelf was filthy along the leading edge so after using different cleaners managed to get it cleaned up. Replaced a broken shelf strap and I was away.



Lifted up the rear seat to just find dirt and the usual filth.



So after a quick clean up and polish I had this



Whilst lifting the bonnet and moving the stay arm managed to snap the catch however found this on e bay.



Back to one of the main faults with the car. It was running rough on idle and was over fuelling massively with the smell of petrol following me everywhere.

Tried all the usual culprits HT leads Spark plugs even put a new air filter in as there wasn’t one to start with. Eventually after much head scratching my local mechanic traced it back to seized lifters of all things. It seems that even though it wasn’t run much the oil had not been changed in years and was thick and gunky which these engines don’t like. Took many phone calls to find them but managed to track the lifters down. Turns out ford don’t stock them and local motor factors have issues getting them. Ebay was no good as I had heard too many horror stories.





I decided to overhaul the cooling system so drained the radiator. Loosened the tap and expected the coolant to come out. No such luck the rad was full of gunk as well as not changing the oil the previous owner had been using plain water or very little coolant so I had to squeeze the pipes to get it started and out came the following gunk.



Whilst the weather was bad I managed to track down some original handbooks for the car. I only have a drive to do the work on so am limited to dry days when working on the car.



Also tracked down some original decals with help from the guys on the forum.



Couldn’t help getting some period music on cassette tape for when the car was built 



Also Managed to pick up a panel filter for a £1 !!!




She has also had a oil change and filter with the correct grade of oil. The rocker cover gasket was replaced as they have a habit of weeping oil. At present just waiting for some better weather so I can get the seats out to clean up the interior and clean up the engine bay. They are all pretty minor jobs at present. I am intending to get the car back to standard and then rustproof it and then go from there.


The Ariel was leaking and was a bit rough so replaced it with a new one.




The doner set of clocks all I ended up needing was the fuel gauge as can be seen this one is showing half a tank.



Next on the list was the wipers blade arms. Where the car had been sitting all those years the arms for the wipers had been rusting away. So I thought why not refurbish them. I removed them rubbed them all down and gave them a coat in black spray paint. For a first attempt they have come up quite well.



And after painting.



I was quite pleased with the result as I have never tried spray painting in any form previously before. Following on from this marginal success I decided to tackle the mould that had come about due to the water coming in from the sun roof. Armed with a bottle of vanish stain remover and microfiber cloth I was faced with this.





After very little scrubbing thanks to the vanish cleaner I got it to this state.





Pleased that with the results I thought the next day I would take it for a spin. It had the alternator replaced so I thought I was good to go. However the battery thought differently and decided it couldn’t hold a charge fortunately I already had a trip to Cost Co planned and replaced the old lion battery shown below with a Bosch Silvertop at £50 over £40 cheaper than a Halfrauds one. This pretty much paid for the years membership in itself.





Today I thought I would start sorting the exterior. I aligned the bonnet and the boot as it was out of line. With the help of other forum members it was quite a easy job.

The rear light cluster seals had gone and had started leaking. Resulting in the following.



Hants another forum member sent me a immaculate light cluster which I fitted.



The radiator spoiler had come of and this was reattached with some clips.



Apparently protects the radiator and improves air flow.



Ended up with a leaking set of rad hoses so ended up replacing those today. Ford for some reason don’t keep much in stock. I gave the rad a flush with a top tip from a mechanic friend he suggested two dishwasher tablets in the header tank to flush the radiator out and even though it is the second rad flush in as many months it was still full of sludge.



I have not had a huge amount of time recently to get much done. Well actually it was cold and I am a big wuss so I only recently plucked up some courage recently to go tackle a few bits on the car.

First off was quite easy. With all the older cars getting stolen to be scrapped lately I thought I would add some added security and all for £20. It has a cat1 alarm and immobiliser and is parked behind another two cars but I get paranoid.



Also got out the claybar kit managed to claybar one side of the car before a old injury said no more. Very satisfiying when applying the wax and polish as it just went on so easily. I intend to claybar the rest of the car in stages.







