Date

Event

27 July 1997

Coy's International Historic Festival  - Silverstone. The idea of building a kit car is first muted.

7 Feb 1998

Visit the factory, for the first time, for a test drive. Usual factory tour. Drove the "Maroon Monster" (1800 SEiW).  We were not disappointed and virtually sold on the project.  The problem was how much and when?

06 Mar 1998

Westfield Kit Build Manual received - We can study some of the details and form a strategy. This was the first of several manuals until we got the right one.

26 July 1998

Coy's International Historic Festival  - Silverstone.  We had talked about it, off an on for a year.  We have test driven one. The decision to do it is made. The project is born.

12 Dec 1998

Visit the factory for another test drive and order the kit

16 Jan 1999

Collected the chassis and body starter kit from Kingswinford. Collect rear drive assembly from Sierra 4x4 and Escort Mk IV discs from Dave Stanley at Honeybourne

17 Jan 1999

Chassis on stands, body suspended from the roof of the garage. Started stripping the Sierra 4x4 diff, drive shafts And brake callipers Wire brushes working overtime cleaning up components from the Sierra. Removed and stripped lobro joints

24 Jan 1999

Most of the discussion this week was around reconditioning the callipers from the Sierra. We eventually agreed to buy Recon ones from our local garage on safety grounds and cosmetic appearance. Diff Steam cleaned.  Painting - diff. And aluminium panels on the chassis with special primer and Satin Black Hammerite a pretty good colour match to powder coating of the chassis.

31 Jan 1999

Cleaned and painted (gold) rear brake pad holders.  Obtained brake new pads, new boots (lobro joint covers) new hub nuts etc. continued painting

7 Feb 1999

Slapped under seal on to underside of the floor panels

14 Feb 1999

We've been talking to the Factory about running the brake and fuel pipes down the tunnel rather than straight under the floor as Westfield recommend. Fitted the first components to the chassis (brake master cylinder and pedals)

21 Feb 1999

Started to assemble the rear suspension.  Fitting suspension bushes to wishbones was a struggle. A combination of Penny washers, long bolts and brute strength.

28 Feb 1999

Continued fitting the bushes this week including diff mounts. We have chrome front suspension, with bushes already fitted, except the RH lower wishbone didn't. Returned it to the Factory for replacement 

7 Mar 1999

Fitted steering rack and assembled front suspension. Discovered that both Chrome

Upper wishbones have a dent on the inside. Checked with Chris Masters. As we thought Dents have been caused during fitting of the bushes. (Factory fitted in chrome parts) send them back

14 Mar 1999

Finished fitting the front suspension

21 Mar 1999

Removed the diff to fit brake pipe down the tunnel.  Easier than we thought. Working with a piece of fence wire as a template helped. Worked out all the bends and "P clip" fixing points for rear brakes

4 April 1999

We obtained a length of fuel pipe and P clips from Unimaster and set about bending and routing it down the tunnel.

18 April 1999

Fitted the rear brake callipers

1 May 1999

Collected prop shaft, wiring loom, fuel pump, fuel regulator & quick gearshift from Factory.  Went to Sierra Land, SE London, to get MT 75 gearbox. Started cleaning up gearbox

7 May 1999

Contacted First Choice parts finder via the Internet for an engine.  Borough came back with an ex Mondeo Zetec 2.0 l, 1000 miles, £650 + VAT.

9 May 1999

Torque tightened Lobro Joints, Laid out and fitted wiring loom

11 May 1999

Engine delivered. Carried out Survey all looks good except there is a hole in the sump and no starter motor.

13 May 1999

Replacement sump and starter motor arrived. 

14 May 1999

Collected Long range tank gearbox and engine mounts from Westfield. Talked to Chris masters about blanking plates for gearbox. Realised our Zetec Engine was an automatic! Stripped engine of alternator, air conditioning and power steering pumps.

15 May 1999

Checked feasibility of automatic to manual conversion looks OK.  Completed fitting of wiring loom down the tunnel. Found badly crimped earth wire in rear of loom.

20 May 1999

Flywheel arrived (free of charge) Supposed to be 2.0 ltr but looks like 1.8. Checked with Chris Masters we can use if we change the clutch kit. This is what we will do.

Got 0.3 mm skimmed off the flywheel to remove score marks.

21 May 1999

Flywheel fits but we will have to change the flywheel position sensor

29 May 1999

Removed flywheel replaced sensor housing 

12 Jun 1999

Mounted Engine on Engine stand, removed sump, removed oil pick up pipe. Replaced sump for protection, whilst we have the sump and oil pick up pipe modified.   Painted long range tank and tank straps

23 Jun 1999

Delivered sump and pick up pipe for modification to Westfield

5 Aug 1999

Collected modified sump and alternator mounting kit.

