I didn't make it into the garage as much as I wanted to this week. I started to mock up the exhaust. I got some cheap flanges from O'Reilly. I welded one onto the header.
My welding on this was pretty awful. Oh well. It'll be under the car. I started to mock up the exhaust when I realized the fuel line and exhaust wanted to coexist. I'm going to work on sorting the fuel line later this week.
Today I had a couple hours in the garage so I decided to get the driver seat mounted. I would like to use the bolt holes from the original seats. That meant I needed to make a bracket.
I made up some templates and transferred to some .25" plate I had. I cut them out and started shaping them the way I wanted. I used a MAP torch to heat them up and used my bench vice to hammer them into shape. Ended up being easier than I expected it to be.
I tacked the brackets to the seat rails in the car so they would be positioned where I wanted them to be.
Then I pulled the seat out to finish welding them more comfortably.
I stuck the seat back in and was pleased with how they turned out. Now I need to drill the holes for bolts. I notice while mocking up the driver seat that when I leaned back the floor behind the rear seat mount would flex a little. There are some pin holes back there so I will probably weld a patch in.
Wow. It's been almost 2 months since I updated this. Unfortunately nearly nothing happened in that 2 months. I started a new job in January and just didn't have the mental capacity to do anything other than veg out after getting the kids to bed. I spent a few nights staring at the car debating how I want to do things/move forward.
Last night I finally decided on the direction I want to take with the brakes/clutch. I really didn't like where the fancy pedal box put the pedals. I decided I am going to use the stock pedals. I wanted to put the master cylinders in the engine bay and that may still happen but I think they will probably end up under the dash. I started to modify the stock brake and clutch pedal mechanism tonight. I didn't take many pictures. This is where I am at so far.
That 1x1 tube will get cut down and actuate the brake master cylinders.
Does anyone know what this port would have gone to on the Focus SVT. It's on the back of the intake manifold and I am guessing it was a vacuum port for something...brake booster?
I am going to do my best to keep motivated to get out in the garage most nights. I really don't want to stall out on this thing.
Dang how did I miss this thread until now. Love it!!
Quick update. I spent a couple hours yesterday fabricating a mount for the clutch master cylinder under the dash in an attempt to run the stock pedals. This was mainly for comfort since the fancy pedal box that came with the car puts the pedals closer to the seat than I like. As a bracket enthusiast, I was pretty proud of what I had done...until I actually operated the clutch pedal.
Well that isn't going to work. Afer thinking about it I realized I am wasting a massive amount of time on a challenge car that I want to say will have a life after the challenge but who knows. Time to KISS.
Got the fancy pedal box mounted up. Sat in the driver seat and made vroom noises while operating the pedals. It actually isn't as bad as I expected if I sit up straight in the seat. Maybe I'll learn how to left foot brake?
I also found a nice spot to mount the ecu.
This week I am going to try to get the brake lines run and tidy up the wiring a little bit.
Man, I am really not getting to work on this thing as much as I wanted to. When I get home from work I spend time with my kids and get them to bed. By the time that is done, I just don't have the energy to go down to the garage.
Fortunately we didn't have any plans this weekend so I was able to get a few hours in the garage. I started by welding the slide gear to the intermediate CV shaft since the splines didn't match and the replacement I bought didn't fit the 'cup' part of the stub shaft. I'm not super confident it will hold so I will keep looking for alternatives to try and splice something together. I forgot to take pictures.
Today I worked on the exhaust. I want to try and use as much of the miscellaneous exhaust pipe that came with the car. I started by cutting off the v-band fitting from this flex pipe and welding on the butt flange I got for cheap at O'Reilly.
I needed a long straight run going from the header to the back of the car. I cut a straight piece out of what I assume is stock Focus SVT pipe and welded it to the flex pipe.
I had been using my angle grinder to cut the pipe but around this point I accidentally set the grinder down on the pin used to hold the disk in place when tightening. The grinder was still spinning so bad things happened in the gear box and my my grinder is now a paper weight. This is the 2nd grinder I've done this to. I am going to make a point to be more patient and wait til the grinder stops spinning before setting it down. I switched to using my Sawzall which actually did a much better job of getting me square cuts.
I had various 2.5 inch ID and 2.5 inch OD pipe so managed to cobble a long straight run together and added a generic 45 degree bend from the pile to go around the gas tank.
Fortunately on the Fiesta the exhaust routes under the rear axle so I could make this all as one piece. One of the Focus exhaust sections just so happened to work perfectly to get through the bend in the axle and then pointed out the back the direction I wanted.
This is what it looks like nearly complete.
I didn't weld the muffler on yet because I want to see where it will land in relation to the bumper once it is on. It looks about how I want it.
The car came with 2 mufflers. One is a Flowmaster that I wanted to weld into the straight section but it was a little too big and with the inlet and outlet offset, just didn't fit. I'm sure it will be way too loud with just this little guy. Hopefully next weekend I'll have time to get the exhaust suspended from the car.
