agent_zed

thanks both. I've had another look at them and not as bad as i first thought. They are pretty flat, no grooves etc so might just give them a quick sand so i don't cover my alloys in brown rusty dust on first drive.

oh yeah i remember i sat in a westfield on their stand at a show a fair few years ago. It wasn't busy at all but the guy couldn't be bothered to talk to me as assumed I wasn't buying/had enough money. I wasn't impressed by that to be honest. GBS were a lot friendlier and chatted for a while

I think it would depend on your radiator or expansion tank. I use a 13lb cap on my 'coolman' radiator that came with the RH kit. I think its cortina based fitting but others can confirm.

I built mine myself so can't help with suppliers but i will add that the one advantage with a custom setup is that you can get it to fit around things. Not sure how yours is currently setup but I know the steering shaft can be in the way of manifold and sometimes needs re-routing. I built my manifold to miss the shaft and also give enough room for the brake servo. What do you currently have? is it a stainless exhaust system? If the box isn't actually leaking it may have just blown out all of the wadding. Cut a hole in the side where you can't see it and re-pack. I used stainless scouring pads around the perforated tube and glassfibre on top of that.

Not quite a 7 but would you consider a marlin sportster? Factory Built Marlin Sportster (marlinsportscars.co.uk) With the bmw M series engines they are seriously quick!

what have you got at the moment? If it is solid discs an easy upgrade is swapping for vented

Hi, Was going to throw my discs onto a lathe as they are a bit rusty from lack of use. I think they aren't that worn and I have access to a lathe hence giving it a go. Does anyone know the min thickness of the vented 240mm sierra discs? I did a quick google and one set i saw said 22mm min does that sound right? I looked in the sierra manual but it doesn't specify. I only have access to HSS cutters. Will these be ok. What shape is best? a roughing tool (rounded end)? Thanks

I've had a similar issue. Dropping back from full beam to dip the lights just don't always come back on. I then have to (panic) woggle the stalk slightly to get them back on. I've stripped the stalk and polished all the hinge parts and cleaned all the contacts and it's much better now.

have a look on ebay if you want a paper copy. the pinto was used in a few cars as you prob know so Capri or Sierra manuals will cover it. The capri manuals seem cheaper and more of them from a quick look

Hi, Anyone got a Renault twingo (around 2015)? or know someone who has? I'm after the seat measurements as i think they look pretty smart and i need to replace my 30yr old sierra ones (they don't make things to last do they ) It's mostly the seat width i need to know. I don't mind removing plastic off the sides to get more space so if it's obvious there is a cm or 2 spare i could do with knowing that. I can probably mod any levers etc thanks

awesome! you are making me jealous. Mines been off the road for a year working on it now to get it MOT'd as soon as i can.

Looking at your pic i noticed something you may need to check for IVA. The covers on the pedals might fail. I have a feeling the brake pedal has to have a non-slip surface and that looks pretty smooth in the picture. would be worth checking the manual to be sure. Its a bit of a weird one for MOT 1. Brakes - MOT inspection manual: cars and passenger vehicles - Guidance - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) as 'A brake pedal without a rubber usually has grooves or raised sections to provide grip in wet conditions and should be rejected if it’s worn smooth. However, some vehicles may have been manufactured with a brake pedal which did not incorporate grooves or the fitting of an anti-slip material and these should not be rejected.' Technically yours were manufactured with rubber covers and has been changed from the sierra setup so they might find fault with it. Might be safer to find a rubber type cover for IVA at least.

I think mine were off a fiesta mk2 but same idea as the sierra ones. Managed to fit them with some mods with enough spindle poking out to put the normal wiper arms back on. Can you hack off any of the material above the spindles? I assume this is the part of the frame that is preventing them moving higher through the scuttle. Can't quite see in the pic but looks like the frame is above and infront of the spindles. Perhaps welding support in a different place would give you the clearance needed? Forgotten what is in the video but when i modded mine i also changed the sweep length on one of the arms to get a longer wipe on the side needed. Worth checking before you get it all welded/joined together if you haven't already.

The English also have their own flag. The union jack is the UK flag though.

yep you are right Individual Vehicle Approval (IVA) for cars: help to get a pass - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) everything else on the dash etc has to be 2.5mm radius

as far as i am aware there is no problem with the material used for IVA as long as it meets the curvatures required (2.5mm radius?). Under my passenger side i have a infill panel so the dash comes down and round and is then flat all the way to the firewall/end of the footwell. I failed SVA first time as there were 2 nuts through the firewall that were visible and 'sharp'! so this panel covered everything so no issues. It's a bit crazy as if you are sliding down into the footwell and killing yourself on 2 m6 nuts then something has gone properly wrong. But them's the rules. Toggle switches can fail also if they are too sharp and are in the wrong place. I can't remember the exact position but there are certain areas where they are ok e.g behind the steering wheel. Otherwise just make sure you use ones that are correctly radiused or have guards around them.