8 Aug 1999

Fitted oil pick up pipe and new sump. The sump had to be modified slightly with a file to get the oil pick up pipe past the baffles and fitted.

20 Aug 1999

Delivered the gearbox to Road & Race for refurbishing.

26 Aug 1999

Collected refurbished gearbox. A couple of synchromesh rings and a new sleeve. All that was required.

29 Aug 1999

Fitted fuel pump, long-range tank and flexible fuel pipes.

1 Sep 1999

Ordered Monza wheels and Yokohama 205/50 x 15 tyres from Micheldever.  We had to change to DTM wheels since chrome Monza wheels will be at least 3 months. Any way we have decided we like DTM wheels better.

21 Sep 1999

First chance to work on the car for weeks.  Fitted alternator. Removed engine from engine stand. Fitted flywheel and clutch. Trial fit gearbox to check thrust bearing free play, which is excessive. We need to get Westfield modified bearing

23 Sep 1999

Collected Wheels from Micheldever. Fitted them to car to check clearances. Had to shorten rear wheel studs by 1 cm.

26 Sep 1999

Fitted modified clutch release bearing. Fitted Sierra sandwich plate, fitted gearbox to engine. Made blanking plate to cover where Mondeo starter motor should be. Fitted starter motor

2 Oct 1999

Lowered car down from chassis stands to axle stands fitted prop shaft

3 Oct 1999

Installed Engine and gearbox in to chassis

4 Oct 1999

Torque tightened Engine / Gearbox mounts and prop shaft, connected alternator and starter motor.

10 Oct 1999

Filled gearbox and engine with oil. Carried out initial bleeding of brakes. Set about polishing the exhaust system and temporarily fitted it to the car

13 Oct 1999

Ordered radiator and cooling hose kit from Westfield.

12 Oct 1999

Picked up Webcon Performance kit from Swindon Racing Engines. Alpha ignition management system, inlet manifold and a pair of DCOE 45 carburettors

17 Oct 1999

Fitted inlet manifold, Carburettors and throttle mechanisms. Fitted accelerator cable. Started to fit radiator

24 Oct 1999

Fitted radiator, fan and cooling system hose. Not exactly straight forward.

30 Oct 1999

Discussion this week centred on ECU and cooling pipe mountings.

22 Nov 1999

Serious retail therapy picked up most of the components for module 5, and those from module 6 to get engine running. Ordered seats. Bought interior panels and dashboard (ex demonstrator).  Went to Merlin, Castle Combed to get speedo transducer.

23 Nov 1999

Set suspension springs half way in preparation for lowering the car to the ground.

Trial fitted the speedo transducer, made adapter to dispense with cable drive and connect straight to gearbox.

26 Nov 1999

Made ECU mount. Hinged to top of passenger foot well for fixing to the dashboard hoop. So that we can get access to it, if needed.

28 Nov 1999

Got the engine ready for running. Made a temporary dashboard out of cardboard. Bridged the heater hoses. Made temporary mounts for header tank and fuel regulator. Lowered the car to the ground. Torque tightened rear drive hubs. Adjusted the handbrake.

5 Dec 1999

Started the engine. Engine runs but no tacho output. Gearbox oil leak.

7 Dec 1999

Collected Seats Windscreen pillars and catch tank. Fixed the tacho output problem.

12 Dec 1999

Fixed gearbox oil leak. Engine testing to initially set carburettors.

2 Jan 2000

Engine testing - During the test the engine stalled with flat battery. Alternator not charging

4 Jan 2000

Fault diagnosis on alternator. Alternator body is not grounded, insulated by rubber bushes on the lower mount and by powder coating on the adjustment arm. Cleaned powder coating off at contact points to get good earth contact. Alternator now works.

5 Jan 2000

Fitted speedo Transducer to gearbox for testing. Began redesign work on Catch tank

6 Jan 2000

Speedo testing. Though there is output from the transducer, speedo does not read.

Talked to Merlin who supplied transducer advised to talk to VDO, which we were going to do anyway, but it was too late to do it today.

7 Jan 2000

Called Westfield and VDO got the information for connecting up the speedo transducer

8 Jan 2000

Connected speedo and transducer, the VDO way, for hall effect transducers - Bingo, it works and as far as we can tell accurately. Started major surgery on the catch tank to get the best fit

9 Jan 2000

Engine testing completed - Carbs are balanced and exhaust emissions are well within tolerance.  Completed trial fitting of catch tank. Tank and brackets painted, ready for installation.