I was about to bump this thread last week to see how things were shaking up. Glad to see you are still plugging away. I find that if I spend 5 minutes in the garage just picking up tools I end up spending about 30-60 minutes knocking something off my to do list as well. Shop clean up always leads to project motivation for me.
Thursday evening I thought I had a great solution for the throttle cable. I welded a nut to the end of the cable and to the lever of the gas pedal thinking I'd be able to thread the bolt through the nut on the throttle pedal then into the end of the cable being able to use a jam nut for some adjustability.
Unfortunately this didn't work because of interference with the pedal assembly. So I decided to try and weld a M6 bolt to the end of the cable that could then thread through and M8 nut on the pedal lever, with an M6 nut holding it on. This didn't work at all either due to interference. I was frustrated and gave up.
Tonight I cut the bolt off the end of the cable and the nut off the throttle pedal lever. I cut a slit in an M8 nut then welded it to the throttle lever. The cable can thread through the slit in the nut and the cable end fits perfectly in the nut.
Success! I have a working throttle cable.
I got a little time in the garage last night. One of the few items that didn't come in the pile of parts for this car was exhaust hangers. I couldn't find cheap options so I bought some u-bolts, some .125 1" strap, and a cheap serpentine belt to cut up. These should end up hitting the budget at about $2.75 ea.
I ordered some fittings for finishing out the brakes and they arrived yesterday so I made a bracket for adapting the -3 AN to the factory hard lines.
I ran out of welding gas so I'll try to finalize the front brakes tonight.
It's been a while. I've been way busier at the new job than I thought I would and haven't gotten much time to do anything hobby related. I usually work on this after I get the kids to bed and they don't like going to bed when the sun is still out so I have been ending up going to bed right after I get them to bed. With school starting next week I have started easing the kids into an earlier bedtime so tonight I spent an hour working on the Fiesta. I think the likelihood of it making to the challenge this year are exceedingly low at this point but I am going to keep plugging along and see where I am at the end of September.
I got 2 exhaust hangers done tonight. One of the exhaust pieces the car came with came with a hanger so I just made a bracket for it to hang off of.
For the other one I welded a nut to the floor and bolted the hanger to a basic bracket.
Hopefully there won't be as big of a gap to my next post.
After you weld up 2 pieces to make up a axle, to match up two different ends, you can then send your sample axle to Moser. Moser can then copy your sample axle. Make sure you have the length perfect first. That is what I did after I adapted a ford escort 5 speed transmission to my fiesta.
TED_fiestaHP said:
After you weld up 2 pieces to make up a axle, to match up two different ends, you can then send your sample axle to Moser. Moser can then copy your sample axle. Make sure you have the length perfect first. That is what I did after I adapted a ford escort 5 speed transmission to my fiesta.
Thanks! I found another place that will do this too but it isn't challenge budget friendly. I welded it together but doubt it will hold. Going to continue to look for budget friendly options but may just end up going the custom axle route.
I know moser makes rear axles, but didn't see a place for cv axles on their website.
Dutchman is where im going for the miata 8.8 axles.
Moser will make custom axle shafts, they will want a sample shaft that fits, they will also want the CV's that the axle needs to fit into. They will want to check the fit of the custom axle with the parts it will need to fit into. As I recall the price was OK, but not real cheap. I did this a few years ago, but I assume they can still do this, recommend calling before sending stuff to them. I am sure there are other sources for this, but this is how I did it..... I actually had to do this twice, once for the escort/tempo front hubs to connect to the fiesta transmission. Then another set after I adapted the escort 5 speed transmission.
I posted a (lack of update) last night but my phone decided to destroy the formatting. Literally nothing has happened on the Fiesta since my last post. When I realized I couldn't devote the time to working enough on the car to finish it in time, I lost momentum.
I've been dreaming of building a car to bring to the challenge since probably 2007. Multiple projects have been purchased with the intention of heading down to Florida to participate. The closest car to make it was a 96 Probe GT but I ended up not being able to go that year and every other project intended for the Challenge has been sent down the road for one reason or another. Life just gets in the way sometimes. From 2011-2021 my work schedule made it impossible to travel during October. I got a new job in 2022 that made traveling in October possible. When I missed the 2022 Challenge, I figured no big deal, I'll just go next year. Problem is, the Challenge is in May now and that is my busiest time of year with my new job. The likelihood of being able to travel is pretty low.
So I'm at a crossroads with this car. I'm not ready to give up on this project. Do I keep going on the path I was on and try to make it to the challenge (likely in 2024)? Do I say screw it to the budget and build a track day car? Do I build it into a fun weekend cruiser? I don't know what I'll do yet. I am going to think about it over the next couple weeks. I plan to start working on it again after the new year.