I did the same as Fry61 and have a hardboard dash covered in vinyl. After 13 years its finally needing a refresh as its got damp over the years and is sagging slightly. But nice and easy to replace as not that difficult to cut. I did a large oval shape to use the original sierra clocks rather than individual holes as it was easier than trying to cut vinyl around small holes. I prefer the idea of hardboard above my legs than a sheet of steel! The windscreen lower bar looks worse than it is. There will be a bit of a gap that the rubber fills but it looks worse at the moment as it is longer than it needs to be. You'll lose a large part of the curve when you put the screen together. I'll try and take a pic later this evening if you want.

It'll be the old rules so if it's above 1549CC then it'll be the higher rate (£265) or below (£160). The most annoying thing is my 1.6 pinto is 1593 so only 44cc's too much Have considered having a smaller engine if i ever replace it. A modern 1.4 produces more bhp as standard and is about 50KG lighter than the cast iron pinto! There was apparently a 1.3 pinto back in the day but i doubt you'll ever find one of those. Or go electric

my sierra came with steel wheels with 185/60/14 for reference. I now run 195/50/15's which are slightly smaller rolling circumference so speedo reads a bit fast.

I found when i made longer struts I had to cut the lock nut on the balljoint as i couldn't find it in far enough otherwise. I think they are an 18mm fine thread so not very common to get hold of.

I'm with IanS - i was led to believe the racks were LHD metro racks flipped over??!! the tie rod end is definitely sierra and the joiner as Ian says was a RH part. I personally didn't like the amount of play in the joiner so i had some longer ones made which tightened up better. I seem to remember the threads on the rack end got tighter the further up the threads, hence the need for longer joiners.

wow this is quite a resurrection of an old post. On the bright side my welding has improved and i've learnt a fair bit in the last 10 years! My SIP welder has given me nothing but grief to be honest but i think i've finally got it working to a reasonable standard. (it wasn't just me) This included changing the liner, adding a swan neck liner, new tip holder and taking off the wire feed roller and cutting it down on a lathe as the grooves had worn so much that the wire wasn't gripping. I've also switched to a big bottle of 5%CO2 which is a lot cheaper in the long run than the ridiculously expensive disposable bottles. (hate to think how much i've wasted on those over the years).

don't think it will effect the ground clearance/ride height. that is more to do with where the suspension mounts to the bottom wishbone. I think from memory you want a 2/3 1/3 setup where you have 2/3 of the suspension movement on the up stroke and 1/3 for the downward. Eg I have 13inch open 9inch closed which gives 4 inch of travel (bump stop is about 1inch) so i have about 2inches upward travel and 1 inch down when it's sat normally. so you can't necessarily just wind up or down the springs too much as you would potentially be changing the available length of the shock. Ideally you need to move the mounting points. E.g inboard to move up outward to move down. A stronger spring will change the ride height (and the feel) but again it needs to take account of the available travel on the shock.

oh also you should check that the suspension stops the wishbones not the balljoint. This is why the dummy strut has an angle on which it mounts. You will have to remove the shock and move the wishbones up and down to see where the balljoint maxes out. Hopefully this will be after the shock maxes out. Otherwise on full droop the balljoint is being stressed

One of the issues with the 2b front suspension is the geometry. They are unequal length wishbones which is good but they have been setup incorrectly by RH. Imagine a horizontal line. The bottom wishbone is horizontal but the top wishbone points downward from the car. When the car goes over a bump the suspension moves upwards. as they move in an arc the bottom wishbone begins to effectively move inwards on the arc it travels from 3oclock towards 1oclcock. The trouble is the top wishbone as it is below the horizontal line (lets say 4oclock) as it moves up it again swings through an arc but it now pushes out as it reaches 3oclock. This means the bottom of the wheel is pulled in and the top of the wheel is pushed out as it swings upwards. This increases positive camber which is entirely not what you want to happen. The reason people increase the length of the top mushroom is to move the position of the top wishbone from pointing downwards to ideally pointing upwards. Now if you imagine the above with the top wishbone at 3oclock (if set horizontal) -as it moves upwards it now gets shorter along the arc and pulls the wheel in at the top maintaining negative camber. Hopefully that makes sense and i'm not talking rubbish but that is my understanding of it. I had longer struts made. Scaffold tube is perfect for turning down too fit and has a decent thick wall. on a side note you should ideally have some way of locking them in incase the pinch bolt comes loose. If you make them long enough to poke out the bottom you could put a small bolt just though the dummy strut which would stop it sliding up and out.