15 Jan 2000

Fitted catch tank and windscreen washer bracket. Redressed handbrake cable for a neater and safer installation.

16 Jan 2000

1st Anniversary - fitted air horns. Stripped exhaust and all temporary fitted components to prepare for fitting the body

22 Jan 2000

Retrieved Body from the roof of the garage. Fitted rear wheel arches. Trial fit to chassis. Trial fit scuttle to determine steering wheel cut out

23 Jan 2000

Cut out steering wheel aperture. Positioned scuttle to determine where rivnuts need to be mounted on the chassis. Removed scuttle and bodywork. Drilled and mounted rivnuts. Replaced bodywork. 

29 Jan 2000

Front filler panels painted Sating black to match chassis. Panels fitted and trimmed with black plastic sleeping to protect bodywork from sharp edges of panel. This operation took several attempts to get the best fit between the panels and the bodywork

05 Feb 2000

More trimming of front filler panels to improve body fit. Trial fit of scuttle. But we were not satisfied with the quality of fit on the LHS. The locating blocks do not align very well.  Long Range boot box does not fit.

06 Feb 2000

Various different manuals give different measurements for body fitment.  We tired different combinations but decided to talk to Westfield to get the definitive measurements

09 Feb 2000

Having determined that the boot box was for the kit build body and not ZK body, we returned it to Westfield. At the same time we exchanged our Chrome Roll over bar which was scratched for a new one.

12 Feb 2000

We repositioned the bodywork according to dimensions given by Westfield.  Modified LHS the locating socket in the scuttle to improve the fit quality.   Modified the nose cone to equalise the aperture and clearances around the front upper wishbone mounts.

13 Feb 2000

Modified bottom corner of the flanges on the radiator to give better clearance of the nose cone.  Modified the returns on the bonnet to improve trial fit. Investigated the fitting of an auxiliary instrument panel between the dash and the top of the tunnel

19 Feb 2000

Fitted rear, fog and reverse lights.

20 Feb 2000

Crimped rear lamp connectors and fitted plugs.  Re-checked the position of Roll over bar and drilled pilot holes.

26Feb 2000

New boot box arrived Thursday. It was the correct one for our body, except that it was cracked and the Gelcote crazed. Fitted heat shrink sleeving to tail light wiring to protect it.  Fitted roll over bar.  Improved the fit of the rear wheel arches

27 Feb 2000

Fitted “P” Clips to tidy up wiring of taillights.  Lifted the rear of the bodywork with a trolley jack, at the same time as pushing forward to equalise rear wheel arch.

28 Feb 2000

Returned boot box again. Whilst at Westfield, picked up bonnet locks and dowels. Our SVA testing station does not like over latches. Even if they are covered

04 Mar 2000

Investigated Pipercross filter to replace the JR filters and avoid cutting a hole in the bonnet (not recommended for SVA). Riveted the bottom of the body to the chassis

05 Mar 2000

Re-aligned body, bonnet and nose cone. Riveted body to upper rail of chassis.

11 Mar 2000

Feels like we are making significant progress on the body.  Located and marked the Rivnut positions on the bodywork and the scuttle. Mounted the scuttle. Aligned bonnet and Nose cone drilled holes for locating dowels.

12 Mar 2000

Continued with nose cone and bonnet alignment. This is time consuming, as we are not satisfied with the finished product. It is not bad but we feel it could be better.

13 Mar 2000

Collected new boot box. Looks OK. Picked up SVA kit of rubber covers.

16 Mar 2000

Measured, cut and trimmed the new boot box around the roll over bar. Some trimming of the RHS of the rear bodywork to get the boot box to fit centrally. Once in place, the rear of the boot box is slightly bowed but weighted down with a plank of wood and some tins of pint and we will see what happens when we come to fit it permanently

19 Mar 2000

Finally got a satisfactory alignment of bonnet and nose cone. We needed to fit 2mm shims under the nose cone to compensate for the body rivets under the bonnet

23 Mar 2000

Fitted bonnet locks. These are a new type and Westfield supplied templates to locate them.

25 Mar 2000

During bonnet nose cone alignment we noticed that when the LHS of the bonnet was aligned with scuttle and nose cone. The lower body panel was bowed. Removed body rivets and realigned but could not get a satisfactory alignment until we loosened the scuttle slightly. After that the alignment was perfect.  Trial fitted the Windscreen

26 Mar 2000

Odd job day removed the nose cone to measure to gain access to the space frame so that we could measure where the exhaust outlet was to be in the LHS body panel

Cleared the powder coat from the spare wheel carrier nuts and bolts. The bolts will be modified in to studs to fix the spare wheel for security.

