Just joined, and looking forward to sharing my progress on what’s turned into my long term project. This is the 2nd mk1 Fiesta I’ve owned. My 1st one was totaled sitting in my driveway about 12 years ago when a 15 year old girl “borrowed” her grandmother’s e30, and drifted through my yard into it. (Pictures lost to photobucket) I actually found this car broken down on the side of 95, with a phone number in the window, on my way home from work less than a week after that happened! I guess it was meant to be. After I got it home, I stripped it apart with plans to put all of my good stuff (wheels, suspension, etc.) from my old wrecked one onto this shell. I got as far as stripping it out, and started to sand it down when life got in the way. With my 2nd kid now here, I decided I wouldn’t have time to work on it, so I called a friend and asked if he wanted it. He did, and collected it soon after. That was around 2008.
Last summer, he called me up, and told me he had lost his storage spot, and wanted to know if I wanted the Fiesta back! With the kids now a little older, I figured why not... so I drug it back home. It was rougher than I remembered after sitting outside for a decade, but I cleaned it back up, and dove in.
I had actually kept all of my cool Fiesta parts all those years, and went about bolting on the big 13x6 ! wheels (lol!) some blue body pieces I kept, and suspension, however I did dispose of the driveline, thinking I’d never have a use for it. Way back when, I had wanted to do a Zetec swap, so I figured that’d be the plan. Then I realized... if I’m doing a swap, may as well find the most powerful one, so I started to look for a SVT Focus.
After a few weeks of searching, I came across one on cl up in Philly, about 2 hours from me, that didn’t have any keys. It had been for sale for a while with no interest I guess, so I low balled him, and he accepted a very cheap price. It was a gamble, but I figured at the price I paid, I could still part it out and be ok, even if it didn’t run. After breaking into the car in the driveway, and smashing out the ignition cylinder, the parking brake cables were frozen. D’oh! Finally got it on the trailer and pulled it home.
When I got it home, I programmed 2 new keys, and it fired right up! Now that I knew it ran, I began stripping it down.
My original plan was to use just the engine, but figured a 6 speed would be cool too, so I pulled that with the engine, along with all the wiring, and everything else needed to make it run.
I just started learning to weld working on this, so the welds aren’t the prettiest, and I’m open to advice! This swap is pretty common in the UK, but not with the 6 speed, and not with the factory variable intake and stock engine management with vvt, so mine’s a little different.