Whilst staring out at the cold window I went online and found a few small bits to try to smarten her up bought this battery cover quite cheap as you can see by the condition.



I cleaned it up as best as I could but its still not great if anyone has any suggestions please let me know.



One of the front indicators was chipped around the edges



Whilst the other had a crack in the middle of it.



So I sourced another pair and fitted them. It was unfortunately more difficult than it should have been as I have been cursed with hands that king kong would be envious off. But they were whipped off and replaced with only a few curse words.





I am going for a standard look so stuck with amber indicators rather than going for clear indicators.

The next job was to start the rust proofing on the car. I did quite a bit of research and was offered loads of advice by people on this forum which I have followed. All of it well balanced and informative. I settled on Dinitrol products and started by spraying the inside of the wings. Using the long extension that comes with the kit it was a doddle.

I decided to pull up the carpet to check the floor plan which was completely solid with no sign of rust. As I was stripping out the interior I found out that it was probably the best way of getting to the inside of the sills. On the MK3 fiesta the sill trims are held in place to the sills with large clips. Once these are removed it gives you great access to the inside of the sills so I happily sprayed away loading them up with dintrol and then cleaning the drainage holes once it had dried.

I still need to do the doors rear quarters and boot as well as under sealing underneath but it got too cold so I retreated. I cycle to work and have access to two other cars so I don’t intend to take it anywhere near a salted road 

The holes I mentioned for accessing the sills are under the kick panels.






I have not had much time or to be honest inclination to do much on the car recently due to the cold weather so I took some close up pics of the paintwork which show it at its best. Just waiting on some parts to turn up at the moment.











Ive got a genuine XR2I wheel carrier on its way to me at the moment. Its been powdercoated and treated already so a big bonus. I was after the trims for the passenger wing and was being quoted upwards of £50 till I found someone with the shell willing to sell them to me for the princely sum of £3 which I was understandably happy about.





So the spare wheel carrier finally turned up. Turns out it was for a later model fiesta so out came the angle grinder. It hurt me to do it because it was in perfect refurbished condition.






And finally fitted holding the spare wheel in place. These things are impossible to get hold of being made of paper thin steel so when this popped up reconditioned and powder coated I couldn’t resist.
I turned my attention to the door cards. The fabric had started lifting which is common on these so they were removed I glued them on and used clothes pegs to keep them in place. Whilst there I noticed the wing mirror was held together with a wood screw so that was also replaced and the door got a healthy coat of Dinitrol whilst I was there.








She’s also had four new tyres to cure the rumbling noise I was getting and also benefitted from the engine bay being cleaned.
After getting loads of advice I tackled the engine bay. Tidied up some of the wiring and gave it good covering with autoglym degreaser and cleaned it all and dressed with plastic and vinyl spray.





Stuck some of the trim back on the car.


And finally got round to rebadging the boot.


I tried hunting around for the correct jack for this car for ages as mine was in pretty poor state. They sit right by a water channel under the bonnet so they get soaked and subsequently rust like mad. I have never done much spraying but after looking for so long for the right jack I gave up and had a crack myself.
The jack prior to degrease clean and wire brushing.






So I thought I would buy some parts the header tank was a little grungy so I bought a replacement that I set up cleaning with a bleach and daz mixture.


The backbox had started to blow so I purchased a second hand Magnex unit to clean up and install. When I got it I decided it needed cleaning up here is the picture prior to clean up.



Post clean up after three hours of polishing.








Finally started to make a little more progress on the car. Started with replenishing the brake fluid with a complete flush and a new set of OEM discs and pads. It can now actually stop and lock the brakes so driving is a lot more fun.
I then moved onto the cooling system it had been flushed twice already but after years of sitting the sediment was hard to shift so I gave it another flush. Filled it with just water and ran it for a little longer and flushed again and for the final flush used some additive to flush it out. This was all in anticipation of the header tank I had cleaned out and refurbished.
The header tank that was on the car.


All quite murky. The new header tank I installed had been cleaned repeatedly with boiling hot water bleach and stones to agitate the muck inside I think you will find it a lot cleaner.