27 Mar 2000

Collected the SVA compliant hub covers and Locking wheel nuts for the Spare wheel from Micheldever Tyres.

30 Mar 2000

Removed the windscreen to cut the ventilation  / demister slots

01 Apr 2000

Cut out the exhaust opening in the LHS body panel. Despite accurate measurements as in the build manual the hole needed 10mm removing from the front to give sufficient clearance for the exhaust pipe.

08 Apr 2000

Took another look at the windscreen fit. We are concerned about a 10 mm difference between the heights of the hood studs from the Windscreen pillars, left to right. Mounting the windscreen, equalizing the height of the studs produces a very large gap under the windscreen on the LHS.  We decided to talk to Westfield

Fitted the lower bracket for the spare wheel carrier. 

09 Apr 2000

Chris Masters at Westfield suspects that the Hood studs have been mounted on the WRONG side of the windscreen. Suggests that we mount the Windscreen with the studs on the inside to check. Sceptical as ever we do as we are told. The fit is better but the studs are now on the inside.  We will talk to Westfield about our findings.

11 Apr 2000

On holiday in Madrid for 2 weeks.

29 Apr 2000

Whilst I was away Westfield confirmed the windscreen was incorrectly made and supplied a new one. Fitted the windscreen filled the gap underneath with ¼” high-density foam and silicon sealer. Difference in height is now only 1mm. Left to cure. Fitted indicator side repeaters.

01 May 2000

The windscreen has cured and looks good.  Fitted the windscreen fillet and the wiper wheel boxes.  After a lot of trial and error we achieved and acceptable fit.

Removed the scuttle. Took the wiper wheel boxes off again and fitted the heater ducting. Sealed with silicon sealer and left to cure. 

02 May 2000

Fitted the windscreen wiper motor drive and wheel boxes

03 May 2000

Fitted heater to the scuttle using Westfield’s dimensions. Though the centres are correct the heater is mounted too high and fouls a ridge in he scuttle moulding

04 May 2000

Investigated alternative arrangements of the heater brackets but this moves the heater too low. Decided to live with the holes drilled as they are and use spacers to clear the ridge in the scuttle. Don’t like Westfield’s method of mounting the heater pipes using the scuttle bulkhead.

12 May 2000

Glued heat shield material to the inside of the LHS body panel.

13 May 2000

Fitted exhaust manifold and system. Made a new plate for mounting the ECU above the passenger foot well. This has two effects. It hinges down to gain access to the ECU if required and prevents the SVA man with the 100 mm orb getting up under the dash to complain about sharp edges.

14 May 2000

Andrew obtained a bulkhead plate from a Fiesta during the week. Using this, some rubber grommets and pipe joiners from Halfords, we made a bulkhead connector fro the heater pipes and drilled the scuttle accordingly

15 May 2000

Started to turn our attention the well-reported Zetec overcooling problem. How to modifying the coolant pipes for the thermostat bypass to conform to Ford’s Mondeo installation.

16 May 2000

Fitted heater bulkhead connector and pipe work

17 May 2000

Fitted interior panels Applied for SVA for 30^th June at Bristol or Leighton Buzzard

18 May 2000

Trial fit Scuttle and ECU mounting plate. Measured where LHS (Passenger) heater duct will need to pass through the plate and cut an elongated hole so that the plate will hinge up and down past the heater duct.

20 May 2000

Positioned ECU wiring and cut a hole fro the grommet in the scuttle.  Positioned the Battery tray according to Westfield’s measurements. (We were going to regret this). Drilled the scuttle for the engine amplifiers and the washer tube and fitted these. Trial fitted the header tank and coolant pipes only to find the pipes fouled the battery tray.

21 May 2000

It’s obvious that the battery tray has got to be moved further outboard.  After drilling out the rivets – silicon sealer really sticks. I took ages and a lot of persuasion with a wallpaper scraper to remove the battery tray and even longer to clean up the silicon sealer. The battery tray was repositioned. The redundant holes filled and sealed with silicon sealer again.  Ended the day with finally fitting and sealing the scuttle in position.

22 May 2000

Swansea replied with the SVA follow up form requesting which parts we actually fitted to the chassis. Returned the form now waiting for a data and a location

22 May 2000

Made a bracket for the fuel regulator so that it can be mounted on the scuttle. However we are concerned with it’s position above the fuse boxes (Mr SVA will go mad!!!) Attempted to refit the bonnet Now the scuttle is permanently in place. The RHS locks fine but the LHS won’t lock for some reason.

23 May 2000